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

cgross220

cgross220

Member
ed_98 said:
Ah damn man. Is there no way to speed up that process?

...so I don't submit to the same board as you haha
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Trust me I've tried anything I can to speed it up, but if you wanna make some phone calls for me I wouldn't mind getting to the board early ??

Mike1432 said:
If we both get selected and I am in the class ahead of you, I promise not to be too mean during indoc phase haha
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I'd sure appreciate it, I'm just hoping that 172 in NIFE doesn't kick my ass too much... the 168 page FTI for it makes me doubt every hour I've logged in a 172 haha
 
JMT865

JMT865

Well-Known Member
Graduating: May 2022 (Applying for FY22)
Major: Anthropology & Political Science
GPA: 3.90
ASTB: 53,6,7,7
SNA/NFO board, submitting in the Fall
 
L

lukekilograham

New Member
Hi everyone, I am new to Air Warriors. I have been studying the past couple weeks for the ASTB using Barrons. I have made tons of flash cards on the aviation section but I am really glad I came across this blog with some great information, so thank you all for that. Are there any other books you'd recommend I pick up before taking my test? Thanks!
 
Oshun8235

Oshun8235

Active Member
It's good that you have the Barron's for starters. Second you should have Kyle's study guide. The other books that are good and that I also have are:

MCGRAW-HILL Asvab
Cliffs Math Book
Peterson's Officer Candidate Book
Trivium OAR 2021-22 book
Memorix ASTB

Most of all Repetition is key!
 
cgross220

cgross220

Member
lukekilograham said:
Are there any other books you'd recommend I pick up before taking my test?
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Barons was the only book I used and did well. I also highly recommend the Directional Orientation flashcards here and if you have a joystick the tracking test here here.

There are a bunch of other great resources but the information is relatively basic, I doubt there's a lot of different info on each book or source. In my opinion it just comes down to the time you spend learning that material and getting comfortable enough with it to answer it in the testing environment
 
flatspinturkeyb

flatspinturkeyb

69 9/9/9 GPA: b4d
Could someone who has taken the ASTB recently please comment on the following? Thanks in advance!

1) Has the test added more granularity to the UAV portion? On practice tests I see 45deg increments (N, NW, W, SW, etc...) but someone on a youtube comment recently mentioned needing to be familiar with different bearings. To me this implied perhaps having headings in 15-30degree increments instead of the previous 45deg. I think the paper trick would apply regardless.

2) Common advice on this mega post is to invert your controls when practicing for the HOTAS test but any flight sim and decent flight game will have the stick inverted by default i.e. pulling the stick back or "towards you" will pitch the nose up and pushing the stick or "away from you" will pitch the nose down. I expect this to translate to the HOTAS test as the cursor moving up on the screen when stick pulled and cursor moving down when stick pushed. Is this advice to invert your stick aimed at those without any flight/sim experience?

Thanks!
 
Ghost SWO

Ghost SWO

Well-Known Member
Contributor
flatspinturkeyb said:
Could someone who has taken the ASTB recently please comment on the following? Thanks in advance!

1) Has the test added more granularity to the UAV portion? On practice tests I see 45deg increments (N, NW, W, SW, etc...) but someone on a youtube comment recently mentioned needing to be familiar with different bearings. To me this implied perhaps having headings in 15-30degree increments instead of the previous 45deg. I think the paper trick would apply regardless.

2) Common advice on this mega post is to invert your controls when practicing for the HOTAS test but any flight sim and decent flight game will have the stick inverted by default i.e. pulling the stick back or "towards you" will pitch the nose up and pushing the stick or "away from you" will pitch the nose down. I expect this to translate to the HOTAS test as the cursor moving up on the screen when stick pulled and cursor moving down when stick pushed. Is this advice to invert your stick aimed at those without any flight/sim experience?

Thanks!
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1) You will be tested on the 8 cardinal directions.

2) Yes, and to accurately replicate the test.
 
elariosa95

elariosa95

SNA (Primary - VT-6)
Hi y'all, long-time lurker, first-time poster here! I finally got around to taking the ASTB a few days ago, and got a first-time score of 59/7/5/6. I'm applying for the NFO boards in May, so I'm not terribly upset that my PFAR was trash, but I am a little nervous that my FOFAR only met the minimum requirement. That being said, I'm glad that I at least got some decent scores on my first try.

Anyway, I wanted to thank everyone here for their help! I was decently prepared for the questions that were thrown my way, and I couldn't have done it without the people in this thread (big shoutout to Kyle's study kit!).

If I had to offer some advice, it would be to do your best to not over-think everything and to keep chugging along until it's done. As someone who graduated with a STEM degree and has about a year and a half of engineering experience, I found myself tripping over the littlest details since I've basically been trained to question everything.

Also, don't let your 15-minute break timer in between the OAR portion and the PBM portion run out, even if you plan on using the whole 15. I did that and I got locked out of my exam, so I had to wait about 10 minutes while the guy administering my exam called someone in Pensacola to unlock it and let me finish. Not a major roadblock, but it definitely gave me a good scare.
 
cgross220

cgross220

Member
flatspinturkeyb said:
1) Has the test added more granularity to the UAV portion? On practice tests I see 45deg increments (N, NW, W, SW, etc...) but someone on a youtube comment recently mentioned needing to be familiar with different bearings. To me this implied perhaps having headings in 15-30degree increments instead of the previous 45deg. I think the paper trick would apply regardless.
Click to expand...

The test will point you in the eight cardinal headings as mentioned above, but you'll always have the same four N, S, E, and W parking lots. In other words, you may be pointed NE and SW or wherever, but the parking lots will be rotated accordingly and you'll just be asked to pick a the parking lot to the north, south, east, or west.

Not sure I understand your second question completely, as whether you have flight sim experience or not you should train for the test the same way, but yes it functions as a normal HOTAS with pulling towards you pitching up and moving the cursor up. I didn't use that test to study for mine, but many on that thread have mentioned how using your mouse rather than HOTAS makes it much more about training yourself to focus on many things at once, not necessarily to nail the mechanics of keeping on target.
 
Duffman

Duffman

Well-Known Member
None
Contributor
Hey everyone I posted this a while ago, but if you guys are curious about your scores and how they will correlate to the selection board, I’ll be posting the links of the past 3 boards with the applicants that got selected and their scores. I hope this can give people more of an understanding that you don’t need amazing scores to get selected. Also please don’t edit the documents.
docs.google.com

25 JAN 21 Pilot/NFO Board

docs.google.com docs.google.com
docs.google.com

28 Oct 2020 Pilot/NFO Board

Sheet1 ,FinSel,ProRec-Y,ProRec-N,Overall Board Acceptance Rate,Application Due Date,Board Date,Results Actual,Excel Total Applicants 18 Sep 2020,28 Oct,8 Dec 2020,75 Applicant Averages,Excel Prior Service OAR,AQR,PFAR,FOFAR,GPA,Age,74.14%,Excel Averages ProRec Y 56,6.59,7.01,6.84,2.80,26,SNA's...
docs.google.com docs.google.com
docs.google.com

03AUG20 Pilot/NFO Board

Sheet1 03-AUG-2020 Pilot/NFO Board PROREC Y,PROREC N,SUBMITTED,NOT SUBMITTED,Application Due Date: 26-Jun-20 Total Applicants,Averages,SNA,M 62,OAR,AQR,PFAR,FOFAR,GPA,Age,37,59 Total ProRec Y,56,7,7,7,3.32,25,SNFO,F 39,Standard Deviations,2,3 Acceptance Rate,6.81,1.19,0.90,0.98,0.44,2.94,SNA/SNF...
docs.google.com docs.google.com
 
T

Triumph_MAC

Well-Known Member
flyinghigh2.0 said:
Hello everyone!
  • BLUF: 55 7 8 8
  • 3.3 Engineering GPA with no flight or gaming experience
I am a short-time viewer, although I have combed through about 400 pages of this thread from the latest material looking for ways to increase my ASTB score. I should start off with my first score in which I got 49 OAR and 5 5 6. After combing through here and picking out a few study materials, I got a 55 7 8 8!! Definitely was not shaking from excitement when I received my scores after all the hard work I put in.

A few things I've learned from retaking is:
  1. Go into it like you will own all the material and nothing can touch you. I had the mindset this time, which was backed by my studying, that I could definitely get a better score than last time.
  2. The first time, my headphones were so loud I ended up stuffing them with tissues to muffle the volume. The recruiter was not able to change the volume once the test started, and since dichotic listening is at the end of the test, I couldn't do anything about it. So the second time I went, today, I asked to change the volume before he opened the test.
  3. I am an engineering major, third year college student in NROTC, but still studied the math portion. Still look over it!! It won't hurt you, except you wont be able to watch that one episode on Netflix you've been dying to watch until later.
  4. EMERGENCY PROCEDURES: This part I got all wrong the first time. RED MEANS HIGH, YELLOW MEANS LOW. I can not stress that enough since the test does not specify that. Second time I got them all right.
  5. For dichotic listening, LEAN TO THE TARGET EAR. I tried taking off the headphone of the ear blah blah blah, ultimately wastes time and adds frustration. I can not tell you enough how much better volume and leaning to the target ear helped.
  6. Study NAFTI! Trust me, flashcards are a godsend.
  7. Bring a snack for the break mid-test. I wasn't even hungry but I ate it anyways to give my brain a bit more fuel for the PBM measures portion.
  8. For the reading comprehension, READ THE PASSAGE OUT LOUD 2-3 TIMES IF YOU CAN NOT FOCUS. do it.
  9. During the tracking, focus on the joystick and peripheral the throttle. Paired with dichotic listening, getting the listening right is more important than tracking.
  10. You will not be able to keep the cross hairs on the target most of the time, do not worry about it.
  11. If you feel like you're failing at any point---- get over it, push it to the back of your brain, and continue. I answered a question wrong and right after I clicked my answer I knew it was wrong, but let it go and continued like nothing happened.
  12. I will link the materials down below:
I swear by Kyle's ASTB google folder. The MOST helpful item out of everything BY FAR.
Kyle's ASTB Study Kit:

- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AvPi5oH_h_13TGajDvflDWkftwXO8LS6?usp=sharing

NAFTI flashcards, do them!
Compass practice, draw the compass for the test!
Mechanic practice that I didn't look at for more than 5 min (mostly because its all covered in my engineering classes)

- https://www.proprofs.com/flashcards/story.php?title=astb-mechanical-comprehension-test

JOYSTICK PRACTICE. buy one. just do it. unless you're a gamer, which I am not

- https://embed.plnkr.co/eeARqZfNMXZUZ1AurmK6/

Other material I picked up from scouring that I did not use, but someone might find them helpful and might save hours of sitting at the computer looking through this thread:
All in all, don't spend money on study books from Amazon. Use these resources and you will do great. (but that's just my two cents). Good luck!
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On the UAV flash cards, there are a few, starting at 33, that have a topographical map with a heading. Did you see any like that on the exam or were they all the basic headings like on the cards from 1-32?
 
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