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ASTB-E/APEX 4 Experience -DEC 2013

sharkbait1

Well-Known Member
pilot
So as promised, I'll write about my ASTB experience. Scored 52 6/7/6. I have no real flight experience so to speak, with the exception of some basic lessons, so a good portion of my studying was reading the FAA Airplane Flying Handbook and the Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. Between these two, I felt that the majority of the required aerodynamics and aviation information was covered. I do have a strong personal interest in naval/aircraft history, so I was not too concerned with this part. As for everything else...

Math:
I'd say my best resource was Schaum's Outline for College Algebra (3rd edition). I felt that I got the best problem solving with this one, and it has many problems solved for you. It won't teach you math, but as long as you have a good understanding of the basics it will be a great review and exercise tool. Most of my issues are typical - keeping signs straight and the like. My questions were mostly algebraic word problems, in addition to some simple geometry and basic linear equation types. Be comfortable with fractional exponents; I had no logs or matricies. Like many others I used several other study guides - Accepted, Barrons, Arco, but none really seem to capture the word problems. Just when I thought I had a handle, they figured out a new twist...Overall, I felt like I could have studied much less and performed similarly - I may retake, but unsure just yet. Still need to speak to the recruiter about it (he was not present when I took the exam).

Reading:
This is usually my strong suit, so I didn't feel I had too much of a problem. The reading can be technical and dry, but just try hard to stay focused. I would glance at the answer options as I was reading and try to eliminate options based on clear contradictions. The best overall strategy that I feel worked was eliminating wrong answers first.

Mechanical:
Not as technical as I expected - much more theory rather than actual calculations. 2 questions on electricity. I have basic electronics experience from building electric guitar circuits, and this actually sufficed for me. Potential/kinetic energy as expected; know how to apply Newton's laws; Bernoulli's principle, which I felt was more or less the entire section. Oddly though, not a single pulley question. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised - 52 isn't so hot, so I clearly was missing some things along the line.

NAFTI:
Someone else said it before - choose the lesser of two evils. Along the lines of...Which describes you better? "I don't work well with others" or "I often talk back to my supervisors". I literally laughed out loud about halfway through. I've never felt so narcissistic and incompetent, and fully likely to blame others for my mistakes.

Naval/Aviation Information:
Felt like I got through this section easily. Know your basic boating anatomy (transom/freeboard/draft for example). First manned plane to fly supersonic? Wingnuts will know this off the top. The study guides available on this site I feel have a pretty good basic info/dates section for the aviation part. I have been reading that there seem to be more questions on pre tri-service designations, as well as some WWII info. This part all in all went by in less than 10 minutes I think.

UAV:
I felt that I would have this part down better. Make liberal use of the unlimited practice if you need. However, I got used to the headings given in the practice, and they gave different headings in the actual test. So be prepared for anything - on more than one occasion I realized my mistake as I clicked the adjacent lot.

PBM:
I didn't think I had too much trouble with dichotic listening. Throttle the plane, fine. Stick - a bit weird since the fore/aft axis was inverted. I guess it's set up to work similar to the throttle within a 2 dimensional plane (fore is climb, aft is descend)? I grew up playing quite a bit of flight simulator, so the inverted part was a bit painful. Both at the same time - certainly felt humbled. Both with dichotic listening - at one point in the middle all I heard was clicking, the stick clanking, and my repeated use of choice words. The door was closed, so I hope no one important heard. The emergency scenarios are pretty straight forward. I had the scrap paper so I wrote them down. There was no test session for this, just jump in. The program seemed to give plenty of time to execute the procedures.

By the end, I figured I might as well walk out, and that I had no business being there. The officer processor did mention that the scores a similar to what he's been seeing submitted as of recent for SNA guys, so that gave me some hope - but I feel like I'm reading differently on AW. Who knows, maybe he's just trying to let me down easy... I'm not opposed to retesting, and only feel that I would benefit. The questions is, given the rest of my application, will bumping it up a few points really change the package? Then again, if I know I can do better, why not? Will need to discuss this one with the recruiter sometime soon.

That's all I have for now - PM me for any questions.
 

gicze101

New Member
Hey guys,

Took the test last week got a 57 8/8/7, wanted to say thanks to everybody for the help would not have been able to do as well as I did with out the help from here. There is not too much else to report, this feed does a great job of getting you ready for the exam. I did get a log question so they are there. Other than that everything has been said on here several times. If you have any questions feel free to ask be happy to help.
 

masterdebator

New Member
59 OAR and will be taking the rest September 5th. I'm not too worried about the knowledge portions as I am a commercial pilot and working on CFI. Any good ways to study for the performance/UAV portions not mentioned previously?
 

TGL78

ProRec Y SNA/NFO
Hey all just checking in. After not getting picked up in July, I have decided to retest. Thinking of taking it sometime in October. Thanks for all the good info and tips y'all.
 
Hello all, I wanted to thank everyone for posting and helping make sense of an otherwise mysterious test. "Knowing is half the battle" and all that. I know that a couple of people have put up the UAV aperception study guides somewhere on the forums, but I was unable to find them. Any suggestions on where to look? All help is appreciated.

Semper Fi
 

Sundevil106150

Well-Known Member
Hello all, I wanted to thank everyone for posting and helping make sense of an otherwise mysterious test. "Knowing is half the battle" and all that. I know that a couple of people have put up the UAV aperception study guides somewhere on the forums, but I was unable to find them. Any suggestions on where to look? All help is appreciated.

Semper Fi
If you scrolled back a few I mentioned where it is on my explanation. Just scroll through page 8-15 and the PDF is somewhere in between those pages that someone has posted of the UAV. If you can't find it or do not understand then shoot me a message and I'll try to help.
 

Dman9191

New Member
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.
No formula was ever so relevant to me from the time my pilot and I hit the IP until pulling off target. ;)
"Learn it, know it, live it." ~ Brad Hamilton
 

Dman9191

New Member
So I am due to take the ASTB-E in two weeks and I am doing very well on all of the sections except the UAV section of the PBM. I cannot understand it to save my life. Can someone please walk me through it in lay mens terms? It would be really appreactiated!
 

Sundevil106150

Well-Known Member
So I am due to take the ASTB-E in two weeks and I am doing very well on all of the sections except the UAV section of the PBM. I cannot understand it to save my life. Can someone please walk me through it in lay mens terms? It would be really appreactiated!
Shoot me a message and I'll give you my cell number and explain it
 

Mdizzy

New Member
I finally heard back from my recruiter after weeks of no response. I'll be taking the ASTB-E on Oct 2. Wish me luck! Will post scores.
 
If you scrolled back a few I mentioned where it is on my explanation. Just scroll through page 8-15 and the PDF is somewhere in between those pages that someone has posted of the UAV. If you can't find it or do not understand then shoot me a message and I'll try to help.
Sorry for the late reply Sundevil, but thank you for your help and I will let you know if I have any questions. I should be able to find it. Take care
 

Fermi

Active Member
I want to thank everyone who posted about their experience with the ASTB; you have no idea how many of people you're helping.
I just took the ASTB yesterday (73 9/9/9) and I will likewise post my experience to benefit those preparing for it.

In general
I'm not going to beat around the bush: the ASTB is hard. It's supposed to be. Since it adapts to how well you're answering the questions, the better you do, the harder it gets. And even if you're very strong in a category (math, mechanical, ANIT, etc), it won't seem easy because they'll start giving you harder questions. If you don't think the test is hard, you're probably doing something wrong. I have a strong math/engineering background, but I still found some questions on the math and mechanical sections hard. I could usually figure out the answer, but (especially in math) the calculations can take a long time to do. However, time isn't everything. I actually ran out of time on the reading portion (the hardest section IMO) and the computer still spit out a 73 OAR in the end.

Math
If you remember basic arithmetic/algebra you'll be fine. A big focus on word problems, averages, and probability. Also I had square root, log, and perfect number problems. Like I said earlier, there may be some questions that require very long calculations. I had one that required multiplying three 2-digit numbers and one 1-digit number all together. Don't get overwhelmed, just take your time and work through them.

Reading
This section was definitely the hardest. I briefly looked some of the practice tests and thought it would be a cake-walk, but I was wrong. As others have said, its basically like reading a legal contract and picking out very minor details. I was often torn between 2 answers and did quite a bit of 50-50 guessing. I ran out of time of time on this section, but apparently time isn't too important. So like the test tells you to do, work quickly, but without losing accuracy.

Mechanical
My engineering background helped out for this and I thought it went fine. The majority of it is just like all of the study guides floating around here, although I got a few tough questions I wasn't quite prepared for. Know your pulleys; I thought I knew enough about pulleys, but they threw a few questions on there that were quite complicated.

ANIT
Like others have said, know your planes, boats, and aviation/carrier history. I took a ground school course last spring which helped me immensely on this section. If you are struggling with this section, the study guides found on here will really help. Although, like all of the other sections, they will start giving you harder questions if you keep getting the basic ones right. If you don't know much about naval/aviation history, go watch a few documentaries and scroll through these ASTB threads.

UAV
This was exactly as advertised. Find the pdf or flashcards posted earlier and figure out a system that works for you. I missed a couple early in this section, but then started getting a rhythm down. This was one of the easier sections.

PBM
Stay calm and remain focused. The test doesn't expect you to be right on top of the targets all the time, so don't focus too heavily on them. Focus more on the dichotic listening commands than the targets. I don't actually remember this part too well because I kind of zoned-out and ran on autopilot. When the emergency procedures portion comes up, write down the procedures and fix the emergencies as soon as they appear. As soon as an emergency appeared I stopped tracking the targets entirely and immediately handled it.

In summary
The test should feel hard, it's designed to. Just stay calm, don't rush, and focus on the current task.

If anybody has any questions, then by all means feel free to ask me.
 

ea6bflyr

Working Class Bum
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
I want to thank everyone who posted about their experience with the ASTB; you have no idea how many of people you're helping.
I just took the ASTB yesterday (73 9/9/9) and I will likewise post my experience to benefit those preparing for it.
Nicely done and great feedback. Thanks for posting.
 

Mdizzy

New Member
I want to thank everyone who posted about their experience with the ASTB; you have no idea how many of people you're helping.
I just took the ASTB yesterday (73 9/9/9) and I will likewise post my experience to benefit those preparing for it.

Congrats on the awesome score and thanks for the gouge! I'll be taking the test next week. This definitely helps!
 

Fermi

Active Member
Nicely done and great feedback. Thanks for posting.

Thank you sir! I'm happy to see that my experience is benefiting some fellow applicants.

Congrats on the awesome score and thanks for the gouge! I'll be taking the test next week. This definitely helps!

I'm glad to hear that it helped! Good luck next week, PM me if you have any additional questions.
 
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