I finally took the ASTB-E yesterday and somehow managed to pull off a 60 9/9/8. I've done practically nothing but study for the past few months, but I was honestly really fretting over the test and wasn't expecting scores anywhere near above average, so I'm pretty thrilled.
AW was a tremendous resource, and this thread and the "1,001 Questions About The ASTB" thread in particular have some very valuable insight if you dig through them. Here's a description of my experience and a bit of advice.
(WARNING: I thought this would just be a couple of paragraphs but it turned out to be a novel)
Math Skills:
I was by far the most worried about this section, especially after many people said that it was much harder than they expected. I haven't had a math class since I took College Algebra in 2007, and I've never been great at math. This section actually ended up being easier than expected for me. That said, I'm a bit of a slow worker when it comes to math, so my definition of "easier than expected" is essentially "actually able to solve most problems without spending 10 minutes each".
I mostly had word problems that required just a few basic calculations. Two or three of them were about arithmetic mean and were fairly simple to solve. One of them was something like "A person's overall grade in a class is comprised of 50% exams, 30% homework, and 20% participation. Their first two exam grades were __ and __, and their homework average was __. Their last exam grade was 10 points less than their participation grade. If their final grade was __, what was their last exam grade?" I had a probability question involving drawing two successive cards from a deck of cards. I also had a geometry word problem that I recall was about a runner on a circular track, and it gave me the angle of the arc that they ran and it gave me the area of the circle within the track, and I had to determine the distance ran. I also encountered two logarithm problems, which I only learned about a month ago, embarrassingly enough. One of them was a bit too complex for me (although I think I could have done it with a lot of time) and I was running out of time, and I decided to guess on it since I felt like I hadn't done very many problems overall. The fact that I encountered logarithms at least made me feel a little bit positive since the test is adaptive and I knew I wouldn't have gotten those questions if I was doing poorly.
Even though it was easier than I expected, I felt like I probably only got through 2/3 of the total problems at most, so I was off to a start feeling like I probably would have average scores at best. Like I said, just the fact that the vast majority of problems weren't incredibly daunting pretty much qualified as "easier than expected" since I was so worried about this section. Since I still did pretty well, my advice would be to not stress about time too much and just focusing on getting the answers right, even if it's taking you a bit longer than you feel it should. Of course, you shouldn't dwell on one problem if it's going to eat up a huge chunk of time, but don't panic and start guessing on every other problem because you're worried about time. Not finishing all the questions in time doesn't seem to be too detrimental.
As for studying, Khan Academy was an incredible resource. I recommend touching up on anything in the Pre-Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra I/II sections that you're not comfortable with. I also found PurpleMath.com to be pretty helpful for quickly brushing up on things I learned from Khan Academy without having to watch videos again.
Reading Comprehension:
As others have said, the material is often about as dry and uninteresting as you can get. Some of the passages get a bit lengthy (or at least lengthy for being so boring), so you have to really discipline yourself to actively engage yourself in the reading and try to actually internalize the information so it doesn't leave your brain the second you finish reading it. It's a good thing that this section is really early in the test because your brain isn't as fatigued yet. If it was the last thing before the Performance Based Measures, it would be really easy to just glaze over all the information as you're reading it.
One thing that's worth noting is that sometimes the correct answer may so generic and simple that you almost feel inclined not to pick it, but the other choices aren't true or can't be derived solely from the text. For instance, one passage was about different astronomical properties of galaxies and got a little bit technical, so it felt natural while reading it to assume that the answer would involve some of the science mentioned. The right answer turned out to be something like "Galaxies have a number of properties". I had to triple check all the other answer choices, but they were genuinely false. Speaking of which, one technique that can come in handy if you're really not sure what's correct is to read one of the answer choices, then quickly read through the passage again with that answer choice in your head and see if anything about it contradicts that statement. Usually something does, so you can narrow it down pretty easily that way. The key is to be as as pedantic as possible, especially when it comes to the passages that involve Navy directives. The correct answer often comes down to interpreting just a single word in the passage, like "may" vs. "shall".
I finished in time and felt really confident about all my answers. There was maybe only one question that I felt iffy about. I feel that this section is pretty hard to study for and your study time would be better utilized for other sections.
Mechanical Comprehension:
This section was a LOT easier than I expected. It was almost all based on concepts and definitions. The only real math I had to do was on a couple of problems about balancing levers, like "the weight on the left side of the fulcrum is __ and it is __ from the fulcrum. If the weight on the right side of the fulcrum is __, what distance must it be from the fulcrum to balance the lever?", and a very basic mechanical advantage problem that provided the length and height of two inclines and asked which one would require more work to move an object up it. I had one electricity problem which showed a circuit and asked a basic question about how point A would differ from point B (I can't remember if it was asking about voltage or current but it was pretty easy). I also had a few basic questions about pressure, even one as simple as showing a pipe that constricts in the middle and asking what happens to the pressure at that point. There were a few questions about kinetic energy that were pretty simple, like "A person throws an object directly to the ground at 30 m/s, then throws the same object straight up. Does the object have more kinetic energy when it hits the ground in the first situation or the second?". I also got a question about a spinning ice skater, but instead of asking what happens to the velocity of rotation when their arms are tucked in, it asked me what happens to the angular momentum, which is obviously conserved. Be sure you read carefully and don't quickly assume that it's asking about velocity just because you see a picture of an ice skater. I also recall a question about internal energy of an object and one about fluid flow around an object.
Most of the gouge floating around here is pretty helpful, and again, Khan Academy is a great refresher even though it'll focus on a lot more math than you need to worry about. It's still not a bad idea to memorize a lot of basic physics formulas even if you end up not needing them. I was able to finish this section in time and felt quite confident about my answers.
Aviation and Nautical Information:
This section was the one I felt most confident about and I indeed had no trouble with it. If you're applying for SNA/SNFO then this will probably be the easiest section for you to study for since you hopefully already find it very interesting and have probably been learning bits and pieces about it for a long time throughout your life. Of course, it's also an extremely vast section to study for, so it still should be a big focus. I got a question about standard pressure in "Hg (29.92), the term that describes the difference between lift in helicopter blades caused by the retreating and advancing blades (dissymmetry of lift), how many gallons of AvGas should be dumped if the aircraft is overloaded by __ pounds (know the standard weights of AvGas and Jet A, and it wouldn't hurt to remember oil and water too), what piece of aircraft equipment is related to Squawk and IDENT (transponder), and many more things that weren't very surprising based on what I'd studied and already knew. The aviation history questions I got were regarding torpedo bombers in WWII (I knew that the only torpedo bomber in the answer choices was the Grumman Avenger) and the first manned aircraft confirmed to fly faster than the speed of sound (although they used the original designation of XS-1 instead of X-1, which threw me for a loop for about half a second). I didn't get very many nautical information questions (which I was happy about since although I studied a lot, my knowledge of aviation is a million times better), just two or maybe three about the different parts of a ship.
I wasn't keeping track of how many questions I had answered but I believe this section cut me off early, which I took as a good sign since I felt 100% confident about every answer. I read all the gouge I could find on the forums, in the Accepted Inc. ASTB-E book, the Military Flight Aptitude Tests for Dummies book, and the ARCO Military Flight Aptitude Tests book. Those three books all had a lot of overlap in the aviation/nautical information though so I wouldn't necessarily recommend going out and buying all those books. I also read about 1/3-1/2 of the FAA's Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, which was pretty helpful. I've been an aviation nut my whole life which probably helped, but I still did a lot of studying for this section. I also used to work line service at an airport, have a little bit of dual instruction flying time (and a bit more non-official flying time), and have been a flight sim nerd since I was about 7, so I feel I have a pretty firm grasp on this stuff.
Naval Aviation Trait Facet Inventory:
This section is really simple but gets grueling because it will make you feel like a terrible person by the end. It's comprised of picking between two statements that best describe yourself, and usually they're both pretty bad. For example, I think one of my pairs was "I sometimes do not pull over for emergency vehicles" and "I often talk back to authority figures". It gets tough but just try to pick the option you think is least bad. Occasionally I also got two statements that were good and had to pick between the two, like "I firmly believe I am capable of handling challenges" and "I can excel at a novel task given enough time". I have a big interest in psychology and I'd really love to know the inner workings of how this section is scored, but of course that's kept under close wraps. My suspicion is that even multiple pairs of positive statements can theoretically lend insight into whether your motivation for accomplishing things is based on your own personal satisfaction/advancement or for the benefit of a team or other people, but I could be wrong. Anyway, there's no way to possibly study for this section. Just be honest and don't spend too much time because there's a LOT of these, and you'll start to overthink them really quickly and it will just get harder and harder to make a decision. Someone else on the forums described this section as asking "Are you a dick or an asshole?" and I really laugh at that now because it's an absolutely perfect description of what this section is like.
Performance Based Measures:
Before taking the test, I was actually feeling quite excited and confident about this part. I had read often about how hard it was, but since I've been into flight sims for so long, I thought maybe it would be a little bit fun. Nope. It's really just a big stress test!
The Spacial Perception/UAV Parking Lot test is pretty straightforward and has been described quite a few times here. The Air Force TBAS flash cards are a great resource for this if your brain hasn't quite learned to translate the positions from perspective to perspective quickly. I practiced with those quite a bit and felt like I was able to totally nail them in 1.5-2 seconds or less each time. However, I didn't do quite as well on the test, mostly due to pressure. I think I missed 3 of them because I started focusing more on response time and it tripped me up a little bit. In addition, some of the compass headings you'll get won't be increments of 45 degrees like with the flash cards, so that slowed me down a tiny bit since my brain was used to seeing the perspective being directly aligned with a plane of parking lots (like a cross) or aligned with a plane directly between parking lots (like an X). I was also used to just reading the word of the direction of the parking lot to identify rather than hearing it through headphones, so I was a little slower than I would have liked at first because I'd find myself waiting for the audio to finish before fully focusing on the task. I'd say my average reaction time was around 1.8-2.5 seconds. Of all the things in the entire test to study for, this is the easiest in my opinion. Use those flash cards and get your brain used to thinking this way.
The vertical tracking and multi-axis tracking parts are interesting to say the least. My testing center had a Thrusmaster Cougar joystick and throttle, which initially I thought was awesome since it's an extremely nice setup and one which I've owned before, but in this particular case, I feel like it was a slight disadvantage. It's great for smooth, precise movements like realistic flying, but for the erratic, extreme variations in input that you need to do for this section, the heavy resistance of the stick and throttle just made it more difficult. The throttle also has idle and afterburner detents located at roughly 25% and 75% through the range of travel, which is another added layer of difficulty for the vertical tracking. The most infuriating thing about the vertical tracking was that any input greater or less than 50% of travel on the throttle seemed to not only have a delay, but an inertia. For instance, if you moved the throttle from its middle position to about 40% and then stopped, the targeting reticle seemed to continue moving down unless you gave the throttle a quick nudge back towards 50%. In a real aircraft, it would be like moving the throttle from 50% to 40% and having the engine power continue to decrease all the way towards idle unless you moved the throttle up again to stabilize it. The amount of inertia seemed to be increased towards the farther ranges of travel, making it almost impossible to accurately track the target if it was moving up or down the axis at a high speed. The multi-axis tracking with the joystick didn't have the weird inertia and it was a little easier, but still got very, very difficult. The Y-axis was inverted, which would make sense for a first person view of an aircraft, but feels unintuitive since you're essentially looking at the inputs on a coordinate plane. I was able to adjust to it pretty quickly during the first multi-axis portion, but once dichotic listening or emergency procedures were thrown into the mix, it screwed me up a lot and I would move the Y-axis in the wrong direction.
As many have mentioned before, during the dichotic listening and emergency procedures portions, you will definitely feel like you're doing HORRIBLE. It feels truly chaotic. The main thing is to just stay calm and keep trying. Don't let yourself get flustered. I tried to "practice" for the dichotic listening a few times by generating a long audio file of random letters and numbers on each side of the stereo spectrum and listening to it while flying the Microsoft Flight Simulator X Red Bull Stunt Team qualification course mission (probably the most demanding kind of flying you can do in that simulator when it comes to stick and throttle inputs), and trying to administer the same kind of test on myself as I had read about for the PBM. It may have helped a little but the PBM is much, much more intense. One thing that threw me off about the dichotic listening is that one of the sections had each side of the stereo spectrum say a letter/number at the EXACT same time, which made it a lot harder to decode which side said what. However, at one point I recall there being a delay on one side (i.e. left side starts speaking, then the right side starts speaking 0.3 seconds later), which is how my "practice" audio file was and made it a lot easier. As others have said, I feel it makes the most sense for the dichotic listening or emegency procedures to be your first priority, the joystick tracking to be your second priority, and the throttle tracking to be your last priority (I guarantee you will rarely be tracking the throttle adequately).
Definitely write down the emergency procedures when the instructions describe them to you, and during the calibration section, pay attention to what direction of turn of the rotary knobs corresponds to an increase or decrease in value for that axis. For instance, on the Cougar's ANT ELEV knob (which I believe was the Engine/Power knob for the PBM), pushing the knob fully forward actually registers 0% and pulling it fully backward registers 100%. For my instructions, I wrote them as simply as possible, like "FIRE: TOP KNOB FORWARD, BOTTOM KNOB FORWARD" instead of something like "FUEL KNOB 0, POWER KNOB 0" which would have required more mental decoding to remember which knob is which and which way I should rotate it.
Biographical Inventory with Response Validation:
This section is completed on your own time at the location of your choosing since it's not academic or timed. These are just questions about your background, hobbies, and interests and there's quite a lot of them. They can get pretty granular, like "What was the major of your best friend in college?" or "What was the size of the town you lived in when you graduated high school?". The majority of them ask about involvement in sports and outdoor hobbies, as well as involvement with projects relating to math, science, and engineering. Before I started this section I figured I would seem like an absolute underachiever since I didn't play sports in high school or college and only have won a few awards, but I actually felt like I was able to contribute to probably more than half the answers. The answers are multiple choice, which allows your scores to be generated after completing it (although it doesn't spit them out, you still have to hear from the test administrator, your recruiter, NMOTC, etc.), but for the majority of things you're able to provide a meaningful answer to, you'll be required to also type in a short description, meaning that someone will manually review those answers at some point and may ask for verification. I received a few awards in high school and college so I'm wondering if I'll be hearing from someone soon to provide verification of those.
Congratulations, you read all the way to the end of my novel! Now go study!
