Hey everyone! I took the ASTB-E yesterday and finished with a 61 7/5/7. I was really happy with my scores with the exception of missing the PFAR threshold by a point, but I'm going to take the time to study and prep and hopefully increase my scores all across the board the next time around.
I don't really have much to add as far as studying tricks and tips go, other than go through the entire thread and just crank out as many practice problems as you can. There are some really good study guides and links floating around the thread. DM me and I can send you a folder I created with all the study guides I used as well. I highly recommend the google drive folder titled Kyle's ASTB Study Kit 2019 for OAR and ANIT preparation. As for the PBM, the UAV flashcards are SUPER helpful.
Math: Practice, practice, practice. Attempt every problem you see, and if you don't get it right, try and learn how to do them. For me, I didn't work on probability questions as much as I should have, and I ended up getting 5-6 on the exam. I also saw some volume/area and some exponent questions.
Reading: Reading Comprehension has always been one of my strong suits so I didn't prep a lot for this, but it was still kinda difficult. The readings were really drab and I honestly thought I was stupid while reading some of the questions because all the answer choices were very similar.
Mechanical: This section wasn't too bad. It's really quick(15 minutes), so there seemed to be a focus on conceptual questions and not math based ones. So make sure to understand the WHY and not blindly memorize formulas.
ANIT: I studied the most for this section due to not having any prior experience, and I was really happy that outside of one history question, I had seen pretty much every other one in some shape or form on a study guide or practice test. At the end of the day this section is just about memorizing and reading as much as you can about aviation/nautical terms, naval history, and really just whatever information your brain has space for.
PBM: I think the UAV portion is what dragged my score down the most, because I got nervous and got 5-6 wrong. I didn't use the compass trick because I thought it would slow me down, but I'm definitely going to try and practice it as much as I can before my retake. I think one important thing to note, is that it's easy to get comfortable with the flashcards and know the correct letter of the parking lot, but make sure you know the exact location of said parking lot and are able to quickly recognize it because you click on the actual parking lot during the exam, not a letter. I think that is what ended up really messing with me during the exam because when I studied I was flying through the cards with the correct letter but not thinking about which physical parking lot it was. Feel stupid about that now, but hey you live and you learn.
As for the joystick and throttle portion, just relax and give it your all. Everyone here said that they felt awful while they were doing it and I agree with that sentiment. Just remember to not let it get to your head. As long as you do your best, you should be fine.
I was debating whether or not to post because I didn't get the score I needed to qualify for pilot, but I'm hoping that maybe reading about the experiences of people who didn't do well on a specific section(s) and are planning on retaking can help people preparing, so they know what to focus on/fix about their prep.
I will be taking the exam again either late December/early January so hopefully I can update/post some good news in a couple of weeks. Good luck to everyone!
