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

[Abraham Christian]

So, I was non-selected for STA-21 NFO this October, and have since plugged away at my bachelors and will graduate in a couple months. I scored an 8/7/7/68 on the ASTB and felt it was pretty competitive for STA-21, but I know OCS can be a little more competitive, especially for active duty. So question is: Should I feel comfortable with those scores or try and retest to raise them?

Wow, I would be thanking God every night until flight school for 7's or higher! Good luck to you A.H.

 

[UniqueName]

Hi everyone. I'm currently a grad student. I applied for a medical program scholarship with the Navy, but that kind of fizzled out. I wasn't terribly disappointed because Pilot/NFO are things I am more passionate about anyways. I was hoping since virtually 100% of my paperwork was already done from thtoat I could take the ASTB quickly and get in for the March boards, but the recruiter told me to wait until July. Probably the smart decision.

Anyway, I began studying for the ASTB. My background is in research so I'm anal about cataloging and making spreadsheets with almost everything. I'm approaching my ASTB progression like a research study and logging everything - hours studied/materal/methods/et cetera. I thought some people on here may be interested to take a look.

I took a practice test on 1/24/13 to establish a baseline. I didn't study at all for it because I wanted it to be as much of a strictly "aptitude" test as possible. Here are the results:


Baseline
Math: 9/30 correct (30%)
Reading: 25/27 correct (93%)
Mechanical: 19/30 correct (63%)
Spatial: 13/25 correct (63%)
Aviation/Nautical: 16/30 correct (53%)
Aviation Supplement: 21/34 correct (62%)

The math score is particularly embarrassing. I'm in a fairly math heavy grad program, but I don't have a natural affinity for it. Plus, I'm used to using a calculator.


After taking the baseline, I studied for two days and then took another practice test on 1/26. I won't post my entire study log, but it was 760 minutes of studying in total over the two days. Here are the results of the second test.


MATH 22/30 (73%)
Reading 23/27 (85%)
Mechanical 22/30 (73%)
Spatial 23/25 (92%)
Aviation/Nautical 19/30 (63%)
Supplement 25/34 (74%)

So I made some good improvement in those two days, but still have a ways to go. I'm wondering if anyone on here can give me a rough idea of how to translate those percentages into ASTB scores. I know that ASTB scoring operates on stanines, but I'm not sure how to see where I stand based on this.

 

[afsf1]

I'll take a wild stab at it: 6/7/7/59

 

[alaurin]

I would try and ace out everything before taking the ASTB and delve into maybe some GRE/GMAT problems. If I had to do it all again, I'd probably also get a few hours in a plane, along with study up on military aviation knowledge.

 

[UniqueName]

I'll take a wild stab at it: 6/7/7/59

Thanks. From what (little) I know about the ASTB, that's about where I had it too.

I would try and ace out everything before taking the ASTB and delve into maybe some GRE/GMAT problems. If I had to do it all again, I'd probably also get a few hours in a plane, along with study up on military aviation knowledge.

Thank you. I definitely plan on acing the practice tests before I take the test. I have about 2 months before I need to take it, so that's a good chunk of time. I've already developed a strategy for the aviation/nautical info as well. As far as getting hours in a plane, I'd love to, but as a student I just don't have the money for it.

 

[lane4965]

I was studying really hard because I had to take the last attempt at the ASTB last week. Feelin pretty low because I studied really hard and I thought I was better with mech then math. I ended up doing good on math and mech had completely different questions than what was on the test. Alot of formula questions gravity, velocity, acceleration etc. I did study on the formulas but I focused more on pulley's fulcrum, MA, etc.

My Score was a 6/6/6 52
My recruiter said that will help you get into the competitive range but it's not a shoe in I have a 3.1 Computer Science Degree, half way done with my Graduate degree in cyber warfare from one of the top National Defense Schools in the country, plus I also have about 4 hrs away from my private pilot's license. I also heard being a minority helps.

Any advice I cannot retake the exam, and please only comment if you actually either are in the military (officer) or have done selection boards.

 

[flynavy830]

Just took form 5, second go at the ASTB. First time was 4/5/4 42 which is shit. I feel a lot more confident this run. I had time after every section, I'm not sure if I'm wired this way or if I was actually doing good but Ive always been quick. There were at least 3-4 I know I missed that I googled after I left. Math wasnt too bad, Reading was a pain in the ass as always. Mechanical wasnt bad either. Spacial was ok, like many others have stated some of those answers are literally the same +- 5 degrees of bank. Aviation/Nautical was a lot easier this time, I'm already a pilot and had a lot of aviation questions that I blew through. Missed a few on this one as well. Make sure you know boat terms, squadrons/aircraft types, airport terms/runway terms.

 

[flynavy830]

Few questions for anybody that can answer if I'm not supposed to post these please remove, they are re worded anyways. If you have two people on a circular ride, ones on the outside edge, others in the inside, which spins faster? I think its both the same because its a fixed object? and when does a pilot experience the LEAST amount of G's (picture of a aircraft straight and level, climbing, upside down looping around, and diving) I hope I read it right because I know there has been one asking which has the MOST g's.

 

[PenguinGal]

Someone can feel free to correct my math if I am wrong, but for the circular ride question, it is a matter of comparing rotational velocities, radii, and then velocity. For example, if the first guy, was a distance of r1 from the center of the circle and other guy was at a distance of r2 from the center then the rotational velocity of each of them would be
w1=r1v1 and w2=r2v2.
They are both on the same ride and thus both are making the same number of rotations so we have
w1=w2
or
r1v1=r2v2
Let's make this easy and say that r2=2r1. That is, the second guy is twice as far from the center as the first. Replacing those values we get
r1v1=(2r1)v2
Dividing by r1 leaves us with
v1=2v2
which means that the guy who is closer is 'moving faster'.

If I made a mistake, either mathematically or logically, someone please correct me! Oh and I have zero clue as to when the most g's are pulled.

 

[flynavy830]

I think you are right, now I realize it after the fact. I try not to over think questions like this though and break it down that far... because usually its a pully question asking which is faster/more rotations etc.. never thought about it as one moving object like that.

 

[ea6bflyr]

Just took form 5, second go at the ASTB.

What did you study between your first test and second test. I certainly hope you took full advantage of all the material here on AirWarriors.com.

-ea6bflyr

 

[flynavy830]

What did you study between your first test and second test. I certainly hope you took full advantage of all the material here on AirWarriors.com.

-ea6bflyr

Of course, for the first try I studied everything there was to offer, probably could of studied more in depth but I did study. As soon as I got my scores I was fired up for round two because I kind of knew my weaknesses more and knew what I needed to really dig into. I left this time feeling much better about the test (paper version so I have to wait).

 

[exNavyOffRec]

I was studying really hard because I had to take the last attempt at the ASTB last week. Feelin pretty low because I studied really hard and I thought I was better with mech then math. I ended up doing good on math and mech had completely different questions than what was on the test. Alot of formula questions gravity, velocity, acceleration etc. I did study on the formulas but I focused more on pulley's fulcrum, MA, etc.

My Score was a 6/6/6 52
My recruiter said that will help you get into the competitive range but it's not a shoe in I have a 3.1 Computer Science Degree, half way done with my Graduate degree in cyber warfare from one of the top National Defense Schools in the country, plus I also have about 4 hrs away from my private pilot's license. I also heard being a minority helps.

Any advice I cannot retake the exam, and please only comment if you actually either are in the military (officer) or have done selection boards.

When the new version comes out you can take the new version.

The diversity is looked at AFTER selections to see what areas need to be focused on for diversity recruiting.

 

[WEGL12]

Someone can feel free to correct my math if I am wrong, but for the circular ride question, it is a matter of comparing rotational velocities, radii, and then velocity. For example, if the first guy, was a distance of r1 from the center of the circle and other guy was at a distance of r2 from the center then the rotational velocity of each of them would be
w1=r1v1 and w2=r2v2.
They are both on the same ride and thus both are making the same number of rotations so we have
w1=w2
or
r1v1=r2v2
Let's make this easy and say that r2=2r1. That is, the second guy is twice as far from the center as the first. Replacing those values we get
r1v1=(2r1)v2
Dividing by r1 leaves us with
v1=2v2
which means that the guy who is closer is 'moving faster'.

If I made a mistake, either mathematically or logically, someone please correct me! Oh and I have zero clue as to when the most g's are pulled.

You are right that w1=w2 but w=v/r not v*r. Angular velocity has units of radians per second. This gives you v1/r1 = v2/r2. If r2=2*r1 then you have v1/r1=v2/(2*r1) so v2=2*v1. Which makes sense because the point with a larger radius has to move a greater distance compared to the point with a smaller radius so the velocity has to be high at the outer point. Hope that makes sense.

 

[lane4965]

When the new version comes out you can take the new version.

The diversity is looked at AFTER selections to see what areas need to be focused on for diversity recruiting.

You can only take the exam 3 times and that is not subject to change according to what my recruiter and other recruiters I have spoken too. What do you mean by "The diversity is looked at AFTER selections to see what areas need to be focused on for diversity recruiting."