The thing to remember about the ASTB is that that verbal, reading, math, mechanical, spatial, etc., portions of the test are largely aptitude tests, in that they are testing for thing you are naturally or innately good at. The aviation and nautical portions are the parts you can actually study for, and which contain facts and trivia.
That is not to say you can't "study" to brush up on things like word problems, fractions, or division. You're not going to have things like quadratic equations and calculus on this test. It is very basic word problems and basic algebra. The practice tests that have been discussed ad nauseum in this thread are very representative of the current test (sure, some are "harder" or "easier", but a lot of it is subjective, and they are very good representations).
The main thing here is to take all of the practice tests you can get your hands on. Take the entire Marine Gouge practice test, and all of the tests in either or both of the Barron's and Arco study guides. Make sure you time your practice tests! This will give you a good feel for how the tests really are.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you are time-limited and restricted from having a calculator for a reason: it is testing to see how well you can quickly come to the best answer (hopefully the correct answer) for a problem. I started out trying to perfectly solve every math problem down to the decimal or exact fraction, and continually found that I was hopelessly out of time on the math section. Then I realized that most of the time, there aren't several answers that are very close; i.e., if you understand the technique for solving a problem, you just have to get to which one is closest, and not worry about having the exact answer. Another tip is to go through the entire math section, answer everything you can answer quickly, and then go back and work on the rest of the problems. Don't spend too much time on any one problem! At the very end of any section you didn't have time to finish, randomly answer any questions that are left: you are not penalized for wrong answers and guessing.
Some folks are going to be naturally better at math, spatial apperception, etc.: practice those parts as much as you can, and study for the aviation and nautical sections. Those are, as they say, a "mile wide and an inch deep", meaning the subject areas they cover are very broad, but not very detailed.
So overwhelming. I'm gonna hope for the best, i'll post my scores once I take it. Thanks for the pointers.
