I want to thank everyone who has posted on this forum, with their guides, tips and tricks. I could not have done as well as I did without your help. This was my first test attempt and I scored a 57 7/8/7 Not the best scores on here but not terrible. Some background: I basically skated through high school math and my major in college did not require me to become proficient outside of statistics so I really struggled with math and mechanical competency. However, I created a pretty aggressive study plan and was able to get a reasonable score, So if you are reading this and are in the same boat as I was I hope this will help.
General:
Video from faith by flight with a general overview of the test and what to expect:
The four things that helped me the most were:
- The Barrons flight aptitude book
Amazon.com: Military Flight Aptitude Tests (Barron's Military Flight Aptitude Tests) (9781438011042): Duran, Terry L.: Books
www.amazon.com
- The Peterson Officer Guides which can be found in Kyle's ASTB study kit
drive.google.com
- Flashcards: I use Anki
apps.ankiweb.net
for my flashcards but any flashcard application or website will do. make cards for anything you think, might be on the test, or concepts you need to memorize e.t.c, The way I used them was anytime I was going to check something on my phone, twitter/reddit/ e.t.c I pulled out the Anki app and did flashcards instead.
- Kyle's study guide. I used many different gouges but his is one of the best starting points.
I would recommend the first thing you do is take a practice test and see how you do. This should give you a rough idea of what you should focus on.
Math:
As previously stated I sucked at math, The Barrons and Petersons guides were not going to cut it for me. I needed something to build up the basic mathematics building blocks. I ended up using ARCO GRE/GMAT Math review. It was very useful since it goes through pretty much any problem you could get on the OAR and shows in detail how to solve them.
ARCO GRE/GMAT Math Review 6th Edition (Gre Gmat Math Review) [Frieder, David] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. ARCO GRE/GMAT Math Review 6th Edition (Gre Gmat Math Review)
www.amazon.com
Go through everything in the Kyles study kit
drive.google.com
make sure you know how to do every type of problem. If you don't understand a math or mechanical concept or problem, Khan academy is a great resource.
You can learn anything. Expert-created content and resources for every course and level. Always free.
www.khanacademy.org
For additional practice, I used Kuta software, many types of questions to practice on.
www.kutasoftware.com
From everyone's posts you can generally expect a lot of word problems especially D=RT, Mixture, and probability. You also will encounter a number of problems involving radicals and exponents.
Reading:
Very boring and very long. Stay focused read carefully. Beware some of the answers will be "correct" however the correct answer must be derived only from information in the paragraph, your outside knowledge should be discarded. If you need some extra practice with reading comprehension you can use the 5lbs pound book of GRE problems. The questions on it will be harder than the ones actually on the OAR.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1506247598/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Mechanical:
Very different from what I was expecting, it was very conceptual in nature, instead of being more about specific machines or solving formulas. The Peterson and Barrons books will be helpful but If you were like me and need to understand the concepts better, Khan academy is one of the best resources. I also used this youtube playlist
Not all the videos in the playlist are super helpful but they helped me with the basics. Go through all of the Kyles mechanical gouge.
Aviation and Nautical Information:
I felt i did very well on this section i finished in 7 min and i dont think I missed a question. The way I studied for this section was by using every scrap of gouge I could find. Any question that is known to be a potential test question got a flashcard. I ended up with just under 900 flashcards for this section. Every part of Ship, aircraft, flight procedures, nautical and aviation terminology, weather e.t.c. My favorite resources were the FAA handbook,
this set of flashcards
Study Flashcards On ASTB Aviation/Nautical Information Test (ANIT) [comprehensive] at Cram.com. Quickly memorize the terms, phrases and much more. Cram.com makes it easy to get the grade you want!
www.cram.com
. Make sure to go over any questions you miss in the Peterson and Barrons books.
Naval Aviation Trait Facet Inventory:
You cant study for this so just put it out if mind. Just try to relax and answer them to the best of your ability and don't think too hard. Save your energy for parts of the test you actually have control over.
PBM:
You can read this article found by
shanghai_tactics https://web.archive.org/web/2011072...bs/scholarly/theses/2007/Dec/07Dec_Ostoin.pdf
to get a better understanding of what the test will look like and what you will be expected to do during the test. I will be quoting from it below.
UAV:
Accuracy and speed both matter. Pace yourself and get into a rhythm to keep your tempo high. The UAV trick is a must for this section
Use this flashcard set to practice
https://www.proprofs.com/flashcards/story.php?title=_36014 or https://www.cram.com/flashcards/astb-uav-testing-6997985
When practicing the UAV time yourself, make sure you put the deck onto shuffle and move quickly. I got my time down to less that 3.5 seconds per question when practicing but got much lower times 1.5-2.5 when I did the actual test.
Dichotic Listening:
This section is 1:40 long. During this section you will hear a letter or number in each ear simultaneously, when you hear a number in the target ear you will then press a trigger or button. I did not practice for this section as i did not find any good tools.
RhinoHornet375 made a practice test for this but the link is currently dead. If anyone has a secondary link I will update this section. One tip is to tilt your head to the side you are supposed to be focusing on, it helped me (a little) to focus in on the correct ear.
Throttle:
This is 1 min long. I did not practice for this section. Many people recommend inverting controls for video games or getting a joystick to practice. However according to the study
"Prior to taking the PBMB, participants were asked a series of questions about their perceived eye-hand coordination skills and multitasking abilities. These responses along with the participants’ age, gender, aviation experience, amount of video games played, ability to juggle, and ability to dribble a basket ball were analyzed using a stepwise regression to predict the total number of redirects for the VTT/ATT/EP subtest. Only aviation experience was significant (p = .001)."
Steven D. Ostoin December 2007 AN ASSESMENT OF THE PERFORMANCE-BASED MEASUREMENT BATTERY (PBMB), THE NAVY’S PSYCHOMOTOR SUPPLEMENT TO THE AVIATION SELECTION TEST BATTERY (ASTB)
Now this study did not have very high N value, and your personal scores may be better if you do practice and many people have attested to that improving their score. With that said the study seems to shows that it will not matter very much. So you may be better served investing your time in improving other topics.
Four generally accepted ways to study for this.
- RhinoHornet375 PBM program which (link dead as of writing this)
- RYW7's PBM Matlab Program
- Inverted FPS games.
- Flight sims.
Joystick recommendations:
- the HOTAS used during test
Amazon.com: Saitek PS28 X52 Flight Control System: Electronics
www.amazon.com
- A high quality HOTAS joystick throttle combo.
Amazon.com: Thrustmaster 2960778 T.16000M FCS HOTAS Controller: Computers & Accessories
www.amazon.com
- A Inexpensive but usable option
Amazon.com: Thrustmaster USB Joystick for PC: Electronics
www.amazon.com
"Three scores are recorded for this task. The first is a total number of correct responses. A correct response is recorded when the pixel distance between the crosshair and aircraft is within a programmed range at a predetermined time check during the task. The second score recorded is an error average distance. This distance is the average distance observed between the center point of the crosshair and the center point of the aircraft over the duration of the subtest. The third score is for the total number of redirects recorded during the task. A redirect is recorded when the subject maintains the crosshair on top of the aircraft for brief amount of time causing the aircraft to change course. During the VTT, as the participant correctly targets the airplane, it starts moving faster thus progressively increasing the level of difficulty. There are three speeds with which the airplane can move and thus three levels of The VTT was designed to measure how many airplane redirects the participant can induce."
Steven D. Ostoin December 2007 AN ASSESMENT OF THE PERFORMANCE-BASED MEASUREMENT BATTERY (PBMB), THE NAVY’S PSYCHOMOTOR SUPPLEMENT TO THE AVIATION SELECTION TEST BATTERY (ASTB)
Stick:
1 min long, same grading criteria as the throttle but now its 2 axis.
Stick and Throttle:
This is 2 min long, and has the same grading.
The test subject must attend to each task equally during the ATT/VTT because the scoring incorporates how well both airplanes are accurately targeted.
Do not completely focus on one task to get a good score on just the one you must focus on both to score well.
Stick+Throttle+Listening:
3 min long.
"The participant must attend to all three tasks equally. Scoring for the multi-task combination subtest tracks the accuracy of targeting both airplanes, the number of redirects, and the accuracy and speed of the responses to the DLT."
Steven D. Ostoin December 2007 AN ASSESMENT OF THE PERFORMANCE-BASED MEASUREMENT BATTERY (PBMB), THE NAVY’S PSYCHOMOTOR SUPPLEMENT TO THE AVIATION SELECTION TEST BATTERY (ASTB)
Emergency:
During this section, you will be required to manipulate both the joystick and throttle while in addition solve the emergencies. You will not have to deal with the dichotic listening portion this section is 2 min long.
"The participant must continue to perform the VTT and the ATT tasks while dealing with the emergency scenario. All three tasks are considered in the final score for this subtest."
Steven D. Ostoin December 2007 AN ASSESMENT OF THE PERFORMANCE-BASED MEASUREMENT BATTERY (PBMB), THE NAVY’S PSYCHOMOTOR SUPPLEMENT TO THE AVIATION SELECTION TEST BATTERY (ASTB)
The emergencies are
- Fire = Both Down, then press the clutch.
- Power = Both Up, then press the clutch.
- Propeller = One up One Neutral, then press the clutch.
Before you start the test you will be asked to move both knobs to neutral. My recommendation is that as soon as the test starts you move both knobs to the up position. Doing this gives you a 33% chance of already solving the emergency all you have to do is press the clutch. and a 33% of having 1 knob already set. After each emergency immediately move the knobs to another of the emergency positions. You are graded on how fast you "solve" the emergency so presetting these can help to improve your speed and thus your score.
Conclusion:
- Do all the practice tests available. Do your best to simulate the test environment, sit for the whole thing, time your self, and grade everything afterword.
- Get a good night's sleep.
- Bring water and a light snack.
- The one thing I wish I would have brought was earplugs. I was placed in a closet and loud conversations right outside the door along with people rearranging furniture was distracting and made it harder to focus.
- Try to relax, even if you feel like you are not doing well stay focused and power through the test. Each rating is a combination of multiple factors so just do your best.
Good luck everyone!
