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1,001 questions about the ASTB (post your scores & ask your questions here!)

BDavis11

Well-Known Member
Contributor
You’re a beast!. Regarding VFR rules did they ask you for specific rules? Or just what it was? Also did they give you equation like surface area on the math portion? Also what do you mean that the UAV practice used arrows and the test did not? Did you use the UAV compass trick and still struggle?
the flashcards aren't like how it is on the actual test. it has more of geographical map with a pinpoint. its a few flash flashcards that have them but majority have your typical arrow which is much simpler.
 

BDavis11

Well-Known Member
Contributor
Hey everyone,

I’ve been using AW to study for the last few weeks. I recently took the ASTB and feel obligated to share my scores and advice given how useful AW has been to me. I scored a 64 9/9/9. I’m really happy with the scores and was pleasantly surprised.

My background: I have about 350 hours of single-engine flight time and a commercial pilot’s license. I don’t play video games and didn’t play any games to prepare for the ASTB.

General resources used: Barron book (only the astb test section, and astb pertinent study sections), Marine gouge, AW (about 50-60 pages back), OAR math guide by Miro, practice problems in the ARCO GRE math book, Kyle’s drive, and briefly the FAA’s publications (FARAIM, PHAK).

AW, Kyle’s, and the FAA pubs were king for me. AW has a ton of resources and I HIGHLY recommend people go back at least 50 pages…also use the search bar!!

Math: Volume, surface area, work problems, exponents and roots, DRT, venn diagram probability, combinatorics. Kicked out with about 5 min left. Heed the previous AW posts on exam questions!!!!!!

Reading: It’s really dry, y’all. But I pretended that I was highly interested in each paragraph. I wrote down A-D and crossed out answer choices as I eliminated them. I read it to myself out loud multiple times and made sure that whatever choice I went with came directly from the reading. Took the whole time.

Mechanical: My weakest section. Circuits, springs, ideal gas laws, kinematics (velocity and acc), pulleys, no levers, no calculations. Whole time, 15 min?

ANIT: My strongest section because of my flying history. The test went DEEP on flying, such as VFR rules and aerodynamics. I hoped it was because I was doing well. Some Naval history that is already floating around and boat parts, no aircraft parts or axes. Kicked out with about 3 min left.

UAV: I really struggled during the practice on exam day with this as the cards I had used had the compass arrow. I had to adjust quickly but then again one can practice as much as needed for this section on test day. I practiced a ton on test day haha. I used the compass trick and missed one. So mad but I’ll take it.

PBM: As chaotic as previously stated many times in previous posts. Knowing this actually helped me immensely. I knew my suck was most likely normal. This calmed me down. Those damn aircraft are quick buggers. I tried to lead it to where I thought it was going and also was as smooth as I could be while doing it. I think the combined dichotic listening section was easier for me sense I’ve flown in dense airspace and have had to fly while communicating with air traffic control. I leaned when I could towards the ear, but actually felt capable of flying and listening, luckily. The letters/numbers are not spoken that quickly. The throttle that was used to track the side aircraft had some stops at the most extreme ends of the control (all the way up and all the way down). I tried to avoid these zones as it wouldn’t move for a few seconds if I went extreme up/down. I tried to instead catch the fella on his descent back down and ascent back up. Again, it is awfully hard, but just do your best and relax.

Emergencies: Write them down of course, but I got my first emergency and the first required item was already in place, so I just skipped over to item 2 and clutch…it didn’t register. So, I quickly went through it again and it cleared! Be prepared for weird stuff like this.

Good luck, y’all. Take your time to become as prepared as you can. Bring a snack and some water. Thank you to everyone who previously posted. You all helped me tremendously. Tailwinds.
for the emergency procedures, which color was high and which color was low?
 

user24

New Member
You’re a beast!. Regarding VFR rules did they ask you for specific rules? Or just what it was? Also did they give you equation like surface area on the math portion? Also what do you mean that the UAV practice used arrows and the test did not? Did you use the UAV compass trick and still struggle?
Yes they did ask specific rules. They gave a few equations for surface area and volume, but I couldn't match the question's components to the given surface area equations. Maybe I just wasn't able to do it.
 

user24

New Member
for the emergency procedures, which color was high and which color was low?
I don't remember, sorry. I just learned which way to turn the knobs during an instructional period before the PBM began, as it has one calibrate the knobs, throttle, and stick before beginning the exam.
 

BDavis11

Well-Known Member
Contributor
I don't remember, sorry. I just learned which way to turn the knobs during an instructional period before the PBM began, as it has one calibrate the knobs, throttle, and stick before beginning the exam.
do you remember if high was up or down? I had read the procedures of some post on here and when i took the test for the first time the procedures on the test didnt really line up so i kinda fucked that one away. im hoping to do much better the second time around
 

user24

New Member
do you remember if high was up or down? I had read the procedures of some post on here and when i took the test for the first time the procedures on the test didnt really line up so i kinda fucked that one away. im hoping to do much better the second time around
High was up I think
 

angeblas

Active Member
do you remember if high was up or down? I had read the procedures of some post on here and when i took the test for the first time the procedures on the test didnt really line up so i kinda fucked that one away. im hoping to do much better the second time around

pretty sure that high is up. i messed up on 2 of the emergency procedures because i forgot to hit clutch after.
 

Mouselovr

Well-Known Member
Contributor
First time taking ASTB, no flight experience, learned everything from this website 51 6/7/7. Not a perfect score but its competitive and I'm proud.
Looking to apply SNA/NFO if I ever get called to MEPS lol.

Little bit about me:
Magna cum laude, BS in Biology from a mini ivy. 22F, D1 goalkeeper, All-Region team (rank under All-American), brief time with team USA. Graduated in May with a job offer as a fed contractor which was rescinded. Was talking/ being recruited by a bunch of funded PhD programs in my fields bc I love research. Started to realize academic/post doc careers sounded like a nightmare. Always have had an interest in the military. Didn't join ROTC at uni bc I was on a full-ride for sports and my school only had Army ROTC. Been a gamer throughout my life which helped massively.

Things I didn’t know about the exam:
  1. You get tons of time between the sections. I used this to write stuff down for the next section and hype myself up.
  2. Legit was just locked in a room by myself and a computer with the tech guy listening to music next door. No one watching you so I just talked to myself through most of the test haha.
  3. If your software crashes, it will save where you left off. I promise. It happened to me like 4 times.
Math: Started off strong with some sqrt, “working together problems” then the software crashed (first time of many) then the questions ramped up exponentially. As in probabilities and solve for X type problems I’ve never seen. I felt like I was missing “a trick” in all these Qs since most of the problems used basic concepts but had a twist/ impossible to solve without a calculator or without spending 10+ minutes. Never got to logs or matrices (studied them anyway). No DRT problems.... Prob my worst score. I think I just had bad luck as I do not think I could have prepared better tbh. I’ve taken up to Calc 2 and gotten As all throughout math. I wouldn’t consider myself an expert, but this was certainly a shock to the system..... test got exponentially better from there. Kicked me with ~5 mins remaining.

Reading: Mostly boring stuff. There was no “questions after the reading” like many of the practice problems, just an bunch of closely related statements where you pick the best option. Nothing to report that others haven’t said. I wrote down A,B,C,D And scratched them off as I eliminated choices. I’ve taken the GRE, so I used a lot of similar strategies. No vocab.

Mech: My most painful classes in college was a year of calc based, engineering physics. I went to an engineering school, I was a life science major, and this was the only option you could take. At the time, it made me want to rip my hair out. For this exam, even the hardest questions seemed easy. Def my best section on the OAR. Levers, pulleys, no circuits. Luck balance out from the math section :). There was a chem question related to heat transfer I wouldn’t have known without my prior knowledge. Software crashed once in the middle here too. Kicked me with ~10 minutes remaining.

ANTI: Since I learned all the aviation info from scratch, I was a bit nervous going into this section. I used all the guides I could find and I read the chapters of the FAA handbook. No matter how hard you study, you will have questions you don’t know. I used this forum and read back to page 250. Pretty much ALL of us use the same study resources, so of course, we all get caught on the same problems. Had the infamous “converted to tanker during Iraq question” (it’s the Tomcat NOT Viking, Viking wasn’t even one of the choices). I was asked what elevators do like 4 times lol. Which one of these is not a real boat (i think it’s a U boat which is a sub)? Didn’t know, guessed. And another one about a plane used in Vietnam (I only knew the Growler, so I put that). And “you are flying at 360 and a wind it coming in from 270 at 15kts?, how much do you adjust to stay on course.... or something like that.... (Adjustment = wind speed sin(360-270)). Got kicked after ~5 minutes.

UAV: Probably averaged 2-3seconds. Did not use the compass trick but wrote out all the possible combos. Use the flashcards as a practice but note that the test looks a little different and only looks similar to the 2nd half of the cards. You can do these super quick if you look at the direction, match it to your paper and LISTEN to what direction they want. This technique is really easy to implement on the exam, harder to do beforehand unless you have someone yelling directions at you haha. Didn’t get one wrong. A HUGE boost to my scores. At first, I was really nervous, but as it went on, I got into a flow.

Listening: I asked the tech guy to increase the headphone volume and it crashed the whole computer, so that was fun. After about 10 minutes, the computer booted back up and I prayed it would restore my session. Fortunately, it did! I used the leaning trick and it worked great. I didn’t realize when the test had started and I was confused on the directions, so I def screwed up the first couple sets. After that, I read all the instructions and had no problems.

Tracking: Be warned, they legit give you a MOUNTAIN of text and instructions to read through. I’d highly recommend looking up "ASTB-E: A Simple Guide" on youtube, to get an idea of what you’ll be doing before you get there.
I’ve been playing video games since I could talk but I’d never used throttle and stick. I’ve played sims before, so I felt pretty confident going in just to have that confidence ripped away haha. I’ve used inverted sticks, but this was next level of difficulty. You will think you are failing the WHOLE time. You are not, keep trying, keep going.
My advice would be a lot of the same points others have stated. I maybe actually had the tracker over the target for like 10% of the time... it’s about getting close, not constant precision. Listen over track, listen over track... listen over track.
Finally, write the emergencies down. When I did it, I got the fire first. I twisted the knobs back and pressed the clutch like 4 times but nothing happened. I don’t think I was given credit for that emergency because I did the protocol for the other two emergencies and the problem went away immediately..... oh well.
 
Last edited:

Mike74

Member
Alright y'all, need some advice. Took the ASTB today and didn't do all that great. 44 5/6/6.. As per the program authorization for SNA and SNFO, these score are acceptable. Though the OAR is not listed on the PA, from what I understand it is an acceptable score that will get my package to the board. Higher scores are absolutely warranted, however, I plan to submit a package in December. I am able to retake the ASTB come the 1st of November, however, my concerns are my scores decline. At that point I will no longer be eligible to make the December deadline (board is in January). Trying to gather some thoughts here, to retake or to not retake..?

Major: B.S. Aeronautics
GPA: 4.0
Applying: SNA and SNFO
Prior service: 8 years AD and counting
Achievement highlights: SOQ/ E6 in five yrs/ 200+ volunteer hours/ 4 LORs and 3 appraisals from all O6's
 

Mike74

Member
Alright y'all, need some advice. Took the ASTB today and didn't do all that great. 44 5/6/6.. As per the program authorization for SNA and SNFO, these score are acceptable. Though the OAR is not listed on the PA, from what I understand it is an acceptable score that will get my package to the board. Higher scores are absolutely warranted, however, I plan to submit a package in December. I am able to retake the ASTB come the 1st of November, however, my concerns are my scores decline. At that point I will no longer be eligible to make the December deadline (board is in January). Trying to gather some thoughts here, to retake or to not retake..?

Major: B.S. Aeronautics
GPA: 4.0
Applying: SNA and SNFO
Prior service: 8 years AD and counting
Achievement highlights: SOQ/ E6 in five yrs/ 200+ volunteer hours/ 4 LORs and 3 appraisals from all O6's


PS: No waivers
Age: 30
 
Took the OAR this morning and scored a 73.

Math was the easiest section. The 2 problems that took the most time were along the lines of 4 guys can build a wall in 10 hrs, what time do they complete the wall if a new guy is added every hour. Make sure you understand fraction exponents. No logs on my test. Kyle's google drive is all you need to prepare for it.

Reading comp felt the hardest since a lot of the answers seem very similar and sometimes they all seem wrong. The passages are also very dry and dense. I had a mix of navy regulation passages, physics-type passages, and dumb easy passages. One question was about light and wavelengths so having prior knowledge on this helped but that's more luck than preparation. I recommend reading navy regulations and physics textbooks to prepare for this if you have the time. This is the least important to study for since it really comes down to logical reasoning and eliminating bad answers.

Mechanical was the hardest and I had to go with my gut (educated guess) on a few of them. Some easy ones were pulleys and mechanical advantage. No tool recognition questions. One question showed waves and asked if a bullet was traveling faster than the speed of sound or slower or at the speed of sound. There was one question where I had absolutely no idea what to answer and I don't remember enough to say it here.

EDIT: by the way the whole time I felt like I was doing horribly and going too slow but i finished each section with a little time to spare so just keep calm and don't rush but also don't spend too long on a problem you know you don't know.
 

don158

New Member
How did u calculate the water displacement? And did you see any examples like that anywhere we could use to study?
Sorry it took me so long to see your reply, I wouldn't worry about a question like that because knowing the bulk of the test matters more than studying one obscure question. You are given a bunch of formulas so you could work it out, but there was some part of the question that stumped me though, this was 4 months ago so I don't quite remember what it was.
 
Sorry it took me so long to see your reply, I wouldn't worry about a question like that because knowing the bulk of the test matters more than studying one obscure question. You are given a bunch of formulas so you could work it out, but there was some part of the question that stumped me though, this was 4 months ago so I don't quite remember what it was.

The volume of water displaced is equal to the volume of the object if the object is completely submerged. If the object is partially submerged, then the water displaced is equal to the volume of the object times the specific gravity of the object. Specific gravity is the density of the object divided by the density of water.
 

gspock

New Member
Took the OAR this morning and scored a 73.

Math was the easiest section. The 2 problems that took the most time were along the lines of 4 guys can build a wall in 10 hrs, what time do they complete the wall if a new guy is added every hour. Make sure you understand fraction exponents. No logs on my test. Kyle's google drive is all you need to prepare for it.

Reading comp felt the hardest since a lot of the answers seem very similar and sometimes they all seem wrong. The passages are also very dry and dense. I had a mix of navy regulation passages, physics-type passages, and dumb easy passages. One question was about light and wavelengths so having prior knowledge on this helped but that's more luck than preparation. I recommend reading navy regulations and physics textbooks to prepare for this if you have the time. This is the least important to study for since it really comes down to logical reasoning and eliminating bad answers.

Mechanical was the hardest and I had to go with my gut (educated guess) on a few of them. Some easy ones were pulleys and mechanical advantage. No tool recognition questions. One question showed waves and asked if a bullet was traveling faster than the speed of sound or slower or at the speed of sound. There was one question where I had absolutely no idea what to answer and I don't remember enough to say it here.

EDIT: by the way the whole time I felt like I was doing horribly and going too slow but i finished each section with a little time to spare so just keep calm and don't rush but also don't spend too long on a problem you know you don't know.
What type of fractional exponent problems did you see?
 
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