Hello everyone, took the OAR today and scored a 62. A score that I'm very happy with. I have yet to take the PBM portion, because I decided with my recruiter to take the OAR first and then merge that with the PBM later to get a full ASTB score so I can focus my entire attention on the OAR subjects, then pivot towards the simulator and ANIT to guarantee the best possible scores. This is something that you can do as well, and unless you're time critical I recommend you do to maximize your score.
Now, onto the test.
The OAR begins with a few instructional "powerpoint slides" that guide you through all the test functions and what you can expect. I suggest you take this time to write down any memorized formulas or a multiplication table, hell, even start calculating a table of perfect square and cube roots for use during the exam. If you think it'll save you time, do it during this section.
MATH
For this section, I personally received a wide variety of questions, everything from simple system of equations questions (what is x in x+4-3x=2x+6) to very complicated root and logarithm problems (log8[log10(log16(x))]=1) (root_5((64x^8)(y^16)(z^36)). I also had combinatoric probability, (How many ways can x y and z be ordered) and basic probability (What is the chance that Sam will roll a 9 if he rolls two dice once?) type questions. One exponent question (very basic fractional exponent like 32^2/5). One very long polynomial multiplication question ((2(x+4)^2)^2-4x+2(x+4) all divided by 4), as well as some percentages (Suzie spent 30% of her savings on a new car and then 10% on a speaker, how much of her savings did she spend?). My section ended off with a complicated geometry problem which I guessed on (attachment below).
View attachment 44107
Overall, this section seemed harder than some of the practice material on here, maybe that is because I was performing well on it, but I will leave that up to the interpretation of the reader. I had no matrix multiplication, no DRT, no work, and almost no basic word problems akin to what you would see in the 114 Question OAR math guide. My personal suggestion to all of you is STUDY YOUR LOG RULES. My test had me simplify about 4 logarithmic equations, and ALL but one were harder than the log worksheet on either drive. The worksheets and OAR math guide are very good at setting you up for the basics of some of the problems you may encounter, but the test is adaptive, and if you perform well it WILL throw problems much harder than those on the worksheets at you.
But remember, this is just my experience with the test. Yours may be harder, or it may be easier.
READING
Boring, boring, boring, and complicated. I was prepared for the material on this section by reading hundreds of posts just like this one prior to taking the test over my month of studying. This section will give you a paragraph and 4 answer choices. 2 will be blatantly incorrect, one will be almost correct, and one will be correct. Almost all passages will be written in Navy/military jargon, and the best way I can describe it is like reading an informational brochure about some benefit or new program in an institution and being able to derive some implied meaning from it. I really don't think there's any real way to study for this, but the official NAMI ASTB practice pdf actually has some very good practice questions on it. I believe the one regarding the ORM Risk Management was actually on my test haha. It is linked below alongside my other study documents.
MECHANICAL
This section I flew by because all the material was fresh in my mind as I had dedicated the final week of my studying to it. My honest suggestion is 100% invest in the OAR tutoring app (linked below). Almost 10 of my questions came straight from that app or were some derivative of one of the questions asked. Do the MC Lesson homeworks and remember all of the answers and why that answer is true, as some of the questions asked are very similar but not 1:1 and require some thought on your end. On this section I received mostly conceptual questions, but did receive about 4 questions where I had to do some sort of math. Definitely know your formulas for Force (F=ma), Work (W=Fd) Kinetic (KE=1/2mv^2) and Potential (PE=mgh) energy, as well as how to balance and calculate the mechanical advantage for levers, inclined planes, gears, and pulleys. I personally had no questions on gears or pulleys but your test will not be the same as mine so I recommend it nonetheless.
I would once again like to thank the people of this forum for compiling their experiences and creating study material, for my score would not have been possible without your continued participation in this forum. I will be applying for BDCP SNA as soon as I have taken the PBM so I'm not in the clear yet, but the hard part is done. I hope that my post is able to help at least one person in their preparation for this exam, and if I managed a 62 with how stressed I was about this exam, you can too. If you put your mind to it, you can and will overcome.
RESOURCES USED
Hello everyone, following up on this as today I took the full ANIT and PBM and I am extremely pleased at my final scores: 62 9/9/8 LPSS 57. I honestly thought I was going to get away with 7s or maybe even a 6 somewhere, so you can imagine how happy I was when I saw this score on my screen. One message I have to anyone currently studying to take this test is definitely don't be discouraged because of the amount of high scores that people post. I think that thanks to the absolute breadth of information contained in this forum it is much more likely to encounter people that score insanely high here, as opposed to the majority of test-takers. When my proctor said that I had one of the highest aviation scores based on percentile he'd ever seen I was honestly taken aback, as I imagined myself as more upper middle of the pack rather than extraordinary, so if I can do it, with enough tenacity you can as well.
As for the test it was much more straight-forward and unlike the OAR there are ways you can simulate the exam almost in it's entirety, which I will detail afterwards.
The test begins with the ANIT, this section had me answer ~15-20 questions and took me roughly 7-10 minutes to complete. The nautical questions I received pertained to the decks and parts of a ship, and how carriers adapted for bigger, heavier aircraft. The majority (roughly 2/3) of the questions were aviation related. I had questions regarding the control surfaces, primarily the elevator, as well as a large amount of questions regarding the relationship between aircraft weight/AOA and stalling. I was asked to calculate how much fuel would need to be removed if the aircraft was 80 pounds overweight, as well as how much fuel a pilot should take if flying IFR at night at cruising speed. Overall this section was much easier than I anticipated, and I really only guessed on 2 problems, though they were educated guesses rather than a complete shot in the dark.
Afterwards comes the NATFI, I honestly don't know what to say here other than answer truthfully, not every answer choice will be appealing, and that's fine. I honestly don't even know why they make you do this.
Then the PBM starts, beginning with the UAV section. I have heard two approaches to this section, one using the compass trick (link below) and another that opts to just memorizing the directions using flashcards. I approached it using a hybrid method. I practiced using the compass method until I could get each answer in roughly 1.2-2.5 seconds depending on question difficulty. Thanks to that practice I eventually developed muscle memory and 'neuron activation' for certain questions, especially when the UAV was pointing in a cardinal direction (N,S,E,W) as those tend to be the easiest, and I could immediately recognize the answer from my practice and just click it. That worked for me on the test, on some I used the compass and on others I didn't, though I highly recommend learning/using it because anxiety and nerves could get the better of you and to be honest the compass is kind of foolproof. I personally got all UAV questions correct with aforementioned average of 1.2-2.5 seconds and scored a 9. You don't need to have sub 1.5s reaction time to do well.
Vertical Tracking, Tracking, Dichotic Listening, EM Procedures:
Much easier than anticipated. I went hard at the joystick for maybe a week before my test for about 2 hours a day and honestly as long as you're used to the feel and motions of the joystick you don't need to go overkill and practice for months like others on here have. Just my personal opinion.
Vertical tracking was extremely easy, the pip you need to target moved from slow to medium speed, it never went fast and didn't really try and 'juke' me out until I was reaching the end of the joystick portions. I definitely noticed it slowly getting faster and faster as time went on so keep that in mind and don't get complacent.
Same thing for tracking, it was a lot easier than what I expected. Noticed it slowly getting harder as time progressed.
Dichotic listening was where I encountered some difficulty, as I maybe missed 2-3 in both the section where you do it exclusively and the tracking section as well. I thought this would kill my score, but it didn't or I got enough right to where it didn't matter.
Write down the emergency procedures!!!! It is very easy to forget them once you start, unless your memory is just that good. I highly recommend seeing if your procedures have certain settings that are favored for example:
Fire High Low
Eng High Neutral
Prop Low Low
I would preset my knobs to the High and Low position as it makes it so you potentially only have to turn a single knob to solve the procedure. For me they were sequential, but I've seen others say they weren't so just keep that in mind.
Terrain ID
Use the pencil trick!!! This section is easier than TBAS Study Pro and MUCH easier than the ASTB prep app. The maps are much more zoomed in, and although the quality is lacking you should still be able to distinctly make out lines pointing in hard cardinal directions you can use to orient yourself. I only got stumped on a single question where I quickly spat out an answer before I ran out of time.
Practice Material
ANIT: Highly recommend both the
CRAM flashcards and
Popeye's Flashcards. Both can be found here. I had them 100% memorized thanks to ANKI, DO NOT SKIMP OUT!!! The day of the test I quickly went through all ~500 flashcards I had made to make sure I knew each and every one of them by memory. Many of these flashcards are not verbatim, so the questions you may receive on the test differ in wording but the concepts do not change. Knowing the flashcards and having decent critical thinking skills should be more than enough for this section.
UAV, Terrain ID: I used a mixture of
TBAS Study Pro and the
ASTB Prep App. For the UAV section the test is more similar graphically to TBAS and functionally to the prep app. The UAV section in TBAS is harder than that of the real test, so if you can ace it in TBAS you will do fine on the real thing. I mainly used TBAS for my PBM study, but the choice is ultimately up to you.
For Terrain ID I recommend using the prep app more than TBAS. It is much harder than the test so if you can do well on it you will do well on the test. TBAS is much closer to the real thing (maybe a little harder) but on this section I recommend studying for difficulty rather than volume as your eyes will have to scan the screen and identify straight lines FAST!
Vertical Tracking, Tracking, Dichotic Listening, EM Procedures: I used exclusively TBAS for this section. I barely touched Jantzen's sim, specifically because of the inaccuracy of the listening. On the real thing you have to listen to a target ear and BOTH even and odd from that ear. TBAS in my opinion is a much better resource in preparing you for the PBM. When you practice I recommend using speed 3, as the real thing is more like speed 2, as well as doing FULL PBM exams on TBAS, instead of just practicing specific things.
With all that being said here are my final stats:
Major: Biology
GPA: 3.7
ASTB: 62 9/9/8 LPSS 57
I studied for 1 1/2 months for the OAR, 4 times a week 2-3 hours
3 weeks for PBM ~3 hours a day, flashcards on ANKI, several full PBM practice tests on TBAS
