• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

ASTB-E/APEX 4 Experience -DEC 2013

Notorious Nate

Well-Known Member
Took the ASTB-E/APEX 4 today at the NRD Houston.

Scored a 7/7/7 69.

A Little background on me: I'm a senior studying Aeronautical Science at LeTourneau University. We have a part 141 flight school, and I'm an instrument rated private pilot. I'm currently in the process of obtaining a commercial multiengine rating. I have a strong background in math and physics, including courses in DC Electricity.

OAR Portion

The OAR portion is all adaptive, and I'm not sure if it has a set number of questions. You have to answer the question you are on before going on to the next one. No going back, no skipping. This is a bit unnerving, and you can easily spend more time on questions than you mean to.

Math Skills Test

The Math Skills Test was a bit of a surprise for me. It got pretty difficult very quickly. Some rates, times, averages. A big departure from previous study guides was an emphasis on probability and logarithms. I had 3 or 4 logarithm questions. If you can't do logarithms in your head, or at least know how to write it in exponential form, you may suffer. Also, quite a few questions dealt with fractional exponents. Be familiar with those. Another weird one said something like, "A perfect number is one in which all its factors except for that number add up to be that number. One example is 6. Which of the following is a perfect number?" I didn't know how to solve that, and just guessed. Just know that 6, 28, 496, and 8128 are perfect numbers.

Reading Comprehension Test

The Reading Comprehension portion was essentially unchanged. A look at any practice test will get you prepared for this. Best strategy that I have is eliminating the wrong answers. It gets pretty obvious once you start knocking out the ones you know aren't correct.

Mechanical Comprehension Test

Nothing new here really. Some emphasis on electricity. Existing study guides should suffice for this. As long as you've got a good grasp on physics and how things work, you'll do fine.

Aviation and Nautical information Test

Know your Naval designations of aircraft, including before the tri-service designation system. There were two aircraft in that category that it asked questions about. Other than that, know parts of a ship, especially aircraft carriers. There was quite a bit of aviation knowledge. For this, I would study the AIM section of the FAR/AIM. There is a lot of good info in there that you'll be hard pressed to find all in once place elsewhere. Another good one is the FAA Pilot Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. It wouldn't hurt to brush up on aviation charts as well. Take a look at a VFR chart and figure out the scale and what all the symbols mean.


Naval Aviation Trait Facet Inventory

This part is as advertised. There is no preparation you can do for this. Just make your way through it and try and pick the best option.

Performance Based Measures

First part was pretty simple. They show you a North up map, and a symbol of which way you are facing. Then there is a picture of a building and four parking lots and they ask you which one is in which cardinal direction. You need to be fast and accurate for this. They change around the direction you're facing and it can get a bit disorienting. Make some flash cards and practice.

Then you're given a joystick, a throttle, and a headset. First, they start you off by telling you which ear to listen in. Then, you click a button on the stick if you hear an odd number in that ear, and press a button on the throttle if you hear an even number in that ear. Random strings of letters and numbers are fed into both ears. You do that for a bit, then they tell you to use the throttle to track an airplane. The screen is divided into a narrow track on the left with an aircraft symbol in it. It moves up and down and you push the throttle forward to move your pipper up and down to chase it. Not really any good prep for this part. Then you do the same thing with the stick on the rest of the screen, but the plane moves all around. The joystick setup is annoying, and the axes don't make sense. I felt like I was doing it backwards at first. It's not intuitive at all, even for a guy who had all his joysticks set up inverted. Then you get to do both at the same time. You're probably not going to be close to either much of the time, but manage the throttle and the stick the best that you can. Then they bring back the numbers and you get to do those at the same time. It's not pretty, but just do your best, it's supposed to be difficult. Lastly, you get to track both and do "emergency procedures". They were pretty stupid, and I'm not 100% certain they even work if you do the right thing.

Biographical Inventory with Response Verification


Just be honest and answer the questions. Easiest portion of the test. I'm pretty sure it doesn't affect your score at all.


That's it, hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions.
 
Last edited:

Notorious Nate

Well-Known Member
No, unfortunately my recruiter didn't notify me that there was a new version, and that the old ones wouldn't count toward a 3 test lifetime limit with it. Otherwise I would have gone ahead and taken it. I felt like I would have done much better on the spacial especially on the old tests. This is honestly probably a better way to screen for pilots.
 

sundown88

Navy Connoisseur
Took the ASTB-E/APEX 4 today at the NRD Houston.

Scored a 7/7/7 69.



That's it, hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions.


I'm going to have to call you Notorious N.A.T.E for this one bro. Much appreciated! I missed the deadline to sign up for the older version by ONE DAY, so I'm now taking APEX 4 on Jan. 23rd 2014 (in a building on 23 Federal Plaza - good sign maybe??). Anyways, thanks for the quick gouge!


V/r,

Sundown88
 

Oneil

Tranquillitas Ordinis
Took the ASTB-E/APEX 4 today at the NRD Houston.

Scored a 7/7/7 69.

A Little background on me: I'm a senior studying Aeronautical Science at LeTourneau University. We have a part 141 flight school, and I'm an instrument rated private pilot. I'm currently in the process of obtaining a commercial multiengine rating. I have a strong background in math and physics, including courses in DC Electricity.

OAR Portion

The OAR portion is all adaptive, and I'm not sure if it has a set number of questions. You have to answer the question you are on before going on to the next one. No going back, no skipping. This is a bit unnerving, and you can easily spend more time on questions than you mean to.

Math Skills Test

The Math Skills Test was a bit of a surprise for me. It got pretty difficult very quickly. Some rates, times, averages. A big departure from previous study guides was an emphasis on probability and logarithms. I had 3 or 4 logarithm questions. If you can't do logarithms in your head, or at least know how to write it in exponential form, you may suffer. Also, quite a few questions dealt with fractional exponents. Be familiar with those. Another weird one said something like, "A perfect number is one in which all its factors except for that number add up to be that number. One example is 6. Which of the following is a perfect number?" I didn't know how to solve that, and just guessed. Just know that 6, 28, 496, and 8128 are perfect numbers.

Reading Comprehension Test

The Reading Comprehension portion was essentially unchanged. A look at any practice test will get you prepared for this. Best strategy that I have is eliminating the wrong answers. It gets pretty obvious once you start knocking out the ones you know aren't correct.

Mechanical Comprehension Test

Nothing new here really. Some emphasis on electricity. Existing study guides should suffice for this. As long as you've got a good grasp on physics and how things work, you'll do fine.

Aviation and Nautical information Test

Know your Naval designations of aircraft, including before the tri-service designation system. There were two aircraft in that category that it asked questions about. Other than that, know parts of a ship, especially aircraft carriers. There was quite a bit of aviation knowledge. For this, I would study the AIM section of the FAR/AIM. There is a lot of good info in there that you'll be hard pressed to find all in once place elsewhere. Another good one is the FAA Pilot Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. It wouldn't hurt to brush up on aviation charts as well. Take a look at a VFR chart and figure out the scale and what all the symbols mean.


Naval Aviation Trait Facet Inventory

This part is as advertised. There is no preparation you can do for this. Just make your way through it and try and pick the best option.

Performance Based Measures

First part was pretty simple. They show you a North up map, and a symbol of which way you are facing. Then there is a picture of a building and four parking lots and they ask you which one is in which cardinal direction. You need to be fast and accurate for this. They change around the direction you're facing and it can get a bit disorienting. Make some flash cards and practice.

Then you're given a joystick, a throttle, and a headset. First, they start you off by telling you which ear to listen in. Then, you click a button on the stick if you hear an odd number in that ear, and press a button on the throttle if you hear an even number in that ear. Random strings of letters and numbers are fed into both ears. You do that for a bit, then they tell you to use the throttle to track an airplane. The screen is divided into a narrow track on the left with an aircraft symbol in it. It moves up and down and you push the throttle forward to move your pipper up and down to chase it. Not really any good prep for this part. Then you do the same thing with the stick on the rest of the screen, but the plane moves all around. The joystick setup is annoying, and the axes don't make sense. I felt like I was doing it backwards at first. It's not intuitive at all, even for a guy who had all his joysticks set up inverted. Then you get to do both at the same time. You're probably not going to be close to either much of the time, but manage the throttle and the stick the best that you can. Then they bring back the numbers and you get to do those at the same time. It's not pretty, but just do your best, it's supposed to be difficult. Lastly, you get to track both and do "emergency procedures". They were pretty stupid, and I'm not 100% certain they even work if you do the right thing.

Biographical Inventory with Response Verification


Just be honest and answer the questions. Easiest portion of the test. I'm pretty sure it doesn't affect your score at all.


That's it, hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks for posting. Congrats on scoring well! The test reads "ridiculous." My recruiter said they are having "issues" with it not working and not scoring accurately.
 

Henry Smith

Member
Not encouraging anyone to buy anything, but the performance based measures I took yesterday used this equipment:

http://www.amazon.com/Thrustmaster-...words=throttle+and+joystick+flightsimulator11

When you get to the part of the test where you have to track the 1d moving plane with the throttle and the 2d moving plane with the joystick, don't stress yourself out if you're not getting close, just try to mimic there movement and don't push either piece of equipment to an extreme. I felt like I wasn't close most of the time but I still managed decent AQR, PFAR and FOFAR scores at the end.
 

DPS2114

New Member
On the math section you stated logarithms, can you state an example.

Are they formatted: What is Log5(625)?
 

sundown88

Navy Connoisseur
There was one on my like:

If log3(log8(log10(x)))=-1, what is x equal to?


That's a problem I'd be able to work out... given some time to think about it. How much time was afforded to you on the Math section?


V/r,

Sundown88
 
Last edited:
Top