This is the same post I made in the "Caution new tests are out, and I was the guinea pig" thread.
Just took got done with version 3 about an hour ago. Here's what I found out...
Math - Nothing surprising. Similar to the guide off this site, and the ARCO book. Study those two, and you'll do fine. Only section that I was pressed for time on. Finished with about 30 sec. left.
Reading Comp. - Seemed to be easier than the ARCO book. In the ARCO book there's different types of questions (I.E. what word is used wrong, and pick the one in it's space. or the paragraph above would best be described with the folowing sentance, etc). Well, on the test, they were all the same. You just had to pick out the answer that best described the paragraph or quote. Don't worry. There not long either. I had plenty of time on this test.
Mechanical Comp. - Again, the guide on this website and the ARCO book will serve you well. Nothing surprising. Only one or two electrical questions that I can remember. Make sure to know V= I*R (Ohm's Law). It was on there.
Spacial Apperception - The little plane in the picture, and the picture itself is different, so that took a minute to get used to. It was 15 minutes for 25 questions. I had time to go over them all twice. The angles are little harder to tell, but just use the process of elimination. If it's banking right, diving, and going towards the sea, rule out the ones banking left first. Then rule out the ones going towards the land. That'll usually narrow down to two or three if you can't get it right off. If you study it well enough, though, you should be able to tell what it is without looking at the answers, so all you have to do is find the right one. One thing I did realize though. The ARCO book has the depiction of you going to "down the coastline" as half the sea on the right/left and the land on the other half. I don't remember one "down the coastline" option on the SA. They were either, out to sea, towards land, or out to sea/towards the land at a diagonal. Study them well, and you'll have plenty of time to go back over the to double check.
Aviation.Nautical - This was the section that had the most "I'm not sure" guesses on it. Both the questions about rules of the road were on there. Know what the standard barometric pressure at sea level is. 29.92. If two comm. radios go out, what will the reading on the transponder show? The answers were 7500, 7600, 7700, 7800. Didn't know that one. That's all I can remember.
Aviation Supplemental - A good mixture of all the tests except SA. I do remember a geometry one dealing with SIN. Easy. The Captain told me before this section that there were two that would not be graded. Indeed, those two were hardly even understandable. One was that one about the number is closest to, but there was no number to compare to. When you make it this far into the ASTB, it's all down hill. I didn't find this section to be real hard. Basic nautical terms like bulkhead, forecastle, control tower. Aviation terms like what color are the lights on the taxiway. Blue. There was a few more Reading Comp. and two or three Mechanical ones. One math one that I remember was:
2xsq. + 5x - 3
------------- = 8, solve for x.
x + 3
Overall, I feel very confident in how I did. Thanks to all the gouge on this site, and the ARCO study guide, I think I made what I needed to to get the air contract. Thanks again, and hopefully I've helped out. I know I've taken a lot from this site, so I'd like to give back my share.
While I was going over my SA for the second time, my OSO was talking to a guy that just graduated seniors on speaker phone. It was motivating. I'm out.