ASTB in 2 days?

[Geese]

Well, it's possible. I just got back my scores (took 2.5 weeks),

AQR 7
PFAR 8
FOFAR 7
OAR 58

I am a flight instructor, so anything aviation related I can virtually do without any thought, and my dad was a senior cheif, so he called lots of house-hold items by their nautical name, "hey, wake up and clean the deck", "get your butt through that bulkhead", and so on, we also had a boat so with nautical and aeronautical, it was a breeze.

I studied my butt off for the math questions though, I'm relieved to see that my scores are pretty good because I for one think the word problems are tough. I spent one afternoon and virtually all night studying, then took a short rest for sleep and spend the entire next day and part of the night, and then took it the following day. It's not that the math is tough, it's just knowing exactly how to lay it all out, and you don't have time to "figure it out", you have to know then how to do it, or if you don't, guess. Don't "try" to figure out the math problems, that's where you'll be killed for time. Time is the killer.

The mechanical stuff was really easy, common sense, simple pully ratios, leverage ratios, understanding of pressure, and torque.

I would have liked to have my OAR be a little higher, but it's obviously the "entire picture", which for me is pretty good with 3.778 GPA and a plethora of other things. I'm going for NFO, so these scores will definitely work for me.

I'm definintely relieved though! I was pretty tense during the period where I had to wait for my scores.

BTW, my one real suggestion for anyone that want's to nail the math "word" questions that may be in a similer situation to me with decent aeronautical and nautical knowledge; Just buy some guides/texts that focus on word questions. The word questions on Form 5 were similer, but different from the ones in every gouge/practice booklet out there. It's not that they were radically different, but they were different enough to make the gouge/practice ones fairly irellivent. There were no "average" problems asking the same thing as in the gouges, there were no "Sgt Slauter fired X rounds of ammunition and then fired 4300 more rounds..blah blah", the trig was BASIC, but the word questions definitely can trip you up if you are not ready for them. They don't really spend a lot of time on such things in college, in fact I guess the last place I was really exposed to such questions was in high school??

BTW2, I noticed a total of 3 questions that were wrong in my form. Only one was marked, it was the one that asks you to find the closes number to a number that doesn't exist in the test booklet. The other was a pressure question, that asked you at what point in a piston would the pressure be the highest if a force was exerted on the piston. The problem with the question was that it refered to points "A" and "B" and I think "C" in addition to the correct answer that the pressure is "the same" in a hydraulic system no matter where you measure it. There were no point's "A, B and C" marked on the diagram though. There were arrows, but someone FORGOT to mark in the names of the points. The way that pressure works though is that it will be the SAME throughout a system, so if you take this form and have this question and it's messed up, remember that pressure in a system, whether its hydraulic or pneumatic, is the SAME everywhere in the system. That way you don't "guess" the wrong answer. Another question was somewhat of a word-math question in the supplumental section, and I believe it layed out two different native american reservations, and gave percentages of a certain group of people. The question asked you which reservation had more of a certain kind of people, the problem though was when it was giving the population of one, the number was something like 4,5420. The comma is in the wrong space, so it was impossible to know if the number was supposed to be 45,542 or 4,542. I am not giving out the "real" number here, because I don't remember it, but that was exactly what it looked liked. I tried to choose the "safest" answer on this one, but the officer giving me the test said we could challenge this question (and the hydraulic one) if need be.

BTW3, is there a faq on the scores, as to a breakdown of the OAR? Thanks.

Well, now I can move forward!

 

[Morgan5s]

Good Job.....Good Scores

thanks for the insight.....i'm also a flight instructor and am hoping that the aeronautical info is relatively basic....my main concern is the math and mech section...... if you can think of anymore helpful info "don't hesitate to post"...

thanks again

 

[Box]

I had the same test a week and a half ago when I took it, and noticed the exact same problems! I was like WTH!?! How the heck am I suposed to answer these?? lmao. I just guessed and hoped they were some sort of personality questions or something.

 

[Geese]

thanks for the insight.....i'm also a flight instructor and am hoping that the aeronautical info is relatively basic....my main concern is the math and mech section...... if you can think of anymore helpful info "don't hesitate to post"...

thanks again

Yeah, don't sweat the aeronautical knowledge, it's basic private pilot level stuff.

Favorite questions;

-What does the pilot use to bank? Ailerons.
-What does the pilot use to roll? Ailerons (again)

And I think there were two other questions that were somehow asking what instrument indicated the bank of the aircraft. Both of the answers were "attitude indicator", the turn and slip can show you direction of bank, and the turn indicator can show you rate of roll by how fast the miniture airplane is displaced, but these were not options on the question as far as I can remember. In other words, there were some redundant questions in the aeronautical section (may have been one in the supplument) that asked virtually the same thing, with the same answers.

Mech is easy, and when I am talking about the pulleys and stuff, all you have to know are the simple relationships, like two pulleys halves the required force, or a ratio for an incline, or the fact that in a hydraulic system the pressure is the same everywhere, it's real basic stuff, easier than many of the mechanical gouges out there. Remember that when balancing something torque on one side must equal torque on the other, and that is lever arm times force. Very very simple physics. It sounds like you are in a similer boat to me (pun intended). Definitely focus a lot on the word problems, not in terms of being able to answer the SPECIFIC ones in the gouges, but being able to answer nearly ANY word question presented to you, and that requires study above and beyond the gouge. Nautical information isn't too hard, it was similer to the gouges, but you have to be aware that there's a broad range of questions they can ask, terms that you may not have seen on gouges.

As a CFI, I'd assume that the spacial appreciation would be fairly simple for you. Visual pitch/bank attitudes that you teach to students are exactly what this is centered around. So by concentrating on the picture, you can automaitcally tell "aircraft is cimbing, left bank, going out to sea", find the picture that matches and you are good. As a CFI I had a lot of good instruction on setting pitch attitudes and teaching them to students, so this section was a breeze, and I'd assume it would be pretty darn easy for you.

Good luck!