JackSavoie
New Member
Hey everyone! I got a lot of great information here from Air Warriors and a couple other sites that I used to study. I got a 53 8/9/9, so I did pretty good with the stuff here. None of what I am putting here is mine, it was gathered from others.
To be clear, I went pretty overboard with my studying. I was not familiar with most of the concepts in the Math and Mechanical Comprehension sections, so I spent A LOT of time going over those. I probably studied for a total of 3-4 months before taking the test. People could definitely cut that timeline down if they are familiar with the concepts. The Aviation section was familiar to me because I have my Private Pilot's License, and am working towards my Instrument rating. For the most part I did not study for the reading comprehension; the key to this section is identifying which questions are blatantly wrong, and then finding the most accurate answer. I was also told to avoid "absolute answers" like "always" and "never".
For people just being introduced to the ASTB, here is a good overview:
Books: I used the Barron's Flight Aptitude Test and the ASTB Secret Study Guide, you can get both on Amazon. I found these helpful for all sections, but the Barron's had a lot of great aviation/nautical information: (Barron's) - https://a.co/d/9Ba1ck0 (ASTB Secret Study Guide) - https://a.co/d/3Oi0F3U
PBM Simulator: I would practice on the hardest difficulty for both "stick" and "throttle" and do the listening portion at the same time until I got all the listening cues correct and a consistent score of under 120 for "throttle" and under 100 for the mouse. You could definitely get by having scores under 125 though. The only issue I found is that it has you listen to only odd for one target ear and even for the target ear other, instead of listening for both in the same target ear. With that said, the skills translate to the actual test. And it has an emergency procedures portion that I also found helpful; you do need a Hotas system for this though (in the PBM help section I attached a link to the one I used): https://jomo1-1.github.io/ASTB-remade/
Online Study Material: this is what I used for the bulk of my study. It has a OAR guide that is really helpful for knowing which parts to study for all subjects, but in particular, math and mechanical comprehension. You can find that document under the aviation section titled "Air Warriors Study Material- All Sections.pdf". For the math specifically, I memorized the formulas for every worksheet in this section and worked until I aced every test: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1IxIizps2bu2ljw1bYjFPajWv8RYvLWyv
I also used an app only available on apple devices (to my knowledge) called ASTB Prep, its $35 but it was my main way of studying for the UAV section and it has other good study material. I would practice the UAV questions until I consistently got 42 in a row back to back (make sure to turn off the animations for the most realistic version) under one second per question; doing that is the closest you can get to the actual test: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/astb-prep/id1549216388
The Terrain Identification really tripped me up. Even in the app, I would consistently get around 7/10. Again, this app is the only accurate practice of these sections I have found. I think the only reason I scored so high on the FOFAR is because I was getting around 1.3 seconds per question on the other UAV section. I have heard most people do better with the "compass trick", you can look that up on YouTube.
PBM help: I bought a X52 Hotas Joystick and Throttle on Amazon and played Warthunder Simulator Battles in the first person to get used to the devices. Although this helped, I would say the other simulator above was much more realistic for the actual test. This was kind of a way to "study" when I didn't feel like learning anymore math: https://a.co/d/f5mfPyN
Thank you to everyone that has posted here and helped me to get the score I got. Last important thing I will say: It is better to be overprepared than underprepared. Good luck to everyone studying!
To be clear, I went pretty overboard with my studying. I was not familiar with most of the concepts in the Math and Mechanical Comprehension sections, so I spent A LOT of time going over those. I probably studied for a total of 3-4 months before taking the test. People could definitely cut that timeline down if they are familiar with the concepts. The Aviation section was familiar to me because I have my Private Pilot's License, and am working towards my Instrument rating. For the most part I did not study for the reading comprehension; the key to this section is identifying which questions are blatantly wrong, and then finding the most accurate answer. I was also told to avoid "absolute answers" like "always" and "never".
For people just being introduced to the ASTB, here is a good overview:
Books: I used the Barron's Flight Aptitude Test and the ASTB Secret Study Guide, you can get both on Amazon. I found these helpful for all sections, but the Barron's had a lot of great aviation/nautical information: (Barron's) - https://a.co/d/9Ba1ck0 (ASTB Secret Study Guide) - https://a.co/d/3Oi0F3U
PBM Simulator: I would practice on the hardest difficulty for both "stick" and "throttle" and do the listening portion at the same time until I got all the listening cues correct and a consistent score of under 120 for "throttle" and under 100 for the mouse. You could definitely get by having scores under 125 though. The only issue I found is that it has you listen to only odd for one target ear and even for the target ear other, instead of listening for both in the same target ear. With that said, the skills translate to the actual test. And it has an emergency procedures portion that I also found helpful; you do need a Hotas system for this though (in the PBM help section I attached a link to the one I used): https://jomo1-1.github.io/ASTB-remade/
Online Study Material: this is what I used for the bulk of my study. It has a OAR guide that is really helpful for knowing which parts to study for all subjects, but in particular, math and mechanical comprehension. You can find that document under the aviation section titled "Air Warriors Study Material- All Sections.pdf". For the math specifically, I memorized the formulas for every worksheet in this section and worked until I aced every test: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1IxIizps2bu2ljw1bYjFPajWv8RYvLWyv
I also used an app only available on apple devices (to my knowledge) called ASTB Prep, its $35 but it was my main way of studying for the UAV section and it has other good study material. I would practice the UAV questions until I consistently got 42 in a row back to back (make sure to turn off the animations for the most realistic version) under one second per question; doing that is the closest you can get to the actual test: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/astb-prep/id1549216388
The Terrain Identification really tripped me up. Even in the app, I would consistently get around 7/10. Again, this app is the only accurate practice of these sections I have found. I think the only reason I scored so high on the FOFAR is because I was getting around 1.3 seconds per question on the other UAV section. I have heard most people do better with the "compass trick", you can look that up on YouTube.
PBM help: I bought a X52 Hotas Joystick and Throttle on Amazon and played Warthunder Simulator Battles in the first person to get used to the devices. Although this helped, I would say the other simulator above was much more realistic for the actual test. This was kind of a way to "study" when I didn't feel like learning anymore math: https://a.co/d/f5mfPyN
Thank you to everyone that has posted here and helped me to get the score I got. Last important thing I will say: It is better to be overprepared than underprepared. Good luck to everyone studying!
