Hey Everyone,
This thread and forum has been a great deal of help to me and I am hoping to help other applicants as well
I took the ASTB today and got a 62 8/7/8
My major is in political science and I have zero flight experience
The test took me about two hours to complete and went smoothly
Math
Simplifying expressions, solving for x, probability, combined work problems and fractions made up the majority of the questions. There were a few geometry questions, but as long as you know how to find the area/volume of a square, circle, and triangle, you should be fine. Know the pythagorean theorem and rules of exponents as well. The big thing is to just make sure you do the math correctly. The math wasn't incredibly hard, and an average high school student will score well in the section. There are just opportunities for simple calculation errors everywhere, so be quick, but accurate. I finished with over 10mins to spare.
Reading
Like what other people have said, very boring. Basically reading rules and regulations from the Navy and understanding what they are saying. There were some I had to reread, but they were all understandable. The big thing here, is go with the BEST answer. Some of these questions will have multiple answers that all technically are correct. However, one will be better than the others.
Mechanical
I think I did one calculation. It seems like the trend recently has been more conceptual questions than anything. With that being said, understand the concepts. Know simple machines and their mechanical advantages, know Boyle's law and Charles' law. Understand how to read a simple circuit and how it works. I got one circuit question, but the majority of the others were based on gears, gasses, and simple machines.
ANIT
Just study the cram flashcards. If you can memorize those, you will destroy this section. I watched some videos on how airplanes fly and how airfoils work. There were a few navigation and Naval questions, but mostly relating to flying and rules.
NATFI
Be honest.
UAV
This is the one thing you have no excuse of not getting 100% on. The ASTB app and quizlet both offer practice for this. With a week of practice, sub 3s response time and 100% accuracy should be expected. I was averaging about 2s and 100% accuracy on the test. Use the compass trick and you will have no issue.
Stick And Throttle
Buy a joystick and throttle setup. I didn't use the X52, I just found some $30 one on eBay and it worked fine for me. I downloaded a joystick mapper to my computer and used that. Practice with the link below and play on all sorts of difficulty with all sorts of duration. I don't recommend anything under 30s and anything over 2mins though. The big thing is to keep your focus. If you practice enough, it should feel almost natural. Personally, when I would think about what I was doing, I would stray farther from the target, so I just let my practicing take over.
Dichotic Listening
Make sure the headphones work and that the volume is good. Some people suggest leaning towards the ear, I personally just found that distracting. If you can do the stick and throttle portion on autopilot, you will have no issue with this.To avoid any confusion, I used scratch paper to label which hand I use for odd numbers and which hand I use for even numbers. I also left a note in front of my face saying which hand is for odd numbers and which hand is for even numbers. This just freed up any brain space I may have needed. I personally found it helpful. The jomo sim has listening practice as well as the ASTB app.
Emergency Procedures
Write them down. Write it in a way so that when you take a glance at it, you will know exactly what to do. I did not do any practice for this and I did just fine.
Terrain Identification
Honestly seemed impossible as I was preparing for the test. I had an incredibly difficult time while preparing with the ASTB app. At first, I never got a question correct. The day prior to the test, I was getting about 70-80% on the app. The actual test was easier than the app as well. Linked is the method I used, which helped a lot. It is just practice. To add to this video though, there were two other things I did which helped.
1) If you can't find a vertical reference line on the left side, find one on the zoomed in image and just apply the technique there. So find a vertical line on the zoomed in image, find out which way it is tilted in the original image, and determine the cardinal direction. After that, just flip it. So NNE would become NNW.
2) If there is not vertical line on the original image, but there is another line that aligns with one of the directions on the compass (ie. horizontal line), use that as your reference. It is the same method, except applied to a horizontal line.
This is extremely confusing so feel free to PM me or leave a response and I will be happy to clarify.
Other Tips
- Don't look at memes before the test. This is a bit unconventional, but during the listening portion of the PBM, I was thinking of a funny video I saw and realized I missed two numbers. Then I thought about how I missed two numbers and realized I missed another while thinking about that. So try to eliminate mental distractions
- Don't take the test hungry. I got really hungry during the test and was thinking about Taco Bell. It didn't mess me up, but it was a distraction in my mind. I ended up getting Taco Bell afterwards, but during the test, the thought of a quesadilla did float across my mind when I should have been more focused.
- Use as much scratch paper as you want. Use it for anything. If you even have a slight thought that you want to take a note of something, write it down.
- Listen to ASTB subjects instead of music while driving. I did this for about a month and I was very confident on any of the topics. I will link a Youtube channel which helped me
Resources
- Gomez Drive
- Kyle's Drive
- ASTB App
- Kieno Thomas (
www.youtube.com/@kienothomas)
- Cram Flashcards (
Use these resources and you should be prepared
Feel free to message and/or reply and I would be happy to help out
