Took the test last week Thursday and just wanted to give what gouge I can and add to what has already been said. A bit about my background, I am a merchant marine engineer and a LTJG in the Navy Reserves. Although I am an engineer, all my professional experience in the past 3 years since grad has been hands-on operational with MSC cargo ships. I do have about 60 hours of flight time as well in a small plane. I ponied this format off of caburt1 from a previous post.
I started my prep about a week prior but nothing too extensive maybe an hour a night if that. I bought an SAT math book and the Military Flight Aptitude Tests book 8th edition by Perterson’s from Barnes and Noble. I used the SAT book for extra practice questions in the appropriate categories. I suggest doing this as it will keep you flexible with the math section. The other sections (reading comprehension, mechanical comprehension, Naut. and Air comprehension) I referred to the Flight Aptitude Book for practice, during the test the questions turned out to be close to the same as to what were in the book.
THE TEST
Math
This section was a worry for me, as I think it is for most people who take it. I am in operations so I don’t necessarily use math on a regular basis despite being an engineer and when I do I use a calculator heavily, so relearning hand math was a bit more of a challenge then I thought.
As far as questions I got probability, rate problems, simplification of algebraic functions, a few complex order of operation problems, and simple trig problems (circumference of a circle with a radius of whole numbers) . No Logs or matrixes on my test, although I did study them and simple problems involving them I would say are fair game, like quotient rule for logs.
The rate problems I got were like, if an airplane burns X gal/hr, in Y min, then how many gal will be burned in Z min. These are simple but pay attention to units as most of the time I had an answer that I could get if I forget to convert hours to min.
The section I felt wasn’t too bad if you us the books to study. Within a no more than 3 computations you can have the right answer to all of the problems. I cannot stress enough to not worry about the time in this portion. Do your best on each question, once you answer it forget about it and do not dwell on if you got it right or not as you cannot go back and review it. Be efficient but not fast if that makes any sense. The test is adaptive, look in previous post for that explanation, and I even think that once you answer enough right it ends the test. The reason being is that I got thru maybe 14 to 16 questions, hard to tell because it doesn’t give you a count, and roughly 22 min left on my counter before it ended the test and told me to prepare for the net section. I actually thought that I failed the section so badly that the computer was like “we are done here.” Kinda caught me off guard.
Reading Comprehension
This section of the test was just like in the book, read the paragraph and choose the statement that most represents the meaning of the passage. Most felt like they were from Navy regulation manuals referencing NAVPERS and BUPERS instructions but I did get a few passages that were directly from the practice question in the book. I would say I got more difficult questions then easy ones during the test. Again there was no question counter so it is hard to tell how many exactly but I felt like I did over 20. There is a timer but if you don’t have a question counter so I’m not sure what the point of it is.
Mechanical Comprehension
The gouge on the website here is excellent. Basic physics, a few basic electrical (like what does a resister look like on an electrical drawing) and pulleys are what I can remember but I did have other types. I do remember one pulley problem because I said “what the f*** is this” too myself, it was a weight with line attached in three places suspended but two pulleys that had lines suspended by two more pulleys, looked really complex but just using the rules of pulleys dividing force I was able to simplify it down to two pulleys doing any actual work when you pulled the rope. As for that nothing really too notable in this section from my POV. Again timer but no question numbers from what I can remember.
Aviation and Nautical Information Test
I didn’t get any naval or aviation history, or any lat long questions. This section was easy for me as my civilian job is working on ships and I also fly as a hobby. But for anyone who doesn’t get onboard boats much, a glossing over a nautical dictionary or even watching a few navy ship movies would help, shoot me a message if someone really needs help on nautical stuff maybe I’ll make up a navy quick glance guide. The aviation questions I got were also basic; any student pilot should ace this. If you have neither the book will give you a good start.
Naval Aviation Trait Facet Inventory
There really isn’t anything to add to this section that hasn’t already been said. There are 99 questions, but they go fast. It does say to answer even if both selections do not at all describe you. Sometimes they are both negative, sometimes they are both positive, and sometimes they are a mix.
Performance Based Measures Battery
“UAV” test (Spatial Apperception Test (SAT) replacement)
The “UAV” portion was in lieu of the Spatial Apperception Test (SAT). You are asked to put on the head set as it will ask you the same question both visually and auditory. You are given a topographic type map cut out on the screen, although the location or what the map represents doesn’t matter. On the map you are shown a red dot with a yellow arrow shown direction of travel of level flight. These directions are only in the cardinal directions and basic sub-directions, so N NE E SE S SW W NW. You are then shown next to the map a picture of a field hospital tent with four parking lots each in a cardinal direction, so North South East West, in what I can best describe as Super Nintendo style graphic. Depending on your approach to the target as given to you by the arrow on the topo map determines what parking lot is “the NORTH parking lot” or “the EAST parking lot.” You click the parking lot you think is right and it immediately tells you if you are correct or incorrect and the time it took you to answer. Yes this is a timed event; both reaction time and accuracy are graded I am assuming. Fear not though, there is a practice portion you can do as many times as you want, I think I did it about 30 times before I started. My reaction times when from 5 to 6 seconds down to 1 to 2 seconds once I got the hang of it.
Joy Stick Portion
This I found to be challenging as it involves accuracy and multitasking. The joystick I used that I think is standard is the Saitek X52. The buttons used are the trigger on the stick group and the one of two blue buttons on the throttle group. During the “emergency procedures” you use the two wheels around the both buttons on the throttle group, ill explain more in that section.
You start off with the throttle group. In a ¾ inch with bar with a black background and neon green borders on the left side of the screen it has a light brown basic silhouette of an airplane as viewed from the rear, so tail wings and a whole in the middle for and engine, almost looks like it would be an F-16. The figure goes up and down, differing speeds of course from easy to hard shifting direction at random. There is a basic cross arrow, plus sign with a circle, that you control up and down with the throttle. Your job is to keep it on the airplane as much as you can. Next you are given the stick group. The same airplane figure dances around a roughly 8x8 inch blank area. Again your job is to take the cross arrow and track the target. One thing I found was the joystick is inverted, to push it forward/ away goes down, and pulling back goes up on the screen. That is intuitive if they made it feel more like a flight sim, but it is just an icon on a black background surrounded by a green border, I felt like a mouse or the option for a non-inverted joystick would have been better. Each evolution last about 60 seconds with a short non-repeatable practice part in the beginning.
You do each tracking evolution separately then combine them doing both at the same time. They add a twist though; in the headset they play a series of letters and numbers at the same time, a different letter or number in each ear at the same time. So you may hear the letter “A” in you left ear and the number “5” in the right ear. They then tell you to only listen to a specified ear, left or right switching it in the middle of the tracking test. In all the scenarios they tell you to ignore the letters, but if you hear an even number in the click the trigger, and if you hear an odd number click a specified button on the throttle group. The one saving grace of this part is that the rate of letters and numbers thrown at you is about 2 seconds per letter/number and always at the same time. So it isn’t a jumbled mass, it is with some order. It does sound complicated but it is manageable. Someone who has already taken the test might try and make up a MP3 file simulating this.
I found that I was able to follow the auditory portion well and was fairly accurate with it despite clicking the wrong button when I heard an even number a few times, few being 4, 5 or 6 times overall. But trying to track the little airplane I found nearly impossible. As soon as I had the cross arrows anywhere near the figure, the plane would dart to the other side of the screen. I had my cross arrows on the target maybe 5% of the time, and that is a high estimate. I thought for sure I was going to get a poor score in this section because of that.
“Emergency Procedures” Section
You are given a chance to review three scenarios before the test. Engine Fire, Engine Failure, and a 3rd I cannot remember. You are told how to correct for each of the scenarios using the two rotating wheels surrounding the buttons on the throttle group. One is your mixture and one is your fuel flow I think. Scenario 1 “engine fire”- Mixture to min, Fuel to min. Scenario 2 “Engine failure”- Mixture to full, fuel to full. Scenario 3- Mixture to full, Fuel to middle. You are doing the tracking of the two airplanes in between and during the emergencies and it will ask you all three at different times. Take too long and the screen gradually fades to red, your dead.
So finally, if you lasted this long thru my spiel, are my final thoughts. Overall it was a challenging test but not overly hard. The time issues from the last version of the ASTB has been eased, the biggest advice I can give on that is work efficiently but don’t feel like you have to hurry or rush to get a section done because you think you are running out of time. Do not skip or guess if you can help it as you cannot go back and review questions and I think it is based more on if you get a certain number right anyway. Goes without saying but read the other post about the new ASTB as they helped me out a lot on what to expect. The books are still a good tool on what to expect for the OAR portion. Hope this wasn’t too long I tried to be as detailed as I could so you could build a good mental picture on what to expect. If any sections need further explanation or clarification shoot me a message or post. Oh, and my score all in all was a 65, 8, 8, 8. Also sorry that this is so long, I just saw it takes up a whole page.
I was hoping to get at least all 7's across the board.
