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

Seniuram

Well-Known Member
SNA only
Just took the ASTB-E on 11/15 so my application still has a lot to work on however its coming together quite quickly.
See signature for scores and personal info.

Little synopsis on my test experience. And by little I mean extremely long and probably TLDR.

I studied Barrons book and all the gouge I could find of the various ASTB-E threads on here.

Math:
Got extremely hard extremely quick. Positive I got the first few questions correct however after that I felt I was making "Educated" guesses based on the fact I spent 3 minutes factoring out ((2x^2 -1)^3*(4x^2+5)^3)/4 and narrowed it down to 2 possible answers without spending another 5 minutes continuing to factor. I got a lot of problems that required long drawn out factoring. No Logs no Binary for me and sadly I actually know how to do those like the back of my hand. My advice would be to study basic high school or college algebra. Take practice tests over and over and over again........and again. What I learned from college and getting through Calculus 5 is the only way to be confident and exceed at math is practice, just like anything else. Just watching a video on khan academy or reading a book wont do it.

Reading:
Felt like I did pretty average. It went from one question being super simple and very obvious what the answer was to a shit show of jumble I couldn't understand because I didn't know half the words. For the whole exam it was back and forth between those types of questions.

Mechanical:
As a physics major I found this pretty easy. It was simple force problems. Know Newtons laws is my best advice. Also know simple mechanical systems (Pulleys, Levers etc.)

Naval/ Aviation Information:
There are a few posts that link flash card websites. Use those flashcards and legitimately write down all 400 or 500 and practice them over and over again. Know the notecards where if you were to read them on either side of the flash card you would know what's written on the other side. Don't just study them the front way if that makes sense.

Trait Facet Test:
This test will make you feel like shit but try and find some humor in it. That what I did. Some of the questions were so outrageous but you had to choose one of the 2 answers. I personally have a high sense of pride in my integrity so anything that had an integrity issue I would immediately click the other answer. On the good ones simply just answer how you normally react. If you try and answer to what you think they want you to answer, you're going to get a bad score. Or at least that's what I think because I've taken personality tests before and that's how they work.
Ex (Bad):
Pick one of two:
1) In extremely stressful situations I tend to lash out and get angry at my peers.
2) When I make mistakes I tend to blame it on others so I don't have to suffer the consequences.

Performance based measures:
Started out with the UAV directional test where it shows a red dot and a yellow arrow of which way the UAV is flying and you have to choose which parking lot is in the cardinal direction it says in your head phones based on what direction you would be seeing out of the cockpit. What I did for this is draw a compass on a piece of paper with the 4 basic Cardinal directions (N,S,E,W). Which ever way the arrow was pointing I would immediately turn the paper so that direction on the compass was facing directly away from me. Then you could choose what ever parking lot it asked for pretty quickly. I was between 2-3 seconds on every answer and got 2 wrong because I miss clicked trying to go to quick.
Joystick and Throttle: This shit was bonkers. I felt like I did horrible but I didn't feel bad because from what everyone says on this site is they believe the same thing. Its a square with a narrow rectangle on the right. Starts by doing the Dichotic listening in your headphones. It will tell you a target ear and when you hear an even or odd number in that ear you click a specific button. It was trigger and clutch for me. Both ears will be sounding off with numbers and letter but you only want to listen to the target ear. Throttle training: a small "Bird" is put in the rectangle on the left. It moves up and down and you have to put your bullseye over the bird by adjusting the throttle back and forth. Bird moves up and down unpredictably. Stick training: Now theres a bird in the larger square moving every direction and you have to put your bullseye over the bird by using the joystick. Probably a pretty shitty calibrated joystick but do your best.
After doing all 3 separately you do the throttle and joystick at the same time. The stick is inverted however the throttle is not so its like trying to pat your head and rub your belly at the same time. Then it adds in the Dichotic listening. What I tried to do was just keep a general track of my bullseyes following the general targets. As long as they were going in the same direction I felt fine. Focus on the hearing and get your easy points where you can. Last was the emergency procedures. Write them down, when they happen quick glance at your notes and get em done. Again get your easy points where you can.

Sorry if this is confusing I got bored at work and quick typed it up. Feel free to message me if you have any questions.
Happy testing. At the end of the day just have some fun with it and your scores will be fine.
 

jRiot504

Well-Known Member
Just got back from taking the OAR - 56.

Math Section is easy if you use the guides posted in this section. I do work as a data scientist so I consistently use calculus, algebra, probability theory etc...

Though I did get a two questions that took me by surprise, as it involved a little more work than I anticipated at 8am.

Simplify (similar equation):
((x - 2)^2)^1/2) ((4x - 3)^2 + 7)^-1)

Which function has an absolute minimum? Provided four functions.

Reading Comprehension is straight forward. Quite a few questions regarding Navy doctrine, history etc... Fairly boring section as most of the paragraphs were non-interesting.

Mechanical was similar to what has been posted here. I didn't do any practice questions but read through the guides. Most people struggle with the math, but I found the mechanical section to be the most difficult. This is primarily due to me not seeing these types of questions or dealing with this type of material since high school.
 
I am creating this post to hopefully give some helpful advice from a different perspective compared to a lot of the people on here who ace it the first time. I took the ASTB for the first time and scored a 49 5/5/5 which I was not happy with even though my recruiter said I could apply with these scores. I retook the test on 11/27/2017 and scored a 58 7/8/8. I wanted to give back to this thread because I attribute a ton of my improvement to it. The below techniques and materials are what worked for me personally, but I cannot promise that it is a universal system.

Ill start off by saying that my score came as a result of using this thread alone to study, along with a few Khan Academy videos, so if you don't have the resources you do not need to go out and spend $200 on study books. (Although it might help) My first test was a result of roughly 20 hours of studying randomly spread out between about a month and a half. I spent close to the same amount of time, maybe a little more, studying for my second attempt, however this time I spent 3 hours a day for a week straight up until the day of my test. I think the longer more consistent study sessions were much more effective at retaining the vast amount of info required for the ASTB.

Math
I naturally have always struggled with math, and so this was the portion in which I focused much of my effort. If you are in a similar boat I suggest you either print off or save to your computer every single link you can find on this thread which has a math portion. Seriously, the more questions you familiarize yourself with the more comfortable you will be, and I honestly had at least 2 questions I saw in the study guides that were word for word the same on the test. My test was very similar to everything past people have been explaining it to be so I wont go into great detail. A lot of D=RT, avg test scores, radicals, and EXPONENTS, lots of exponents.

Reading
Not much to say here, I honestly didnt even study for this section at all as it is pretty difficult to. Only piece of advice is to not assume anything; meaning if an answer choice has bits of information that was not specifically mentioned in the passage do NOT chose that option. For example - It was a beautiful blue sky day, and the sun was shinning bright in the sky. A.) It is a beautiful summer day B.) It was hot out C.) the sky was blue. This is obviously very simplified but chose answer C, even if it seems obvious.

Mechanical
Similar advice here as the math section, at least read over every single question on the study guides provided in the thread, it really helps. A few questions on pulleys, balancing a lever, some electrical stuff, buoyancy, and simple formulas such as V=IR, Force= Mass x Acceleration. Pretty simple stuff, but you need to spend some time to get comfortable with it if you havent had classes since highschool that go over these topics, which unfortunately happened to be my case.

Naval/Aviation
I dont mean to sound redundant, but here again go over every bit of info you can scrape from this thread, especially for this section. There is a ton of different questions they can ask, and so the more you have previously seen the better your odds. I was able to recognize at least 3/4 of the questions from examples posted here, and made educated guesses on most of the other ones. There will be questions you have never seen and have no idea, thats just how it goes for this section. Questions I can remember: What does CVBG stand for? First jet aircraft to fly combat missions? What causes roll? Which of the below are considered primary flight controls? How to pull a plane out of a stall? All of these questions were on at least one of the various study guides posted to this thread.

PBM
For the UAV DRAW THE COMPASS!!!!!!! It is so easy using the compass method, I did not miss one question, and was able to average between 2-4 seconds response time. I did not draw the compass the first time, and I think the results speak for themselves. For the flight simulator I focused about 90% of my attention on the listening and the 2D, and for the vertical tracking I just tried to keep the cross hair roughly in the middle and make small movements to track the target out of the corner of my eye. Whether or not that is the best method of tackling this extremely frustrating section, I am not sure, but thats what I did.
 

Cntull94

Jags&noles
Took the oar portion for the first time today. Scored a 51. I’m happy with this score as it is only my first time taking it. I studied comfortably for about 2 months, didn’t cram or put long hours in. Maybe 4-6 hours week

Math
Got cut off with like 10 min left
I STUDIED AOT OF exponents. However there weren’t that many. One questions was what is 3^4 + 3^2= answer was 3^2 x 10
A lot of distance questions. One square root problem. One including 2 people traveling at different distances and mpgs. 2 “average rate/exams” word problems. No matrices. No logs. Didn’t really know if I was doing well. I’d get 2-3 right then get stumped. Don’t worry too much about time. Just answer confidently. HAD NO ORDER OF OPERATIONS. But obviously know this.

Reading
Took the whole time. Don’t have much to say on the section. Elimate obvious wrong ones. I do find myself losing focus reading, so at times i would look at the answers first and try to apply them to the context.

Mechanical
thought this section was fairly easy. 3 answer choices always improves your odds. A couple tension problems. One problem asking if you swing a rock over your head and it snaps from the rope which direction will it fly. KNOW electric terms and definitions. question on does the temperature of boiling water increase if you increase the temperature of the water. A question involving a turbocharger, supercharger, and nitrous oxide. It asked which one uses a separate form of fuel. (thank you fast and furious lol). There was also questions on Springs, heating a metal hole and its size after.
no density, no pulleys, no pistons, no questions on what type of lever (1st, 2nd, 3rd)

Overal I prepared leisurely over 2 months. Was super nervous at the beginning of the exam. But just relax. It goes away while you work. MY PERSONAL TIP: after each section I took a small breather during the directions. You get like 4 min or so to read the directions. It helped me calm down and mentally prepare myself for the next section.

For studying i used a lot of google searching , khan academy, and many studying guides and packs of information available on this website. I have the hardest time with word problems so for me that was the hardest part. Practice just setting up the equations, if you can nail that down. The math is simple. Thanks for the help everyone and good luck in the future.
 

ichneumonidae

Well-Known Member
Took the oar portion for the first time today. Scored a 51. I’m happy with this score as it is only my first time taking it. I studied comfortably for about 2 months, didn’t cram or put long hours in. Maybe 4-6 hours week

Nice, great job. Also, Go Jags!
 

Kirsten

New Member
Just took the ASTB-E today, 47 5/6/6. I plan on retaking the test in order to be a more competitive.
Tips:
Study for the Math and Mechanical portions if you've been out of school, or your major in college isn't in math/science/engineering related. I thought I wouldn't struggle very hard when taking these and I got a reality check.
Trait Facet You feel like shit one way or another just treat each set of traits independently of each other.
The PBM portion of test to add to everyone else who has said it use your compass! If you don't know how here's a link I found because I was lost when I was first learning this-
The joystick you use for tracking is inverted, just in case that hasn't been mentioned in a while.
Everything has mostly been mentioned already read through this forum as much as you can print the study guides, and turn them into notecards.
Thank you to everyone who has posted on here with gouge and other helpful tips and tricks, time to study up and get ready for round 2!
 

Bendersheart

New Member
I recently took the OAR portion of the ASTB and got a 66. Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences! This thread is awesome.

This type of test was really nothing like I had experienced before… time went by fast and after it was over I had no idea how I did until I saw my score. I felt like I answered hardly any questions before time ran out (my clock expired for all three sections). Overall I studied for about a month – most of my time went to reviewing math/mechanical.

Math: I studied most of the topics mentioned here (exponents, shared work, rates, ratios, algebra, word problems, some geometry, probability etc.) and made sure I knew them cold. I approached similar problems in the exact same way each time and developed a strategy on how to solve them (Jacob1792 has an awesome math study guide that I used as well) I had an old GMAT math book which helped a lot with the trickier problems. Also, I printed out a bunch of practice sheets for the arithmetic portions (Kuta Software has a lot of great exponent/complex fractional problems worksheets).

Reading comprehension: I felt like bombed this section and just made an educated guess most of the time. I didn’t study at all for this and I don’t think it would have helped me if I did.

Mechanical: I have ZERO background in physics/science, but this section was straightforward. I made a list of topics to study and just watched a lot of videos/took notes. The YouTube channel “The Organic Chemistry Tutor” was a life-saver… he explains things super well (also Khan Academy for both math/science).

Good luck!!

What did the list for MC look like? If you don’t mind me asking.
 

Jian Gao

New Member
Good morning everyone, I am taking the OAR in 5 Jan for round 2. I really need help on Physics portion. I have been studying the materials from other people's threads. But I still don't understand very well or feel comfortable to take the OAR. I am located in San Diego, Coronado. Requesting a tutor or a study group for December. I really appreciate the help.
 

Travman_

New Member
I took the OAR yesterday, scored a 52 on my second try.

The second time I studied the Barron's book and the OAR Study Guide book, both can be found on Amazon. I studied some gouge found on this thread, particularly the Marine Aviation Guide, and the OAR Math Study Guide. I did the math and mechanics sections in the Barron's and OAR Study Guide until I got the answers cold. Then I hit the gouge. Anything that I could not understand I went to Khan Academy.

I am a stay-at-home dad, with a part-time job. I studied about 4-6hrs a week for 3 months.

Math, a little bit of geometry, mainly sequences, and algebra.

Reading, dense Navy HR and science.

Mechanics, just the basics.
 

Jian Gao

New Member
I took the OAR yesterday, scored a 52 on my second try.

The second time I studied the Barron's book and the OAR Study Guide book, both can be found on Amazon. I studied some gouge found on this thread, particularly the Marine Aviation Guide, and the OAR Math Study Guide. I did the math and mechanics sections in the Barron's and OAR Study Guide until I got the answers cold. Then I hit the gouge. Anything that I could not understand I went to Khan Academy.

I am a stay-at-home dad, with a part-time job. I studied about 4-6hrs a week for 3 months.

Math, a little bit of geometry, mainly sequences, and algebra.

Reading, dense Navy HR and science.

Mechanics, just the basics.

what did you score the first time if you don't mind?
 

Bendersheart

New Member
I took the OAR yesterday, scored a 52 on my second try.

The second time I studied the Barron's book and the OAR Study Guide book, both can be found on Amazon. I studied some gouge found on this thread, particularly the Marine Aviation Guide, and the OAR Math Study Guide. I did the math and mechanics sections in the Barron's and OAR Study Guide until I got the answers cold. Then I hit the gouge. Anything that I could not understand I went to Khan Academy.

I am a stay-at-home dad, with a part-time job. I studied about 4-6hrs a week for 3 months.

Math, a little bit of geometry, mainly sequences, and algebra.

Reading, dense Navy HR and science.

Mechanics, just the basics.
When you say basics, what do you mean by that?
 
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