-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
ASTB-E/APEX 4 Experience -DEC 2013
- Thread starter Notorious Nate
- Start date
Anthony Juliano
Member
Exner21, Thank you for your service! I am also a prior service member having served in the Navy for 4 years. I am also in the process of building my package for OCS. I knew a First Class that got picked up for Pilot with the minimum ASTB scores and I don't think his OAR was higher than yours. You are already 10 points above the OAR and above the minimums for the ASTB. As long as your GPA was good (say 3.2 or above {higher is always better}) and your prior service record is on point than you should be fine. Its always good to have multiple opportunities to submit your package. What I mean by that is if you dont get picked up the first time, you can retake the ASTB-E and score higher which will allow you to resubmit. However, if you dont get picked up the first time and you have to improve your package but you have reached the limit of 3 times of taking the ASTB-E than it becomes one less options you have to improve your package. Other factors to consider are: how old you are (how many shots you have), how good your LOR's are, how good your Interview Appraisal Sheets are, and how good your DD Form 370's are. I hope this helps let me know if you have any other questions.
Brother S/f. As a prior Marine myself and having new information from the OSO I am dealing with, if you're looking at Marine airborne you should focus on the PT portion and having the perfect score out the door for selection. I scored a 46 3/6/7 and it's not "competitive" enough. In our native branch physical fitness seems to be more important than flying...being a Marine at the forefront takes wayyy more importance than being in a cockpit. I'm looking at going Navy because of the career guarantee vs Marine Corps. This forum will most definitely help you. How are your SAT and ASVAB scores aside from your ASTBE?
Slothstronaut
New Member
In response to exner21:
I used mostly the guides and links floating around on here and the other main ASTB thread. I also read through tons of the posts and took note of the different things people mentioned were on the test. Message me and I can send you some of guides but I would definitely recommend reading through the threads anyways.
exner21
New Member
I don't remember my SAT scores but my ASVAB was around 95 or something. You had to be above 90 for security forces. My GPA is right around a 3.0. I have really strong recommendations which i'm hoping helps.
W
Wildcat15
Guest
How many questions did you run into on the exam that were posted here?
13ad13boy85
New Member
Did anyone use the exam on the dod mwr library site and if so was it accurate? I haven't taken it yet. Thanks.
I don't know if this is really a thing anymore but I'm going to post about my experiences with it.
I used the Barron's book and just about every study guide/posts I could find on here.
The math was simple to me (but math typically comes easy to me), I took my time and wrote out the problem. I was more concerned with getting the right answer than speed. A lot of the practice problems and what has been discussed previously covers this section well. There seems to be a lot of questions about number of hours it takes a certain number of people or things to complete a task, and the method to these is find how many total man hours are required to complete it, how many hours each person does, and then find the new time with the total number of people or machines.
The reading was a crapshoot to me, I couldn't tell whether I was getting it right or wrong, and I couldn't tell whether the questions got harder or easier. A lot of the practice problems I found had pretty clear answers, but I found these to be more confusing and struggled to pick between it. In Barrons this section had definitions of random words, which I didn't have on the test. None of the passages seemed too in depth, and were simple to read, but the answers weren't very clear.
The mechanical section for me was much easier than I was expecting. It was mostly intuitive, a couple problems where you actually had to calculate it out but for the most part I could just look and figure it out easily. I think I got lucky, because I really only had problems on questions that I was comfortable with, and not ones that I wasn't. Not much on electricity.
My ANIT test was easier than I was expecting, I studied some but felt I would be unprepared. I think this is just you either get lucky studying the right stuff or you don't. Definitely know the parts of a plane and boat and how a plane moves and works (rudder turns l/r, boat/plane moves ___, elevator goes up, plane ___, and the axis and what controls effect that, and I guess just try to read up on your Navy and Military aviation history, you may get lucky or just screwed.
I hated the personality test, it was soo long and I felt I would just randomly choose between options because neither applied to me.
The parking lot test is all practice. Get familiar with it. There are eight possible compass orientations, so I drew them all out on a paper. For the simple you are going N, S etc I could just look at the picture, but for NW etc I needed to look at my paper. This slowed my time down but made me more accurate. I got a few wrong because I was nervous and rushing, but overall I think I did okay. The biggest thing I didn't realize going into this was how important speed was, the other stuff I read suggests getting a time of around 2 seconds, which is just really quick to be able to look at one side, determine what you are looking for, look at the other side and figure it out.
The hearing test wasn't too bad, for some reason I was better on my right than my left but I think it was fairly easy.
The tracking the plane with the throttle was the hardest part for me, no matter what I did I felt like I couldn't get it on the dot. The throttle would go to fast, then too slow and just slide right over the target. The joystick was better, and just using it was good, but combined with other stuff I sometimes had trouble with the up and down direction. It was also really hard to focus on both moving targets, but I found myself focusing on the joystick one, and trying to glance over and constantly move the throttle to get somewhat lucky. Adding the sounds in wasn't actually too much harder, and I think I did okay with this section overall, but it felt like I was doing terrible at the time.
For the emergency procedures I wrote them on my paper, and put which finger I would use to control which knob, and what I need to do. This was easier than memorizing, and I was able to complete them quickly before my screen got red, so I think I did pretty good on this section.
On my throttle, the button you press for the left ear wasn't actually the right one labeled, and I had to press random buttons until I figured out which one actually worked instead of it (which I think is annoying, I asked my recruiter because it seemed like something was wrong and I didn't want to take it and get fucked, but she made it seem like this was normal/happening again, so just be prepared for some of the controls not to work and to troubleshoot it).
I got 68, 8/7/8 and have a GPA of 3.12, with I think some pretty good LORS, volunteer and leadership, so I'm fairly happy but if anyone wants to give an advice on how likely I would get a yes for pilot that would be appreciated
I used the Barron's book and just about every study guide/posts I could find on here.
The math was simple to me (but math typically comes easy to me), I took my time and wrote out the problem. I was more concerned with getting the right answer than speed. A lot of the practice problems and what has been discussed previously covers this section well. There seems to be a lot of questions about number of hours it takes a certain number of people or things to complete a task, and the method to these is find how many total man hours are required to complete it, how many hours each person does, and then find the new time with the total number of people or machines.
The reading was a crapshoot to me, I couldn't tell whether I was getting it right or wrong, and I couldn't tell whether the questions got harder or easier. A lot of the practice problems I found had pretty clear answers, but I found these to be more confusing and struggled to pick between it. In Barrons this section had definitions of random words, which I didn't have on the test. None of the passages seemed too in depth, and were simple to read, but the answers weren't very clear.
The mechanical section for me was much easier than I was expecting. It was mostly intuitive, a couple problems where you actually had to calculate it out but for the most part I could just look and figure it out easily. I think I got lucky, because I really only had problems on questions that I was comfortable with, and not ones that I wasn't. Not much on electricity.
My ANIT test was easier than I was expecting, I studied some but felt I would be unprepared. I think this is just you either get lucky studying the right stuff or you don't. Definitely know the parts of a plane and boat and how a plane moves and works (rudder turns l/r, boat/plane moves ___, elevator goes up, plane ___, and the axis and what controls effect that, and I guess just try to read up on your Navy and Military aviation history, you may get lucky or just screwed.
I hated the personality test, it was soo long and I felt I would just randomly choose between options because neither applied to me.
The parking lot test is all practice. Get familiar with it. There are eight possible compass orientations, so I drew them all out on a paper. For the simple you are going N, S etc I could just look at the picture, but for NW etc I needed to look at my paper. This slowed my time down but made me more accurate. I got a few wrong because I was nervous and rushing, but overall I think I did okay. The biggest thing I didn't realize going into this was how important speed was, the other stuff I read suggests getting a time of around 2 seconds, which is just really quick to be able to look at one side, determine what you are looking for, look at the other side and figure it out.
The hearing test wasn't too bad, for some reason I was better on my right than my left but I think it was fairly easy.
The tracking the plane with the throttle was the hardest part for me, no matter what I did I felt like I couldn't get it on the dot. The throttle would go to fast, then too slow and just slide right over the target. The joystick was better, and just using it was good, but combined with other stuff I sometimes had trouble with the up and down direction. It was also really hard to focus on both moving targets, but I found myself focusing on the joystick one, and trying to glance over and constantly move the throttle to get somewhat lucky. Adding the sounds in wasn't actually too much harder, and I think I did okay with this section overall, but it felt like I was doing terrible at the time.
For the emergency procedures I wrote them on my paper, and put which finger I would use to control which knob, and what I need to do. This was easier than memorizing, and I was able to complete them quickly before my screen got red, so I think I did pretty good on this section.
On my throttle, the button you press for the left ear wasn't actually the right one labeled, and I had to press random buttons until I figured out which one actually worked instead of it (which I think is annoying, I asked my recruiter because it seemed like something was wrong and I didn't want to take it and get fucked, but she made it seem like this was normal/happening again, so just be prepared for some of the controls not to work and to troubleshoot it).
I got 68, 8/7/8 and have a GPA of 3.12, with I think some pretty good LORS, volunteer and leadership, so I'm fairly happy but if anyone wants to give an advice on how likely I would get a yes for pilot that would be appreciated
W
Wildcat15
Guest
Hey AWC, wanted to extend my genuine thanks to all of you who shared your knowledge and expertise on this forum. I took the exam and wanted to finally offer something of value after shamelessly lurking for a year. I’m writing this the day of my exam and my brain is fried, so I apologize in advance if anything is awry.
I scored 53 7/8/7. I’m not certain where this score places me in terms of selection until I discuss it with my recruiter but I’m happy with the performance. I’m notoriously awful at math and spent a lot of my time rebuilding elementary math skills. I haven’t taken a math class since high school so if I can get at least these scores, you can probably exceed them. Trust me. I used every study I could get my hands on in conjunction with all the study guides posted here. The most valuable tool I had was the GRE/GMAT study guide from Arco. I don’t have a math background and it helped immensely.
MST
I was surprised by this section. I spend most of my time studying for this section and I felt like it was the most difficult. I used the entire clock and got through maybe 15-17 questions. It was nothing like the study guides. I didn’t get any logs or matrices. It was a mixed bag between word problems and math knowledge. Mostly probability, DRT, and order of operations. One of my questions was about the probability of rolling and die for a certain number and also picking a card out of a deck with a a certain suite. A very complicated order of operations with binomials raised to the 1/2 and 1/3 power raised to the -1 power. A DRT problem where an airplane will travel xx miles in xx seconds, what was the airplanes speed? This seems like a fairly simple DRT problem, but the answers were all brought out the the hundredth of mph. If I had any advice, it would be to go above and beyond what the study guides ask of you. Most of the study guide questions are fairly simple in their basic arithmetic and the test questions are not.
RCT
Seems to be the great equalizer. Few people “study” for this section aside from daily reading or academic research and I wouldn't know where to begin if you wanted to try and study it. It’s dry and you’ll likely feel indifferent about the answers. It seems like this section was written entirely by pedants hired by the Navy to create the most unexciting, boring written material in existence. Forget previous knowledge and only answer based on the information presented to you. Skim the answers to get a general idea of which part of the passage to pay attention to. If you can’t rule out any answers based on the passage, eliminate everything with vernacular like “always”, “never”, etc.
MCT
Uh, wow. If I had to guess (surprisingly) I would say this section actually brought my OAR score up. It was fairly simple conceptual questions and it got progressively more difficult so I knew I was at least answering most of them right. I saw gasses, levers, pulleys, and some electrical. Like others have said, understand the concepts.
ANIT
For this section I studied flashcards, books, documentaries, etc. As with most people on here I’m an aviation enthusiast and this studying isn’t really studying. I have private pilot flight hours and have gone through basic ground school during the private pilot curriculum so I am confident in my aviation knowledge. The most test-anxiety I had for this subsection was naval terminology and knowledge but it is very easy to study for. I saw some very specific questions along the lines of “LT John Smith was known for being the first pilot to test the nose gear for which of these purposes?” I guessed for catapult landings or something like that. Other than that, I had a question about the color of shirts on an aircraft carrier, naval terminology, weather theory, aviation control surfaces, etc.
NAFTI
Nothing substantial to contribute beyond what others have said.
PBM
Made me reevaluate my existence. You can’t study for this. Fucking good luck and god speed.
I scored 53 7/8/7. I’m not certain where this score places me in terms of selection until I discuss it with my recruiter but I’m happy with the performance. I’m notoriously awful at math and spent a lot of my time rebuilding elementary math skills. I haven’t taken a math class since high school so if I can get at least these scores, you can probably exceed them. Trust me. I used every study I could get my hands on in conjunction with all the study guides posted here. The most valuable tool I had was the GRE/GMAT study guide from Arco. I don’t have a math background and it helped immensely.
MST
I was surprised by this section. I spend most of my time studying for this section and I felt like it was the most difficult. I used the entire clock and got through maybe 15-17 questions. It was nothing like the study guides. I didn’t get any logs or matrices. It was a mixed bag between word problems and math knowledge. Mostly probability, DRT, and order of operations. One of my questions was about the probability of rolling and die for a certain number and also picking a card out of a deck with a a certain suite. A very complicated order of operations with binomials raised to the 1/2 and 1/3 power raised to the -1 power. A DRT problem where an airplane will travel xx miles in xx seconds, what was the airplanes speed? This seems like a fairly simple DRT problem, but the answers were all brought out the the hundredth of mph. If I had any advice, it would be to go above and beyond what the study guides ask of you. Most of the study guide questions are fairly simple in their basic arithmetic and the test questions are not.
RCT
Seems to be the great equalizer. Few people “study” for this section aside from daily reading or academic research and I wouldn't know where to begin if you wanted to try and study it. It’s dry and you’ll likely feel indifferent about the answers. It seems like this section was written entirely by pedants hired by the Navy to create the most unexciting, boring written material in existence. Forget previous knowledge and only answer based on the information presented to you. Skim the answers to get a general idea of which part of the passage to pay attention to. If you can’t rule out any answers based on the passage, eliminate everything with vernacular like “always”, “never”, etc.
MCT
Uh, wow. If I had to guess (surprisingly) I would say this section actually brought my OAR score up. It was fairly simple conceptual questions and it got progressively more difficult so I knew I was at least answering most of them right. I saw gasses, levers, pulleys, and some electrical. Like others have said, understand the concepts.
ANIT
For this section I studied flashcards, books, documentaries, etc. As with most people on here I’m an aviation enthusiast and this studying isn’t really studying. I have private pilot flight hours and have gone through basic ground school during the private pilot curriculum so I am confident in my aviation knowledge. The most test-anxiety I had for this subsection was naval terminology and knowledge but it is very easy to study for. I saw some very specific questions along the lines of “LT John Smith was known for being the first pilot to test the nose gear for which of these purposes?” I guessed for catapult landings or something like that. Other than that, I had a question about the color of shirts on an aircraft carrier, naval terminology, weather theory, aviation control surfaces, etc.
NAFTI
Nothing substantial to contribute beyond what others have said.
PBM
Made me reevaluate my existence. You can’t study for this. Fucking good luck and god speed.
42Zulu
Well-Known Member
Just took the OAR. 27 in April so no need to worry about ASTB. Scored a 61. Sitting in the office now waiting to talk to my recruiter.
I primarily used Peterson's to study, working through the math reasoning, arithmetic reasoning, reading comprehension, and mechanical comprehension sections. I would go through half the questions in the practice test, check my answers, and then figure out what I did wrong. Repeat until no more problems.
Near the end of studying I picked up the Dummies book and took the practice test and got destroyed by the mechanical section. I would highly discourage driving too deep into that book since it really goes into physics equations which weren't on my test. The Accepted book that has been talked on here did talk about certain aspects like logs and mechanical comp questions that Peterson's didn't touch, but don't make it your only guide. I supplemented everything by taking every test prep and gouge on the forum. Massively helpful.
Math: I didn't see many of the questions I expected to see. One log, one simplify this equation, one question with simplifying negative exponents, and a lot of fraction work. The pony question someone posted earlier in this thread was also on it. I thought I tanked this section to be honest as after spending nearly 4 minutes on a question and having only 5 minutes left on the test, I guessed and the section ended.
Reading: The practice tests didn't really help I thought. This was almost exclusively Navy regulations or related things. If I could re study for this I'd read really dry Navy rules and try to make conclusions after each paragraph. Ran out of time.
Mechanical: Not many simple machines questions, but there one where you were asked how far someone should sit on a seesaw based on two others in the other side (ex. Mary is 40lbs, Jack and Jill are both 60, with Jack sitting 1m from the fulcrum and Jill sitting 1.5m, how far should Mary sit to even it out). I had a question on friction coefficient that I guessed, and quite a few questions related to centripetal force. Nothing too crazy. I think Peterson's plus the gouges here do more than suffice.
Overall, I'm pretty pumped. Thought I tanked and as I saw the score pop up I didn't believe it. Don't even quite believe it now even though I'm holding the physical print out with my score on it.
Take your time studying. I called my recruiter a bit over a month ago and with a wife and full-time job I managed to knock out this studying. Use your guides, this forum, and for anything you're confused on, khanacademy.com has the answers.
I primarily used Peterson's to study, working through the math reasoning, arithmetic reasoning, reading comprehension, and mechanical comprehension sections. I would go through half the questions in the practice test, check my answers, and then figure out what I did wrong. Repeat until no more problems.
Near the end of studying I picked up the Dummies book and took the practice test and got destroyed by the mechanical section. I would highly discourage driving too deep into that book since it really goes into physics equations which weren't on my test. The Accepted book that has been talked on here did talk about certain aspects like logs and mechanical comp questions that Peterson's didn't touch, but don't make it your only guide. I supplemented everything by taking every test prep and gouge on the forum. Massively helpful.
Math: I didn't see many of the questions I expected to see. One log, one simplify this equation, one question with simplifying negative exponents, and a lot of fraction work. The pony question someone posted earlier in this thread was also on it. I thought I tanked this section to be honest as after spending nearly 4 minutes on a question and having only 5 minutes left on the test, I guessed and the section ended.
Reading: The practice tests didn't really help I thought. This was almost exclusively Navy regulations or related things. If I could re study for this I'd read really dry Navy rules and try to make conclusions after each paragraph. Ran out of time.
Mechanical: Not many simple machines questions, but there one where you were asked how far someone should sit on a seesaw based on two others in the other side (ex. Mary is 40lbs, Jack and Jill are both 60, with Jack sitting 1m from the fulcrum and Jill sitting 1.5m, how far should Mary sit to even it out). I had a question on friction coefficient that I guessed, and quite a few questions related to centripetal force. Nothing too crazy. I think Peterson's plus the gouges here do more than suffice.
Overall, I'm pretty pumped. Thought I tanked and as I saw the score pop up I didn't believe it. Don't even quite believe it now even though I'm holding the physical print out with my score on it.
Take your time studying. I called my recruiter a bit over a month ago and with a wife and full-time job I managed to knock out this studying. Use your guides, this forum, and for anything you're confused on, khanacademy.com has the answers.
I took the OAR and ASTB yesterday. Scored a 54 on the OAR and a 7/7/7 on the ASTB. Here's what I remember being on it.
Math: Was my worst section. Got a few logarithms, the most complex one was an addition problem involving logs. I feel like 75% were word problems that were similar to the Peterson's guide I used and the current gouges on this site. I didn't use the gouges until later but I feel like they helped me more than the book, and you could definitely get by with just studying the gouges. Averages, percents, and problems on time and distance were plenty. I rushed through this one and I actually had 14 minutes left when I finished. If I go back and retake it I will definitely take more time on each problem.
Reading: This has always been my strongest subject including outside the ASTB, so I didn't really study. I feel like I did alright but there's no way to really tell. My only advice is to study reading comprehension problems.
Mechanical: Handful of fulcrums, an electrical circuit problem, and lots of weight, force, mass, and velocity/acceleration related problems. The Peterson's guide was pretty accurate on this section for me.
Simulators: Just take your time. Read the instructions and know what you're doing before you proceed. If it feels overwhelming and you think you're doing bad, then you're doing it right. Just focus on doing the best you can and you'll be fine. This may not sound very reassuring to you right now but once you do it you'll understand. Playing video games definitely helped, I practiced with a flight simulator on a borrowed stick and throttle set the night before and I think that really helped.
Math: Was my worst section. Got a few logarithms, the most complex one was an addition problem involving logs. I feel like 75% were word problems that were similar to the Peterson's guide I used and the current gouges on this site. I didn't use the gouges until later but I feel like they helped me more than the book, and you could definitely get by with just studying the gouges. Averages, percents, and problems on time and distance were plenty. I rushed through this one and I actually had 14 minutes left when I finished. If I go back and retake it I will definitely take more time on each problem.
Reading: This has always been my strongest subject including outside the ASTB, so I didn't really study. I feel like I did alright but there's no way to really tell. My only advice is to study reading comprehension problems.
Mechanical: Handful of fulcrums, an electrical circuit problem, and lots of weight, force, mass, and velocity/acceleration related problems. The Peterson's guide was pretty accurate on this section for me.
Simulators: Just take your time. Read the instructions and know what you're doing before you proceed. If it feels overwhelming and you think you're doing bad, then you're doing it right. Just focus on doing the best you can and you'll be fine. This may not sound very reassuring to you right now but once you do it you'll understand. Playing video games definitely helped, I practiced with a flight simulator on a borrowed stick and throttle set the night before and I think that really helped.
FormerRecruitingGuru
Making Recruiting Great Again
Austin-Powers
Powers By Name, Powers By Reputation
So I took the ASTB on the fly at my recruiting office where I live: 1/1/1 and 25