I've been late on my post but I took my first ASTB attempt a month ago and got a 61 8/9/8. This forum was massively helpful and I wanted to attempt to pay it forward. My background: I am currently working as a flight instructor so this definitely helped but it wasn't a massive advantage based on what I experienced, which is good for anyone else taking it. In fact, my flight simulator experience was what really helped. I wish I did better on the OAR but that comes down to taking more time to study. Like everyone else, I felt that I was doing awful throughout the whole test so expect that as a good sign. Here's what I used to study and what I experienced.
Math
I'm not much help here, I was kicked out early and was well out of practice. Absolutely know your laws of exponents and don't just study theory, do practice problems online. Have a good understanding of fractions and how to get percentages fast. Also simplifying algebraic equations. Simple probability as well. Take the time and memorize square roots.
Reading
I'll just pass on the best advice I got since you can't study this much. Read it extremely literally and select the answer that can only be deduced from what you've read. This section was so tasking and boring and felt like it took forever.
Mechanical Comprehension
I got a fair amount of basic electrical diagrams and one AC question. Know levers, I got one hydraulic system question I had to guess. I studied a lot of gear ratios but only got questions about which gear spins which direction and which gear spins more/faster (the smaller one). Common sense will prevail.
ANIT
I studied a bunch of nautical terms and parts of a ship from the flashcards you can find with a quick google search. Know stability of aircraft (positive, negative, static, dynamic). I wish I got more questions I knew but it was kind of all over the place. I don't remember any history questions being asked thankfully.
NATFI
Don't worry much about this section. You can read the themes of what it's asking, so I just answered honestly but was also aware at the main groups of answers and made sure to hit all of them fairly evenly (team player, owns up to mistakes, detail oriented, perfectionist, etc.).
UAV
So I did not use the compass trick I found it too slow. I'll explain my strategy the best I can, it allowed me to get each one extremely fast. I did have a misclick error from rushing and the nerves but it didn't seem to harm my score too much. If you use the practice quizlets try this: I look at what parking lot it wants me to identify, then I look at the heading marker and call out which side it's on. So if I need to identify North and I'm facing East I'd verbally call out "Left" and then tap the left parking lot. If it was at an angle I would either say "Left" if it was close and "Back left" if it was more than 90 degrees, but still the closest side to turn to the heading (Back left meaning the lower left parking lot). Otherwise I'd say in front or behind. I did say these out loud since it helped but I got seriously fast at this and the flashcards are so helpful. I kept running them through until I could do it in my sleep. https://www.proprofsflashcards.com/story.php?title=astb-uav-portion
PBM
The jantzen simulator is a must. I used it with my logitech joystick, at about 50-70 percent difficulty with the audio work. This definitely helped. Don't expect perfection when you do this day of, and the audio listening is more difficult on the actual test. Just use the sim like it's your new hobby and you will be less overwhelmed day of. Absolutely write down and then memorize the emergency procedures when time comes. The emergencies are the main thing my flight experienced helped, I was able to solve 2/3 of the emergencies before the screen even flashed red. Also, try to visualize that you are in the cockpit chasing the plane ahead, that helped with the inversion a lot for me. It's interesting to me that they surveyed my sim experience beforehand but it makes sense. The joystick sucks so much and it actually froze up twice very badly, I got the proctor and he said I have to tell him before it completes or else he can't do anything about it. Here's the sim link and you can use the JoyToKey software to use your joystick. https://jantzenx.github.io/ASTB/
I also went through the barrons book which was helpful. I think the key to my personal success was the UAV procedure I used and the jantzen sim a lot leading up to the test. Use every spare moment doing the UAV flashcards, or going through ANIT flashcards. I'll link the 3 google drives I used for mostly Nautical and OAR study below. Please let me know if you have anymore questions and good luck!
Math
I'm not much help here, I was kicked out early and was well out of practice. Absolutely know your laws of exponents and don't just study theory, do practice problems online. Have a good understanding of fractions and how to get percentages fast. Also simplifying algebraic equations. Simple probability as well. Take the time and memorize square roots.
Reading
I'll just pass on the best advice I got since you can't study this much. Read it extremely literally and select the answer that can only be deduced from what you've read. This section was so tasking and boring and felt like it took forever.
Mechanical Comprehension
I got a fair amount of basic electrical diagrams and one AC question. Know levers, I got one hydraulic system question I had to guess. I studied a lot of gear ratios but only got questions about which gear spins which direction and which gear spins more/faster (the smaller one). Common sense will prevail.
ANIT
I studied a bunch of nautical terms and parts of a ship from the flashcards you can find with a quick google search. Know stability of aircraft (positive, negative, static, dynamic). I wish I got more questions I knew but it was kind of all over the place. I don't remember any history questions being asked thankfully.
NATFI
Don't worry much about this section. You can read the themes of what it's asking, so I just answered honestly but was also aware at the main groups of answers and made sure to hit all of them fairly evenly (team player, owns up to mistakes, detail oriented, perfectionist, etc.).
UAV
So I did not use the compass trick I found it too slow. I'll explain my strategy the best I can, it allowed me to get each one extremely fast. I did have a misclick error from rushing and the nerves but it didn't seem to harm my score too much. If you use the practice quizlets try this: I look at what parking lot it wants me to identify, then I look at the heading marker and call out which side it's on. So if I need to identify North and I'm facing East I'd verbally call out "Left" and then tap the left parking lot. If it was at an angle I would either say "Left" if it was close and "Back left" if it was more than 90 degrees, but still the closest side to turn to the heading (Back left meaning the lower left parking lot). Otherwise I'd say in front or behind. I did say these out loud since it helped but I got seriously fast at this and the flashcards are so helpful. I kept running them through until I could do it in my sleep. https://www.proprofsflashcards.com/story.php?title=astb-uav-portion
PBM
The jantzen simulator is a must. I used it with my logitech joystick, at about 50-70 percent difficulty with the audio work. This definitely helped. Don't expect perfection when you do this day of, and the audio listening is more difficult on the actual test. Just use the sim like it's your new hobby and you will be less overwhelmed day of. Absolutely write down and then memorize the emergency procedures when time comes. The emergencies are the main thing my flight experienced helped, I was able to solve 2/3 of the emergencies before the screen even flashed red. Also, try to visualize that you are in the cockpit chasing the plane ahead, that helped with the inversion a lot for me. It's interesting to me that they surveyed my sim experience beforehand but it makes sense. The joystick sucks so much and it actually froze up twice very badly, I got the proctor and he said I have to tell him before it completes or else he can't do anything about it. Here's the sim link and you can use the JoyToKey software to use your joystick. https://jantzenx.github.io/ASTB/
I also went through the barrons book which was helpful. I think the key to my personal success was the UAV procedure I used and the jantzen sim a lot leading up to the test. Use every spare moment doing the UAV flashcards, or going through ANIT flashcards. I'll link the 3 google drives I used for mostly Nautical and OAR study below. Please let me know if you have anymore questions and good luck!
