• 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

I didn't pass the ASTB...any tips for next time?

Status
Not open for further replies.

SJHipple

Registered User
Hey everyone,

I took my ASTB today and got a 4 in an area that I needed a 6 (It had to do with Spatial and Nautical sections). I'm wondering if anyone has any tips for studyign. I've been using the Arco Study guide as well as info from this site. I'll practice the Spatial portion more, but the nautical section seems to be an endless amount of information.

Any tips? Any other study aids out there I could use?

Thanks!
 

mmx1

Woof!
pilot
Contributor
Spatial is all about getting the questions fast. You should be able to do them in 30-40 seconds, since you have 15 minutes for 30 of them. It sucks that you can't write on the exam; it'd make eliminating choices much easier. There are four things to look for:
1. direction of bank - to right or left? The side where the horizon is higher is the side it's banked towards.
2. Degree of bank. I believe on the test you have to distinguish between 30 and degrees. This is not as simple and I would leave this off unless the other three aren't good enough
3. Pitch. Up or down? Should be fairly obvious. For a banked plane, the foolproof method is to compare the amount of sky on one edge of the picture with the amount of ground on the other. More sky = climbing, more ground = diving.
4. Direction relative to shore.

You should be checking these in a rote manner. Practice until it's automatic. Use a hand as a model airplane if it helps you visualize. (I did). Position your hand as you go through each of the checks, using the edge of the paper or the desk as the coastline. Also, an easy check you can do sometimes, is to ask if the low wing is pointing to land or water.

The gouge from here is good for 70-80% of the stuff on the aviation/nautical part. If you get a ~70% I think it's passing. That section can be tough if you've never learned this stuff before; I haven't found a good central source for all the info. Know the dates of founding of the Navy and the Marine Corps, what Tun Tavern is, who John Paul Jones is and why he's important. Look up the Marine Corps and Navy in an encyclopedia (wikipedia.org is a great online one) and know the early history.

Nautical: take the test here. You can ignore the safety stuff. The important things are nautical terminology, and markings for sea lanes.
http://boatingbasicsonline.com/

I studied from the FAA's Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. It's a bit overkill but it does have everything the Aviation part covers (minus some military things). Things you will want to know: how runways are marked. terminology for various cloud types, and basic meterology.

Of course, know the parts of an airplane (you do want to be a pilot, right? :-D ), various propulsion systems, and the typical instrumentation. The handbook is a good source for all of that. Try to find it in a local library or perhaps from pilot friends. I ended up buying it.

Good luck!
 

mmx1

Woof!
pilot
Contributor
the gouge I was talking about is here, in the second post down.

http://www.airwarriors.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5804

You know there's an ASTB forum here too, right? ;-)

Go thorough that, folks have posted pointers and their own study guides in there. Those helped me a lot. Go to the bottom of the forum page and set to show threads from further back to see older posts.
 

corpsocgmu

Marine Officer
pilot
You can improve a lot of the spatial perception part a lot by just getting used to the questions. With enough familiarity with the trash, you'll just begin to get a feel for it. As for the nautical parts, check out the links that were postedl; they are a good start. Not everyone can study for that the way I did; living in a navy town for 20 years. :icon_tong Good luck to you.
 

lugginjugs

Not a good flight for SNA...but good enough.
You've seen the test now to know exactly what they ask and show and how they do it. When I took it a couple of years ago I thought the ARCO manual did a good job of preparing me. Keep looking at the things that resemble the test. I don't know that you'll need anymore than that. It goes without saying being able to quickly assess attitudes and cues of relative motion will help you on the test. Budget your time. Do not stress out - you can't think well if you're letting the test or your previous experience with the test affect you. It sounds obvious but when you pass that ASTB next time and someday you are observing somebody having a bad day in the cockpit (maybe you if you're objective) you'll really see what I mean. Funny thing about it is I did really well on the test (that part anyway) and I got to the plane and had a few times (more than a few) of thinking "oh **it I'm confused". The only remedy is more practice even if it's the same thing. We chair fly the same mundane thing over and over, right? Your brain can discriminate quickly. Train it and don't freak out. Good luck.
 

motv8r

Where do I sign up?
SJHipple said:
Hey everyone,

I took my ASTB today and got a 4 in an area that I needed a 6 (It had to do with Spatial and Nautical sections).

What section did you get the 4 in?
 

SJHipple

Registered User
The nautical and spatial sections are the ones I need work in...I don't know my exact scores...I do remember that one of the sections I needed a 6 in, I got a 4
 

sgtdube

USMCGRUNT
I googled nautical terms and aviation terms, it seemed to have alot of stuff on both and I learned more there that helped me then my actual time in the service. Good luck.
Sgt Dube
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top