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ASTB-E/APEX 4 Experience -DEC 2013

Sal189379

Sal189379

Member
Notorious Nate said:
Took the ASTB-E/APEX 4 today at the NRD Houston.

Scored a 7/7/7 69.

A Little background on me: I'm a senior studying Aeronautical Science at LeTourneau University. We have a part 141 flight school, and I'm an instrument rated private pilot. I'm currently in the process of obtaining a commercial multiengine rating. I have a strong background in math and physics, including courses in DC Electricity.

OAR Portion

The OAR portion is all adaptive, and I'm not sure if it has a set number of questions. You have to answer the question you are on before going on to the next one. No going back, no skipping. This is a bit unnerving, and you can easily spend more time on questions than you mean to.

Math Skills Test

The Math Skills Test was a bit of a surprise for me. It got pretty difficult very quickly. Some rates, times, averages. A big departure from previous study guides was an emphasis on probability and logarithms. I had 3 or 4 logarithm questions. If you can't do logarithms in your head, or at least know how to write it in exponential form, you may suffer. Also, quite a few questions dealt with fractional exponents. Be familiar with those. Another weird one said something like, "A perfect number is one in which all its factors except for that number add up to be that number. One example is 6. Which of the following is a perfect number?" I didn't know how to solve that, and just guessed. Just know that 6, 28, 496, and 8128 are perfect numbers.

Reading Comprehension Test

The Reading Comprehension portion was essentially unchanged. A look at any practice test will get you prepared for this. Best strategy that I have is eliminating the wrong answers. It gets pretty obvious once you start knocking out the ones you know aren't correct.

Mechanical Comprehension Test

Nothing new here really. Some emphasis on electricity. Existing study guides should suffice for this. As long as you've got a good grasp on physics and how things work, you'll do fine.

Aviation and Nautical information Test

Know your Naval designations of aircraft, including before the tri-service designation system. There were two aircraft in that category that it asked questions about. Other than that, know parts of a ship, especially aircraft carriers. There was quite a bit of aviation knowledge. For this, I would study the AIM section of the FAR/AIM. There is a lot of good info in there that you'll be hard pressed to find all in once place elsewhere. Another good one is the FAA Pilot Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. It wouldn't hurt to brush up on aviation charts as well. Take a look at a VFR chart and figure out the scale and what all the symbols mean.

Naval Aviation Trait Facet Inventory

This part is as advertised. There is no preparation you can do for this. Just make your way through it and try and pick the best option.

Performance Based Measures

First part was pretty simple. They show you a North up map, and a symbol of which way you are facing. Then there is a picture of a building and four parking lots and they ask you which one is in which cardinal direction. You need to be fast and accurate for this. They change around the direction you're facing and it can get a bit disorienting. Make some flash cards and practice.

Then you're given a joystick, a throttle, and a headset. First, they start you off by telling you which ear to listen in. Then, you click a button on the stick if you hear an odd number in that ear, and press a button on the throttle if you hear an even number in that ear. Random strings of letters and numbers are fed into both ears. You do that for a bit, then they tell you to use the throttle to track an airplane. The screen is divided into a narrow track on the left with an aircraft symbol in it. It moves up and down and you push the throttle forward to move your pipper up and down to chase it. Not really any good prep for this part. Then you do the same thing with the stick on the rest of the screen, but the plane moves all around. The joystick setup is annoying, and the axes don't make sense. I felt like I was doing it backwards at first. It's not intuitive at all, even for a guy who had all his joysticks set up inverted. Then you get to do both at the same time. You're probably not going to be close to either much of the time, but manage the throttle and the stick the best that you can. Then they bring back the numbers and you get to do those at the same time. It's not pretty, but just do your best, it's supposed to be difficult. Lastly, you get to track both and do "emergency procedures". They were pretty stupid, and I'm not 100% certain they even work if you do the right thing.

Biographical Inventory with Response Verification

Just be honest and answer the questions. Easiest portion of the test. I'm pretty sure it doesn't affect your score at all.


That's it, hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions.
Click to expand...

Will the test scores from the previous OAR exam count? I have a 60 and would like to keep that score.
 
Hopeful Hoya

Hopeful Hoya

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
Sal189379 said:
Will the test scores from the previous OAR exam count? I have a 60 and would like to keep that score.
Click to expand...

Unless you take the ASTB portion within a certain amount of time after your OAR exam (I believe it is 90 days), then no, you would have to take the whole thing over again.
 
T

thorpmt

New Member
Afternoon AW,

I am prepping to take the ASTB for my second time in a few weeks and have found the information here, specifically for the compass direction/target location section helpful as I am certain I completely bombed that the first time around.

My question today (which may be posted elsewhere) is if anyone has found any solid ways to study for the APEX such as an online simulation/video game/prep video/anything really. I scored 5/5/5 my first time around and would like to bump that up a few points this time around before submitting my scores for review.

I have reviewed the majority of the threads on here but if anyone has tips or tricks or anything that worked for you other than just doing well, I would greatly appreciate it. I think having gotten a look at the test once already is going to help me tremendously all around but like everyone, trying to be the best candidate possible.

Thank you all,

Matt
 
Philly93

Philly93

Active Member
Took the test today for the second time: 5/7/5 OAR 45. I'm not really satisfied with my scores so I don't know if I should retake again for a final time.
Any input is appreciated.

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Lauren Valdez

Lauren Valdez

Member
So I recently took the ASTB on Monday and thought I would post my thoughts and results to help others. My score was 48/4/5/5. I actually thought I did worse than I did but I'm surprised.

Math: The majority of my test was on probability and percentages. I had one order of operations question and a few square root questions. Pretty easy stuff

Reading: It was pretty straight forward like the books but the difficult part is reading the passages and all the responses in the time alotted. I am not a computer taker and I kept having to reread my passages which is why I believe I screwed up this part. For the most part they give you two answers that are completely wrong and the other two you have to choose which is best. Pay close attention to detail. They like to put the sentences word for word except will change one word on you to confuse you. So read and pay close attention.

Mechanical: There were a lot of info about circuits and just random knowledge that either you know or don't know. In my opinion its just a bunch of random facts that you can't really study for. Buy know about pulley's. I know there was at least one question on that.

Aviation/Nautical: Pretty straight forward. I had a lot of history on mine, and a lot of boat info as far as starboard vs port and the color of the lights on the ships and runway.

The other portions, PAY ATTENTION TO THE INSTRUCTIONS! I cannot stress this enough. I messed up on the listening portion by accidently pressing the trigger and having to guess at what to do when they started sounding off random letters and numbers in my ears. Just read the instructions and try your best on all the parts. They are difficult. Just focus. On the sound part, tilt your head when they say right/left. It helps with the focus. When they want you to move both airplanes focus in the middle of the screen. It helps to see both planes.

I used the notecards on Proproffs. That was the biggest help, and for the math Khan Academy was great. None of the books were big helps for me. But going back and looking at the notecards on proproffs, all of the questions asked were on there. Hope this helps.
 
Lauren Valdez

Lauren Valdez

Member
Do you know what you are not understanding or missing for the OAR portion? I used Khan Academy for the math and mechanical portions of the test. They have videos and tutorials on everything math and science related. It helped tremendously. The Marine Gouge and proproff notecards are really good too.
 
RenatusRaptor

RenatusRaptor

New Member
Philly93 said:
I used the Barron's study guide, online practice tests, and read threads on here.
Click to expand...

This is essentially what I used as well, with the Cliff textbook as well as Khan Academy to go over subjects I wasn't familiar with. I'm definitely going to retake mine as well.

Rather than using the books I'm probably going to focus on the Math concepts that utterly stumped me, I know that's where I suffered the most. Does anyone have any good testing strategies that helped them get through the exam?
 
Hopeful Hoya

Hopeful Hoya

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
Reading through the thread is a good place to start, definitely helped me focus on a few things I otherwise would have totally missed (knowing what 4 is in binary, for example, which was a question I got on the test).

For me, it was doing as many practice problems as I could find (and redoing them when I missed them). I also tried to focus on the areas most important to the ASTB scores. IIRC, for your PFAR the most important tests are Math, Aviation/Nautical history, and the UAV test.

What took me a while to understand was that it is an aptitude test. It's not trying to stump you and lead you to the wrong answer, it wants to test your thought process and how you analyze an unfamiliar situation. Even the most complex math problems you can solve with very basic operations if you recognize the process through which you can solve the problem.

So, do as many practice problems as you can, try to understand how the test/problems are structured, and stay cool during the test.
 
K

KR1217

New Member
Lauren Valdez said:
So I recently took the ASTB on Monday and thought I would post my thoughts and results to help others. My score was 48/4/5/5. I actually thought I did worse than I did but I'm surprised.

Math: The majority of my test was on probability and percentages. I had one order of operations question and a few square root questions. Pretty easy stuff

Reading: It was pretty straight forward like the books but the difficult part is reading the passages and all the responses in the time alotted. I am not a computer taker and I kept having to reread my passages which is why I believe I screwed up this part. For the most part they give you two answers that are completely wrong and the other two you have to choose which is best. Pay close attention to detail. They like to put the sentences word for word except will change one word on you to confuse you. So read and pay close attention.

Mechanical: There were a lot of info about circuits and just random knowledge that either you know or don't know. In my opinion its just a bunch of random facts that you can't really study for. Buy know about pulley's. I know there was at least one question on that.

Aviation/Nautical: Pretty straight forward. I had a lot of history on mine, and a lot of boat info as far as starboard vs port and the color of the lights on the ships and runway.

The other portions, PAY ATTENTION TO THE INSTRUCTIONS! I cannot stress this enough. I messed up on the listening portion by accidently pressing the trigger and having to guess at what to do when they started sounding off random letters and numbers in my ears. Just read the instructions and try your best on all the parts. They are difficult. Just focus. On the sound part, tilt your head when they say right/left. It helps with the focus. When they want you to move both airplanes focus in the middle of the screen. It helps to see both planes.

I used the notecards on Proproffs. That was the biggest help, and for the math Khan Academy was great. None of the books were big helps for me. But going back and looking at the notecards on proproffs, all of the questions asked were on there. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...




What specific subjects did you study for the mechanical and math portion on Khan academy? I just don't want to waste my time and get straight to the subjects I need to focus on. I definitely will go over everything just to refresh my memory. Thanks!
 
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