1,001 questions about the ASTB (post your scores & ask your questions here!)

[s00mz00m]

Hello AW community,

I want to start off by saying how thankful I am that I came across this forum and all the help from those that wrote about their experiences with the OAR/ASTB-E! I took the exam this past week, and wanted to share my two cents on my experience and what I plan to do differently for my upcoming retake in November.

Brief Background: I graduated from college last year with a BA in Sociology, and it’s been a little over 4 years since I took math. I also never took a college course in physics. I was never great in those two areas, so prepping for the OAR portion was nerve-wracking. Needless to say, I knew my weak points, so I studied these two subjects the most. I began prepping early August and really studied the last two weeks (~4-6 hrs/day). On exam day, I was anxious since I'm generally terrible with taking standardized tests, but I went in feeling confident and hopeful.

My first take I scored a 49 4/5/6. I was bummed. I was told this score would be enough since I am shooting for NFO, but turns out the minimum requirements to be eligible is at least a 5 AQR and a 6 on the FOFAR. I have attached the score sheet with the changes from OCT 2019 my recruiter sent me in case anyone wants to see for themselves.

I also want to mention the number of technical difficulties I encountered on test day because one of the testing computers malfunctioned, so I had to use a non-testing computer instead. During the math portion, my test froze once, having the proctor log out and restart the exam again. I don’t know if this affected my testing scores in any way. When the PBM section came up, more technical difficulties arose with the headset not working properly. It took almost 10-15 min for the proctor to figure things out. By this point, I was really panicking. I eventually had to switch to a different computer and from then on everything went smoothly.

**SIDE NOTE: BRING EAR PLUGS. I remember reading someone's post about this, and I'm so glad I did. Since I had to test on a non-testing computer, I was in a room with two other military staff. Other recruiters came in and out, which meant constant talking. Better to be safe than sorry.

Math: My weakness. Since I knew I was rusty, I bought CliffNotes: Math Review for Standardized Tests (3rd Edition) on Amazon for $6, which helped me refresh my memory with basic arithmetic/algebra/geometry/probability. I also used Kyle's guide for practice tests, including others online and YouTube. My struggles with this section were mainly due to word problems and TIME - I am terrible when it comes to word problems and quickly/accurately finding the answer. I probably averaged 5 min/question. Not good. I had a bunch of rate and probability questions, too. Things like, “The probability of team A winning on any day is 40%. The probability of both team A and B in winning on the same day is 15%, what is the probability of team B winning?" and how many hours will it take for person B to reach person A based on the speed each person was going. I used up all the time.

Reading: Like most said, super dry and boring. Definitely helps reading the passage out loud. I had to whisper since people were working around me. I had a lot of questions about the same thing regarding contractors and navy protocols as well as Navy training protocols to reduce hazards, memory is hazy but something along those lines. The questions varied from easy to difficult. These two prompts kept reappearing, questioning whether i was getting them right or not. I tried not to panic. I also used up all my time.

Mechanical: I have no idea how well I did. Again, never took physics. I had questions ranging from mechanical advantage, levers, work/power, electrical questions, etc. I saw a few similiar questions from Kyle's Guide, but most were new. I'm pretty sure this is where I messed up the most because I guessed on a lot. I used up all the time here, too.

-TAKE YOUR 15 MIN BREAK HERE-
Folks on here advised to use the restroom and take a snack break to fuel all the nervous jitters away, so I did and it helped. You have the option to use up all 15 min or end your break early.

ANIT: I love history and studying for this section was the easiest for me. I made flashcards from the cram website. I retain the most when I write things down and memorize it this way. Doing this helped me understand the basic concepts, which helped answer/guess for harder questions. I had about ~3 questions regarding specific aircraft names. Some about parts of a ship/aircraft, wings/chord line, angle of attack, important people, and that's as far as I remember. I also used up all my time.

NATFI: Didn't like this section. I had about 15 min left after answering 99 questions. So, take your time!

UAV/DICHOTIC LISTENING/STICK AND THROTTLE: To get the most out of what this section entails, I read past posts that wrote a detailed review of this section. Here are some that helped me visualize what I needed to know for this part:

• #4,462 (by LoneWanderer on p.298)
• #4,509 (by CHOPS_avn on p.301)
• #4,640 (by Yogi Santos on p.310)

Stay calm as much as possible! Someone previously mentioned doing this section as if you are tackling a real enemy. YOU GOT THIS. I played video games growing up, so that helped me somewhat. I don't own any aviation games, but I am going to invert the settings on shooting games to see if that helps.

Overall, I'm not sure if all the technical difficulties I encountered jeopardized my score, but I know it brought down my confidence. If technical difficulties happen to you, it's okay. Stay calm. BREATHE. To prepare for my retake, I am definitely going to use more of Kyle's Guide (math/mechanical) like everyone suggests. I also just bought the Barron's book on Amazon for $6.47 for extra help with the math section. If you have time and extra cash, I would invest in additional books that people recommended on here. Anything you can get your hands on, especially if you are rusty like me. I also think it'll be more efficient if I study 2-3 hours/day instead of 4-6. As for my struggle with time, if anyone would like to provide me with extra tips on this and how I can improve my score that would be very much appreciated. I know practice makes (almost) perfect, so I plan on practicing as much as I can!

For all my fellow brothers and sisters who got baller scores their first time, kudos to you! Now give me some of your luck, hehe. I hope this post helps anyone, especially those like me having to retake the ASTB-E. Cheers & Good Luck!

 

[exNavyOffRec]

Hello AW community,

I want to start off by saying how thankful I am that I came across this forum and all the help from those that wrote about their experiences with the OAR/ASTB-E! I took the exam this past week, and wanted to share my two cents on my experience and what I plan to do differently for my upcoming retake in November.

Brief Background: I graduated from college last year with a BA in Sociology, and it’s been a little over 4 years since I took math. I also never took a college course in physics. I was never great in those two areas, so prepping for the OAR portion was nerve-wracking. Needless to say, I knew my weak points, so I studied these two subjects the most. I began prepping early August and really studied the last two weeks (~4-6 hrs/day). On exam day, I was anxious since I'm generally terrible with taking standardized tests, but I went in feeling confident and hopeful.

My first take I scored a 49 4/5/6. I was bummed. I was told this score would be enough since I am shooting for NFO, but turns out the minimum requirements to be eligible is at least a 5 AQR and a 6 on the FOFAR. I have attached the score sheet with the changes from OCT 2019 my recruiter sent me in case anyone wants to see for themselves.

I also want to mention the number of technical difficulties I encountered on test day because one of the testing computers malfunctioned, so I had to use a non-testing computer instead. During the math portion, my test froze once, having the proctor log out and restart the exam again. I don’t know if this affected my testing scores in any way. When the PBM section came up, more technical difficulties arose with the headset not working properly. It took almost 10-15 min for the proctor to figure things out. By this point, I was really panicking. I eventually had to switch to a different computer and from then on everything went smoothly.

**SIDE NOTE: BRING EAR PLUGS. I remember reading someone's post about this, and I'm so glad I did. Since I had to test on a non-testing computer, I was in a room with two other military staff. Other recruiters came in and out, which meant constant talking. Better to be safe than sorry.

Math: My weakness. Since I knew I was rusty, I bought CliffNotes: Math Review for Standardized Tests (3rd Edition) on Amazon for $6, which helped me refresh my memory with basic arithmetic/algebra/geometry/probability. I also used Kyle's guide for practice tests, including others online and YouTube. My struggles with this section were mainly due to word problems and TIME - I am terrible when it comes to word problems and quickly/accurately finding the answer. I probably averaged 5 min/question. Not good. I had a bunch of rate and probability questions, too. Things like, “The probability of team A winning on any day is 40%. The probability of both team A and B in winning on the same day is 15%, what is the probability of team B winning?" and how many hours will it take for person B to reach person A based on the speed each person was going. I used up all the time.

Reading: Like most said, super dry and boring. Definitely helps reading the passage out loud. I had to whisper since people were working around me. I had a lot of questions about the same thing regarding contractors and navy protocols as well as Navy training protocols to reduce hazards, memory is hazy but something along those lines. The questions varied from easy to difficult. These two prompts kept reappearing, questioning whether i was getting them right or not. I tried not to panic. I also used up all my time.

Mechanical: I have no idea how well I did. Again, never took physics. I had questions ranging from mechanical advantage, levers, work/power, electrical questions, etc. I saw a few similiar questions from Kyle's Guide, but most were new. I'm pretty sure this is where I messed up the most because I guessed on a lot. I used up all the time here, too.

-TAKE YOUR 15 MIN BREAK HERE-
Folks on here advised to use the restroom and take a snack break to fuel all the nervous jitters away, so I did and it helped. You have the option to use up all 15 min or end your break early.

ANIT: I love history and studying for this section was the easiest for me. I made flashcards from the cram website. I retain the most when I write things down and memorize it this way. Doing this helped me understand the basic concepts, which helped answer/guess for harder questions. I had about ~3 questions regarding specific aircraft names. Some about parts of a ship/aircraft, wings/chord line, angle of attack, important people, and that's as far as I remember. I also used up all my time.

NATFI: Didn't like this section. I had about 15 min left after answering 99 questions. So, take your time!

UAV/DICHOTIC LISTENING/STICK AND THROTTLE: To get the most out of what this section entails, I read past posts that wrote a detailed review of this section. Here are some that helped me visualize what I needed to know for this part:

• #4,462 (by LoneWanderer on p.298)
• #4,509 (by CHOPS_avn on p.301)
• #4,640 (by Yogi Santos on p.310)

Stay calm as much as possible! Someone previously mentioned doing this section as if you are tackling a real enemy. YOU GOT THIS. I played video games growing up, so that helped me somewhat. I don't own any aviation games, but I am going to invert the settings on shooting games to see if that helps.

Overall, I'm not sure if all the technical difficulties I encountered jeopardized my score, but I know it brought down my confidence. If technical difficulties happen to you, it's okay. Stay calm. BREATHE. To prepare for my retake, I am definitely going to use more of Kyle's Guide (math/mechanical) like everyone suggests. I also just bought the Barron's book on Amazon for $6.47 for extra help with the math section. If you have time and extra cash, I would invest in additional books that people recommended on here. Anything you can get your hands on, especially if you are rusty like me. I also think it'll be more efficient if I study 2-3 hours/day instead of 4-6. As for my struggle with time, if anyone would like to provide me with extra tips on this and how I can improve my score that would be very much appreciated. I know practice makes (almost) perfect, so I plan on practicing as much as I can!

For all my fellow brothers and sisters who got baller scores their first time, kudos to you! Now give me some of your luck, hehe. I hope this post helps anyone, especially those like me having to retake the ASTB-E. Cheers & Good Luck!

It is good you are studying, I do have concerns but not about you about your recruiter, the tester is supposed to be in a room without distractions, and the scores are something your recruiter should know by heart, in fact it should be one of the first things they learn, this would make me a bit suspect of other things your recruiter tells you.

 

[RobertE]

Hi guys,just wanted to say thanks for all the info. I definitely lurked on this forum a lot to study. I took the test last Friday and am going to post my thoughts on the test in hopes to give some insight to the test.

My score: 60-8-7-7

For the math section I got things as simple as rates and as complex as matrix multiplication and things like 32^3/5. For this section I would stress learning to estimate to cut down on your solve time. For instance, if they ask you what's the final value of a 235 dollar paycheck after 20% income tax, 20% of 200 is 40 so it'll be less than 195. They gave me 40 minutes for 30ish questions which is more than enough. Sample tests don't do this section justice.

For reading they give you everything from 8 word sentences to run on paragraphs. A LOT of them were about navy ops although it doesn't require much knowledge about how the navy works. The long ones are a pain and for me I would try to rearrange them and add punctuation to get them to make sense. They gave me 30 minutes for 30 questions. Skim the paragraph, look at the answers and then read the paragraph again. Sample tests give you a good idea.

For the mechanical section, I got a lot of bernoulli's questions. I messed one up which I'm annoyed with (being an ME major). They ask you simple pullys as well. The sample tests mirror this section pretty well.

The ANIT was the one I was most worried about because you have 400 years of navy history and 120 of flight. Know your military aircraft designations like what does F, A, etc stand for. I didn't get any questions about ship designation or navy history earlier than the 60s but you never know. I was asked what was the first naval bomber was for example. Nothin on here was too bad but I have seen people getting asked about weather patterns as well. The FAA handbook is your friend for a lot of the aero/weather stuff.

The NATFI is a weird section. Definitely a psycholical/personality phishing portion. There isn't a way to "do well" but I definitely got the same questions more than once. I don't know if that's for them to solidify a trait or not. They say there isn't a way to game this section and that's correct. It's 99 questions, 3 questions a minute. Be honest with yourself. You have nothing to worry about.

UAV section is easy peasy. Draw the compass on paper. There's plenty of guides and practice online for this section, a voice tells you what parking lot to look for and the test said i wouldn't know if I got it right or wrong but it told me anyway. They also time your answers. Mine were between 3-8 seconds because I was more concerned with accuracy than speed. I only missed one out of 50ish because I disoriented myself. They have a yellow arrow pointing at a red dot for mine.

The dichotic listening is definitely interesting. Lean to the side it wants you to listen to. You have to press one button or the other depending on what the instructions say.

The "flying" bit is a pain in the ass. You get a practice test before each section except the emergency procedures. You chase a pipper with the throttle first, then the joystick, then both. If it feels like you aren't doing well it's okay, it's designed to piss you off and you're probably doing better than you think. Even though I play flight sims I had a huge problem remembering that up is back and down is forward on the stick when I was doing both. It is disorienting and it's supposed to be. They then tell you to fly and do the listening at the same time. Focus on the listening part even if you have to stop flying for a sec.

Last is emergency procedures, write down what they are and you'll be ok. You have to fly and execute them at the same time. It's not hard, they say you have x seconds to execute the procedures but it feels like eons.

The whole test only took me about 2 hours and it felt like minutes. You get a 15 minute break between the Oar and the rest of it. I was hype and didn't take the whole time but if your brain is overheating use the 15 minutes. Also in each section of the OAR they give 4 minutes to "read instructions" you can also use this time to rest if needed as well. I studied for 2 weeks on and off. Before I took the test I hadn't opened my practice material for at least 10 days. If you have a sound mind it shouldn't be too bad. Take your time, keep your wits about you.

 

[s00mz00m]

It is good you are studying, I do have concerns but not about you about your recruiter, the tester is supposed to be in a room without distractions, and the scores are something your recruiter should know by heart, in fact it should be one of the first things they learn, this would make me a bit suspect of other things your recruiter tells you.

Thank you for the input! Yeah, my gut was telling me I should reschedule when I realized I was not going to be in a test setting but didn't want to be an inconvenience. As for my recruiter, I was told by the proctor he is a well-respected recruiter. I think he wanted to make sure about the scores but yes, after seeing your comment I will definitely seek second opinions and fact-check what he says.

EDIT: My recruiter was not at the office the day I tested btw. Someone else proctored.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

Thank you for the input! Yeah, my gut was telling me I should reschedule when I realized I was not going to be in a test setting but didn't want to be an inconvenience. As for my recruiter, I was told by the proctor he is a well-respected recruiter. I think he wanted to make sure about the scores but yes, after seeing your comment I will definitely seek second opinions and fact-check what he says.

EDIT: My recruiter was not at the office the day I tested btw. Someone else proctored.

So another recruiter said the scores you had were initially qualifying?

 

[RobertE]

I have a question regarding the UAV/parking lot portion of the ASTB. Does the time of your answer or the accuracy of your answer have more of an impact? I read that someone was overly confident with the scratch paper trick using the compass, missed quite a few apparently.

I don't know about the speed vs accuracy, I went accuracy. It can be disorienting because of the way they display the orientation on the screen. It's a yellow arrow pointing at a red dot as opposed to an arrow originating from it. Can confuse some people

 

[s00mz00m]

So another recruiter said the scores you had were initially qualifying?

The gentleman that proctored was a SCPO and my CPO recruiter both said my scores should be fine the day I took the exam. The SCPO did say I probably would need my AQR and PFAR to go up but advised me to talk to my recruiter about it. I did, and my recruiter ultimately gave me the choice if I wanted to retake it. He mentioned seeing people with my scores get in and that it was more of a timing thing, so I decided to go with my current scores and submit for the Dec deadline. The day after, he sent me the score sheet and told me I needed to retake.

Hopefully that clarified any confusion!

 

[exNavyOffRec]

The gentleman that proctored was a SCPO and my CPO recruiter both said my scores should be fine the day I took the exam. The SCPO did say I probably would need my AQR and PFAR to go up but advised me to talk to my recruiter about it. I did, and my recruiter ultimately gave me the choice if I wanted to retake it. He mentioned seeing people with my scores get in and that it was more of a timing thing, so I decided to go with my current scores and submit for the Dec deadline. The day after, he sent me the score sheet and told me I needed to retake.

Hopefully that clarified any confusion!

The scores changed a while ago, so your recruiter was probably trying to do the old CYA thing.

 

[Chingmie]

Hello guys, can anybody explain to me the Computerized Adaptive Testing and how it works? I took the exam twice already and have not a good score. I am doing my own research but any information will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[s00mz00m]

The scores changed a while ago, so your recruiter was probably trying to do the old CYA thing.

Haha gotcha, thank you so much for your input! Really appreciate your time and help.

 

[s00mz00m]

Hello guys, can anybody explain to me the Computerized Adaptive Testing and how it works? I took the exam twice already and have not a good score. I am doing my own research but any information will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Hey Chingmie, when a test is adaptive it pretty much means it's a tailored test that "adapts" to your ability level. So if you get a question right, the next question will more likely be harder than the previous question. If you get a question wrong, the next question most likely will be an easier question. Do you know which sections were hardest for you, based on your scores?

 

[Chingmie]

Hey Chingmie, when a test is adaptive it pretty much means it's a tailored test that "adapts" to your ability level. So if you get a question right, the next question will more likely be harder than the previous question. If you get a question wrong, the next question most likely will be an easier question. Do you know which sections were hardest for you, based on your scores?

Hello, Thank you for your response. I was wondering because I think I did good on Math section but no way I can tell. I think Reading and Mechanical portion is the hardest for me. When it was my last 1 minute I panicked and just selected random answers on my last questions, does it affect my score if I did that on CAT?? anything would help. Thank you.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

Hello, Thank you for your response. I was wondering because I think I did good on Math section but no way I can tell. I think Reading and Mechanical portion is the hardest for me. When it was my last 1 minute I panicked and just selected random answers on my last questions, does it affect my score if I did that on CAT?? anything would help. Thank you.

selecting random questions would not be good, if that first one is wrong, then the next one is easier and then you get that one wrong so it sees your level of knowledge as low.

 

[Chingmie]

selecting random questions would not be good, if that first one is wrong, then the next one is easier and then you get that one wrong so it sees your level of knowledge as low.

Hello, thank you for your response sir. That's probably why I scored low. So would you recommend focusing more on the correctness of the question not how many questions you answered in time?

 

[exNavyOffRec]

Hello, thank you for your response sir. That's probably why I scored low. So would you recommend focusing more on the correctness of the question not how many questions you answered in time?

The problem is if you go to slow even though they are right you won't get enough correct answers for the computer to show you have hit a ceiling where they can spit out a score, slow and right/fast and wrong aren't going to get you where you need to be, you need to be steady and correct.