I just took the OAR and scored 63. I have been following this thread and found the insight of others to be helpful, so I wanted to share my experience as well.
Background: It’s been over 10 years since I graduated. I did not major in math or science, but used to do well in those subjects back in the day. Practice tests showed just how slow and rusty I was (no surprise there). I spent close to 200 hrs studying over 2 months. Had to revise logs, matrices and pretty much learn probability and most of mechanics over again.
Math: Surprisingly easier than I mentally braced myself for based on feedback from others. I saw arithmetic operation order, absolute values, exponents, roots, lots of polynomials (to simplify, to factor, to find all solutions for x and y), perfect numbers, one log problem, one matrix multiplication, two probabilities, one permutation problem. Then geometry: cube (to find how much the sides were increased given the old and new volume), rectangle (to find the area given sides ratio and perimeter), circle (to find diameter given chord and arc via Pythagoras theorem), boat sailing across the river (to find actual speed given speed of the boat and the river via vectors and applying Pythagoras theorem). No mixtures, no DRT, no interest, no percentages, no work problem, no unit conversion. No lengthy calculation involved except for the permutation problem. I got kicked out way before my time ran out.
FYI all geometry formulas were provided on the screen for the duration of Math Knowledge section.
Reading: like everyone said before me, you can’t truly prepare for this section apart from familiarizing yourself with question formats. I’d say once you consistently get high results over several practice tests (meaning you understand the overall logic) you are good. Some paragraphs on the exam were lengthy and heavily worded - I was reading them over and over again to make any sense of it. Others seemed way too simple in comparison. In the end, even if you have to guess typically 2 out of 4 choices were easy to eliminate (either too opinionated or beyond the scope). “B” was dominant among my answers (just an observation; no idea how I did in this section).
System glitched half way into Reading. The examinator had to restart my test – it went back to the last question I answered. This goes to say be mentally prepared for stuff like this, keep your cool and don’t let it ruin your focus.
Mechanic: I saw linear & angular velocity (which point on the wheel would have higher linear velocity or travel greater distance), several questions with electronic component definitions (resistor, capacitor, inductor, transformer, transistor, amplifier, oscillator, diode, voltmeter, ammeter etc. - really know what they do/measure), electric circuit diagram (which lamps will turn on when you close the switch), mechanical advantage of simple machines (wheel and axel, pulley, levers), pulley system with a spring (what replacing a spring with a fixed pulley would do), tension (definition and distribution during a vertical spin), Bernoulli principle (lift of the aircraft and air pipe constriction), atmospheric pressure (how changes with altitude), positive and negative work (to determine given the angle of displacement), several questions on Gas laws (volume-pressure-temperature relation), energy needed for acceleration (going from 0 to 50 vs 50 to 100).
The pool of MCT questions is incredibly vast as it covers such large scope of topics, and the questions unpredictably go from superficial “common sense” to specific in-depth knowledge. I dedicated most of my studying efforts on this section - it certainly paid off, and yet in a way it wasn’t enough. I know I got a few basic questions wrong simply because I was thrown off by their strange way of phrasing or different angle a familiar problem was presented.
Resources: I downloaded all the materials shared on this forum, plus checked out all available ASTB/OAR/AFOQT/ASVAB books from my local library (so I didn’t have to purchase anything), and methodically worked my way through them: read study guides and took every single math and mechanic practice test. “Test prep books: OAR 2019 & 2020” was garbage (terribly written imo, put me to sleep after 1 sentence, would not recommend). Any edition of “Peterson’s” and “Barron’s” works. “Learning express: Officer Candidate tests, 2nd ed.” was good as well. Trivium offers 3 sets of free practice tests. KutaSoftware has free Precalculus math worksheets to practice, the only flaw - it gives final answers without step-by-step solutions, meaning it’s most useful after you’ve already brushed up well on the subject. Quizlet has tons of flash card sets, on mechanical comprehension in particular.
Overall thoughts: If I had to pick one word to describe this exam, it would be “weird”. The dynamic nature of the test is a real cliffhanger. I honestly didn’t know how well (or poor) I was doing until I saw the results screen. I went in hoping to score above 50 since I’m applying for Intel, so I feel proud of how my 30-year-old brain was able to perform (and relieved I won't need to re-take it).
To everyone who is yet to take their exam – Ganbare!
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