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

K

kayla058

New Member
Hey all, just wanted to say thank you to everyone in this forum! Took the ASTB the other day and scored a 54 6/7/8. I’ll be applying with a 3.9 GPA. I wanted to share my experience to help future test takers.

Math: There were a lot of distance, rate, time questions, rate of work problems, some exponent questions, probability questions about dice and cards, quadratics, and questions about spheres and cylinders. There were also some percentage questions in there and some questions about graphing on an X/Y plane. I’m terrible at math and hadn’t taken any serious math classes since high school, so this is where I spent most of my time.

Reading: A lot of the passages are pretty dry and are meant to bore you. For questions in this section I wasn’t sure about, I wrote down “A B C D” on my scratch paper and eliminated the obviously incorrect answers by striking a line through the letter. The passages in this section ranged from Navy policies to astronomy. My advice would be to read through all of the answers and look for answers that don’t add unnecessary details or information that was not in the passage.

Mechanical: I had questions on levers, Bernoulli’s Principle, F=MA, Newtons, what is the gravitational force on Earth, mechanical advantage, kinetic and potential energy, spinning strings with weights, conductivity and heat transfers, a question about a two-piston engine, and buoyancy. Most of these questions did not require any calculations, although I had a few that did (but they didn’t even require the use of scratch paper.)

UAV: The compass trick helped me a lot- I averaged about 1.5-2 seconds per answer. Definitely practice this section before test day. You can practice as many times as you want before this portion of the test starts, so practice until you feel comfortable. These are the flashcards I used to study:
https://www.proprofs.com/flashcards/story.php?title=_36014

ASTB UAV Testing Foreign Language Flashcards - Cram.com

Trying to learn ? We can help! Memorize these flashcards or create your own flashcards with Cram.com. Learn a new language today.
www.cram.com www.cram.com

ANIT: I had multiple questions in this section about basic components/functions of planes, such as ailerons, yaw, and roll. Know the nicknames for various planes and basic nautical terms, such as aft, port, starboard, stern, what another name for a propeller is, etc. I had a question about the first man into space and who broke the speed of sound. I had a lot of questions about parts of ships, such as “What purpose do bulkheads serve?” I studied for this by reading through some of the study sets, watching YouTube videos, and reading through the gouges posted in this thread. I have no prior aviation experience so I had to start from scratch here. Here's the link to a study set I used to prepare:
ASTB Aviation/Nautical Information Test (ANIT) [comprehensive] Flashcards

PBM: With the dichotic listening, I leaned in to the target ear, which helped me focus on which ear I was supposed to be listening to. I didn’t study for this part of the test, so I don’t have any advice on how to prepare for it in advance. Make sure to read all directions and write them down to remember them if you have to. I was pretty fidgety because I was nervous, so I sat on my hands while I was reading directions so I didn’t accidentally click ahead.

I used Kyle’s study guide for some info and practice questions:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AvPi5oH_h_13TGajDvflDWkftwXO8LS6

I studied for about 2-4 hours a day for 2-3 weeks leading up to the test, but I started studying aviation/nautical history a couple of months before because I had zero prior knowledge. I used the Barron’s book and some GRE math prep books I had left over from when I took the GRE, which were especially helpful when it came to practice problems and answer explanations. The Barron’s book was helpful for aviation and nautical terms/concepts, history, and practice tests. Good luck to all future test takers!
 
M

maowczykowski1

Active Member
Hey, Air Warriors!
Anyone have good information of the aviation/Nautical portion of the test. specifically navy history and aircraft prefixes/models/and nicnames?
Thanks
 
rmasons

rmasons

New Member
Hi all! I just got approved and wanted to post a little write-up after my ASTB on 18 February. There is not really much I can add that has not already been said.

For my math portion I had a lot of Rate x Time, no matrices, some geometric sequences, and negative exponents.

Mechanical comprehension was buoyancy, basic forces, and then the spring starting at one point, being contracted and released.

ANIT I do not really remember, I have my PPL and am almost finished with my IR so most of the aviation questions were simple for me.

Definitely use the UAV video trick with the compass, I got all of them right with my longest answer taking 3.2 seconds because I could not turn it fast enough.

For the listening and tracking together, the biggest thing I think that helped me was that I focused on the listening, while leaning into the target year, and just zoned out on the tracking. I found I was a lot more accurate with tracking when it was just an after thought.

Overall, scored a 58 8/8/8. Need to lose a couple more inches off my abdomen/waist before I can go to MEPS, but hoping I might make the 03 April deadline...
 
M

mstewart5

New Member
Hello Air Warriors,
I was curious to hear what you guys think about my chances of being accepted as a SNA from the May board.
-Scored a 53 6/7/7 on the ASTB
-Graduating this May from ASU with a 2.9 GPA in Marketing (where I'm most concerned)
-Decent but not outstanding LORs
-No health issues with a background of playing sports
-Good background in leadership roles (sports captain, management position at current workplace)
Recruiter seems to be confident but I know this forum will be brutally honest if he's just blowing smoke.
Thank you!
 
FormerRecruitingGuru

FormerRecruitingGuru

Making Recruiting Great Again
mstewart5 said:
Hello Air Warriors,
I was curious to hear what you guys think about my chances of being accepted as a SNA from the May board.
-Scored a 53 6/7/7 on the ASTB
-Graduating this May from ASU with a 2.9 GPA in Marketing (where I'm most concerned)
-Decent but not outstanding LORs
-No health issues with a background of playing sports
-Good background in leadership roles (sports captain, management position at current workplace)
Recruiter seems to be confident but I know this forum will be brutally honest if he's just blowing smoke.
Thank you!
Click to expand...

Check out the aviation selection board threads. You can find spreadsheets where folks post stats and whether they get selected or not. I would highly recommend you use/refer that to see where you stack.
 
bigbird

bigbird

Biggest Bird
rmasons said:
Hi all! I just got approved and wanted to post a little write-up after my ASTB on 18 February. There is not really much I can add that has not already been said.

For my math portion I had a lot of Rate x Time, no matrices, some geometric sequences, and negative exponents.

Mechanical comprehension was buoyancy, basic forces, and then the spring starting at one point, being contracted and released.

ANIT I do not really remember, I have my PPL and am almost finished with my IR so most of the aviation questions were simple for me.

Definitely use the UAV video trick with the compass, I got all of them right with my longest answer taking 3.2 seconds because I could not turn it fast enough.

For the listening and tracking together, the biggest thing I think that helped me was that I focused on the listening, while leaning into the target year, and just zoned out on the tracking. I found I was a lot more accurate with tracking when it was just an after thought.

Overall, scored a 58 8/8/8. Need to lose a couple more inches off my abdomen/waist before I can go to MEPS, but hoping I might make the 03 April deadline...
Click to expand...
April board deadline was moved to 10 April with a convene date of 25 May. Focus on your goals and do what you have to get that waist line down wouldn't want to waste those great scores!
 
G

grizzi17

Member
I have everything I need for the next SNA/NFO board, but I am wondering if I should retake with 52 6/7/7 ?? Seeing people with 8's and a few 9's is making me feel very self-conscious lol. I have a solid GPA and flight experience but idk if it will make up for lack of 1 or 2 points on the ASTB.
 
2

2621

New Member
Score: 61 7/7/8

3.7 GPA
Business Management degree
No physics, engineering, or math experience higher than college algebra

Summary

I went into this process just wanting to score a 50+ on the OAR to qualify for SWO. I started from page 200 on this thread and read through everything and saved all the resources/links and used those to get my bearings. I used no other resources. My intent was to read through everything and then take it for the first first time and then from there I could see what I needed to focus on for my second try. My strategy was that any time a certain type of question came up in a post or even better, a specific question, I would go study that specific topic/question. The advantage of this was that I saw many of the same things over and over again so it was good repetition. I admit I never actually sat down and completed full tests which I definitely regretted when I got to the math section. I do not recommend this for the math, please take the practice tests. Overall, besides the math section I didn't find anything to be particularly difficult and the resources available on here are more than enough to do well. Every section except for the actual simulator stuff is practicable.

Math Skills Test (MST)

I have never been good at math and realized on the first question I was not nearly prepared enough. I know I didn't do great on this section due to the fact that the test never progressed past extremely simple algebra. My strategy here once I realized I was in rough shape was that if I knew I could get the answer correct I would stick with the question until I got the right answer even if it took a bit longer. If I knew for sure I wasn't going to be able to solve the question I guessed C. The test eventually realized my ability level and gave me questions I could solve but I probably missed a good amount at the beginning.

After this section I figured I already failed the OAR portion so it was a rough way to start the ASTB but I put it behind me and didn't worry about it the rest of the test. I kept a good attitude and just figured I was learned a good lesson for next time. DON'T GIVE UP AFTER THIS SECTION. Clearly you can compensate for the math by doing well in the other areas so stay positive and give it 100% for every section no matter what happens in this part.

The math test kicked me out after about 25 minutes. There was nothing higher than simple algebra (probably due to my skill level).

Reading Comprehension Test (RCT)

Overall not as boring/dry as everyone has made it seem so far but I don't mind reading manuals and guides so I may just have a higher tolerance. I have always been good at reading comprehension on standardized tests so I think this and the mechanical is where I made up for the math. I felt confident in almost every answer and it literally went until the clock ran out. The trick here is there are always 2 evidently wrong answers and then 2 close ones.

The best way to handle these questions is to pretend you know NOTHING except what the paragraph tells you. The questions are worded in a way to trick you into using outside or assumed information. To an exaggerated extent you should pretend that you don't know anything and ONLY refer to the paragraph. For example, if the paragraph is something like "Most colors can be mixed to create new colors. The colors blue and red make purple, and the colors yellow and blue make green. What color do yellow and red create?" There is no way for you to know that based on the given information so any answer with "orange" in it is not correct and is there to trick you. You only have orange on your mind because you are using knowledge from outside of the test. Also, the question said "most" colors but didn't mention anything about yellow being one of those colors. This is obviously not a good example of a question but the point I'm getting at is to be extremely careful to not bring in outside knowledge.

Overall this section was fine. The test let me go until the clock ran out. I felt confident that I got almost every question correct.

Mechanical Comprehension Test (MCT)

This was actually much easier than I thought it would be. I have never taken a physics class in my life but I do like to build things and I am used to using various tools and simple machines. To prepare I just used the flashcards that previous people have linked and made sure I really understood the underlying concepts. During the test I didn't have to use scratch paper once and it was all more intuitive and based on understanding concepts. If I wasn't sure I just tried to imagine the situation in my head and went with my gut. If you go through all the posts on this thread and use the mechanical flashcard sets you should be fine and it will give you a good intuitive instinct on these.

The test kicked me out a little early. I felt confident I got almost every question correct.

15 Minute Break

I went to the bathroom, did pushups, and just relaxed for a few minutes.

Aviation and Nautical Information Test (ANIT)

I used the 415 flashcard set that people have linked to as well as some of the various others. I also read certain parts of the flight manual (chapters 3 (full chapter),4 (full chapter) ,5 (only pages 1-17) 6 (Full Chapter) ,7 (only types of turbine engines and landing gear systems), 8 (pages 1-9), 11 (pages 1-12), 12 (1-20), 14 (Know lights and markings), 15 (Airspaces), 16 (pages5-8), 17 (hypoxia and vertigo)). Basically just make sure you spend the time memorizing everything and make sure you fully understand yaw, pitch, roll, and which axis each one is. Understand the concepts of what all the various parts of a plane do and what direction the plane would move based on elevators and various things moving and all that.

I got more aviation questions than nautical. This portion is 100% doable if you study.

NATFI

Basically none of the answers will describe you so just don't worry about it too much. I just went with my first instinct and tried to be honest, I didn't try to game it at all.

Note on the performance-based portion:

I was originally planning on going SWO so I only took the remaining part of the ASTB to have fun and see what everyone else was talking about on this thread. I have absolutely no piloting or simulator experience and haven't played video games since Halo and Halo 2 came out (shout out to my Halo 2 fam) and I never played inverted. I think I did well because it was very low stakes for me personally and I was just trying to have fun and wasn't too hard on myself. By the time you get to throttle, stick, and listening all at once it is so chaotic that you just need to settle in and do the best you can while still having a good time.

UAV

Easy test. USE THE COMPASS TRICK. You can practice as much as you want so I practiced about 8 times until I was relaxed. The difference though is that in-between practice questions it pauses so you have time to reorient your compass to north if you want. During the actual test they just keep coming non stop so if you are like me and need to start each question with north face up then you better be ready to move fast. One thing that was hard was that the arrows on the non-cardinal direction ones were not at 45 degrees but a more shallow angle. So, for instance, it was obvious you were flying SW but it wasn't like a true SW, it was more west. Not a huge deal but a little confusing.

Overall it felt like I got a ton of scenarios, I think 20+, and I focused on accuracy over speed so my average was about 3-4 seconds and I got about 3 wrong. The ones I got wrong were because I lost my bearings with the compass temporarily and didn't want to reorient and take WAY too long to answer. Every question that I successfully used the compass I got correct.

Dichotic Listening

Just tilt your head and you'll be fine. I also wrote down which side was for even and odd so I could look at that as I listened. I got 100% of these correct.

Throttle (Vertical Tracking)

The throttle is definitely not very sensitive so you end up overshooting if you commit to moving it all the way up or all the way down. I think that's what everyone is referring to as the dead zone. I noticed that the target never fully commits to going all the way up or down and will normally change direction as soon as you lock on so I never over committed and if I was lagging a bit behind the target I would even sometimes proactively change direction (like towards even further away) before the target did so the target ended up bringing itself into my crosshairs as soon as it changed directions (which it always did). My advice for this one is to be gentle on the controls with this one and try to anticipate the target's movements.

Stick (2D Tracking)

During the practice I never got it locked on once, I was just trying to figure out the inverted thing. During the actual test I just did the best I could and just tried to have fun. Again, just don't overcommit because it moves fast and is way more maneuverable that you. You may be better off trying to cut it off than chasing from behind.

Throttle and Stick

This was difficult. At first I mostly focused on the stick and was doing the throttle from my peripheral but then realized I wasn't getting the side target locked on at all so I just started going back and forth and getting as much lock on time as I could for both.

Throttle/Stick/Listening

This was total chaos. I was laughing during the test at how comical this was for someone with no simulator experience. I was mostly focused on the listening and would still lean in the appropriate direction. I made 2 listening mistakes during this portion which were definitely avoidable. I would still attempt to track while I was listening but wasn't too worried about it. At this point though I was much more comfortable with how it was inverted so I was doing better due to having more experience.

Emergency

Write them down and you'll be fine. Make sure you put the dials back somewhere in the center after each emergency situation because it won't count it if the dial is already in the right position. When the emergencies happened I completely stopped tracking, fixed the emergency, and went back to tracking. You can solve the emergencies in literally not even 2 seconds if you write them down.

Conclusion

So that is my ASTB experience. Hopefully sharing my experience can help others pass. Again, thank you to everyone on here that has helped me and so many other people on this test. I did way better than I thought and that is due to all the great info on here.

Key Takeaways
  • Apparently, if you don't do well on math you can still do ok overall if you really do well on reading and mechanical. That being said, my first choice would have been spending more time on math practice problems.
  • Maintain a positive attitude and give it 100% the entire way through the test.
  • Everything you need is in this thread, focus on understanding concepts so you can extrapolate based on those concepts.
  • For the reading comprehension pretend you know nothing, the only information in your brain is from that one paragraph in front of you.
  • For the entire test speed is important but I personally focused on accuracy first.
  • Remain calm.
  • Have fun and enjoy yourself during the performance-based portion, you are just playing a video game.
 
F

flygirl17

New Member
nyynyg said:
I would like to thank the earlier participants of this forum, as it was extremely helpful in my preparation for the ASTB. I am a recent college graduate with no aviation or military background and played a decent amount of video games when I was younger but would not consider myself a “gamer” in any sense. I took the test relatively recently and scored 69/9/8/9. While I did not initially plan on posting and most of what I have to say has more or less been stated in earlier posts, I feel obliged to detail my process and advice here considering how helpful this forum was to me.

Overall: I would say I began studying in earnest roughly 2-3 weeks before my exam. The number of hours per day varied considerably, however in the last week I studied rigorously and took a few days off of work to fully commit myself. While I tried to adequately prepare for every subtest, the ones that took up most of my study time were the Math, Mechanical, and ANIT portions. While how much studying is necessary/best varies by the individual, if you have made the decision that becoming a naval aviator is your truly your goal, I would advise erring on the side of “over-preparing”. My thought process was that I would rather look back and realize I studied more than I needed to than not prepare enough to get the necessary scores to be selected. I will also say that I was pleasantly surprised by how long each subtest took, I never felt like I was running out of time. Finally, I did not feel like I was doing especially well when I actually took the test, and was pleasantly surprised by my results, so if you feel as though you are not doing well do not be discouraged, keep doing your best, as you may only think you are doing worse than you actually are.

Test Day: All of this information will seem obvious/intuitive, but I think it is worth sharing. I made sure I got an adequate amount of sleep, stayed hydrated, and ate well in the two days before the exam. Around 9-10pm the night before, I stopped studying and made getting my mind into a relaxed, confident state the priority. I left for the exam quite early, to allow for possible traffic jams, car trouble, etc. I went to the bathroom just before the exam, and brought with me scratch paper, pens, water, snacks, tissues, a light jacket, and an analog watch, and made sure I had the proctor’s permission to have each item with me in the exam room. I also used the break period to stretch, walk around, go to the bathroom again, and do whatever was needed to stay in a constructive state of mind. Again, I am aware none of this advice seems especially insightful, but forgetting any one of them could potentially harm your results, so having a mental checklist like so can be helpful.

Study Materials: I will post the usefulness of the materials for each section in greater detail below. I have no prior aviation/flight sim experience, so I got a stick and throttle controller for my Xbox to get used to using such a controller, but honestly I did not use it that much and the controls in the exam are much bigger/heavier/clunky, so I would not consider this a necessity. Kyle’s guide (which I believe includes the Peterson’s materials) posted earlier in this forum is a godsend, probably the most useful of any one resource, and Barron’s prep book is also very useful. I also had Officer Candidate Tests for Dummies, which can also help but is clearly inferior to Barron’s if you only wish to purchase one book. For further information on specific information/concepts, plenty is available via quick, intuitive Youtube/Google searches.

Math: I majored in a social science in college, so even though I have generally been competent in STEM subjects throughout my education, it is certainly not my wheelhouse, so I studied this section rigorously to compensate. As posted by others, many of the preparation materials, such as Barron’s, are far too easy on this section. Kyle’s guide is generally more useful here. Concepts such as probability, exponents, logs, series, matrices, etc. were all areas that I needed to brush up on and were covered lightly if at all in some of the softer study materials. I would advise you to cover all of your bases in regards to both your theoretical understanding and being able to solve practice problems. When I found a subject to be especially tricky, searching for online resources, especially Khan Academy on Youtube, got me to where I believed I needed to be. While I was unsure of some of the problems on the actual test, I am sure that had I not been told that Barron’s, etc. were too soft and not done further preparation I would have gotten a significantly lower score.

Reading: My education background was relatively well-suited to this subtest, so I did not prepare for it as much as some of the others. I received no vocabulary questions, only inference. The material was, in fact, quite dry and Navy-specific, so reading some actual Navy materials that have been made available may be helpful in familiarizing yourself to the types of passages you will see here. I believe it is generally helpful to take the approach of taking the questions very literally (what are they actually saying as opposed to what are they alluding to). Practice tests in sources like Barron’s, etc. was how I did most of my preparation here.

Mechanical: Like the Math section, this subject is not my natural academic home so I studied for it quite a lot. Unlike the Math section, most of the widely-used study materials like Barron’s will prepare you pretty well, however again I would recommend using sources like Kyle’s guide. Cover areas like circuits, simple machines, basic physics/mechanical sciences, etc. Again, I used intuitive Google and Youtube searches if I felt like I needed further explanation on a particular concept. This subtest really is pretty straightforward, and unlike math I do not believe it runs the risk of certain, popular test materials leaving you largely unprepared. Build a strong theoretical understanding, execute the practice problems, and you should be fine.

ANIT: Again, I have no aviation/military background, so there was a lot I had to learn before the test. While there really is a lot of information out there to be potentially tested on, the good news is that this subtest measures “knowledge” not “aptitude”, so improvement here is quite attainable. I did not review the FAA materials, however I used Barron’s, Kyle’s guide, the ASTB Cram flashcards, and Google and Youtube searches if there was an area I felt like I needed additional explanation on. This, more than any other subtest, was where I thought I was getting killed, so if you think as you are doing poorly do not get discouraged, just do your best one question at a time.

NAFTI: This section takes an annoyingly long time, and some of the questions will definitely feel strange/uncomfortable. It is true that this is much less conventional than the earlier subtests and does not require substantial, traditional studying time, and the best piece of advice is to just answer the questions as honestly as possible. However, I actually think a little preparation could help here. Hopefully you have had the opportunity to meet/speak to some naval aviators or military personnel in general, and gotten a sense of how your specific character/personality can constructively fit into that larger community. What I did was just take a little time, certainly less than an hour, to undergo some personal reflection, and imagine that if there were an actual interview portion of this test, how I would want to present myself and what personal qualities I would want to emphasize (while still being truthful of course). Then, I tried to pick the responses that best conveyed those qualities.

UAV: I watched the Youtube video that was been posted several times in this forum, drew a compass rose, and practiced with some flashcards. If you do that, there will be absolutely no surprises on this subtest. I will say that while accuracy is obviously more important than speed, it would be hard for me to imagine that nearly every competitive applicant who adequately prepares does not get nearly every question right. Therefore, I would imagine most of the differentiation between potentially competitive applicants comes from speed, not accuracy. In other words, while accuracy is the most important thing here, speed is likely quite important too.

PBM: There is another Youtube video that has been posted earlier in the forum that does a good job of explaining what to expect in this subtest. I knew going into this one that it was going to feel hard, there were going to be moments where I felt was screwing up, so the most important thing was to stay calm, collected, and not to get discouraged, just keep doing as best as I could. You will also get some time between sections and some practice sections, which are very helpful if you use them to take a deep breath (literally and figuratively). The test will have you undergo a dichotic test of pressing the trigger/clutch when you hear even/odd numbers in the target ear, vertically track an airplane graphic with the throttle, and track a similar graphic across a 2-D field with the flight stick, and then combinations of those three. You will also have to undertake 3 emergency procedures while tracking with the throttle and flight stick. For the dichotic sections, I tilted my head in the direction of the target ear to give myself a mental cue. I also wrote down the emergency procedures on my scratch paper before the section that included them, which you will have plenty of time to do. During the sections that required me to do 2 or 3 of the tests at the same time, my priorities were 1. Dichotic/Emergency Procedures, 2. Flight Stick, 3. Throttle, though I still tried to do as best as I could on all three. The set up is right-handed and bigger/heavier than one might expect, so be mentally prepared for that if you are naturally left-handed and/or have skinny forearms like me. Again, I cannot emphasize enough how important staying calm and not getting discouraged is during this subtest; if I had to give just one piece of advice for the entire ASTB, it would be that.

BI-RV: Some of the materials out there still say this is part of the ASTB, however it was not given to me and I believe it is no longer part of the larger exam.


Sorry if this was excessively long, I wanted to be comprehensive. Again, study hard, get adequate rest, be calm and resilient during the test, and take it one question/section at a time and you will be fine. This forum was a true help to me in my preparation, so I am more than happy to answer questions people might have via a direct message. Best of luck to all who are preparing for this test and undertaking the larger process of becoming a military officer.
Click to expand...
Hey you mentioned Kyle's guide a few times in here. Where can I find that?
 
nyynyg

nyynyg

Member
grizzi17 said:
I have everything I need for the next SNA/NFO board, but I am wondering if I should retake with 52 6/7/7 ?? Seeing people with 8's and a few 9's is making me feel very self-conscious lol. I have a solid GPA and flight experience but idk if it will make up for lack of 1 or 2 points on the ASTB.
Click to expand...

For what it's worth, I only posted here because since I scored 69 9/8/9, I figured that I must have done something right in my process and was therefore likely in a position to help others by passing my information along. Had I not scored as highly, I would not have posted. So if others posting here are doing so for similar reasons, the scores you are seeing here are likely skewed higher than average. Definitely ask your recruiter though, they likely have a decent idea of how likely you are to get picked up based on the entirety of your package.
 
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