• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

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

Just took the ASTB today for the first time and scored 51 6/6/6 which I thought was absolute trash and was disappointed but my recruiter was ecstatic over it. He was seriously stoked and didn’t even mention possibly retesting so I don't plan on taking it again. A lot of people have given great advice on this whole forum so instead of regurgitating that I'll just add some information from my own perspective that I haven't seen anyone else say. I also remember a lot of the questions so I'll give every question I can remember.

MATH
This felt like my worst area and I lowkey started panicking several times. I was taking a long time on each question, and time ran out before I had completed probably around 10 questions. I decided taking a long time but getting the right answer was better than quickly picking the best guess and having it be wrong, and it worked out for me in the end so. I had mostly arithmetic reasoning questions (word problems) and obviously no log or matrix questions. I was surprised I didn't get any radical or square root/cube root questions. Glad I spent hours studying those lol. Don't even waste your time with the practice problems in the Barron's book. They're 10 times easier than the questions on the ASTB.

1. Sally can paint a house in 4 hours and John can paint it in 6, how long does it take them to paint it together (easy). USE GRAMMAR HERO on YouTube for all these word problems...I used him when studying for the ASVAB and got a 97 (which I know is a lot easier than the ASTB but you see my point). He is a great place to start.

2. John scored 64 on his first test and 74 on his second. His third test was 10 points more than his fourth test, and his fourth test was the average of the first three tests. What was his average of all five tests? Again, use GRAMMAR HERO on YouTube, as well as the ORGANIC CHEMISTRY TUTOR for more word problems.

3. Bob went fishing and 7 of every 8 casts did not get any bites. 1/3 of the casts that did bite reeled in a fish. How many times does he need to cast his pole to get a minimum of 8 fish?

4. A ranch has horses and ponies. 9-tenths of all the ponies have horseshoes. Half of the shoed-ponies are Icelandic ponies. How many ponies are on the ranch? A. 17 B. 23 C. 18 D. 20 At first I was like "w h a t t h e f a c k" because how am I supposed to know how many ponies are on the damn ranch? Then I realized that if half of the shoed ponies are Icelandic, that means that there must be an even number of shoed-ponies. So all you have to do is multiply each answer by 9/10 and see which one spits out a whole and even number. (20)

5. Simply (2(x+2)^2)^2 + 6x (x-4)^2 all divided by 4. This may not be the exact numbers but it's similar to what I had.

6. I had the weirdest binary question which sucked because I read on here that some people got the question "what is some single-digit number in binary" so I learned 0-12 in binary, but nOoOoo this test wanted to ask me a binary question on steroids. It was something like:
"binary is base-2 because 1 is 0 and 1 together, and 0 = 0, and 2 = 0 and 1 and 1 (some sort of sh!t like that idk) so in base-4 binary, how is 7+8 expressed?" and the answers weren't even 1001 0011 answers, the options were like 33, 38, 20 and 23. So… just study what base-2 and base-4 binary is I guess???

7. Sarah’s final grade is made up of 20% from 3 tests, 10% from homework, and 30% from the final exam. She scored 72 and 84 on the first two tests, her third test was 10 points less than what she scored on the final exam. Her class grade was an 80. What was her final exam score? This might not be exactly the right numbers but you get the idea. Challenging grade questions involving percentages and weighted averages blah blah blah.

I surprisingly didn’t get any questions about probability. However, I recommend Khan Academy’s video for DICE PROBABILITY. He offers a really easy trick that I didn’t see anyone else do on YouTube. For anything else, I prefer The Organic Chemistry Tutor on Youtube (for math and mechanical) over Khan Academy.

Again I only answered like 10 questions and still scored above average so don't stress too much if you feel like you're doing bad or taking a long time.

MECHANICAL
Nothing surprising here, just read what other people have wrote. I spent only 1 day studying for this section and it worked out for me. And I have never taken any physics in high school or college. I recommend THE ORGANIC CHEMISTRY TUTOR on YouTube over Khan Academy…A lot of people like Khan Academy but he oversimplified things in my opinion, so it was like pulling teeth listening to him teach. However, I highly recommend his video for DICE PROBABILITY. He offers a really easy, simple trick that other videos don’t teach. IT DOES NOT GIVE YOU SIMPLE EQUATIONS FOR ELECTRICITY PROBLEMS. I relied too much on everyone saying all the formula’s you’ll need are on the sidebar, I didn’t see 1 formula the whole test. And I had to calculate voltage in an electricity question and fumbled around trying to remember the equation that I had just learned the day before. (I=V/R, R=V/I, V=IR).


ANIT
I feel like I knew maybe half of these questions and the other half might as well have been Greek. And I studied for this section the most. Probably around 50 or more hours. I had no experience with aviation prior to this whatsoever! Never even heard the words fuselage or nautical in my life. So if you’re like me, be encouraged! You can do it!

Here are all the questions I remember with whatever answers I remember (NOT necessarily the right answer, just the options for answers that I remember).

1. At what temperature does a carburetor experience icing?

2. What does CVBG stand for (A. light-carrier B. heavy carrier, something like that).

3. To navigate by VOR you need to… one answer was rotate the OBS(?) to desired heading? I can’t remember what I answered.

4. know what a sidewinder is ?

5. how do you know if an aircraft is considered high-powered? A. It’s horse power is over 200 B. It weighs more than xxx C. It has so-and-so engine idk

6. Vx means….

7. Something about the USAF categorizing things as either STOL CVOL SCTOVL TOVL (something like that)

8. what is the thing called that’s attached to the wings and/or fuselage that supports the engines and something else. Options were like cowl, strut, pivot, pylon and port

9. how have carriers evolved to support high-powered(?)/heavier(?) aircraft like the 30-ton F-14? The answers said something about angled decks, longer runways, more catapults, less catapults, or making the f-14 lighter LOL.

10. which fighter aircraft was first to escort bombers across enemy lines (I was ecstatic seeing this cuz I remember reading it from other people on the forum). I said P-51 mustang so hopefully that was right otherwise that’d be embarrassing lol.

11. something about what is the cabin(?) on the bridge of the deck called on ships(??) one of the options was crows nest…

12. what is a vertical protruding thing called on a ship lol answer: bulkhead

13. questions about ailerons, elevators, and what they do. Which everyone here has said to study already. I weirdly didn’t get any questions about airport lighting, but I’ve heard those are common to a lot people.

14. There was lots of abbreviations like UGM RIM AIM BGM in all the questions so learn as much of that crap as you can I guess.

Before anyone accuses me of any funny-business, I just have a very good memory when it comes to stuff like this. I also just finished testing about an hour ago and came straight here to write down everything I remember. I also went into the test with the specific intention to try and remember as many questions and answers as I could while I was taking it so I could come back here and hopefully help out some other people.

UAV (compass thing)
Use the compass trick on Youtube everyone recommends. I’ve seen some other people write out all the different compass/heading variations on a piece of paper…don’t waste your time with that, it will take you too long to look down at that thing and find the right answer. All you need to do is tear off a square piece of paper, draw your compass and then STICK YOUR PENCIL THROUGH THE MIDDLE. I’ve only seen 1 other guy say to do this. This way, you can hold it in your left hand and quickly twirl it to the right position, and then have your right hand on the mouse. I was answering them around 1.5 seconds, sometimes slightly faster or slower. ALSO. USE A MOUSE. My recruiter had me on a laptop with a trackpad instead of a mouse, and I insisted that I would not continue the test unless he got a mouse and plugged it into the laptop for this part lol. He didn’t think it would make a difference, but don’t let anyone tell you how to take YOUR test. It’s your score, not his. Do what you need to do to pass. And using a mouse will make you significantly faster than using a trackpad. Also, after the practice problems, you can go back and practice them again and again. I wish I had done that because I missed 2 during the actual test due to trying to be fast, and I might not have if I had done the practice problems a few more times. Oh well, I still passed so who cares!

PERSONALITY TEST
Lots of people say different things about this, and everyone stresses over it too much in my opinion. There’s no reason to feel bad about yourself after it. All they’re trying to do is make sure you’re not a psychopath, narcissist, or degenerate. The strategy I used was to determine what each question was an example of, and pick the evil that wasn’t illegal or dishonorable. For instance, if the two options were 1) I don’t obey certain rules at work if I think they’re unnecessary. And 2) I lose my temper in angry outbursts during stressful situations. Well the first one is dishonorable, the second isn’t illegal or dishonorable, it’s just a personality flaw. So I picked the second one. Sometimes, the options will be the SAME THING but stated slightly differently….listen to which one sounds more narcissistic and avoid that one. 1) I am confident in my ability to adapt to changes 2) I usually can come up with a new plan when there are unforeseen circumstances. The first is phrased more like a narcissist would talk, so I picked the second one. Using this strategy, I was forced to pick a lot of answers that made me out to be insecure. But being insecure isn’t illegal or dishonorable, so I usually picked that one when the other option involved any form of lying, stealing, cheating, or ignoring rules. Then as soon as I got the chance to say I wasn’t insecure, I’d pick that answer. So if you pick 1 thing on 1 question, try to pick the opposite of it in a later question.

If you disagree with this strategy, that’s fine, I’m just saying what strategy I used.

STICK AND THROTTLE
Everyone says they thought they did horrible and then was surprised to see their score. I actually thought I was doing pretty good but then only got a 6/6/6 hahaha. (But I did do horrible on math which is the heaviest affecter for the AQR and FOFAR).

Everyone says write down your emergency procedures, which is fine, but you don’t need to write all the details, all you actually need to write down is

FIRE = DOWN

ENGINE = UP

PROPELLOR = UP/NEUTRAL

This makes it super easy. For fire, ALL KNOBS DOWN, THEN CLUTCH. For engine, ALL KNOBS UP, THEN CLUTCH. (it might be fire=up engine=down I can’t remember, but you get the point).

However, I believe I missed the propellor procedure because I didn’t reset my knobs to neutral after the engine emergency. and I THINK the computer automatically resets your gauges to neutral after each emergency, even if your knobs aren’t at neutral. (I also didn’t even noticed the gauges in the bottom right of the screen until the third emergency so that was a bummer). So when the propellor emergency came…my big knob was already in the up position, so I just made sure the little knob was in neutral and pressed the clutch…the emergency didn’t clear, that’s when I noticed the gauges were both at neutral still, so I spun the big knob down and up until it made the gauge move, then pressed the clutch, and the screen flashed red. So I don’t know WHAT happened but I was pretty upset I missed that one, and I THINK it was because my knobs weren’t at neutral to start, so I recommend paying attention to that, and also looking at the gauges in the bottom right of the screen to make sure they’re corresponding with your knobs. I was able to clear the first two emergencies in about 2-2.5 seconds.

Second piece of advice I have, if you’re someone who doesn’t play video games, practice playing shooter games with an inverted y-plane (the vertical-plane, so up is down and down is up). It DOES help. I am not a gamer whatsoever I effing suck at video games, but I played Nazi Zombies and Halo with my 10-year-old brother with an inverted y-plane and it helped a lot on this portion. Try and practice playing like that as much as you can before the test. I sometimes caught myself wanting to mirror horizontally as well…for example, if the airplane started flying to the top left of the screen, you SHOULD bring your stick to the bottom left, but I sometimes found myself wanting to bring my stick to the bottom right of the screen, so I had a tendency to want to invert the vertical AND horizontal planes. And I could have broken that habit with more video game practice. (Hope that makes sense) ALL I’M SAYING IS yes playing video games with an inverted y-plane does make a big difference, so practice that a lot.

Lastly, don't panic or give up at any point. I talked with a ch-53 pilot prior to this and he said the test is impossible to beat. It's made that way on purpose, so don't feel like you're doing horribly. It's purposely impossible. He said all they want to see is how often and how close you can get the crosshairs to the airplane.


DICHOTIC LISTENING
RIP OFF THE HEADPHONE YOU’RE NOT USING. I don’t know why no one is saying this?? If the voice says “Listen to your right ear” then I would take the headphone off of my left ear and place it behind my head…that way I could only hear my right ear. This made it so easy. And then as soon as the voice said listen to your left ear, I would let go of both stick and throttle and switch the headphones so that the left muff was on my left ear and the right muff was off of my right ear. It takes 1 second and I only missed 1 of the numbers across all of the listening portions.

ADDITIONAL ADVICE
Other than that…my last piece of advice would be don’t put too much pressure on yourself with this test. After reading all the horror stories from this forum, I put an immense amount of pressure on myself to study for this test. I actually went into this test CONFIDENT that I wasn’t going to pass…I didn’t feel ready and I didn’t expect to pass, I fully expected to have to take it again in 30 days. The only reason I was taking it today was because my recruiter was “forcing” me to. Imagine my surprise after seeing my score. I’m really glad I was “forced” to take it now, because if it were up to me, I would have studied for another month before taking it. Now I don’t have to! I’m not saying don’t take it seriously, I studied for probably 100 hours total, with 8 hours a day the last 7 days leading up to it. But, don’t put too much pressure on yourself either. After a decent amount of studying, just take it once, because you might actually pass. And if you completely bomb it, then just go back to studying.

OH, ALSO. For the first 7 months of creeping this forum, the website owner wouldn’t accept my account no matter how many times I emailed, so I couldn’t access any of the attachments and it was incredibly frustrating. So if you’re reading this and have the same problem as me, email me at raina.tschantre@gmail.com and I’ll hook you up.
 

Attachments

  • flight.png
    flight.png
    21.9 KB · Views: 61
Last edited:

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
Just took the ASTB today for the first time and scored 51 6/6/6 which I thought was absolute trash and was disappointed but my recruiter was ecstatic over it. He was seriously stoked and didn’t even mention possibly retesting so I don't plan on taking it again.

I would say your scores are absolute trash, but if your recruiter was ecstatic over them means he is either putting on a show to make you feel better or he is an idiot. The 6's on the PFAR and FOFAR are the minimums to apply, I can't imagine you would be thrilled if you received the minimum grades to graduate college which I believe in most colleges is 2.0 so don't be satisfied with the 6's.

I am not saying to retake now, I would recommend applying with those scores to see what happens, and in the meantime study and if you get a "N" then retake and then you can reapply with better scores.
 
I would say your scores are absolute trash, but if your recruiter was ecstatic over them means he is either putting on a show to make you feel better or he is an idiot. The 6's on the PFAR and FOFAR are the minimums to apply, I can't imagine you would be thrilled if you received the minimum grades to graduate college which I believe in most colleges is 2.0 so don't be satisfied with the 6's.

I am not saying to retake now, I would recommend applying with those scores to see what happens, and in the meantime study and if you get a "N" then retake and then you can reapply with better scores.

I guess I meant he was ecstatic that I passed and doesn’t think I need to take it again, not necessarily that I got 6’s. But thanks for your kind words lol I will consider them.
 

jmj689

Member
Just took the ASTB today for the first time and scored 51 6/6/6 which I thought was absolute trash and was disappointed but my recruiter was ecstatic over it. He was seriously stoked and didn’t even mention possibly retesting so I don't plan on taking it again. A lot of people have given great advice on this whole forum so instead of regurgitating that I'll just add some information from my own perspective that I haven't seen anyone else say. I also remember a lot of the questions so I'll give every question I can remember.

MATH
This felt like my worst area and I lowkey started panicking several times. I was taking a long time on each question, and time ran out before I had completed probably around 10 questions. I decided taking a long time but getting the right answer was better than quickly picking the best guess and having it be wrong, and it worked out for me in the end so. I had mostly arithmetic reasoning questions (word problems) and obviously no log or matrix questions. I was surprised I didn't get any radical or square root/cube root questions. Glad I spent hours studying those lol. Don't even waste your time with the practice problems in the Barron's book. They're 10 times easier than the questions on the ASTB.

1. Sally can paint a house in 4 hours and John can paint it in 6, how long does it take them to paint it together (easy). USE GRAMMAR HERO on YouTube for all these word problems...I used him when studying for the ASVAB and got a 97 (which I know is a lot easier than the ASTB but you see my point). He is a great place to start.

2. John scored 64 on his first test and 74 on his second. His third test was 10 points more than his fourth test, and his fourth test was the average of the first three tests. What was his average of all five tests? Again, use GRAMMAR HERO on YouTube, as well as the ORGANIC CHEMISTRY TUTOR for more word problems.

3. Bob went fishing and 7 of every 8 casts did not get any bites. 1/3 of the casts that did bite reeled in a fish. How many times does he need to cast his pole to get a minimum of 8 fish?

4. A ranch has horses and ponies. 9-tenths of all the ponies have horseshoes. Half of the shoed-ponies are Icelandic ponies. How many ponies are on the ranch? A. 17 B. 23 C. 18 D. 20 At first I was like "w h a t t h e f a c k" because how am I supposed to know how many ponies are on the damn ranch? Then I realized that if half of the shoed ponies are Icelandic, that means that there must be an even number of shoed-ponies. So all you have to do is multiply each answer by 9/10 and see which one spits out a whole and even number. (20)

5. Simply (2(x+2)^2)^2 + 6x (x-4)^2 all divided by 4. This may not be the exact numbers but it's similar to what I had.

6. I had the weirdest binary question which sucked because I read on here that some people got the question "what is some single-digit number in binary" so I learned 0-12 in binary, but nOoOoo this test wanted to ask me a binary question on steroids. It was something like:
"binary is base-2 because 1 is 0 and 1 together, and 0 = 0, and 2 = 0 and 1 and 1 (some sort of sh!t like that idk) so in base-4 binary, how is 7+8 expressed?" and the answers weren't even 1001 0011 answers, the options were like 33, 38, 20 and 23. So… just study what base-2 and base-4 binary is I guess???

7. Sarah’s final grade is made up of 20% from 3 tests, 10% from homework, and 30% from the final exam. She scored 72 and 84 on the first two tests, her third test was 10 points less than what she scored on the final exam. Her class grade was an 80. What was her final exam score? This might not be exactly the right numbers but you get the idea. Challenging grade questions involving percentages and weighted averages blah blah blah.

I surprisingly didn’t get any questions about probability. However, I recommend Khan Academy’s video for DICE PROBABILITY. He offers a really easy trick that I didn’t see anyone else do on YouTube. For anything else, I prefer The Organic Chemistry Tutor on Youtube (for math and mechanical) over Khan Academy.

Again I only answered like 10 questions and still scored above average so don't stress too much if you feel like you're doing bad or taking a long time.

MECHANICAL
Nothing surprising here, just read what other people have wrote. I spent only 1 day studying for this section and it worked out for me. And I have never taken any physics in high school or college. I recommend THE ORGANIC CHEMISTRY TUTOR on YouTube over Khan Academy…A lot of people like Khan Academy but he oversimplified things in my opinion, so it was like pulling teeth listening to him teach. However, I highly recommend his video for DICE PROBABILITY. He offers a really easy, simple trick that other videos don’t teach. IT DOES NOT GIVE YOU SIMPLE EQUATIONS FOR ELECTRICITY PROBLEMS. I relied too much on everyone saying all the formula’s you’ll need are on the sidebar, I didn’t see 1 formula the whole test. And I had to calculate voltage in an electricity question and fumbled around trying to remember the equation that I had just learned the day before. (I=V/R, R=V/I, V=IR).


ANIT
I feel like I knew maybe half of these questions and the other half might as well have been Greek. And I studied for this section the most. Probably around 50 or more hours. I had no experience with aviation prior to this whatsoever! Never even heard the words fuselage or nautical in my life. So if you’re like me, be encouraged! You can do it!

Here are all the questions I remember with whatever answers I remember (NOT necessarily the right answer, just the options for answers that I remember).

1. At what temperature does a carburetor experience icing?

2. What does CVBG stand for (A. light-carrier B. heavy carrier, something like that).

3. To navigate by VOR you need to… one answer was rotate the OBS(?) to desired heading? I can’t remember what I answered.

4. know what a sidewinder is ?

5. how do you know if an aircraft is considered high-powered? A. It’s horse power is over 200 B. It weighs more than xxx C. It has so-and-so engine idk

6. Vx means….

7. Something about the USAF categorizing things as either STOL CVOL SCTOVL TOVL (something like that)

8. what is the thing called that’s attached to the wings and/or fuselage that supports the engines and something else. Options were like cowl, strut, pivot, pylon and port

9. how have carriers evolved to support high-powered(?)/heavier(?) aircraft like the 30-ton F-14? The answers said something about angled decks, longer runways, more catapults, less catapults, or making the f-14 lighter LOL.

10. which fighter aircraft was first to escort bombers across enemy lines (I was ecstatic seeing this cuz I remember reading it from other people on the forum). I said P-51 mustang so hopefully that was right otherwise that’d be embarrassing lol.

11. something about what is the cabin(?) on the bridge of the deck called on ships(??) one of the options was crows nest…

12. what is a vertical protruding thing called on a ship lol answer: bulkhead

13. questions about ailerons, elevators, and what they do. Which everyone here has said to study already. I weirdly didn’t get any questions about airport lighting, but I’ve heard those are common to a lot people.

14. There was lots of abbreviations like UGM RIM AIM BGM in all the questions so learn as much of that crap as you can I guess.

Before anyone accuses me of any funny-business, I just have a very good memory when it comes to stuff like this. I also just finished testing about an hour ago and came straight here to write down everything I remember. I also went into the test with the specific intention to try and remember as many questions and answers as I could while I was taking it so I could come back here and hopefully help out some other people.

UAV (compass thing)
Use the compass trick on Youtube everyone recommends. I’ve seen some other people write out all the different compass/heading variations on a piece of paper…don’t waste your time with that, it will take you too long to look down at that thing and find the right answer. All you need to do is tear off a square piece of paper, draw your compass and then STICK YOUR PENCIL THROUGH THE MIDDLE. I’ve only seen 1 other guy say to do this. This way, you can hold it in your left hand and quickly twirl it to the right position, and then have your right hand on the mouse. I was answering them around 1.5 seconds, sometimes slightly faster or slower. ALSO. USE A MOUSE. My recruiter had me on a laptop with a trackpad instead of a mouse, and I insisted that I would not continue the test unless he got a mouse and plugged it into the laptop for this part lol. He didn’t think it would make a difference, but don’t let anyone tell you how to take YOUR test. It’s your score, not his. Do what you need to do to pass. And using a mouse will make you significantly faster than using a trackpad. Also, after the practice problems, you can go back and practice them again and again. I wish I had done that because I missed 2 during the actual test due to trying to be fast, and I might not have if I had done the practice problems a few more times. Oh well, I still passed so who cares!

PERSONALITY TEST
Lots of people say different things about this, and everyone stresses over it too much in my opinion. There’s no reason to feel bad about yourself after it. All they’re trying to do is make sure you’re not a psychopath, narcissist, or degenerate. The strategy I used was to determine what each question was an example of, and pick the evil that wasn’t illegal or dishonorable. For instance, if the two options were 1) I don’t obey certain rules at work if I think they’re unnecessary. And 2) I lose my temper in angry outbursts during stressful situations. Well the first one is dishonorable, the second isn’t illegal or dishonorable, it’s just a personality flaw. So I picked the second one. Sometimes, the options will be the SAME THING but stated slightly differently….listen to which one sounds more narcissistic and avoid that one. 1) I am confident in my ability to adapt to changes 2) I usually can come up with a new plan when there are unforeseen circumstances. The first is phrased more like a narcissist would talk, so I picked the second one. Using this strategy, I was forced to pick a lot of answers that made me out to be insecure. But being insecure isn’t illegal or dishonorable, so I usually picked that one when the other option involved any form of lying, stealing, cheating, or ignoring rules. Then as soon as I got the chance to say I wasn’t insecure, I’d pick that answer. So if you pick 1 thing on 1 question, try to pick the opposite of it in a later question.

If you disagree with this strategy, that’s fine, I’m just saying what strategy I used.

STICK AND THROTTLE
Everyone says they thought they did horrible and then was surprised to see their score. I actually thought I was doing pretty good but then only got a 6/6/6 hahaha. (But I did do horrible on math which is the heaviest affecter for the AQR and FOFAR).

Everyone says write down your emergency procedures, which is fine, but you don’t need to write all the details, all you actually need to write down is

FIRE = DOWN

ENGINE = UP

PROPELLOR = UP/NEUTRAL

This makes it super easy. For fire, ALL KNOBS DOWN, THEN CLUTCH. For engine, ALL KNOBS UP, THEN CLUTCH. (it might be fire=up engine=down I can’t remember, but you get the point).

However, I believe I missed the propellor procedure because I didn’t reset my knobs to neutral after the engine emergency. and I THINK the computer automatically resets your gauges to neutral after each emergency, even if your knobs aren’t at neutral. (I also didn’t even noticed the gauges in the bottom right of the screen until the third emergency so that was a bummer). So when the propellor emergency came…my big knob was already in the up position, so I just made sure the little knob was in neutral and pressed the clutch…the emergency didn’t clear, that’s when I noticed the gauges were both at neutral still, so I spun the big knob down and up until it made the gauge move, then pressed the clutch, and the screen flashed red. So I don’t know WHAT happened but I was pretty upset I missed that one, and I THINK it was because my knobs weren’t at neutral to start, so I recommend paying attention to that, and also looking at the gauges in the bottom right of the screen to make sure they’re corresponding with your knobs. I was able to clear the first two emergencies in about 2-2.5 seconds.

Second piece of advice I have, if you’re someone who doesn’t play video games, practice playing shooter games with an inverted y-plane (the vertical-plane, so up is down and down is up). It DOES help. I am not a gamer whatsoever I effing suck at video games, but I played Nazi Zombies and Halo with my 10-year-old brother with an inverted y-plane and it helped a lot on this portion. Try and practice playing like that as much as you can before the test. I sometimes caught myself wanting to mirror horizontally as well…for example, if the airplane started flying to the top left of the screen, you SHOULD bring your stick to the bottom left, but I sometimes found myself wanting to bring my stick to the bottom right of the screen, so I had a tendency to want to invert the vertical AND horizontal planes. And I could have broken that habit with more video game practice. (Hope that makes sense) ALL I’M SAYING IS yes playing video games with an inverted y-plane does make a big difference, so practice that a lot.

Lastly, don't panic or give up at any point. I talked with a ch-53 pilot prior to this and he said the test is impossible to beat. It's made that way on purpose, so don't feel like you're doing horribly. It's purposely impossible. He said all they want to see is how often and how close you can get the crosshairs to the airplane.


DICHOTIC LISTENING
RIP OFF THE HEADPHONE YOU’RE NOT USING. I don’t know why no one is saying this?? If the voice says “Listen to your right ear” then I would take the headphone off of my left ear and place it behind my head…that way I could only hear my right ear. This made it so easy. And then as soon as the voice said listen to your left ear, I would let go of both stick and throttle and switch the headphones so that the left muff was on my left ear and the right muff was off of my right ear. It takes 1 second and I only missed 1 of the numbers across all of the listening portions.

ADDITIONAL ADVICE
Other than that…my last piece of advice would be don’t put too much pressure on yourself with this test. After reading all the horror stories from this forum, I put an immense amount of pressure on myself to study for this test. I actually went into this test CONFIDENT that I wasn’t going to pass…I didn’t feel ready and I didn’t expect to pass, I fully expected to have to take it again in 30 days. The only reason I was taking it today was because my recruiter was “forcing” me to. Imagine my surprise after seeing my score. I’m really glad I was “forced” to take it now, because if it were up to me, I would have studied for another month before taking it. Now I don’t have to! I’m not saying don’t take it seriously, I studied for probably 100 hours total, with 8 hours a day the last 7 days leading up to it. But, don’t put too much pressure on yourself either. After a decent amount of studying, just take it once, because you might actually pass. And if you completely bomb it, then just go back to studying.

OH, ALSO. For the first 7 months of creeping this forum, the website owner wouldn’t accept my account no matter how many times I emailed, so I couldn’t access any of the attachments and it was incredibly frustrating. So if you’re reading this and have the same problem as me, email me at raina.tschantre@gmail.com and I’ll hook you up.

I appreciate your post, man. Gonna take the OAR this Friday, seems to me that no matter how much you practice study guide questions, there will always be harder questions on the actual test. I mean, base 4?? I just studied how to calculate binary and thought I was good...If I had to guess, base 4 is just doubling what base 2 is, i.e. base to the fourth power.

My recruiter likewise said he would like me to get a 50, but from what I've gathered, the older you are, the less likely of getting selected. I'm 31 years old so I'm shooting for bare minimum 55, which I'm sure is still not as competitive as other candidates, but for never taking physics and never working with mechanical machines, I have to be realistic lol

Oh and thanks for the yt recs... Organic Chemistry Tutorr is a lifesaver when you want another resource to khanacademy. Haven't used Grammar Hero yet.
 

NevarYalnal

Well-Known Member
I appreciate your post, man. Gonna take the OAR this Friday, seems to me that no matter how much you practice study guide questions, there will always be harder questions on the actual test. I mean, base 4?? I just studied how to calculate binary and thought I was good...If I had to guess, base 4 is just doubling what base 2 is, i.e. base to the fourth power.

might be easier if you think of base conversion as a combination of exponents and division. going from right to left, each number is essentially the base number to increasing power. so in base 4, furthest right value is 4^0 aka 1. then it's 4^1 aka 4, 4^2 aka 16, and so on.

for the example given, in order to show 15 in base 4, you need to divide 15 into the components you just broke out. 15 contains 3 4's, so you mark 3 in the 4^1 column. your remainder is 3 (15-4*3), which contains 3 1's, so you mark another 3 in the 4^0 column. Thus 7+8 aka 15 in base 4 is 33.
 

jmj689

Member
might be easier if you think of base conversion as a combination of exponents and division. going from right to left, each number is essentially the base number to increasing power. so in base 4, furthest right value is 4^0 aka 1. then it's 4^1 aka 4, 4^2 aka 16, and so on.

for the example given, in order to show 15 in base 4, you need to divide 15 into the components you just broke out. 15 contains 3 4's, so you mark 3 in the 4^1 column. your remainder is 3 (15-4*3), which contains 3 1's, so you mark another 3 in the 4^0 column. Thus 7+8 aka 15 in base 4 is 33.

Makes sense, thanks friendo, I will remember that. I'm completely focusing on the mechanical parts now because these have been new concepts for me. Math word problems won't be fun for neither the math or mechanical portion.
 
might be easier if you think of base conversion as a combination of exponents and division. going from right to left, each number is essentially the base number to increasing power. so in base 4, furthest right value is 4^0 aka 1. then it's 4^1 aka 4, 4^2 aka 16, and so on.

for the example given, in order to show 15 in base 4, you need to divide 15 into the components you just broke out. 15 contains 3 4's, so you mark 3 in the 4^1 column. your remainder is 3 (15-4*3), which contains 3 1's, so you mark another 3 in the 4^0 column. Thus 7+8 aka 15 in base 4 is 33.
Wow! That's crazy...thank you for explaining.
 
I appreciate your post, man. Gonna take the OAR this Friday, seems to me that no matter how much you practice study guide questions, there will always be harder questions on the actual test. I mean, base 4?? I just studied how to calculate binary and thought I was good...If I had to guess, base 4 is just doubling what base 2 is, i.e. base to the fourth power.

My recruiter likewise said he would like me to get a 50, but from what I've gathered, the older you are, the less likely of getting selected. I'm 31 years old so I'm shooting for bare minimum 55, which I'm sure is still not as competitive as other candidates, but for never taking physics and never working with mechanical machines, I have to be realistic lol

Oh and thanks for the yt recs... Organic Chemistry Tutorr is a lifesaver when you want another resource to khanacademy. Haven't used Grammar Hero yet.
Thanks bro. Hey I'm 25 and by the time I graduate I'll be 27 which is the age cut off for pilots, so I'm with ya there. I think a 55-60 is totally doable. I've never taken Physics or worked with mechanical machines either. That section wasn't hard though, so you'll be fine. Math was definitely harder. It honestly felt like they knew exactly how to make the word problems slightly more complicated than what is normal for math, so that you're forced to figure out how to solve it on the spot. Cuz every word problem was a slightly more complex version of what you see on YouTube. Anyway, glad you appreciate the post!
 

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
I guess I meant he was ecstatic that I passed and doesn’t think I need to take it again, not necessarily that I got 6’s. But thanks for your kind words lol I will consider them.

Maybe he is really new, I think I can count on 1 hand the number that didn't get qualifying scores. keep studying, and look at those getting picked up on the most recent board, that can give you some insight.
 

jazzyjazz

New Member
Anyone know how to solve these...

You have x score on this test, y on the second, z on the third. Each test is weighted 10% more than the previous. What do you need on the 4th to have XY average at the end of the course.

4 team members are running a relay race, each subsequent team member is 2 seconds faster than the previous runner. If the 4th runner is 1.12 times faster than the initial runner, how long did it take all 4 team members to complete the race overall?"
 

NevarYalnal

Well-Known Member
Anyone know how to solve these...

You have x score on this test, y on the second, z on the third. Each test is weighted 10% more than the previous. What do you need on the 4th to have XY average at the end of the course.

4 team members are running a relay race, each subsequent team member is 2 seconds faster than the previous runner. If the 4th runner is 1.12 times faster than the initial runner, how long did it take all 4 team members to complete the race overall?"

test question:

need actual numbers to get the answers but this is how you set up the test score question: because each test is weighed 10% more than the previous, you will have 4 sets of equations.

X4 aka test 4 = test 3 + 10%
X3 aka test 3 = test 2 + 10%
X2 aka test 2 = test 1 + 10%.
X1 aka test 1
X1 + X2 + X3 + X4 must equal 100%.

Solving for X1, you get 4X1 + 60 = 100, or X1 = 10%.

Thus your weights are 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%. Now you can figure out what the fourth score must be for your average to equal XY.

relay race question:

not as complex as test question but similar set up.

racer 4 = x
racer 3 = x+2
racer 2 = x+4
racer 1 = x+6

However, you were also provided the following key piece of info: racer 4 is 1.12 times faster than racer 1.

Thus you can now solve for x in the following equation: x+6 = 1.12x

once you get x, you can plug in for the remaining racers to get total race time.
 

Snack Attack

Snack Attack
Contributor
I appreciate your post, man. Gonna take the OAR this Friday, seems to me that no matter how much you practice study guide questions, there will always be harder questions on the actual test. I mean, base 4?? I just studied how to calculate binary and thought I was good...If I had to guess, base 4 is just doubling what base 2 is, i.e. base to the fourth power.

My recruiter likewise said he would like me to get a 50, but from what I've gathered, the older you are, the less likely of getting selected. I'm 31 years old so I'm shooting for bare minimum 55, which I'm sure is still not as competitive as other candidates, but for never taking physics and never working with mechanical machines, I have to be realistic lol

Oh and thanks for the yt recs... Organic Chemistry Tutorr is a lifesaver when you want another resource to khanacademy. Haven't used Grammar Hero yet.
WOW! your test was extremely similar to mine. More than 2/3rds of your questions in the Math and Anit section were identical to mine.
 

Snack Attack

Snack Attack
Contributor
First Attempt: 52 4,4,6
Second Attempt: 45 4,5,5
Third Attempt: Below ;)

Back Story:
I've never taken a Physics or Math class more advanced than Algebra 2. My degree in college is in International Relations, far from the many STEM field majors I've seen apply and I've been out of school for the last 3.5 years now with little aviation knowledge so let me just tell ya.... studying for the ASTB was a struggle.

Study Journey:
The first time I took this test was the day after meeting my recruiter who legit said "come in tomorrow to take it, there was a cancellation and this test will let us know where you're at" My dumb butt agreed. I had no clue that everyone had 3 lives nor did I know what the minimums where. My recruiter said he was impressed with the 52 and to just study more aviation knowledge + everything that I saw on the test. He seemed super nonchalant about everything even though I was sitting right in front of him furious after learning that an applicant could only take this 3 times in his/her life and I had just wasted one!

The second time I took the test was about 45 days after and I studied everything that I remembered from the first exam (exponents, DRT, simple algebra, fractions, some probability, air plane parts, history and designators) I also found this website -airwarriors- but I didn't look too deeply at it. I made some flashcards on airplane parts, watched youtube videos and read the Barrons book. I studied pretty intensely for about 1 month, on and off ( 1-2 hours a day) the last 2 weeks I went hard and studied about 3-5 hours a day. I remember feeling very confident coming in for the second exam and I was expecting to get qualifying scores. Again, I was devastated with the turnout after putting in what I thought was so much effort. The second exam was completely different than what I had studied for and found on the first exam, mostly in the Math and Mechanical sections. I felt like I was taking an entirely new test because almost nothing I had studied was on there and if it was, the questions seemed to be way more complex. The aviation sections had so many more history questions, buoy questions, lighting stuff... and the mechanical section asked more about pressure, volume, work, gravity and mass problems whereas in my first attempt the Mechanical questions were mainly on pulleys, fulcrums and buoyancy and MA. Totally different from the first!!!It freaking sucked!!! My entire packet was all ready to go to be submitted but the only thing missing were my scores as I was so sure and confident that I was going to pass. Little did I know they would be even worse the second time around.

I remember going home and feeling so defeated as this test seemed impossible... The next morning I opened up two tabs, Air Warriors and Amazon. I went to this thread and went to page 1 and wrote down any helpful notes left by others and downloaded every gouge that was on here. I noticed the older threads weren't very useful because the test was slightly different back then so I did skip lol and restarted at a random page number in with posts from 2016. Many of the gouges on here are super similar but I still downloaded everything I could get my hands on and just deleted the repeated downloads off of my computer. I made a list of previous questions asked on the ASTB and wrote down all possible study topics that could appear. ( ex. log, binary, matrices, roots, complex fractions, independent vs dependent probability, arcs, sequence, perimeters, etc) I did this for the Mech & Anit section as well. I didn't want there to be a single question I couldn't at least recognize. Many people suggested different books to help them study so I bought like 4 different ones (Trivium, 2 diff GRE Math books, Word Problems workbook), bought more flashcards, a HOTAS joystick and throttle and then I also got connected with a tutor ( Kieno Thomas). I studied with Kieno for about 2 months, 3 times per week and tried to study on my own 1- 2 hours per day. The bad thing is that my workload was heavy for those months and somedays I couldn't study at all but thanks to Covid, my workload decreased and I was able to put in more study hours for about 2-3 more months after. I did end up stopping my tutoring sessions with Kieno as I plateaued with what he could offer. Truthfully, after awhile he gives you the same worksheets to work on and everything gets extremely repetitive. After him, I met a really cool guy off of this site who was also trying to bring up his test scores as he wasn't selected on his first application. We ended up studying ALOT together, meeting everyday for about 4 hours and then 3-8 hours during the last 2 weeks of our tests. We shared useful information with one another and even created "mock tests" for each other:) We definitely kept each other accountable and it was really nice to be studying with someone that knew the importance of this test and was as equally invested as I was. In total, I spent about 4-5 months studying to take this exam.

During my 3rd attempt I made sure to get 8 hours of sleep the night before and I spent the last week reviewing material and not stuffing my brain with new confusing things. Had a huge healthy breakfast and dressed very comfortable on test day. Driving to the site, my nerves started kicking in but I blasted some of my favorite songs and sang to them in order to distract myself. I felt pretty confident walking into the testing room as I knew I gave it my all in studying. I immediately made myself really comfortable.... kicking off my shoes and organizing my little desk space. As soon as my recruiter gave me the green light and shut the door, I wrote down all the formulas that I could remember.... I did struggle a bit with Math as I'm super SLOW when it comes to doing them but I at least recognized every type of problem that came up and didn't panic. Reading Comprehension was tougher this time around but I just used the tips from others on here "Read OUT LOUD and enthusiastically, pretending you know absolutely nothing about the topic of the passage" The Mechanical portion seemed intermediate level with questions about spinning objects, nuclear reactors and temperature of Kelvin vs Celsius vs Fahrenheit. In UAV I answered everything within 2 seconds and didn't miss a single compass direction. I recognized many Anit questions and finished that within 10 minutes. Missed 1 number during Dichotic listening. Tracking was MEH... I was good at Vertical tracking but the one floating all over the place was still tough. Not as tough as my first 2 attempts but still tough. I messed up once on emergency procedure turning the knobs the incorrect way but once I understood my mistake, I nailed every other procedure down.

Third attempt: 54 7,7,7

Although these aren't triple 8's or 9's, I'm still really excited about my scores and I am hoping that they are enough to get me selected for SNA. If I don't get selected, it's going to HURT but I feel at peace with myself knowing that I gave it my all. My study buddy kicked butt too and he scored a 52, 8,8,7 We are both applying for the same board so now its just a waiting game in hopes that we get picked up! Cross your fingers ya'll!!

I wasn't going to do a post out of pure laziness TBH but I had to especially with all of the help this magical website has brought me.

Mini Motivational Speech:
If you are studying out there and tired... keep freaking studying. You don't want to leave the testing room thinking "I should have done this, I could have done this, If only I had spent more time on this..." Prioritize your studying for this exam, get organized and get all the resources you need in order to do well. This time and money is an investment for your future. Don't take it lightly. This information is only a speck of what we are going to have to learn in order to actually start flying. For some people it may take them 1 week of studying and are able to reach triple 8's or 9's. I have no clue how those Einstein people do it but hey good for them! For the majority of us, it will take longer but it's doable and you can pass!


Resources/Reviews/Cost:
  • You better go find Kyles gouge on here and download it. (FREE)
  • Every page on here has helpful info, start backtracking on all these tabs for more gouges. (FREE)
  • Youtube: Brian Mclogan, Organic Chemistry Tutor, Math and Science Channel, Kieno Thomas (FREE)
  • FAA Handbook pdf (FREE) Find it Online
  • Cram flashcards online - find the links on previous posts... (FREE)

My Purchases:
-Hotas Flight Joystick & Throttle. Loved it. Easy to install and borrowed my friends PS4 and Ace of Combat game to play it. I think this definitely helped with the tracking portion. ($179 ) Amazon Seller recently raised its prices to ($240)
-Tutoring: Kieno ($30-$50 an hour), (good for DRT, and Aviation Q's, good with beginner basic math), Edita - a student from MIT ($45 per hour) will literally know how to solve and explain any math or mechanical problem that you throw at her, she's awesome! Great for Advanced problems, especially word problems. If you need her contact info, I got you, send me a PM.
-Barron's Military Flight Aptitude Tests - ($17 new, $10 used) helped me understand basics of Aviation, fixed + rotor aircraft info. Not so helpful for Math and Mechanical but LOVED that there were so many Practice tests in the back of the book.
-Trivium - ( I bought it at $25 and now it's on Amazon for $44) Totally not worth $44. Smaller booklet, 2 practice tests compared to 6 in Barrons. Mechanical section of the test is better than Barrons and the Aviation information is helpful too but overall I'd recommend Barrons over Trivium.
-GRE Math Prep book - I bought 2 different versions, loved the "ARCO" version ($7) and hated "The Princeton Review" version and returned it ($20) The Arco version really breaks down Alg 2 problems and Geometry plus it has math practice tests. I ran through this book twice to make sure I understood every type of math problem. It has everything from DRT, WORK/TIME, EXPONENTS, INTEREST, PERCENTS and so much more!
-Algebra Word Problems Practice Workbook by Chris McMullen - ($10) I was so busy with the ARCO GRE math book that I didn't really use this and I ran out of study time. I did scam the book and it has everything from mixtures to DRT to literally any type of word problem you can possibly encounter. I can't give an accurate review but from the first 5 pages that I used, it was pretty helpful.
Flashcards, Highlighters, Notebooks and LOT'S OF STUDY SNACKS ($1 each) The Dollar Tree is where you need to be.


Many of these purchases aren't necessary as there is endless information on the web but personally, I'm a "hands on" learner and absolutely NEEDED books that I could highlight and underline. I also felt that I needed to have access to actual tutors in order to understand certain concepts that I just wasn't understanding through videos or books.

If you think you could benefit from these books and flight sim, I will be selling most of I used.
Prices:
  • Selling Hotas Flight Sim for $120, (Excellent condition, used it in one spot of my house only and it was boxed for so long, fully functioning, no scratches) ( Costs $240 on Amazon)
  • Not Selling Barrons (bad condition)
  • Selling Trivium for ($6) -many passages are highlighted but the book is not dirty or ripped or anything like that, just mainly highlights, practice tests have no markings on them because I always used a different paper
  • GRE Math Prep Book ( $4) ARCO version, has some Highlights here and there...
  • Algebra Word Problems ($5) the first 5 pages have highlights, every other page including the cover looks new, no writing, scratches or tears
Not include shipping costs. Message me and I can send you more photos.

GOOD LUCK YALL !
-Snack Attack
 

Attachments

  • Screen Shot 2020-12-09 at 6.22.11 PM.png
    Screen Shot 2020-12-09 at 6.22.11 PM.png
    305.1 KB · Views: 35
  • Screen Shot 2020-12-09 at 6.23.46 PM.png
    Screen Shot 2020-12-09 at 6.23.46 PM.png
    573.8 KB · Views: 39
  • Screen Shot 2020-12-09 at 10.45.24 PM.png
    Screen Shot 2020-12-09 at 10.45.24 PM.png
    1.5 MB · Views: 35
  • Screen Shot 2020-12-09 at 10.45.40 PM.png
    Screen Shot 2020-12-09 at 10.45.40 PM.png
    2.5 MB · Views: 22
  • Screen Shot 2020-12-09 at 11.16.57 PM.png
    Screen Shot 2020-12-09 at 11.16.57 PM.png
    621.2 KB · Views: 21
  • Screen Shot 2020-12-09 at 11.17.24 PM.png
    Screen Shot 2020-12-09 at 11.17.24 PM.png
    308.5 KB · Views: 17
  • Screen Shot 2020-12-09 at 11.23.47 PM.png
    Screen Shot 2020-12-09 at 11.23.47 PM.png
    123.2 KB · Views: 17
Top