I think it just depends on your LT. Both my LT (Miami of Ohio) and MOI had no problem giving it. No official doctrine that I've found. I'd suggest giving your recruiting station a call- that was what our pro staff advised us to do if we were moving out-of-state with online classes. I hope you find a place and best of luck! Rah.
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1,001 questions about the ASTB (post your scores & ask your questions here!)
- Thread starter edato
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I think it just depends on your LT. Both my LT (Miami of Ohio) and MOI had no problem giving it. No official doctrine that I've found. I'd suggest giving your recruiting station a call- that was what our pro staff advised us to do if we were moving out-of-state with online classes. I hope you find a place and best of luck! Rah.
shanghai_tactics
New Member
Took it for the first time today and here are my takeaways:
OAR 54
AQR 6
PFAR 5
FOFAR 6
I'm in ROTC and a wannabe pilot so I plan on retaking, but if you have anything you care to add or comment then I'm happy to hear it
Math:
There was one probability question, a square root question, a percentage question, there were two pretty simply sequence/series questions, a couple DRT questions that were kind of tricky (Person A is running 8mph and is 6 miles away from the finish line, Person B is running at 10mph and is 8 miles away from the finish line. How much time will person A reach the finish line before Person B), but the biggest takeaway from it... my geometry was not refined nearly enough. I was expecting maybe one or two geometry problems and I focused a lot of my attention on the "working together" ones, but man was I caught off guard.
An example of this was "X is running around a 90 yard track, when she finished she had created a 120* angle from where she started. How far did she run?"
Reading:
Not too bad, probably 85% of the passages had to do with some form of Navy doctrine or mission set. If you haven't taken it yet, the passages are much shorter on the actual test than they are in any of the practice books that I have seen. So my biggest takeaway from this section is time really is not too much of a concern. I was able to re-read "tricker" passages a few times if I didn't catch the answer right away.
MCT:
Pretty standard, questions on pulleys, there were no questions on levers which I found disappointing because those feel like the easiest to me. I was asked a few pulley questions, a few gear questions (like which of these will move the fastest, if gear A is turning CCW, B is CW, which direction is C turning). I saw a hydrometer question, as well as a couple questions circuits (something as simple as what unit is used to measure resistors). Pendulum questions that included KE and PE. And lastly, a handful of questions on buoyancy and volume, (if you were to compress something or if you were to increase the temp. of something). A lot of the information you find in practice books and on here do a nice job covering it all. Didn't feel too surprised here.
ANIT:
Probably the section that I am most disappointed in my performance. Know the parts of an aircraft and the axis that it effects, or the words used to describe the movement, (yaw is effected my a change in ____). A lot of questions about helo's, almost embarrassing how little I knew and how little I prepared for it. Definitely the biggest failure on my part. One or two questions on lights and colors of runways/taxiways. Some questions on airspace classifications and whatnot. Familiarize yourself with transponders and the different components of an aircraft carrier (i.e. jet blasters). The "history" questions were tricky. Nothing about space. One that will probably stick with me to the grave is "What fighter jet was converted to a tanker during operation Iraqi Freedom?"-- if you know the answer please lmk lol, i have been looking around and still cant find it. Hardly anything about ships other than the carrier question.
UAV:
Another rookie mistake that I made, was I knew the compass trick, I was doing it extremely quick while practicing, however you have got to be accurate. I missed I believe 2 or 3 and I think it really hurt my score. Although I was pumping them out in less than 2 seconds, I sacrificed accuracy for speed, and that is a mistake that I am going to learn from for next time. If you can get your reaction time between 2-3 seconds but get all of them correct. I think that will put you in a better position than I put myself in.
Simulator:
So the listening isn't quite as bad as I expected, keep this in mind: they computer will say an even number in your right here and an odd number in your left ear and that's when you know when to hit the throttle or stick, the numbers do not come that frequently. In either ear, it seems infrequent but you won't hear like two or three in a row so just pay attention and know that it happens somewhat seldomly. Play video games on inverted controls, I fucked up because during the "introduction" to the controls, it wasnt inverted, and then during the actual simulator it was inverted. Not sure wtf happened there or what I was thinking, but be aware of that because I definitely was not. Next, there is a section where they present to you some form of "emergency" like low fuel, or too much power, and there are certain buttons you need to press IOT alleviate the emergency, when the emergency was taking place, I pressed the correct button but the color or w/e didn't go away, so I am not sure if I misunderstood the directions and there was something else that I needed to do, but if you know what I'm talking about, please help me out.
UPDATED NLT 5 minutes after posting this: So, this is the mistake that I made during the simulator, there are two components to each of the "problem solving" things, I was pressing the button. You need to turn the knob. This is a huge mistake that I made. So if the fuel is low for instance, you need to adjust the "e-knob" a certain direction and same with the "i-knob." I should have been more careful reading the directions so please learn from my mistake. Brb while I fade myself.
https://www.airwarriors.com/community/attachments/capture-png.24622/
Biography section:
I know that everyone says "you cant study for this dont worry about it." I would disregard that information, go into it with a certain personality trait that you are hoping to exhibit (i.e. a team player, no matter what) and then stay consistent with that trait in your decision making. "A. I generally work well in groups or B. I exceed the expectations for a task" select A. and then later on you will be asked "A. I have a hard time following directions when I don't believe they are important or B. I blame my partners when something goes wrong" select A.
Overall: I know this isn't the most helpful advice, but just try to be as relaxed as possible, I like to think math is one of my stronger suits, but when I sat down to take the test I was so nervous that I was making stupid arithmetic mistakes. Just know that you have a couple tries at it and you are there to do your very best, and walk away with your head held high. Thanks for all of the help on this forum, but looks like I'll be sticking around for at least another 30 days lol. Help me out with my ANIT question and simulator question if you think you know it.
OAR 54
AQR 6
PFAR 5
FOFAR 6
I'm in ROTC and a wannabe pilot so I plan on retaking, but if you have anything you care to add or comment then I'm happy to hear it
Math:
There was one probability question, a square root question, a percentage question, there were two pretty simply sequence/series questions, a couple DRT questions that were kind of tricky (Person A is running 8mph and is 6 miles away from the finish line, Person B is running at 10mph and is 8 miles away from the finish line. How much time will person A reach the finish line before Person B), but the biggest takeaway from it... my geometry was not refined nearly enough. I was expecting maybe one or two geometry problems and I focused a lot of my attention on the "working together" ones, but man was I caught off guard.
An example of this was "X is running around a 90 yard track, when she finished she had created a 120* angle from where she started. How far did she run?"
Reading:
Not too bad, probably 85% of the passages had to do with some form of Navy doctrine or mission set. If you haven't taken it yet, the passages are much shorter on the actual test than they are in any of the practice books that I have seen. So my biggest takeaway from this section is time really is not too much of a concern. I was able to re-read "tricker" passages a few times if I didn't catch the answer right away.
MCT:
Pretty standard, questions on pulleys, there were no questions on levers which I found disappointing because those feel like the easiest to me. I was asked a few pulley questions, a few gear questions (like which of these will move the fastest, if gear A is turning CCW, B is CW, which direction is C turning). I saw a hydrometer question, as well as a couple questions circuits (something as simple as what unit is used to measure resistors). Pendulum questions that included KE and PE. And lastly, a handful of questions on buoyancy and volume, (if you were to compress something or if you were to increase the temp. of something). A lot of the information you find in practice books and on here do a nice job covering it all. Didn't feel too surprised here.
ANIT:
Probably the section that I am most disappointed in my performance. Know the parts of an aircraft and the axis that it effects, or the words used to describe the movement, (yaw is effected my a change in ____). A lot of questions about helo's, almost embarrassing how little I knew and how little I prepared for it. Definitely the biggest failure on my part. One or two questions on lights and colors of runways/taxiways. Some questions on airspace classifications and whatnot. Familiarize yourself with transponders and the different components of an aircraft carrier (i.e. jet blasters). The "history" questions were tricky. Nothing about space. One that will probably stick with me to the grave is "What fighter jet was converted to a tanker during operation Iraqi Freedom?"-- if you know the answer please lmk lol, i have been looking around and still cant find it. Hardly anything about ships other than the carrier question.
UAV:
Another rookie mistake that I made, was I knew the compass trick, I was doing it extremely quick while practicing, however you have got to be accurate. I missed I believe 2 or 3 and I think it really hurt my score. Although I was pumping them out in less than 2 seconds, I sacrificed accuracy for speed, and that is a mistake that I am going to learn from for next time. If you can get your reaction time between 2-3 seconds but get all of them correct. I think that will put you in a better position than I put myself in.
Simulator:
So the listening isn't quite as bad as I expected, keep this in mind: they computer will say an even number in your right here and an odd number in your left ear and that's when you know when to hit the throttle or stick, the numbers do not come that frequently. In either ear, it seems infrequent but you won't hear like two or three in a row so just pay attention and know that it happens somewhat seldomly. Play video games on inverted controls, I fucked up because during the "introduction" to the controls, it wasnt inverted, and then during the actual simulator it was inverted. Not sure wtf happened there or what I was thinking, but be aware of that because I definitely was not. Next, there is a section where they present to you some form of "emergency" like low fuel, or too much power, and there are certain buttons you need to press IOT alleviate the emergency, when the emergency was taking place, I pressed the correct button but the color or w/e didn't go away, so I am not sure if I misunderstood the directions and there was something else that I needed to do, but if you know what I'm talking about, please help me out.
UPDATED NLT 5 minutes after posting this: So, this is the mistake that I made during the simulator, there are two components to each of the "problem solving" things, I was pressing the button. You need to turn the knob. This is a huge mistake that I made. So if the fuel is low for instance, you need to adjust the "e-knob" a certain direction and same with the "i-knob." I should have been more careful reading the directions so please learn from my mistake. Brb while I fade myself.
https://www.airwarriors.com/community/attachments/capture-png.24622/
Biography section:
I know that everyone says "you cant study for this dont worry about it." I would disregard that information, go into it with a certain personality trait that you are hoping to exhibit (i.e. a team player, no matter what) and then stay consistent with that trait in your decision making. "A. I generally work well in groups or B. I exceed the expectations for a task" select A. and then later on you will be asked "A. I have a hard time following directions when I don't believe they are important or B. I blame my partners when something goes wrong" select A.
Overall: I know this isn't the most helpful advice, but just try to be as relaxed as possible, I like to think math is one of my stronger suits, but when I sat down to take the test I was so nervous that I was making stupid arithmetic mistakes. Just know that you have a couple tries at it and you are there to do your very best, and walk away with your head held high. Thanks for all of the help on this forum, but looks like I'll be sticking around for at least another 30 days lol. Help me out with my ANIT question and simulator question if you think you know it.
Last edited:
Just took the test for the first time today with about a month of off and on studying.
MATH: Probably my worst section by far. I'm not great at math, and the last time I did any serious math was calculus in high school. Most of these were word problems for me. Lots of DRT stuff. My study material for this section was straight out of Kyle's guide and the Peterson's tests. I studied the crap out of the Peterson's test's as well as some questions people had on past exams. I did not see a single repeat of any of the questions I studied (not that I expected to, really). To be honest, I felt like I knew only half the questions. No logs or anything like that, because I probably didn't score high enough to even get those types of questions. I should have hired a tutor for this section for sure.
Reading: Very very boring, but sometimes tricky. If you are hesitant on your reading abilities, don't skip over any reading comprehension sections you take on your practice exams. It's a bunch of Navy jargon, and there are always two answers that seem correct, Usually the other two were throwaways if you truly read the passage. I was presented with a passage, and there were no question afterwards. You are only given a block of text, and four answer choices.
Mechanical: Not what I was expecting, but I think I still did ok. My questions had a lot of calculations in them. I had no pulley, levers, nor gear questions, which sucks because that's what I studied the most on this section. My questions were mostly on springs, buoyancy, and electrical stuff. Be sure to know your formulas, because they don't give them to you like they do in the math section. I had a question about melting a steel plate, and it asked if it's surface area increases, decreases or stays the same. Had another that asked about turning up the heat on a pot of boiling water. All in all, no real surprises here.
ANIT: This is probably the easiest section to study for. I strictly used the material found on this forum and I had absolutely no surprises. I had more aviation questions than nautical, though. I had absolutely zero helicopter questions, or any questions about flight crew colors. I also did not have any history questions. That does not mean you should avoid studying those subjects. They pull questions from a massive pool, so you really need to be prepared for anything. Again, if you use the material on this forum and study it well, you will be fine. The only question I had trouble with was "who does the command of the squadron report to?" and gave a list of abbreviations of different types of commands. I guessed on this. Know the functions of the airfoils, know your axis, ship decks, port and starboard.
UAV: You are at a severe disadvantage if you don't use the compass trick!! Use it. I got every single one of these right and averaged 1.5 to 2.5 seconds for each of them. Once you get going, you really get in the groove of it. Talk to yourself out loud if you have to and repeat what direction you meant to be finding. I recommend practicing the UAV trick at least a week before your test to get the groove of it. It may look really simple from the video, but I truly recommend practicing this. That way when you get to the real deal, you won't freeze up. The only difference is you will be told what parking lot to identify through the headphones. ex. "Identify the North parking lot". This section is free points if you take a little bit a of time to study it.
The rest of the PBM: The listening section wasn't bad. Use the head trick. Make sure that you read the instructions carefully, make sure your headphones work, and write them down if you have to. I was asked to press the right trigger for even numbers and for odd numbers I was tasked with hitting the clutch button in the throttle in my left hand. Initially, I f*cked up. You are given a chance to practice before the real thing. Towards the end of the practice round, I was given an even number, so I selected the right trigger, but with a delay because someone outside was being really loud and I got side tracked. This automatically put me into the real test and I'm pretty sure I missed the first two because of it. So don't get trigger happy and focus.
As @shanghai_tactics said, the practice section for the joystick section was not inverted, but when it came to the actual test, it was. For the joystick and throttle portion, the best advice I can give you is try to anticipate where that stupid yellow plane is going to be. For example, if its about to reach the top of the line, it's obviously going to go back down, so don't yank the stick/throttle to the top. Instead, put it just below where you think it will be. This is much easier to do on the throttle tracking than it is with the joystick section, but the same concept applies.
Towards the end of these sections, the target is going to be flying wild and it's going to make you feel like an idiot. Don't get frustrated or discouraged about this. It's meant to be that way towards the end.
I focused mainly on the listening section again once they combined them all, and kept the throttle section in my peripheral vision.
Emergency section: Write down the instructions. You are tasked with handling three different emergency scenarios only three times. You are not given an opportunity to practice this section before you start it (which I thought was lame) so be sure to write down your controls and get familiar with your throttle. I botched the second scenario because I frankly panicked. You still need to pay attention to the two targets you are tracking, but pay extra attention to the emergencies when they pop up because you only get three. If I had the opportunity to practice this section, I would not have missed any of them. I'm going to post a picture of the setup I used.
If you look at the throttle on the left, there are two turntable knobs. Your instructions for an engine fire may be "Set fuel to low, power to low, press the clutch". To adjust the fuel and power turn the freaking nobs, not push. The "clutch" button is the small blue button that your thumb will be over. If you screw up, the screen flashes read and calls you an idiot. Again, I might be a potato and misread something, but if I had the opportunity to practice this, I doubt I would have missed any.
I ended up with a 5/7/6 in the end. I wish I was more prepared for the math, but I am happy I at least passed and can move forward with my applicaiton process.
Big takeaways: If you're trash at math like me, I would not recommend using air warriors as your only source of study material. Get a tutor if you have the time/money.
I've attached some documents that helped me a ton.
Kyles guide: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AvPi5oH_h_13TGajDvflDWkftwXO8LS6
Use that link. He's got some great stuff!
UAV trick:
MATH: Probably my worst section by far. I'm not great at math, and the last time I did any serious math was calculus in high school. Most of these were word problems for me. Lots of DRT stuff. My study material for this section was straight out of Kyle's guide and the Peterson's tests. I studied the crap out of the Peterson's test's as well as some questions people had on past exams. I did not see a single repeat of any of the questions I studied (not that I expected to, really). To be honest, I felt like I knew only half the questions. No logs or anything like that, because I probably didn't score high enough to even get those types of questions. I should have hired a tutor for this section for sure.
Reading: Very very boring, but sometimes tricky. If you are hesitant on your reading abilities, don't skip over any reading comprehension sections you take on your practice exams. It's a bunch of Navy jargon, and there are always two answers that seem correct, Usually the other two were throwaways if you truly read the passage. I was presented with a passage, and there were no question afterwards. You are only given a block of text, and four answer choices.
Mechanical: Not what I was expecting, but I think I still did ok. My questions had a lot of calculations in them. I had no pulley, levers, nor gear questions, which sucks because that's what I studied the most on this section. My questions were mostly on springs, buoyancy, and electrical stuff. Be sure to know your formulas, because they don't give them to you like they do in the math section. I had a question about melting a steel plate, and it asked if it's surface area increases, decreases or stays the same. Had another that asked about turning up the heat on a pot of boiling water. All in all, no real surprises here.
ANIT: This is probably the easiest section to study for. I strictly used the material found on this forum and I had absolutely no surprises. I had more aviation questions than nautical, though. I had absolutely zero helicopter questions, or any questions about flight crew colors. I also did not have any history questions. That does not mean you should avoid studying those subjects. They pull questions from a massive pool, so you really need to be prepared for anything. Again, if you use the material on this forum and study it well, you will be fine. The only question I had trouble with was "who does the command of the squadron report to?" and gave a list of abbreviations of different types of commands. I guessed on this. Know the functions of the airfoils, know your axis, ship decks, port and starboard.
UAV: You are at a severe disadvantage if you don't use the compass trick!! Use it. I got every single one of these right and averaged 1.5 to 2.5 seconds for each of them. Once you get going, you really get in the groove of it. Talk to yourself out loud if you have to and repeat what direction you meant to be finding. I recommend practicing the UAV trick at least a week before your test to get the groove of it. It may look really simple from the video, but I truly recommend practicing this. That way when you get to the real deal, you won't freeze up. The only difference is you will be told what parking lot to identify through the headphones. ex. "Identify the North parking lot". This section is free points if you take a little bit a of time to study it.
The rest of the PBM: The listening section wasn't bad. Use the head trick. Make sure that you read the instructions carefully, make sure your headphones work, and write them down if you have to. I was asked to press the right trigger for even numbers and for odd numbers I was tasked with hitting the clutch button in the throttle in my left hand. Initially, I f*cked up. You are given a chance to practice before the real thing. Towards the end of the practice round, I was given an even number, so I selected the right trigger, but with a delay because someone outside was being really loud and I got side tracked. This automatically put me into the real test and I'm pretty sure I missed the first two because of it. So don't get trigger happy and focus.
As @shanghai_tactics said, the practice section for the joystick section was not inverted, but when it came to the actual test, it was. For the joystick and throttle portion, the best advice I can give you is try to anticipate where that stupid yellow plane is going to be. For example, if its about to reach the top of the line, it's obviously going to go back down, so don't yank the stick/throttle to the top. Instead, put it just below where you think it will be. This is much easier to do on the throttle tracking than it is with the joystick section, but the same concept applies.
Towards the end of these sections, the target is going to be flying wild and it's going to make you feel like an idiot. Don't get frustrated or discouraged about this. It's meant to be that way towards the end.
I focused mainly on the listening section again once they combined them all, and kept the throttle section in my peripheral vision.
Emergency section: Write down the instructions. You are tasked with handling three different emergency scenarios only three times. You are not given an opportunity to practice this section before you start it (which I thought was lame) so be sure to write down your controls and get familiar with your throttle. I botched the second scenario because I frankly panicked. You still need to pay attention to the two targets you are tracking, but pay extra attention to the emergencies when they pop up because you only get three. If I had the opportunity to practice this section, I would not have missed any of them. I'm going to post a picture of the setup I used.
If you look at the throttle on the left, there are two turntable knobs. Your instructions for an engine fire may be "Set fuel to low, power to low, press the clutch". To adjust the fuel and power turn the freaking nobs, not push. The "clutch" button is the small blue button that your thumb will be over. If you screw up, the screen flashes read and calls you an idiot. Again, I might be a potato and misread something, but if I had the opportunity to practice this, I doubt I would have missed any.
I ended up with a 5/7/6 in the end. I wish I was more prepared for the math, but I am happy I at least passed and can move forward with my applicaiton process.
Big takeaways: If you're trash at math like me, I would not recommend using air warriors as your only source of study material. Get a tutor if you have the time/money.
I've attached some documents that helped me a ton.
Kyles guide: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AvPi5oH_h_13TGajDvflDWkftwXO8LS6
Use that link. He's got some great stuff!
UAV trick:
Julia.cook
New Member
during the math portion did you have any equations at all or mostly word problems? and the picture you posted is that the exact throttle you used for the ASTB.
i took my second OAR test and just got 43. i have been to the Navy 9 months. I am 36 year old right now. i know i m old. should i not bother submitting my package because my age is too old and my score is not competitive? i wanted to go for supply. i have work experience in logistic before i came in the Navy. Any advise please
shanghai_tactics
New Member
yeah that picture is the same exact throttle that I used, you can see the black marks on the e and i knob, that's where the knob turns.
For the math portion, you need the D=RT but that doesn't take too much to memorize, the track problem I described in my OP required the arc length formula 2(pi)(r)(theta/360). As far as other formulas, they provide some, not others. It's kind of interesting. Another question that I got went something like this: "An the area of two sides of an equilateral triangle is 24, what is the perimeter?" For that you know its going to be (b*h)/2... then use the pythag theorem IOT to find the hypotenuse of the triangle, then just add them.
Julia.cook
New Member
okay thank you. i would have never known anything of the arc length. I am taking the test Monday and just need a score of 4,6. did you have any proportion problems. ex " a cake recipe for 5 people requires 2 eggs, how many eggs do we need for 15 person cake? "
shanghai_tactics
New Member
Not that I remember, there wasn't any proportion problems, or any acid solution problems for that matter.
maowczykowski1
Active Member
line by line and diagram math questions. for you geometry question you might have done pretty good with setting it up as a proportion. 90yr/360degrees=X/120.
im not super good at math but what gives.
Julia.cook
New Member
We’re you also able to finish the entire math section? I heard some people hit the time cap and not sure if they get penalized for the ones they didn’t answer
shanghai_tactics
New Member
Yeah, time was not an issue whatsoever. The test really is adaptive and you can feel it, like the test started with a simple probability, then a sequence, then some square root simplification. Then game some more advanced geometry, and it took my ass for a ride.
gilan101
Pilot Wannabe
shanghai_tactics
New Member
Not sure if this has been posted on the forum yet, but attached is a link to a research paper conducted by someone attending the NPS. The paper is from 2007, but after reading through it pretty much all of the information pertains to the PBMB.
Takes only about 30 minutes to read it in its entirety, and if you digest it and understand the paper, it will definitely help you know what you're up against!
https://web.archive.org/web/2011072...bs/scholarly/theses/2007/Dec/07Dec_Ostoin.pdf
Takes only about 30 minutes to read it in its entirety, and if you digest it and understand the paper, it will definitely help you know what you're up against!
https://web.archive.org/web/2011072...bs/scholarly/theses/2007/Dec/07Dec_Ostoin.pdf
shanghai_tactics
New Member
EDIT: Also, it is especially helpful because the paper compares trained aviators vs. regular joes. The entire PBMB was conducted and the author describes the scores and times for the participants. Might help give you an idea of what to shoot for.
maowczykowski1
Active Member
i had the same kind of reaction from my recruiter(both navy and air force). they dont really take you too seriously until you pass the exams. also, they seem to hold back info from you because they in fact do. always be somewhat weary of the intentions of your recruiter. mine didnt give me any advice about any part of the recruiting process and seemed to withhold critical information throughout