james23
New Member
Thanks goosed,
Yeah I am going for SNA. I do have a 3.6 GPA and a lot of leadership programs... do you think that can be enough to make up for my poor OAR?
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1,001 questions about the ASTB (post your scores & ask your questions here!)
- Thread starter edato
- Start date
Thanks goosed,
Yeah I am going for SNA. I do have a 3.6 GPA and a lot of leadership programs... do you think that can be enough to make up for my poor OAR?
No problem. Your GPA and leadership programs will definitely help you stand out. However, to semi-quote my recruiter this morning after I retook my ASTB, the boards narrow down their stack of applicants from a big stack to a smaller, more manageable stack based on numbers first and then actually take the time to review the remaining applications. If you don't have the numbers, you're not in the little stack. If I were you, I would identify my weaknesses (you said yours was reading) and give my self a month, studying 3 times per week to improve all of my scores with a primary focus on my weaknesses. Shoot for 60 7/7/7. Oh, and don't limit yourself to one study guide (stay away from Barrons - lot's of typos) and pick up an FAA manual. There were some questions in the Aeronautical & Naval Information and supplementary sections that info from there would've been golden. Finally, from your original post I think you already know this, but your retake scores replace your previous scores regardless of whether you improve or do worse.
Previous ASTB: 58 6/6/7 (Form 2)
New ASTB: 63 7/7/6 (Form 3) - BOOYAH! I think that will put me in the small stack.
I am preparing to take the ASTB soon. I am going for Surface Warfare Officer. I have no intentions on becoming flight at any point in my career. Having said that, would it be smart to just take the math, reading and mechanical comprehension and ignore the other 2 parts as the only thing I will be judged on is my OAR score anyway?
Also, any recommendations for preparing for the mechanical comprehension portion? I have 2 study guides I purchased from B&N.
Also, any recommendations for preparing for the mechanical comprehension portion? I have 2 study guides I purchased from B&N.
If you seriously have no intention of pursuing aviation in the Navy then yes, I would just take the OAR graded sections only. The mechanical comprehension section is pretty straight forward, so reviewing your two study guides from B&N will have you more than prepared for that section.
I just got back from taking the ASTB, and I received a 49. I felt like the reading comprehension killed me. I did all my searching for reading comprehension gouge and can't find any. Is there anything you guys used or any suggestions that I can use to to improve? Thanks for all the help
james23
New Member
Same here, i just thought the mechanical and reading comp was extremely hard... any advice!?!?
thanks in advance guys
BullGator
Active Member
Any confirmation?
Quoted from NOMI's "ASTB Overview" which can be found at navy-officer.com, under the ASTB tab:
"Test* Merges:* * Applicants* who* have* taken* only* the* OAR* portion* of* the* ASTB* (MST,* RCT,* &* MCT)* may*
take*the*remaining*portions*(SAT,*ANIT,*&*AST)*to*obtain*a*complete*set*of*scores.**Examinees*must*take*
the* remaining* portions* within* 90* days* of* the* initial* test,* and* the* test* date* of* the* SAT,* ANIT,* &* AST*
become* the* official* test* date* for* the* complete* exam.* * The* test* merge* will* count* as* only* one* attempt*
against*the*examinee’s*3*test*lifetime*limit."*
E
ebolamonkey
Guest
Two things:
1) Does anyone know how the OAR is graded? The old grading rubric was on a excel file shows that you can miss 10 questions and get a 63, 17 and get a 53, 27 and get a 43 with a 67 questions exam. Now the test has 87 questions total (20 more than original one) so I am wondering if they use a different grading rubric or something. Don't know if this is like the SAT/GRE where if you answer wrong it counts against you vs. if you just leave it blank.
2) How many times did the computer exam crash for those of you who took forms 3,4,5 on the computer? I took form 3 the first time, studied only a few hours few days before the test, crash free and did okay (OAR 63). I took form 4 recently, the exam crashed 6 times (once in Math when I was half way through, 4 times in Reading section with about 4-5 questions completed where it froze while trying to load the exam, once in Mechanical with about 4-5 questions completed), I studied more, was very confident on Math (I knew I didn't miss a single question on the actual exam and finished with 3mins left) and also more confident on the Reading section after doing practice problems (finished with 2mins to spare) but wasn't too confident on all 30 questions for Mechanical (I knew I missed 2 due to wording), and knew I missed less questions as compared to my form 3 experience, and got a lower score... WTF.
Using the old grading rubric I can believe that I missed 10 questions the first time around with form 3. However, there is no way I missed more than 10 questions when I took form 4 but I did considerably worse. I thought the OAR is a straight forward grading, no bell curve, percentile or SAT/GRE double punishment for wrong type of grading. If they only counted the questions that I answered after each crash then that might explain the new grade but other than that I have no idea where I could of messed up this bad.
Form 4's mechanical section was very strange compared to the form 3 I took. There were a lot of questions on Gases, funny wording on some questions, and very funny pulley setups. It was, imo, more challenging than the practice problems in Peterson. It also doesn't help when the test crashes and the computer eats away precious exam time in a 15min 30 question section. Form 4 also had a strange reading question with a very awkward last sentence that was incomplete.
1) Does anyone know how the OAR is graded? The old grading rubric was on a excel file shows that you can miss 10 questions and get a 63, 17 and get a 53, 27 and get a 43 with a 67 questions exam. Now the test has 87 questions total (20 more than original one) so I am wondering if they use a different grading rubric or something. Don't know if this is like the SAT/GRE where if you answer wrong it counts against you vs. if you just leave it blank.
2) How many times did the computer exam crash for those of you who took forms 3,4,5 on the computer? I took form 3 the first time, studied only a few hours few days before the test, crash free and did okay (OAR 63). I took form 4 recently, the exam crashed 6 times (once in Math when I was half way through, 4 times in Reading section with about 4-5 questions completed where it froze while trying to load the exam, once in Mechanical with about 4-5 questions completed), I studied more, was very confident on Math (I knew I didn't miss a single question on the actual exam and finished with 3mins left) and also more confident on the Reading section after doing practice problems (finished with 2mins to spare) but wasn't too confident on all 30 questions for Mechanical (I knew I missed 2 due to wording), and knew I missed less questions as compared to my form 3 experience, and got a lower score... WTF.
Using the old grading rubric I can believe that I missed 10 questions the first time around with form 3. However, there is no way I missed more than 10 questions when I took form 4 but I did considerably worse. I thought the OAR is a straight forward grading, no bell curve, percentile or SAT/GRE double punishment for wrong type of grading. If they only counted the questions that I answered after each crash then that might explain the new grade but other than that I have no idea where I could of messed up this bad.
Form 4's mechanical section was very strange compared to the form 3 I took. There were a lot of questions on Gases, funny wording on some questions, and very funny pulley setups. It was, imo, more challenging than the practice problems in Peterson. It also doesn't help when the test crashes and the computer eats away precious exam time in a 15min 30 question section. Form 4 also had a strange reading question with a very awkward last sentence that was incomplete.
Lucy
Member
A 63 was a great score...not sure why you retook esp. since you only get 3 in a lifetime. That was in the top 15% if I remember the chart correctly. OAR is based on your percentile score. So how you matched up against others taking it "recently". However, not graded with negative points like the SAT. Only points for correct answer, and then your overall score in comparison to others on that form.
I didn't have it crash when I took it.
Lucy
I didn't have it crash when I took it.
Lucy
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ebolamonkey
Guest
I retook it to see if I could do better on the test to be more competitive. How recent is recent? If it is percentile on number of questions missed then the punishment for missing a few when everyone else did well must be extreme.
I thought the scoring was very straight forward w/o comparison to others and just based on the number you missed. So my score could of been higher or lower depending on the time I took it vs. other candidates' performance and not necessarily my level of preparation. Oh well.. Even with the crashes this counts against the 3 lifetime tries so I only have form 5 left if I decide to take it again.
BTW. Peterson book (page 40, 6th Edition) said that the OAR is a standard score based on a weighted composition of the sections and the flight portion is a stanine (percentile scale) score.
I thought the scoring was very straight forward w/o comparison to others and just based on the number you missed. So my score could of been higher or lower depending on the time I took it vs. other candidates' performance and not necessarily my level of preparation. Oh well.. Even with the crashes this counts against the 3 lifetime tries so I only have form 5 left if I decide to take it again.
BTW. Peterson book (page 40, 6th Edition) said that the OAR is a standard score based on a weighted composition of the sections and the flight portion is a stanine (percentile scale) score.
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ebolamonkey
Guest
Fair enough.