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

[fighter12]

Howdy y'all,

First off I want to thank everyone on this Air Warriors thread for your advice/input. It was amazing to see how helpful and supportive everyone was. I took the ASTB for the second time today and improved from a 5/5/5 to a 7/7/7. I studied roughly a month between attempts and I think it paid off really well. After taking it the first time and barely studying I decided to buckle down so I could get better scores.

OAR:
I will repeat what many others have said before me, use Kyle's guide. I think this is what really helped me to understand the concepts and problems. In addition, I also used the ASTB Prep app. The app is awesome because it allows you to work on specific topics that you may be struggling with and it provides you with multiple practice problems/tests that you can test your knowledge on.

ANIT:
The ASTB Prep app really helps for the ANIT in my opinion. It covers a broad range of topics like history, control surfaces, airspaces, instruments, etc.

UAV:
I used the compass trick for this section. Most of the time I did not wait for the voice and I think this improved my time significantly

PBM:
If you are serious about improving PFAR score, I would highly advise buying a joystick. I practiced with Jantzen's mostly every day for 30mins to an hour. I also made a spreadsheet where I could track my scores and see how I was progressing. This alone brought my PFAR score up 2 points.

Again, thank y'all for all the gouges and helpful information on this test. Studying works. Just take the time to grind it out and scores will improve. Good luck to all of you.

 

[johnpauljones1776]

Taking Astb next week any tips for success I’m kinda nervous and anxious plus I’m more nervous on math then anything

Don’t study at all for the first attempt so you kind of know what expect on the 2nd attempt

 

[umijs]

Just a heads up.

For anyone that needs help understanding some concepts from the study guides, ChatGPT does a really good job of explaining the concepts, especially for math. You can tell it to explain it step by step in bullet format and it makes it a lot easier to understand.

 

[gtownjake]

Don’t study at all for the first attempt so you kind of know what expect on the 2nd attempt

Just a heads up.

For anyone that needs help understanding some concepts from the study guides, ChatGPT does a really good job of explaining the concepts, especially for math. You can tell it to explain it step by step in bullet format and it makes it a lot easier to understand.

Hate to be that guy… but absolutely no and *kinda* no. Please study before your ASTB. If you don’t you’re gonna come back to this thread and call this dude out lol.

As for the chatGPT part. I can see how it would be useful, but other resources are a lot more secure and accurate, chatGPT just makes it quick. It’s very often incorrect contrary to popular belief.

 

[johnpauljones1776]

Hate to be that guy… but absolutely no and *kinda* no. Please study before your ASTB. If you don’t you’re gonna come back to this thread and call this dude out lol.

As for the chatGPT part. I can see how it would be useful, but other resources are a lot more secure and accurate, chatGPT just makes it quick. It’s very often incorrect contrary to popular belief.

I realize it's not for everyone but it worked well for me. The ASTB was far different than any test I've taken and I'm glad I took that strategy from 5s to 8,9,8

 

[gtownjake]

I realize it's not for everyone but it worked well for me. The ASTB was far different than any test I've taken and I'm glad I took that strategy from 5s to 8,9,8

So there’s a reason you got 5s the first time and then 8s and 9s your second time. You studied. Why waste a test attempt just to see what it’s like?

 

[johnpauljones1776]

So there’s a reason you got 5s the first time and then 8s and 9s your second time. You studied. Why waste a test attempt just to see what it’s like?

I explained earlier, I didn’t know what to expect, all I knew was that it was going to test me on math, aviation, history, and the performance based measure. I did not know the format, how questions are asked, or the order of things which throws me off when I’m testing. For the 2nd time I actually knew what to study for and was able to decipher between what’s good and bad in the study guides. Always planned on using two attempts, never planned to use the third attempt but it’s there in case I had a bad day on the 2nd attempt.

I’m saying if I studied for the first time I think I would’ve achieved results I’d be on the fence about and not really know what to study for the 2nd attempt. Knowing the context and environment you’re going into is just as valuable as studying. Frankly, I don’t think any of those study guides really capture the test well other than the drone and parking lot questions which are easy

 

[ea6bflyr]

Don’t study at all for the first attempt so you kind of know what expect on the 2nd attempt

Bad advice. Considering you can take the ASTB so many times. Why not study your ass off and hit it out of the park on the first try? I certainly hope you don’t take this approach in OCS or Flight School……??

 

[johnpauljones1776]

Bad advice. Considering you can take the ASTB so many times. Why not study your ass off and hit it out of the park on the first try? I certainly hope you don’t take this approach in OCS or Flight School……??

You don’t recommend me using my resources? I certainly will in NIFE and Primary. i don’t think it’s fair to compare any one of those. I certainly don’t plan on going to ocs multiple times.

 

[ea6bflyr]

You don’t recommend me using my resources? I certainly will in NIFE and Primary. i don’t think it’s fair to compare any one of those. I certainly don’t plan on going to ocs multiple times.

It’s not fair to tell ANYONE to not study for their first ASTB attempt because, “aw heck, you can take it again.” This advice is foolish and reckless. Would you not study for your driver’s license test?

 

[elariosa95]

You don’t recommend me using my resources?

There’s plenty of gouge here and elsewhere on the internet on the ASTB that will give anyone the opportunity to get good scores on their first try. Considering you only get three attempts, I would highly encourage studying up.

“Failing to plan is planning to fail” - Tom Brady, on how his divorce affected the 2022 Bucs season

 

[FormerRecruitingGuru]

Don’t study at all for the first attempt so you kind of know what expect on the 2nd attempt

No. Bad advice.

I agree with not studying in terms of a practice test but NOT for the actual ASTB in which you have limited attempts.

 

[flyer4life2020]

Is this first military test you are taking? I took the ASVAB and SIFT prior to taking the ASTB, which definitely helped calm my nerves. The ASTB was the most challenging, but it's not particularly stressful in the same way other standardized tests can be. You want to be answering every question as fast and as accurately as possible, but I was never close to running out of time either. I was also most worried about the math section so I spend a lot of time reviewing various types of problems found in the study guides. Make sure have practiced ever section and be prepared for the test to crash A LOT.

How was the ASVAB GT part( i think that's the only thing relevant) and how was the sift compared to astb, any good studying bits you got for that and tips? I don't think they have any sim part iirc.

 

[Average Monke]

How was the ASVAB GT part( i think that's the only thing relevant) and how was the sift compared to astb, any good studying bits you got for that and tips? I don't think they have any sim part iirc.

That's correct, there's no sim section for the SIFT. It's been over a year since I've taken the ASVAB and SIFT so I'm struggling to remember any specifics, but the SIFT is noticeably more difficult (which I measure by how many questions I guessed). The mechanical comprehension section on the ASTB, for example, asked some unexpected questions about different types of kinetic energy, which I never even thought to study. More so than anything else, I found the ASTB slightly more difficult to study for because of the variety of questions asked. In other words, the questioned asked on the SIFT (and especially the ASVAB) were a lot more predictable and thus I could study them easier. I had to spend the majority of the time learning about helicopter aerodynamics, but I could answer just about every aviation question confidently. I had to guess more questions on the ANIT even with additional studying and flight hours.

If you think it would be helpful, I can give you my scores more each test and explain a bit about how I studied for them, but I think it's a stretch to draw any major conclusions by directly comparing them. More than anything else, I learned how to study and take a standardized test again in a military environment.

 

[Oldsawbonez]

Howdy y'all,

First off I want to thank everyone on this Air Warriors thread for your advice/input. It was amazing to see how helpful and supportive everyone was. I took the ASTB for the second time today and improved from a 5/5/5 to a 7/7/7. I studied roughly a month between attempts and I think it paid off really well. After taking it the first time and barely studying I decided to buckle down so I could get better scores.

OAR:
I will repeat what many others have said before me, use Kyle's guide. I think this is what really helped me to understand the concepts and problems. In addition, I also used the ASTB Prep app. The app is awesome because it allows you to work on specific topics that you may be struggling with and it provides you with multiple practice problems/tests that you can test your knowledge on.

ANIT:
The ASTB Prep app really helps for the ANIT in my opinion. It covers a broad range of topics like history, control surfaces, airspaces, instruments, etc.

UAV:
I used the compass trick for this section. Most of the time I did not wait for the voice and I think this improved my time significantly

PBM:
If you are serious about improving PFAR score, I would highly advise buying a joystick. I practiced with Jantzen's mostly every day for 30mins to an hour. I also made a spreadsheet where I could track my scores and see how I was progressing. This alone brought my PFAR score up 2 points.

Again, thank y'all for all the gouges and helpful information on this test. Studying works. Just take the time to grind it out and scores will improve. Good luck to all of you.

Where can we find jantzen's, and what is it exactly?