ASTB study guide

[sailorsash05]

Did any of the questions from that practice test/ study guide show up exactly on the test itself? Because I have been looking at several other practice test/ study guides and it seems like they are reoccurring on there...I was wondering when you took the test if you saw a question IDENTICAL to the ones you saw as you were studying.

The only questions I remembered which were identical is when apex would deliver sample questions before you began the subtest. In the Mechanical section- both my sample questions were word for word. I saw both samples and thought "Yay I knew this would be my easiest section". I was not laughing when I realized half of the concepts on that section I was unfamiliar with.

 

[BusyBee604]

Did any of the questions from that practice test/ study guide show up exactly on the test itself? Because I have been looking at several other practice test/ study guides and it seems like they are reoccurring on there...I was wondering when you took the test if you saw a question IDENTICAL to the ones you saw as you were studying.

I think your missing the point of the practice tests. They give you the opportunity (and all the time you want), to figure out & remember... how to quickly solve a problem OF THAT TYPE, on the actual timed test. Chances that you would get one or more questions identical to the practice tests, are remote. Learn how to solve each type problem in your study sessions, and you'll have few problems identifying/solving them in the actual test, even when the problem is worded differently with different values in the real test.

Another key to scoring well, is to not spend an unusual amount of time on problems you definitely have trouble understanding. Poor test scores result not so much from wrong answers, but more from no answers when testing time runs out.
BzB

 

[Enlisted_Dan]

Hey Guys,

I've been looking around and I can't seem to find the answer I am looking for. Maybe those of you who have already taken the ASTB-E might be able to answer it. Are formulas provided on the test and, if so, to what extent are they provided?

Dan

 

[sailorsash05]

Hey Guys,

I've been looking around and I can't seem to find the answer I am looking for. Maybe those of you who have already taken the ASTB-E might be able to answer it. Are formulas provided on the test and, if so, to what extent are they provided?

Dan

Hi Dan yes there was a formula chart button on the right side of my screen. I never had to use it so I wouldn't know what formulas were provided. My guess would be similiar to SAT but again I do not know for sure. My math section was so basic that I didn't feel like I needed those formulas- plus remember, looking up formulas instead of already knowing them can take time away from solving the problem.

 

[Rhodri Vista]

The thing about the new test is that it varies. My test had no word problems while I have seen others mention that their test was mostly only word problems. The few word problems I had on my test I had never seen before on any previous aids that I had studied from. The concept of how to solve the problem was probably similiar but otherwise it was NEVER word for word identical.

For example, the exam -in the link you posted, there is an average question in the math section. Its the question that Jane has so many test scores and whats the next score needed to get an 82 average? Now on my test I had a question similiar to this. But it wasnt about Jane and it wasnt about scores. Once I recognized that it was an average type question I understood that the point of the question was to add them all up and divide the total by how many you had.

Everything on the test is adaptive. So if you are doing very well, you may get questions about logarithms or matrices. Or for some of us testers we mostly only received a lot of basic algebra questions. PEMDAS was important. PROBABILITY too.

Study with what materials you can, extra knowledge never hurts. But just DONT go into the exam expecting that just because you saw the same question in multiple study aids that it will be on the test or that it will be on the test word for word. I think thats what I had previously thought about the mechanical section- and it proved me very wrong very quickly. You will of course get a different exam than me so your questions and experience will be different. So its like flipping a coin and seeing which side you get. Keep you studies general and not too narrowed and you will be fine.

Thank you for the advice!!! I will definitely try to keep my studying general...

 

[cal1980]

I've bought and studied the ASTB-E book by Accepted Inc. Be careful, it has some clear errors in the questions relating to math, reading, and mech. comp. There's 70 math problems, and answers, but no explanations for each problem. Same for the reading. 20 reading problems, but no explanations. The 29 mech. comp. questions do provide explanations. Like I said, be careful because some of the answers are clearly wrong.

I'm only taking the OAR portion so I can't speak to the remaining sections but I assume there's some errors in those sections as well.

It's obvious it was rushed to publication, but it can be a good review tool.

 

[loui86dz]

Hey Guys,

I've been looking around and I can't seem to find the answer I am looking for. Maybe those of you who have already taken the ASTB-E might be able to answer it. Are formulas provided on the test and, if so, to what extent are they provided?

Dan

The only formulas I remember seeing were for geometry problems. Like how to find the area of a cylinder. However, I didn't really need to use the formulas provided because I didn't rely have any geometry problems. I also wouldn't rely on the formula list for any geometry type questions because the list of shapes didn't seem complete to me.

 

[Renegade One]

The only formulas I remember seeing were for geometry problems. Like how to find the area of a cylinder.

Wow…if I could have had a dollar for every time being able to find the area of a cylinder literally saved my bacon in the air, or especially around the boat on a dark and stormy night…I would have zero dollars.

Seriously…there is a purpose to all of this, distant as it may seem. Hang in there and do your best.

 

[JBanks]

I've bought and studied the ASTB-E book by Accepted Inc. Be careful, it has some clear errors in the questions relating to math, reading, and mech. comp. There's 70 math problems, and answers, but no explanations for each problem. Same for the reading. 20 reading problems, but no explanations. The 29 mech. comp. questions do provide explanations. Like I said, be careful because some of the answers are clearly wrong.

I'm only taking the OAR portion so I can't speak to the remaining sections but I assume there's some errors in those sections as well.

It's obvious it was rushed to publication, but it can be a good review tool.

Hey Cal -

New here. Taking the OAR section in 2 weeks hopefully (depending on when I feel ready). I also bought the ASTB-E book & the OAR book by Accepted Inc, and there are definitely some clear errors. Good review tool as it forces me to go learn the formulas, but can't take it all as is.

Haven't messed with most of this stuff in near 15 years, so taking sometime to come back to me, but hopefully i'll be okay.

 

[ea6bflyr]

Hey Cal -

New here. Taking the OAR section in 2 weeks hopefully (depending on when I feel ready). I also bought the ASTB-E book & the OAR book by Accepted Inc, and there are definitely some clear errors. Good review tool as it forces me to go learn the formulas, but can't take it all as is.

Haven't messed with most of this stuff in near 15 years, so taking sometime to come back to me, but hopefully i'll be okay.

I don't think it is about memorizing formulas as much as it is about how to use the formulas.

The difference of knowing what a 7/16 wrench is and how to remove a bolt using said wrench.

 

[zarevich]

Hey Cal -

New here. Taking the OAR section in 2 weeks hopefully (depending on when I feel ready). I also bought the ASTB-E book & the OAR book by Accepted Inc, and there are definitely some clear errors. Good review tool as it forces me to go learn the formulas, but can't take it all as is.

Haven't messed with most of this stuff in near 15 years, so taking sometime to come back to me, but hopefully i'll be okay.

what kind of errors are you talking about in the new ASTB-E and OAR books? Is it somewhat similar to the test from what people talk about here after taking the test?

 

[navy2014]

what kind of errors are you talking about in the new ASTB-E and OAR books? Is it somewhat similar to the test from what people talk about here after taking the test?

I think they just mean that those review books have practice tests or practice problems and the answer given in the book's answer key is clearly not correct. The Peterson's book had the exact same issues (as well as not being tailored to the ASTB). For example, there was a mechanics question that gave you a lever on a fulcrum and wanted you to say how much force you'd have to use on one end to balance the weight on the other end--the length of the lever arms was given in unrelated variables (x, y), and the answer choices were only in numbers. There was no way to do the problem, and it was clear from the answer key and brief explanation that the problem was written with actual numbers in the lever lengths. Other mistakes are less clear--problem is written perfectly, book just gives the wrong answer--sometimes you know from the explanation, sometimes you wouldn't know unless you know how to do the type of problem.

 

[JBanks]

@zarevich

I think they just mean that those review books have practice tests or practice problems and the answer given in the book's answer key is clearly not correct. The Peterson's book had the exact same issues (as well as not being tailored to the ASTB). .

Exactly. Sorry about the lack of response, been busy! But yup, navy2014 nailed it.

 

[JBanks]

Just per example....if you have the OAR Study Guide by Accepted, Inc.

#52 in the math section is this exact problem : http://www.algebra.com/algebra/home...f-work-word-problems.faq.question.146208.html

They have the answer listed as D, 23 minutes, in the Accepted, Inc book. The answer is 15 minutes, as you can see in the link above. So just make sure you're careful while working through your problems. Don't take their answer key as the "final answer"

 

[JBanks]

Sorry for the spam of replies, but there is no edit function. For those of you still studying/plan on studying/or have purchased the new books, I emailed Accepted Inc and this was their response to me:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Jason,First, I would like to apologize sincerely for our shortcomings in the OAR and ASTB-E books you purchased. We became aware of the mistakes in the math section earlier this week and have been working since to:1) try to find all customers who have purchased this book to offer refunds. This has not been easy as many were purchased by third party retailers that do not want to cooperate and contact customers to offer refunds on our behalf. There are a lot of cogs in the wheel and working with extremely large entities such as Amazon presents challenges since they move very slowly. We will continue on that track as long as needed.2) Most importantly, fix the mistakes. We are about 48 hours out from releasing a corrected version, that I think you will find very satisfactory.

We agree with you, it is ridiculous. There is absolutely no excuse we can make for having missed errors in the math problems, and further, we were mistaken to have no included rationales for the answers. We are going to include step-by-step work throughs for all math questions. Something that again, should have been done in the first place. I can assure you, that this bad situation is not one that was taken lightly. The team responsible for the development and editing of these projects is no longer employed here. This is not to deflect blame onto any individuals, we as a company are ultimately responsible; just an FYI that we as a company do not consider it OK to allow sub-standard material to printed.

I would ask that before you write us off, to please give us an opportunity to fix our mistake. If you have not already done so, please return the books you purchased to the retailer, and we will have a free copy of the new version sent to you as soon as possible. From that new copy, you can make the determination if we hit the mark and whether or not it is satisfactory so that others will have accurate information in the future. In the meantime, we are going to keep pushing retailers to either pull the books from sale so that no one else gets a bad copy and to get the corrections put in before it is made available again.


Finally, I would like to apologize one last time on behalf of our entire team. Your response is justified, and can only ask that you give us a chance to fix it.
Sincerely,
The Accepted, Inc. Team