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

[DThompson12]

Exactly the way I felt. They rushed to publish it that they were forced to re-release a revised edition something like a month later because the first was so chock-full of errors. Even then I still caught a few errors in my revised edition.

Are both of the Accepted, Inc. study guides the same way (OAR Study Guide and ASTB-E Study Guide?)

Is the book "Barron's Mechanical Aptitude and Spacial Relations Test, 3rd Edition" what you two are referencing?

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Hopeful Hoya]

Are both of the Accepted, Inc. study guides the same way (OAR Study Guide and ASTB-E Study Guide?)

Is the book "Barron's Mechanical Aptitude and Spacial Relations Test, 3rd Edition" what you two are referencing?

Thanks for the feedback!

I have no experience with the OAR one, my impressions are limited to the ASTB-E version.

And no, this is the Barron's book I used:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1438005695?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00

 

[James GII]

I greatly appreciate all of the the comments to my question and I will continue studying as best I can these next 2 weeks. I have been studying on and off for the past few months and finally just set a scheduled date. I will take take the advice of all the comments and prepare myself as best as possible.

 

[James GII]

This may be a stupid question, but I am not quite understanding the UAV practice problems. I don't understand what it means when it says "locate the (direction) parking lot" and then it shows the arrow pointing. This may be somewhat of a humerous comment, but I don't see a parking lot nor do I understand why the arrows are pointing to the same location but just angled differently. If someone could explain that to me that would be of great help.

 

[Kevin Farrell]

It's constantly changing your viewpoint and asking you to identify a lot in regards to the compass direction. It's basically knowing which way you're traveling in space and referencing a particular spot on the earth. (It's been some time since I've taken the test, so take with a few grains of salt.)

If you're taking the ASTB-E, there will be a section where you will have unlimited time to practice orientation and what exactly you're looking for. Use as much time as you need to get used to what the questions are asking you and how to figure it out, not the actual answers.

When I prepped for my ASTB, no book had any UAV questions, so when I went to take the test, it was all brand new. Just keep working it out and keep a level head.

 

[James GII]

It's constantly changing your viewpoint and asking you to identify a lot in regards to the compass direction. It's basically knowing which way you're traveling in space and referencing a particular spot on the earth. (It's been some time since I've taken the test, so take with a few grains of salt.)

If you're taking the ASTB-E, there will be a section where you will have unlimited time to practice orientation and what exactly you're looking for. Use as much time as you need to get used to what the questions are asking you and how to figure it out, not the actual answers.

When I prepped for my ASTB, no book had any UAV questions, so when I went to take the test, it was all brand new. Just keep working it out and keep a level head.

Okay thanks so much for the quick reply sir. I appreciate your answer and input.

 

[Kevin Farrell]

Best of luck. Crush that test when you take it.

 

[BPeterson93]

Okay thanks so much for the quick reply sir. I appreciate your answer and input.

Update. I just took the exam in September. The time is not unlimited. You get 5 attempts to practice and then it puts you into the true exam. Do not bank on the "unlimited" practice.

To best practice this portion you'll need to look up flashcards in the interwebs and just run through those until you start to understand the concept.

The arrow will point you in the direction your aircraft is heading. So if the arrow is point north and it asks to target the south lot then the bottom square is your target. This is pretty confusing for anyone at first but you'll get the hang of it.

My advice is draw the map with the building and four parking lots. Label each one appropriately according to the Cardinal directions. Then, as the system tells you what direction you're going, orient the paper so that it reflects that direction.

Ie.
Heading is south east.
Rotate paper so that the south and east parking lots are at the "top" of the page.
Target whichever lot the system asks you to target.

 

[Hopeful Hoya]

Update. I just took the exam in September. The time is not unlimited. You get 5 attempts to practice and then it puts you into the true exam. Do not bank on the "unlimited" practice.

No it's still unlimited, you just have to click "Back" to go back through the practice problems.

The gouge about using the paper compass is very good though, I did that as well and it helped a lot.

 

[BPeterson93]

No it's still unlimited, you just have to click "Back" to go back through the practice problems.

The gouge about using the paper compass is very good though, I did that as well and it helped a lot.

Well fuck me. I must've missed the button to go back. Oh well. I only missed two or three anyhow. But still it would have been nice to have more practice.

 

[James GII]

Big things I would say:

Make sure to study for the UAV portion. Since it was only introduced a couple of years ago a lot of the older gouge doesn't cover it and it can trip people up. I attached some practice problems for you.

I also attached a Barron's practice test. You can skip the parts with the planes in the different positions as that is no longer part of the test.

Weird things that study guides don't cover that I saw on the test: Logs, normal probability distributions, counting in binary

Could you explain to me one of the questions for the UAV portion? I feel insane because I can't figure out how to do them. Are the answers matched up with the pages you gave me?

 

[Hopeful Hoya]

Could you explain to me one of the questions for the UAV portion? I feel insane because I can't figure out how to do them. Are the answers matched up with the pages you gave me?

Yes they are. The parking lots are oriented at the four cardinal directions, they don't move. The way to approach it is to use the overhead view on the left, with the direction arrow indicating your direction of flight, to orient yourself with what direction you're heading. Then, use the camera view on the right to target the lot they're asking for. So on the first question, You're flying (and looking) East, and so the West lot would be the lot closest to you ("Down" in the answer key).

 

[James GII]

Yes they are. The parking lots are oriented at the four cardinal directions, they don't move. The way to approach it is to use the overhead view on the left, with the direction arrow indicating your direction of flight, to orient yourself with what direction you're heading. Then, use the camera view on the right to target the lot they're asking for. So on the first question, You're flying (and looking) East, and so the West lot would be the lot closest to you ("Down" in the answer key).

I understand now! I imagined I was actually holding a joystick and I was flying a plane (it helped me out). The direction of the arrow is the direction in which I was traveling and I would move the joystick in the direction in which I I needed to go to re-correct my direction from the direction I was traveling. So if I was traveling South and I had to re-correct North, point the joystick in the direction that North would be (which is behind you). So you would move it "down." The reason I was having trouble was because I was assuming the camera view was the same as the cardinal directions. But what you need to do is treat the upper box as the direction you are going as well. So in the case of the arrow pointing to the right (which is East according to the map on the right) and the question asks you to locate the South parking lot, treat the upper box (or "parking lot") as the direction you are heading which is East. From there, if you are trying to go to the South parking lot, you would turn the joystick to the right.

 

[PMPT]

Yeah I still use math a lot but it is either of the more theoretical side (i.e. using calculus to derive a proof for a specific concept) or very simple plug these numbers into an equation and see what the output is. Not doing a lot of the rate/time/distance calculations, geometry, word problems, working with logs, etc. that you see on the ASTB.

yep. good point. it was ignorant of me to forget this.

 

[PMPT]

I greatly appreciate all of the the comments to my question and I will continue studying as best I can these next 2 weeks. I have been studying on and off for the past few months and finally just set a scheduled date. I will take take the advice of all the comments and prepare myself as best as possible.

i honestly imagine you'll probably be fine then. i thought you meant you hadn't touched a thing in preparation until 2 weeks ago. i was basically the same as you. don't sweat it too much. you'll more likely than be fine.