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

[Saukko]

Hi guys!

Wish I had seen this site sooner since it looks like a wealth of information.

Currently waiting on the Nov. 2 board to convene so I can hear back about my Aviation package! Hoping I get selected. I graduate college this Spring, and can't wait to head out to the fleet.

If anyone has any advice/insight on how I did or what my chances of selection are, please feel free! Also if anyone has questions about the process, I've been through MEPS, the ASTB and all of the application process so I can offer some guidance.

I am a Senior graduating in May 21 with a B.S. in Psychology. I have a 3.1 GPA.
I took the ASTBE once and scored 61 7/8/7

Good luck to everyone applying for the next boards!

 

[KaleDaSquid]

Hi guys!

Wish I had seen this site sooner since it looks like a wealth of information.

Currently waiting on the Nov. 2 board to convene so I can hear back about my Aviation package! Hoping I get selected. I graduate college this Spring, and can't wait to head out to the fleet.

If anyone has any advice/insight on how I did or what my chances of selection are, please feel free! Also if anyone has questions about the process, I've been through MEPS, the ASTB and all of the application process so I can offer some guidance.

I am a Senior graduating in May 21 with a B.S. in Psychology. I have a 3.1 GPA.
I took the ASTBE once and scored 61 7/8/7

Good luck to everyone applying for the next boards!

I got picked up with similar scores. Best of luck!

 

[Emily33]

In preparation for taking the ASTB in 3 weeks, I purchased an ACT book to help me brush up on the math. For those that have taken it, is this a good approach? From all the content I've read on this thread, high school level math seems to be the most difficult it gets. Also bought an ASVAB to help with the mechanical portion...it seems to follow along with an OAR book a friend let me borrow. I have saved the mechanical study guides from this thread as well, but the ASVAB is making more sense to me. Obviously the ASTB and the ASVAB or different tests, but the content seems to be very similar from the guides others have posted. Any feedback/insight on this would be appreciated.

 

[KaleDaSquid]

In preparation for taking the ASTB in 3 weeks, I purchased an ACT book to help me brush up on the math. For those that have taken it, is this a good approach? From all the content I've read on this thread, high school level math seems to be the most difficult it gets. Also bought an ASVAB to help with the mechanical portion...it seems to follow along with an OAR book a friend let me borrow. I have saved the mechanical study guides from this thread as well, but the ASVAB is making more sense to me. Obviously the ASTB and the ASVAB or different tests, but the content seems to be very similar from the guides others have posted. Any feedback/insight on this would be appreciated.

Had to take the Asvab (Corp) and got a 98 one to two step problems. The ASTB had lots of word problems that were more advanced ie multi step, conversions. There are youtube videos that can provide a good gauge. It is a much more difficult test compared to the ASVAB. The flight sections also provide their own unique set of challenges. Can not stress the need for preparation.

 

[Emily33]

Had to take the Asvab (Corp) and got a 98 one to two step problems. The ASTB had lots of word problems that were more advanced ie multi step, conversions. There are youtube videos that can provide a good gauge. It is a much more difficult test compared to the ASVAB. The flight sections also provide their own unique set of challenges. Can not stress the need for preparation.

Thanks for the info!

 

[NevarYalnal]

In preparation for taking the ASTB in 3 weeks, I purchased an ACT book to help me brush up on the math. For those that have taken it, is this a good approach? From all the content I've read on this thread, high school level math seems to be the most difficult it gets. Also bought an ASVAB to help with the mechanical portion...it seems to follow along with an OAR book a friend let me borrow. I have saved the mechanical study guides from this thread as well, but the ASVAB is making more sense to me. Obviously the ASTB and the ASVAB or different tests, but the content seems to be very similar from the guides others have posted. Any feedback/insight on this would be appreciated.

the hardest the math section gets would be logarithms and matrix multiplication; not sure if ACT book covers that. If not, watch some vids on Khan academy on logs and matrix multiplication to familiarize yourself with it. ignore anything that requires calculators to compute as all questions on the test can be done by hand.

 

[Emily33]

the hardest the math section gets would be logarithms and matrix multiplication; not sure if ACT book covers that. If not, watch some vids on Khan academy on logs and matrix multiplication to familiarize yourself with it. ignore anything that requires calculators to compute as all questions on the test can be done by hand.

That is very helpful, thanks!

 

[DCflyer9210]

Hello everyone I just took my ASTB and I'm proudly sitting at 57-7-7-7. I will not be re-taking and I will be submitting my package next year with the scores. I will try and break down what I remember from the test in this post.

Like many of the other people on this thread Kyle’s, Holly’s, and the Oar study guide are extremely valuable to this test. I grinded those out since last November spending it out over all of Summer and the beginning of the school year. I took several breaks obviously when I went on vacation, and during the beginning of school when I was still getting situated. I also use the baron study guide, test prep book astb study guide to 2020-2021, and Aegis Group complete ASTB Study guide. A super valuable tool that I created for myself was a journal to track my progress on my practice tests and worksheets. This allowed me to track and witness my progress.

Math:
No DRT or logs, or percentage. I had several surface area problems and one was like “John has to lay the bricks on a 3’x12’x7’ wall and the brings are 12”3”4” how many bricks does he need”. That's the only question I really remember from that but there was also some reducing polynomials and other stuff like that.

Reading:
GRIND time management in your prep. I ran out of time and had to guess on 3 with 10 seconds left. SO practice practice practice and work on time management

Mechi:
Killed this section and finished with like 8 min left. Only 2 required equations, mostly conceptual. Look into angular momentum and stuff like that, and know the speed on an object on an arch, I had 3 or so like this.

ANIT:
Some stuff I studied but also some shit I have never seen before. Just grind the large quizlet floating around the forum, but make sure that you rewrite them in your own notecards or else you won't memorize them as well

UAV:
Ignore the degrees and just do the compass trick, I was rushing and got 4 wrong but out of 40 or so that is a great percentage

Stick and throttle and Listening:
For the listening section I just took off the non-target ear. Also when calibrating the stick and throttle, make sure you get a good feel of the dead zone. For me it was a huge dead zone so it was super slow when I first made movements and then zoomed when I started to chase the plane.

Good Luck Ladies and Gents. Ill be praying for everyone and if you have any questions just PM me. God Bless American and go Navy

Hey man awesome scores I test this Thursday coming up
How did you do on the emergency procedures at the end ? Is there a technique for that ?
And on the UAV portion did you focus on speed at all?

 

[Jenshotjr2013]

Hey man awesome scores I test this Thursday coming up
How did you do on the emergency procedures at the end ? Is there a technique for that ?
And on the UAV portion did you focus on speed at all?

Hey, so for the emergency procedures I practiced them before starting that section of the exam, just so I didn’t have to keep looking down at the paper while doing that section. But also make sure you write down the order of procedures just in case you forget. For the UAV portion you definitely want to focus on speed. I got 4 wrong but had a pretty quick average. I was getting some in under 2 seconds. Most were about 2.5. If you get one wrong it will tell you, you were wrong and show your time but not show you the correct answer.

 

[Mike74]

Retaking the ASTB on Tuesday. What are y'alls thoughts on the time allotted for the test? Do you attempt to get through every question or do you spend time on what you are offered to ensure accuracy?

On my first shot at the ASTB, I remember being SO tense.. I was nervous I wouldn't do well.. and, well, I did terrible. I remember getting what seemed like just half way through the reading AND mechanical sections before realizing I had just 30 seconds left on the clock. At that point I just begin clicking through the questions selecting random answers, I was still answering questions when the time ran out for each of the two mentioned sections.

The math portion however, I feel as if I did well but I ended with 6 minutes remaining and must have only answered 15-20 questions. From what I understand, the math section will kick you out early if you aren't doing so hot..? The questions were semi-difficult, definitely no logs. My AQR was a 5.. can anyone confirm what exactly makes up the AQR score?

 

[NevarYalnal]

Retaking the ASTB on Tuesday. What are y'alls thoughts on the time allotted for the test? Do you attempt to get through every question or do you spend time on what you are offered to ensure accuracy?

On my first shot at the ASTB, I remember being SO tense.. I was nervous I wouldn't do well.. and, well, I did terrible. I remember getting what seemed like just half way through the reading AND mechanical sections before realizing I had just 30 seconds left on the clock. At that point I just begin clicking through the questions selecting random answers, I was still answering questions when the time ran out for each of the two mentioned sections.

The math portion however, I feel as if I did well but I ended with 6 minutes remaining and must have only answered 15-20 questions. From what I understand, the math section will kick you out early if you aren't doing so hot..? The questions were semi-difficult, definitely no logs. My AQR was a 5.. can anyone confirm what exactly makes up the AQR score?

it is an adaptive test, definitely do NOT randomly select answers. it will kick you out when it thinks it's assessed your skill level, it's not necessarily a bad sign for sections to end early. if you're crushing the math section and getting every question right there's no need to keep putting questions up for the entire duration of the section.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

it is an adaptive test, definitely do NOT randomly select answers. it will kick you out when it thinks it's assessed your skill level, it's not necessarily a bad sign for sections to end early. if you're crushing the math section and getting every question right there's no need to keep putting questions up for the entire duration of the section.

Randomly clicking answers probably did more harm that just leaving them blank

 

[PilotEngineer]

Hey guys, I have a small study group for the ASTB. If anyone is interested send me a dm of your facebook so I can add you to the group chat. My friends and I are taking the Exam in late November and January. We study 8pm - 9:30pm EST on zoom mostly been doing timed math and mechanical sections. Let me know!

 

[PilotEngineer]

Also if anyone could tell me the time for each section and the number of questions that would be great. Alot of sources have conflicting information on this.

 

[NevarYalnal]

Also if anyone could tell me the time for each section and the number of questions that would be great. Alot of sources have conflicting information on this.

it's an adaptive test, # of questions can vary greatly from person to person. some people may use up the entire time, others might have the section end early. I want to say you have 30 or so mins each for math / reading, and around 15 mins for mechanical.