Hi Everybody,
I've been browsing these forums ever since I considered joining the Navy and going into aviation, but I only recently registered for an account. I took the ASTB today and now that I am "officially" entering the applicant pool, I thought I'd become more involved here as well.
Some background about me: I was a Biochemistry major (graduated with a B.S. in 2011), worked in a neuroscience lab at Hopkins for a few years and am currently pursuing my MPH (Masters in Public Health) at Hopkins, graduating in May. I recently went through a bit of a personal revolution regarding my career path and decided to look into the Navy; naval aviation, specifically. I have been obsessed with aviation since I was a little kid, but had always considered it more of a hobby than a career option until now (yes, my parents were those parents who were really hoping their kid would end up in medical school).
Anyway, I got my ASTB scores back and was pretty pleased with the results, considering I only had about a week to study for it (did I mention I'm in an accelerated masters program? Ugh.) Scores were as follows..
OAR: 61
AQR: 8
PFAR: 8
FOFAR: 7
I was hoping to do better on the OAR section, but my undergraduate GPA is decent (3.6), so hopefully that will offset any perceived deficit. I was really worried about the PBM section going into the exam; I had read that even those applicants with flight experience struggled with it. In reality, I had a blast doing it. It was challenging adapting to the control sensitivities, but I genuinely enjoyed the problem sets. I should note that I have zero flight experience, but was addicted to Microsoft Flight Simulator for much of my childhood (while my friends were playing N64), so I think that definitely helped.
Anyway, just wanted to share my experience and introduce myself! I'll be more active in the forums from this point on, and it's nice to know I'm in good company here. Have a great week everybody!
Sincerely,
Omar S.