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

Oshun8235

Oshun8235

Active Member
arRay said:
Today, I have redeemed myself. I went from a 48 5/5/5 to 59 7/6/8. Going into it, I thought I was going to be screwed because I studied for two months for my first take, and I studied for a week for this recent take.

STATS:
GPA: 3.5
Degree: Information Technology
NROTC Mid

Math: This section I really focused on because it was the one section I struggled with the last time. I went through Kyle's Google Drive and did all the problems. Overall, I felt like it prepared me well for the questions I encountered.

Reading: I think this is what killed me. I was SOOOO BOREEED. For a few minutes, I forgot how to read. I took the entire time on this section and after completing, I felt like I was going to fail.

Mechanical: Was going well for the first 10 questions, then CRASH! It took a few minutes to restart and I was back at it. Again, use Kyle's Google Drive and you'll be okay.

ANIT: Used Kyle's Google Drive and flashcards that others on this forum have posted. Overall, I felt really confident with this section.

NATFI: Pick the better of the two. Don't pick one that is a clear integrity violation.

PBM: I felt pretty good with this section. UAV went really well, missed none. Joystick and listening portion was fine. I bought a Logitech X52 and played DCS world on the weekends. It really helped me get comfortable with the inverted axis motion. You can't be never be on the target but try and get as close to it as possible.

Overall, don't be discouraged if you don't do well your first time around. It can be quite overwhelming and you'll think you won't have it in you to be an aviator. You have the potential for greatness! Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this forum. You all have changed my life forever.
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Thanks for the inspiration & congrats!
 
brenstew00

brenstew00

Member
I've decided to share after lurking on here for pretty much a year.

The first time I scored 40 4/5/5, I had been studying for about three months. I have recently retested and scored 48 6/7/7 and I will not be taking it again. OAR score is no bueno, but it is what it is. I'm submitting for the November SNA board.

Math: I worked on this the most knowing it was my weakest. I had probability, log, volume, pretty much a smorgasbord of math problems. I used Barrons study guide, printed DRT problems to do in my free time, and khan academy for log and probability.

Reading: My strongest subject area, I read about two books every week. (Highly recommend Wind, Sand, and Stars by Antoine de Saint Exupéry).

Mechanical: I feel like Barron's study guide and Kyle's study guide were pretty spot on. Although, I did have a few weird questions about a sensor and the speed of sound.

ANIT: I would know ranks and who people report to. I had a question like that on both of my tests. Study up on classifications like CVN, CGN, etc.

NATFI: I really have no advice for this.

PBM: I felt comfortable with this section because I had seen it once already. On the UAV portion, I averaged around 2-3 seconds per question. For the dichotic listening, I had the volume too loud and had a hard time differentiating between right and left (Learn from my mistake check the sound in the headphones before getting to this point.) Tracking is a pain in the butt, my joystick was slipping and sliding (that's what she said? maybe?) on the desk. I enjoyed the emergency procedures! Write them down and have them in front of you and you'll be good.

Extra Info:
GPA: 3.2
Degree: Psychology
PPL: approximately 30 hours (getting my aerobatic rating and starting my instrument once I get my license) You do not need to do this! Don't feel discouraged when you see that people have flight hours. I work at an FBO, so I have this luxury.

I have a whole folder dedicated to the ASTB (includes Kyle's study guide), but I added more worksheets and info. If you want it, let me know!

Good luck to you all and thank you to those who have shared here!
 
E

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
brenstew00 said:
I've decided to share after lurking on here for pretty much a year.

The first time I scored 40 4/5/5, I had been studying for about three months. I have recently retested and scored 48 6/7/7 and I will not be taking it again. OAR score is no bueno, but it is what it is. I'm submitting for the November SNA board.

Math: I worked on this the most knowing it was my weakest. I had probability, log, volume, pretty much a smorgasbord of math problems. I used Barrons study guide, printed DRT problems to do in my free time, and khan academy for log and probability.

Reading: My strongest subject area, I read about two books every week. (Highly recommend Wind, Sand, and Stars by Antoine de Saint Exupéry).

Mechanical: I feel like Barron's study guide and Kyle's study guide were pretty spot on. Although, I did have a few weird questions about a sensor and the speed of sound.

ANIT: I would know ranks and who people report to. I had a question like that on both of my tests. Study up on classifications like CVN, CGN, etc.

NATFI: I really have no advice for this.

PBM: I felt comfortable with this section because I had seen it once already. On the UAV portion, I averaged around 2-3 seconds per question. For the dichotic listening, I had the volume too loud and had a hard time differentiating between right and left (Learn from my mistake check the sound in the headphones before getting to this point.) Tracking is a pain in the butt, my joystick was slipping and sliding (that's what she said? maybe?) on the desk. I enjoyed the emergency procedures! Write them down and have them in front of you and you'll be good.

Extra Info:
GPA: 3.2
Degree: Psychology
PPL: approximately 30 hours (getting my aerobatic rating and starting my instrument once I get my license) You do not need to do this! Don't feel discouraged when you see that people have flight hours. I work at an FBO, so I have this luxury.

I have a whole folder dedicated to the ASTB (includes Kyle's study guide), but I added more worksheets and info. If you want it, let me know!

Good luck to you all and thank you to those who have shared here!
Click to expand...
no one cares about your OAR and your PFAR is good
 
G

GMWS10

New Member
what type of mechanical questions did yall see on the test? i heard its mostly simple machines? Please let me know if i am wrong
 
flatspinturkeyb

flatspinturkeyb

69 9/9/9 GPA: b4d
ASTB: 70-9-9-9
GPA: <= 2.75
Degree: Mechanical Engineering
Age: Gonna need an age waiver...
Legal: No issues
Medical: Very fit and healthy, all "yes" on that long medical form, I'm passionate about wellness and sports but something came up at MEPS and now I'm wondering if my Navy career has been torpedoed before it even set sail. And if you're wondering if it's fair for a sailboat to be torpedoed then you're correct; it's not fair :p
PPL: No pilots license, zero hours flown
Recreational Cyclist with all sorts of random recreational achievements
I've sailed like once a year since I was born

I've been lurking here since November 2020. Based on advice in this thread I "studied" for 3 months. And by that I mean I stressed and procrastinated on AirWarriors for 2.5 months and actually studied for only 2weeks. I was really surprised by my scores, I'm still expecting a call letting me know that there has been a mistake and that I'll need to retest. I know it's cliche but I felt like I was getting my butt kicked the whole time and that I'd treat this as a practice test and my 2nd attempt would be the "real" one. I had one disconnect during the test and one audio glitch; the disconnect was resolved but the audio glitch likely impacted my score. I went into the test with the mindset that my only worth to The Navy is my ASTB score and feel like I must've gotten lucky many times during the test. Test administrator collected all my papers after the test.

Math
I consider myself pretty good at mental math and quick calculations but I found myself tripping over silly mistakes and therefore "reverse engineering" a lot of my answers.

Reading
I guess if anything kept my OAR "low" it was this section. I remember at least one instance where I had suddenly received a much easier question than I had previously so it must've adapted to a previous incorrect answer.

Mechanical
I did not feel comfortable with this section and got plenty of problems that I was unsure on. I turned off my university engineering brain and turned on my high school engineering brain so to speak. Broken choir but they're more conceptual than calculational questions.

ANIT
I spent the most time trying to study for this portion and you know what? I got the good ol' desert storm tanker question and realized I never actually took the time to figure it out because it seemed so trivial. Was it the tomcat? It was painful but I think that's what I marked.

NATFI
I didn't have a theme to follow here. I went with what felt right for me and I remember never, ever waffling on whether I know how much gas I have left in my tank. I always know how much gas I have left in my tank.

PBM
UAV: I spent some time practicing flashcards but I never got them quick. On the test I took my time and got them all right but I was probably averaging 5seconds/question. I thought this was going to cost me a bit of my score based on the advice here to aim for 2s.
Listening: the first portion of this felt bugged so I didn't make any inputs but I wasn't allowed to retake so I continued and probably got the 3/4 that I did actually answer correct.
HOTAS: this was really fun. It was instantly difficult and I was kicking myself for not having practiced on the tool a member made and posted here on AirWarriors. I've played flying games ranging from Ace Combat (arcade style) to DCS (simulator style) and while being a gamer and having played these surely helped I don't think they carried over directly like the aforementioned tool would have. And yeah write down the emergency procedures.

Good luck.
 
S

spolasek

Member
mattdavid1234 said:
Hey so I just took my ASTB-E and wasn't going to put anything in here, but I feel obligated to because of how much this website helped me prepare. First of all, I would recommend 3 to 4 weeks to adequately prepare. I studied almost every day for at least 3 to 4 hours during that time -- with maybe a day or two off here and there. Second, I would try and get a good nights rest, if you don't, dont be discouraged because I tried to, but I ended up falling asleep at around 3 am (woke up at 7 to head an hour over to the testing center). Third, I would recommend not studying the day before. I went over my notes for about an hour the day before and that's it. By that point you should be adequately enough prepared that anything extra you do on the last day would just be overkill and can end up stressing you out. Remember, sometimes less is more.

As for the actual test: I would write these topics down so you have an outline of what you're going to tackle to study.

- I'm going to go in order of the sections for this and also going to attach videos from youtube that helped me a lot-

Math Skills Test (MST):
Know how to multiply, subtract, and add matrices. Know your log and exponent rules. Know your basic and advanced DRT (Distance/Rate/Time) problems. Work on doing basic algebra (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) without a calculator because you for damn sure won't be able to use it on the test. Know your basic probability (1/6 chance to roll a 6... so what are your odds of rolling a 6 twice in a row --> 1/6 * 1/6 = 1/36, etc.). I don't know what it's called, but the labor problems are a big part of the test (it takes 4 hours to do this job with x people how long does it take with y people or it takes 5 people 6 hours to do this specific job and after 3 hours one additional person is added to the team to help every subsequent hour, how long does it take to finish the project?). I know it seems simple, but know how to do your basic fractions and percentages. Know weighted percentages, averages, and averages in general (Joe got a 54, 53, and 52 on the first three tests, what should he get on the last two tests to get an 80... or test a is worth 20% and test b is worth 80%, if he got a 60 on test a what does he need to get a 90?) Know basic geometry like area of a circle or rectangle, what kind of triangles have what features (like the equilateral triangle having all the same sides), arc length, etc. Know how to calculate volume or surface area for cubes, cylinders, and cones. I had a cone question. Know how to use FOIL and how to solve for x in equations that are (x^2 +4x +4). Go at a deliberate pace, you have time, but just remember you don't have ALL day. also learn your perfect numbers (6,28, 496...etc. you probably only need to know the first 4)

Reading Comprehension Test (RCT):
The reading was really dry and I had to reread a lot of the material 3 or 4 times before I got it down. A lot of the choices are correct, but you have to just find the most correct one, or a lot of the choices would be mostly right except one detail that eliminates it. It's pretty much like the SAT reading section, I didn't study for it, but I made sure not to skip that part of my practice test too. If you feel like this may be a weak suit, I recommend practicing.

Mechanical Comprehension Test (MCT):
Understand the basic concepts of classical physics -- I know that may seem like a lot, and it is, but if you study hard for this section, you WILL do well. It's mostly concepts and they are pretty basic ones at that, so this is all about effort on your part. Learn about the mechanical advantage of simple machines. Specifically, pulleys, inclined planes, and levers. Learn about tension, springs, torque, balancing on a fulcrum (I'll provide links to helpful youtube videos). Learn about gears, circuits (parallel and series), Ohm's law (which really isn't a law, but is really helpful with circuits), what work is (w=fd), gravity (and how every object accelerates and decelerates at the same rate towards Earth -- think about dropping a bullet and firing it in the x direction; they're both going to hit the ground at the same time), relativity, quantum, and nuclear physics (nah im just kidding about the last three, but have a basic understanding on how nuclear fission reactors work -- I had a question about control rods). Pendulums, buoyancy, density (both specific density and density in general), and bernoulli's principle will also help. Mostly concepts, but be prepared for a math question or two.

Aviation and Nautical Information Test (ANIT): This one is straight up reading and learning as much as you can about aviation and nautical information. This is where the majority of my notes are. The Barron book I used was very helpful for laying the groundwork, but most of the information, you will find on this website. I'm going to attach the links of the things I found helpful. I do not recommend reading the flight manual. Take that with a grain of salt, because that manual has almost everything about aviation that will be on the test(minus the history stuff). I think it is too dense and too specific to be of that much help for a test like this. You're better off using the Barron's book that I'll post the link too. In addition, the gouge (still not sure what gouge means) on this website for all things ANIT was immensely helpful. Here are the basics of what I learned (this isn't everything by any means): Parts of a ship (orlop, bow/prow, poop deck, starboard, etc., parts of an airplane (ailerons, flaps, fuselage, etc.), the three axes, what basic controls of a plane are, avgas weighs 6 lbs, basic military history of the navy and airforce (what's an F9F panther, who broke the sound barrier and what was it in?XS-1, Chuck Yeager; what was the main strategic bomber in 1950s? B36 Peacemaker, etc.), what drag/weight,thrust, and lift are, your instruments like altimeter, vertical speed indicator, magnetic compass, etc., angle of climb/rate of climb, taxiway lights, lights on the side of a ship, passing a slow plane on the right, etc. There's just way too much for me to put down, but again, you'll only go as far as you study because you can't wing this part.

Naval Aviation Trait Facet Inventory (NATFI):
You can't study for this, it's going to ask you what best describes you and it'll have two choices -- neither will be enticing to pick. Don't sweat it and be honest. This one sucks to get through, but at least you don't have to study for it.

Performance Based Measures Battery (PBM):
This one's also going to suck haha. There's several parts to this one. First, it'll have the compass section where it gives you a heading and asks you to pick the right parking lot. I'll attach the link to the flashcards that helped me as well as a video on how to do it. I practiced this everyday at least once (went through the all 64 flashcards) until the test date -- also they let you practice during the actual test, do that as much as you can until you're comfortable with it. The second part is a dichotic listening section where you have to press certain buttons depending on what ear hears what -- lean to the side where you want to focus on. The third is tracking with a joystick and throttle. This is the hardest part and it's meant to be that way so don't sweat it if you're not doing so hot. Just stay calm, cool, and collected, and do the best you can. I'm 100% sure they designed it to be way too hard for your average jimmy and joe like me. Then they're gonna make you put the dichotic listening with the tracking -- just do your best. What helped me for this, is I got an old halo game and made my controls inverted and played that for a few hours a week to familiarize myself with inverted controls. Finally, they're going to give you "emergency instructions" to do while tracking, write these down and follow the directions. Anyways, my advice is just try your best on this one.

Overall, this is not an easy test, you will not do well unless you study hard, but if you do study hard, regardless of how smart you think you are, you're going to do great.

Here's a link to everything that helped me study. The book I used is Barron's Military Flight Aptitude Tests 4th Edition and I got it off amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1438011040/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Really good MCT/ physics videos:
-- pulleys and tension
-- pulleys and tension
-- bernoulli's principle
-- buoyant forces
-- series/parallel circuits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rSHqvjDksg -- ohm's law
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5vN8jGTU3o -- MA of levers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zrphnd_0VI -- torque

Math videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyAuNHPsq-g -- matrices
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5ZGDNxJwxA -- exponent rules
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPLyCH1WaEY -- log rules
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6BTcH_HSf4 -- DRT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyJSKQRamVo -- DRT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyMnNbeQ3F4 -- weighted avgs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlfRoDI3esA -- arc length


ALso the attachments I posted are really helpful especially ANIT gouge and ASTB gouge -- there's also a google drive folder with a lot of really good links, but I don't own it so I don't think I can share it -- if you ask around you can probably get it -- there's a really good math oar practice test with 114 questions. Anyways don't say I never do anything for you guys.

-MD 9/8/9 67
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This is GOLD!!!!!! Thank you sooooo much!!!!!!! Wow this is amazing! I cannot express how appreciative I am of this! Amazing!! And impressive score!!!
 
F

Fsanchez

New Member
Hey so I'm taking the ASTB in July and I've been studying Kyle's study guide. I'm having problems with the Mechanical composition section.... any tips or websites that helped?
 
N

NevarYalnal

Well-Known Member
Fsanchez said:
Hey so I'm taking the ASTB in July and I've been studying Kyle's study guide. I'm having problems with the Mechanical composition section.... any tips or websites that helped?
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i used khan academy on youtube to supplement my mechanical comprehension knowledge; i needed it esp since i hadn't taken physics since high school.
 
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