Well, as many other people on this forum have stated before me, I owe my score on the ASTB to all of the information I gained while sorting through others' experiences. I took the ASTB-E yesterday, and I completely expected to have to retake the test. Given the opportunity to take the test up to 3 times, my plan was to go in and get a feel for the test structure, then take the 31 days to study and prepare for the second attempt. Safe to say, I will not need it!
OAR: 62
Academic Qualification Rating: 7
Pilot Flight Aptitude Rating: 7
Flight Officer Flight Aptitude Rating: 7
My recruiter says that based on my score, I would be accepted without the need to be reviewed by the board. I'm completely blown away that I got it first try and with (admittedly) very little preparation. I turned 30 this year and I have been looking for a career change. I have a background in Mathematics, as I "double-degreed" my undergrad experience (3.219GPA) with a BS in Secondary Education and BA in Mathematics on my way to becoming a math teacher. This helped me out tremendously with the math and mechanical aptitude sections. I bought the Barron's book (barely used it) and did a few of the Practice worksheets in the
Gomez drive. The Gomez drive has a list of posts that shed light on the test and were VERY detailed, and I highly recommend reading through them and making mental (or literal) notes on the different parts of the test that you may need to prepare for. I didn't have any DRT questions, a few factoring complex polynomials, and cube root of 0.027 that almost stumped me. I had a few questions for the mechanical aptitude section that I recalled reading from other's posts, specifically one about ISOTHERMIC expansion (temperature does NOT change). Understand how torque works. I had a pulley question that I guessed on.
I wasn't as quick as I would have liked on the Apperception or Terrain Identification sections but I only made a few mistakes (2-3 total) using the paper compass trick to help orient myself. You should do fine if you focus on getting it correct over getting it done quickly. Obviously both are important, but accuracy > speed.
I think the part that helped me the most was the PBM practice website (
game) that I found on here. Initially I did not have a HOTAS flight sim setup (Hand On Throttle and Stick) when I attempted the game and quickly felt like it would not help me until I did. So I bought a Saitek X52 (THE EXACT SETUP ON THE ASTB) that I found on FB Marketplace for $80, and picked it up on the way to an FC Dallas game on Saturday. I practiced with it for about 2 hours on Sunday just trying to get it setup correctly, and get a feel for how I wanted to approach the exam on Monday. I ran the simluator on HARD as everyone said it would be the closest to the test. On this I agree and I don't, as I feel the test was somewhere between the NORMAL and HARD setting in terms of how quickly the plane indicators moved around the screen, but I feel it is better to overprepare whenever possible (ironic, I know). You shoud absolutely practice the dichotic listening and emergency sections on the simulator to get a feel for how to manipulate the HOTAS for each. On the listening section, even numbers response button was the trigger on the flight stick; odd numbers on the "clutch" button (interior on the "engine" rotary wheel on the throttle). I used the
AntiMicroX program to map buttons on my setup, to the SIM experience. I used the "lean the direction of the ear being tested" trick during the test and it helped me. As the others before me have said, write down the instructions for the emergency situations on your scratch paper and keep them in front of you. It helps immensely.
Again, I wasn't really expecting much as this was a test run to see how the test goes, and to see which sections I needed to study for, so mostly I was trying to go in with a positive mindset. This wont work for everyone but I wanted to share my experience and answer any questions to "pay it forward" so to speak. I think I have posted links to the major study items that I used, so definitely utilize them!
Best of luck to everyone taking the exam, and I hope to see you all in Newport, RI!
