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

Derelicte

New Member
1.) Next SNA/NFO boards is going to be 25 Jan with a app deadline of 11 DEC. After that the next is an 23 APR boards.
2.) You must wait until the 31st day to retake the ASTB.
3.) Most recent score is the only one counted better/worse.

Good luck with the studies. Plenty of information on AW if you do some digging!
My recruiter told me today that he just read that was pushed earlier to Dec 1.

I took my test today. 51 6/7/6. I lurked this thread and only really started digging during the last week or two before finally taking the test. I had to reschedule twice so that left me with 3 months of studying 5 days minimum for at least an hour.

MATH
has always been my weakest subject. i studied this the third most (which I'll talk about more later). The test cut me off less than 5 minutes early and I felt like the test was really easy. It didnt get very difficult besides a fraction problem which went something like "x^2 + 5x / x + 5" which I dont really care to even find out the answer for right now. No matrices, or logs but i studied everything under the sun although it probably wasn't as vigorous as I should've.

READING
I graduated as a journalist and worked as a reporter so I didnt study for this portion at all because I aced every practice I took. I read the NYTimes daily and books so that was my practice. The first two questions or so were stupid easy then it got difficult, fast. It felt like some passages were written extremely complicated and I could imagine getting some of them right but it was obvious that I'd get some wrong when the following question or two was stupid easy again. My best advice is to eliminate any answer not directly mentioned in the passage but even then I couldn't be sure how I did in this section again because I was so confident yet the questions bounced all over the difficulty spectrum.

MECH
I figured this would be the hardest test for me but was only second hardest of the day. This was also what I thought I'd have to study for the most but that beast was waiting for me after this. I found this section to be easier and harder than the info provided in barrons or the gouges. A lot of it is common sense stuff regarding physics, even for someone like me with little background in science and math. The problems that gave me issues were about definitions of electrical things. I had about 3 or so questions ask me about which object hits the ground first when dropped (KNOW THIS.)

AVIATION STUFF
This was the most difficult section, as expected. This is also what I studied for the most, which is a double edged sword. If you get all the easy questions right like the names of a ship/plane and what things do, youre expected to also answer the ratings of people on the ship and who they answer to (which I never studied.) I know that this affected my score HEAVILY. I could answer all the easy questions but not the hard ones because I rationalized that, because I knew nothing about aviation to begin with, I should know the basics by heart. My advice is to STUDY EVERYTHING. YOU WILL NOT REMEMBER EVERYTHING BY HEART BUT SOME TERMS, NAMES, OR RATES WILL LOOK FAMILIAR AND YOU'LL HAVE SOME CLUE TO THE RIGHT ANSWER.

STUDY EVERYTHING. AGAIN, YOU WON'T REMEMBER EVERYTHING. NO ONE DOES. UNLESS YOU'RE THE HANDFUL OF NERDS THAT SCORE 80 9/9/9. THEY ARE OUTLIERS. BUT TAKE A LOOK AT EVERYTHING OVER AND OVER AND SOME OF IT WILL STICK, TRUST ME!

UAV
compass trick.

LISTENING
lean to the ear, i guess? its not that difficult.

JOYSTICK TRACKING
i play videogames enough to where i'll never be one in a large group who will say "i never grew up playing videogames im trash take it easy on me." I can keep up but I believe that playing videogames would not have helped me what so ever. This portion was so damn difficult I thought I was going crazy. If you had an exact set up at home to practice this then I could imagine it being easy but doing it for the first time? MADNESS. This is what probably made my score so damn low. I tried to stretch and do deep breathing multiple times during this section to try and stay calm but it is hell and just do your best.

FINAL THOUGHTS
I am v thankful for this forum. If I didnt have access here I'd probably have done a lot worse. If I could do anything over again, I'd have taken the test the first month I had scheduled, then retook it now. It'd be my second time using the joysticks and knowing what to expect with that (and questions like knowing aviation rates and obscure mechanical/aviation/nautical definitions.) BUT, I cant go back in time so it is what it is.

This forum also made me too anxious thinking I wasn't qualified because, again, the outliers who post here talking about playing their d1 sports and earning perfect/near-perfect ASTB scores. I planned, as another user mentioned, to blow my marks out the park because I didn't feel like my application was strong. Immediately after taking the test my proctor seemed pleased and reassured me hes seen pilots get picked up with lower scores. Did I mention that I have a non-STEM degree and a 3.0 GPA (3.86 in UNI but a 2.something in community college 10 years ago significantly lowered that.. YES, 10 YEARS AGO BECAUSE I AM ALSO 30 TRYING TO BECOME A PILOT BEFORE I TURN 31.) I absolutely must get in next years board because I am too late for the Dec 1 deadline and I'll be 32 by the time I go to OCS if I dont make it. Even if, for whatever reason, my scores dont qualify me for pilot, I am 100% confident I can get in for something in the media side due to my experience in journalism + design.

Anyways, this has been rant. All I want to say is that study everything, and study well + often. I used ANKI for flashcards and I wish I had made more than the 400 I did. GOOD LUCK!!
 

GodSpeed1997

Well-Known Member
Hello everyone,

just took the ASTB today for the last time and got a 54 7/8/7. Thank you to everyone here, this site has a helped a ton. Does anyone know if these are competitive scores to get selected?
 

WannaFlyHigh

Well-Known Member
Just took the ASTB for the first time today.

Scored a 61 8/8/8!

Thank you Airwarriors for giving me the resources to do well!

I definitely thought I was doing horrible because of how many probability questions I was getting. Sincerely thought I was going to get in the 4-5 range. The stick and throttle part was pretty much as horrible as everyone else says lol. I could not keep up with the stick portion so focused mainly on the throttle. Writing down the emergencies did help. Also the compass trick for the UAV did wonders. Only got 2 wrong because I was going too fast for them.

I do not think I will retake it the exam because I scored fairly high on the first time. I only studied for a few days but I looked over most of the practice tests in Kyle's Prep drive. The time crunch in those definitely helped me prepare for the exam and gave me ample time to get through the problems.

If I don’t get selected within the next two boards that I apply to, I will probably retake the exam and aim for a 65+ 9/9/9.
 

Mike74

Member
Genuinely curious what competitive scores are on the ASTB
It really depends on what your competition scores for the board in which you are applying for. Selectees are made based off of the "most qualified" for the packages that are submitted during that time. That being said, competitive scores change each selection board. But generally speaking, anything above a 50 on the OAR and anything 7's and higher on the remainder of the subtests are typically considered competitive.
 

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
It really depends on what your competition scores for the board in which you are applying for. Selectees are made based off of the "most qualified" for the packages that are submitted during that time. That being said, competitive scores change each selection board. But generally speaking, anything above a 50 on the OAR and anything 7's and higher on the remainder of the subtests are typically considered competitive.

Aviation doesn't really care about OAR, for SNA it is AQR and PFAR, for SNFO it is AQR and FOFAR
 

Metromedic

Well-Known Member
Contributor
Hello everyone,

just took the ASTB today for the last time and got a 54 7/8/7. Thank you to everyone here, this site has a helped a ton. Does anyone know if these are competitive scores to get selected?
Yes, but remember they do a "whole person" approach and this is one component to your packet.
 

hnewt

New Member
Hi airwarriors,

Just wanted to reach out and say a massive thank you to everyone on this forum for helping with my OAR/ASTB prep. Without it, I definitely wouldn't have been able to get anywhere close to the scores that I got (68, 9/8/9).

I mostly used Kyle's study guide drive, which is floating around somewhere in this forum, any math, physics, or ANIT practice material and whatever online officer prep books I could find. Also, and I can't say this enough, read this page for gouge on the exam (such as the UAV trick), there were times where I found myself thinking back to someone's forum post during the exam and I'm confident I got at least two questions right on math because of that. One other piece of advice: I have absolutely no physics background, so I had to study somewhat hard on that - and there were a ton of questions on the physics section that I wasn't fully confident in answering, so my advice would be to go deeper than the study guides say you should.

I have all the PDFs from the tests that I studied from on my computer (way too many to post here) so message me if you would like to see those. Kyle's study guide is linked above in someone's post so I won't put that here either.

Thank you again airwarriors!
 

Oshun8235

Active Member
Hi airwarriors,

Just wanted to reach out and say a massive thank you to everyone on this forum for helping with my OAR/ASTB prep. Without it, I definitely wouldn't have been able to get anywhere close to the scores that I got (68, 9/8/9).

I mostly used Kyle's study guide drive, which is floating around somewhere in this forum, any math, physics, or ANIT practice material and whatever online officer prep books I could find. Also, and I can't say this enough, read this page for gouge on the exam (such as the UAV trick), there were times where I found myself thinking back to someone's forum post during the exam and I'm confident I got at least two questions right on math because of that. One other piece of advice: I have absolutely no physics background, so I had to study somewhat hard on that - and there were a ton of questions on the physics section that I wasn't fully confident in answering, so my advice would be to go deeper than the study guides say you should.

I have all the PDFs from the tests that I studied from on my computer (way too many to post here) so message me if you would like to see those. Kyle's study guide is linked above in someone's post so I won't put that here either.

Thank you again airwarriors!
Hey do you sti
 

lah512

New Member
Hi airwarriors,

Just wanted to reach out and say a massive thank you to everyone on this forum for helping with my OAR/ASTB prep. Without it, I definitely wouldn't have been able to get anywhere close to the scores that I got (68, 9/8/9).

I mostly used Kyle's study guide drive, which is floating around somewhere in this forum, any math, physics, or ANIT practice material and whatever online officer prep books I could find. Also, and I can't say this enough, read this page for gouge on the exam (such as the UAV trick), there were times where I found myself thinking back to someone's forum post during the exam and I'm confident I got at least two questions right on math because of that. One other piece of advice: I have absolutely no physics background, so I had to study somewhat hard on that - and there were a ton of questions on the physics section that I wasn't fully confident in answering, so my advice would be to go deeper than the study guides say you should.

I have all the PDFs from the tests that I studied from on my computer (way too many to post here) so message me if you would like to see those. Kyle's study guide is linked above in someone's post so I won't put that here either.

Thank you again airwarriors!
How did you study for the second part of the test? Besides the uav. I couldn't keep it together with the throttle and joystick
 
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