joetting21
Member
Can you reattach GT drive? That link doesn’t work.
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1,001 questions about the ASTB (post your scores & ask your questions here!)
- Thread starter edato
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Sierrap613
New Member
8/8/8 63! Took my astb on Monday, first attempt, crammed about 4 hours a day for two weeks prior using Barron’s and the ASTB Prep app. I got the matrices question and regretted not reviewing such a simple concept prior to the test. Overall I knew I was making mistakes when I made them, wasn’t feeling great about the test while I took it, but all I needed was 7/7/7 for immediate select so I’m more than happy.
I’m in the Pensacola area about 15 minutes north of the base. If anybody would like a free Barron’s 5th Addition study book as well as OAR Tests for Dummies and they are willing to come pick them up in Pensacola, I’d love to pass them along. They have no writing in the pages.
I’m in the Pensacola area about 15 minutes north of the base. If anybody would like a free Barron’s 5th Addition study book as well as OAR Tests for Dummies and they are willing to come pick them up in Pensacola, I’d love to pass them along. They have no writing in the pages.
Nice scores, and thanks for posting! I’m taking mine in a couple of weeks. What kind of math questions did you get? Specifically, were they similar to the drives/Barrons book, and were there any parts that caught you off guard?
joetting21
Member
62/9/9/9 for me. Happy to answer any questions
Congrats on those phenomenal scores! Did you use a specific practice book to study the math, or just the gouges and info on this forum?
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joetting21
Member
I did use a couple of practice books, but I’d honestly recommend the information on this forum and in the google drives linked on here. I saw a lot of probability, simplifying fractions with negative exponents and fraction exponents, solving for log equations, simplifying equations. For mechanical, it ended up being nothing I studied, so I think that’s the importance of just hitting a bunch of concepts without getting too in depth on anything. Definitely focus on the PBM stuff more than anything, if youre using jantzen, the actual test is easier than doing the harder settings at home, so that helped me feel confident.
aagmanrelan
New Member
Hello Everyone
I took the ASTB today
Here is the score breakdown:
OAR: 66
AQR: 8
PFAR:6
FOFAR: 7
GPA: 3.95 (Computer Science)
Civilian
I want to be a pilot, is this score competitive for a board or should I retake the ASTB for an immediate select (7/7/7)
I am fine with waiting till the Next board (which is in October according to my recruiter)
As for my Experience
I had the most difficulty in the PBM portion of the exam. I have very little experience with inverted joysticks and that is what killed me.
Everything else I would say I did okay in, I was expecting a little higher score but my recruiter insists this is a good score.
I took the ASTB today
Here is the score breakdown:
OAR: 66
AQR: 8
PFAR:6
FOFAR: 7
GPA: 3.95 (Computer Science)
Civilian
I want to be a pilot, is this score competitive for a board or should I retake the ASTB for an immediate select (7/7/7)
I am fine with waiting till the Next board (which is in October according to my recruiter)
As for my Experience
I had the most difficulty in the PBM portion of the exam. I have very little experience with inverted joysticks and that is what killed me.
Everything else I would say I did okay in, I was expecting a little higher score but my recruiter insists this is a good score.
HarrisJ_63
Aspiring SNFO
Sierrap613
New Member
Barron’s math is much easier than the test, definitely use another resource for math like the ASTB prep app. Mechanical was very theoretical and straightforward, I didn’t have to calculate much if anything, I just had to understand the concepts. The only thing that caught me off guard were the emergency procedures, because I confused up with down on the dial.
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JFinley
Member
Hey everyone, just took my second ASTB this morning. I got a 52 7,9,8. With these new scores I feel like crashing could have possibly affected the first one. If yours crashes, alert someone. I used ASTB math for beginners, the ASTB App was tremendous help across the board, and the barons book as well. If anyone has questions, I'm happy to answer.
Hey guys, I took the computer version ASTB on 10/9/2024 and scored a 64 9/8/8 on my first try. I know there's tons of questions from people about topics to study, time frames, and other things you can do to score competitively so here's what I did.
Some background information for those interested:
I went to school for aerospace engineering at the University of Oklahoma and graduated with a 3.46 GPA in 2023. I didn't play any university sports, but I have led a pretty active life. I've raced motocross since I was 5, scuba dived since 13, mountain biked, snowboarded, drag raced, basically anything that was dangerous and outside. The company I work for has flight incentives to get their engineers some experience in the real world so I was able to get my private pilots license.
Preparation for the OAR Section
I studied for a little over a month before taking the test. I wasn't one of those guys that studied everyday as I felt like my background gave me enough intuition to know my weak points. I sunk the most time into math as the concepts on the test I hadn't looked at since high school. A close second would be looking through all the posts on air warriors to try and get a feel for how peoples studying and habits worked out. The first thing I did before picking up a book and studying anything was trying to solve the ASTB sample problems published by the navy.
In my opinion, these were the most useful problems to get a feel for what the test would be like.
For math, I treated the sample questions like they were a homework assignment from college and tried to methodically solve every problem as if I needed to show my work to the professor. Anything I struggled with on the math section I wrote down in a book and went to kahn academy or the organic chemistry tutor on youtube to learn the topic. After that i'd go to either go to the Gomez Drive or Kyles Drive for repetition. I also had an AFOQT practice book that I used for timed practice to make sure I could solve the problems fast enough. Another thing I did that was really helpful for the math section was practicing mental math. There is an app called Mental Math, I used it to practice long addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. This will help you quickly eliminate answers that are way off of what is reasonable on the test before solving the problem completely.
I didn't practice reading at all.
For mechanical comprehension I used the same study method that I did with math with one key difference, I didn't really practice analytically solving the problems or memorizing formulas. Instead I freshened up my conceptual knowledge of how things work. A short list would include ideal gas laws, newtons laws of motion, kinematics, simple machines, mechanical advantage. If none of these things sound familiar to you I would strongly recommend finding a textbook for AP physics C and really trying to understand the concepts, not so much the algebra of solving the problems. A good example would be: If a baseball is thrown with any given trajectory, at what point if any would the velocity of the ball be 0 units/second while in flight? You don't really need to be able to put numbers down on paper and mathematically solve for when the balls velocity is 0. Instead you should be able to picture when this condition might be satisfied and be able to explain how it's possible with words / pictures / graphs. These formulas may come in handy: Physics Formulas Flashcards Link, though I didn't need them on the test.
Preparation for the ASTB Section
ANIT: This section is tricky. For the most part all of the aviation questions are pretty straight forward and watching the MIT ground school lectures should prepare you pretty well for these. You should also read through the Pilots Handbook for Aeronautical Knowledge. This is a free textbook that you can google and find. It's also available in ForeFlight if you have it. The harder part is nautical information and naval history. The most helpful thing I can recommend for these questions are the flashcards everyone links. These seem to be the single greatest source of general information about sailing, ship terminology, and naval history ANIT Flashcard Link. Yes, there are a lot and it may feel overwhelming to memorize all of these. Give yourself plenty of time and commit them to memory. You should also study Naval Ratings Flashcards Link.
PBM: Get the Ipad app. Yes it's 30 dollars but it will absolutely prepare you for the UAV and the Terrain identification sections. If you really struggle with the UAV section look up the compass trick: Compass Trick Video Link. I did not use this, but many have vouched for it's efficacy.
For practicing the stick and throttle I bought a Tflight HOTAS one. Instead of using the sim people link on here which granted is free, I bought a game on steam called TBAS study pro. Aside from flight experience, I feel like this was the most helpful for the PBM section. It takes you through the entire test minus the terrain identification. I was averaging 96's out of 99's on each section of the test before I went and took the real thing.
Test Experience
I went into the test fairly confident but definitely nervous. Almost immediately things got really challenging for me and I thought it would be a practice run to get familiar with the test. My OAR experience was fairly standard compared to everyone else's posts on here. I got kicked out of math early but time ran out on the reading and mechanical comprehension sections. After these are done you get a 15 minute break which you should absolutely take. Do some pushups, bs with the recruiter, go to the bathroom; give your brain a break.
After the break, you start out with ANIT. I saw a lot of principles of flight, ship terminology, and some navigation questions. Most of the questions I saw I studied for and were covered in the preparation section I mentioned earlier.
Next is the UAV portion. If you practice with the app and or the steam game you will do fine. I missed a couple here and still came out ok.
After the UAV section the fun stuff starts. Dichotic listening, stick and throttle tasks. The best piece of advice I can give here is to keep yourself calm and let your training take the wheel. Remember, this is a game designed to make you feel like you suck. It is impossible to track everything perfectly. You WILL feel like a hot mess. Keep your head up and never give up. If you make mistakes here you can still succeed. On the emergency procedures section I didn't realize the test had started until it was almost over. I thought it was still a practice section so I was messing with the buttons to figure out the control scheme. Once I realized it actually started I pulled myself together, got on target, and finished the test. Pretty sure I just bombed my shot, I still had one section to go (the Terrain Ident one). I told myself to suck it up, finish strong, and see what my score was at the end. To my surprise I still came out of the test with the scores I needed.
Some background information for those interested:
I went to school for aerospace engineering at the University of Oklahoma and graduated with a 3.46 GPA in 2023. I didn't play any university sports, but I have led a pretty active life. I've raced motocross since I was 5, scuba dived since 13, mountain biked, snowboarded, drag raced, basically anything that was dangerous and outside. The company I work for has flight incentives to get their engineers some experience in the real world so I was able to get my private pilots license.
Preparation for the OAR Section
I studied for a little over a month before taking the test. I wasn't one of those guys that studied everyday as I felt like my background gave me enough intuition to know my weak points. I sunk the most time into math as the concepts on the test I hadn't looked at since high school. A close second would be looking through all the posts on air warriors to try and get a feel for how peoples studying and habits worked out. The first thing I did before picking up a book and studying anything was trying to solve the ASTB sample problems published by the navy.
In my opinion, these were the most useful problems to get a feel for what the test would be like.
For math, I treated the sample questions like they were a homework assignment from college and tried to methodically solve every problem as if I needed to show my work to the professor. Anything I struggled with on the math section I wrote down in a book and went to kahn academy or the organic chemistry tutor on youtube to learn the topic. After that i'd go to either go to the Gomez Drive or Kyles Drive for repetition. I also had an AFOQT practice book that I used for timed practice to make sure I could solve the problems fast enough. Another thing I did that was really helpful for the math section was practicing mental math. There is an app called Mental Math, I used it to practice long addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. This will help you quickly eliminate answers that are way off of what is reasonable on the test before solving the problem completely.
I didn't practice reading at all.
For mechanical comprehension I used the same study method that I did with math with one key difference, I didn't really practice analytically solving the problems or memorizing formulas. Instead I freshened up my conceptual knowledge of how things work. A short list would include ideal gas laws, newtons laws of motion, kinematics, simple machines, mechanical advantage. If none of these things sound familiar to you I would strongly recommend finding a textbook for AP physics C and really trying to understand the concepts, not so much the algebra of solving the problems. A good example would be: If a baseball is thrown with any given trajectory, at what point if any would the velocity of the ball be 0 units/second while in flight? You don't really need to be able to put numbers down on paper and mathematically solve for when the balls velocity is 0. Instead you should be able to picture when this condition might be satisfied and be able to explain how it's possible with words / pictures / graphs. These formulas may come in handy: Physics Formulas Flashcards Link, though I didn't need them on the test.
Preparation for the ASTB Section
ANIT: This section is tricky. For the most part all of the aviation questions are pretty straight forward and watching the MIT ground school lectures should prepare you pretty well for these. You should also read through the Pilots Handbook for Aeronautical Knowledge. This is a free textbook that you can google and find. It's also available in ForeFlight if you have it. The harder part is nautical information and naval history. The most helpful thing I can recommend for these questions are the flashcards everyone links. These seem to be the single greatest source of general information about sailing, ship terminology, and naval history ANIT Flashcard Link. Yes, there are a lot and it may feel overwhelming to memorize all of these. Give yourself plenty of time and commit them to memory. You should also study Naval Ratings Flashcards Link.
PBM: Get the Ipad app. Yes it's 30 dollars but it will absolutely prepare you for the UAV and the Terrain identification sections. If you really struggle with the UAV section look up the compass trick: Compass Trick Video Link. I did not use this, but many have vouched for it's efficacy.
For practicing the stick and throttle I bought a Tflight HOTAS one. Instead of using the sim people link on here which granted is free, I bought a game on steam called TBAS study pro. Aside from flight experience, I feel like this was the most helpful for the PBM section. It takes you through the entire test minus the terrain identification. I was averaging 96's out of 99's on each section of the test before I went and took the real thing.
Test Experience
I went into the test fairly confident but definitely nervous. Almost immediately things got really challenging for me and I thought it would be a practice run to get familiar with the test. My OAR experience was fairly standard compared to everyone else's posts on here. I got kicked out of math early but time ran out on the reading and mechanical comprehension sections. After these are done you get a 15 minute break which you should absolutely take. Do some pushups, bs with the recruiter, go to the bathroom; give your brain a break.
After the break, you start out with ANIT. I saw a lot of principles of flight, ship terminology, and some navigation questions. Most of the questions I saw I studied for and were covered in the preparation section I mentioned earlier.
Next is the UAV portion. If you practice with the app and or the steam game you will do fine. I missed a couple here and still came out ok.
After the UAV section the fun stuff starts. Dichotic listening, stick and throttle tasks. The best piece of advice I can give here is to keep yourself calm and let your training take the wheel. Remember, this is a game designed to make you feel like you suck. It is impossible to track everything perfectly. You WILL feel like a hot mess. Keep your head up and never give up. If you make mistakes here you can still succeed. On the emergency procedures section I didn't realize the test had started until it was almost over. I thought it was still a practice section so I was messing with the buttons to figure out the control scheme. Once I realized it actually started I pulled myself together, got on target, and finished the test. Pretty sure I just bombed my shot, I still had one section to go (the Terrain Ident one). I told myself to suck it up, finish strong, and see what my score was at the end. To my surprise I still came out of the test with the scores I needed.
exNavyOffRec
Well-Known Member
This has been something candidates have asked about, when this was asked to NOMI who administers the test the answer is it doesn't. When the test has a glitch it stops the timer and when it is reset it continues on allowing the same amount of time that was left. It can have a mental affect on the person taking the exam wondering how this could affect their score.
The test is also adaptive which can sometimes cause candidates who don't do well to wonder if the glitch had an issue when really the system just found the level the person has stopped at. The can result in a person having the test stop before the full amount of time is used.
The internet went out during mine, but I was passed the OAR section.