Hello folks,
Just wanted to add my own $0.02 to what has already been said. This forum has been a great help to me and I would like to try to give something back to the community.
Just sat the ASTB-E recently and so thought I would try to provide my insight as to what I found useful, what I thought was superfluous, and what I would recommend avoiding or not doing.
I would very much recommend picking up one or two of the review books and working your way through the practice tests. Frankly, the ASTB-E was significantly different from what I had been expecting on the basis of the sorts of questions I had seen in the practice tests, but they are nevertheless good for getting you into the right mindset to do mental arithmetic quickly. I will confess that I was somewhat cavalier about reading comprehension and found the reading comprehension in the ASTB-E to be surprisingly challenging. I attribute this however not to any inherent incapability to comprehend texts, but rather the nature of the ASTB questions. I felt that they required you to deduce a fair bit of information in a rather formal manner, complicated by the fact that nearly all of the 'texts' seemed to be written in a very bureaucratic and dense fashion. The subject matter also tended to revolve around Navy HR issues and the like, so I don't think it was terribly easy to quickly and rapidly understand what the texts were saying. But alas, perhaps I would have felt differently if I had done more prep to get my brain into that mode? I don't know. I would also very much recommend going on Khan Academy and brushing up on your basic algebra skills (e.g. working with literal equations, working monomials, binomials, polynomials, quadratics, factoring, as well as being able to work comfortably with radicals and exponents (including fractional and negative exponents). I got several questions on the math section asking me to simplify radicals and I'm very glad that I was comfortable doing so. You might also look into logarithms, as I had read on many fora that log questions figured prominently - but I did not get even one on my test. I'm still glad I had taken the time to learn more about logarithms since this is good math knowledge regardless of its utility to help you on the test, but of course here we are concerned with getting the most bang for the least buck. I wouldn't say leave it off, but it did not seem on my test to have had any utility at all. My math test was ended before the full time allotment was used up, by the way.
I would definitely also recommend familiarising yourself with basic concepts in physics. There's an old book published by the Bureau of Naval Personnel called 'Basic Machines and How they Work' - covers pretty much all you would need to know, but it would also hurt to continue to learn some general scientific and physical concepts. Frankly, the information required to complete the 'mechanical comprehension' section effectively was very, very broad, and was not at all like what I was expecting from the practice tests. I think I may have had overall only two questions about levers and mechanical advantage. Not honestly sure how I could have better prepared for this other than to just be generally aware of major ideas in basic physics.
Naval and aviation information section ... this was not hard. It definitely did ask some questions about aircraft types (e.g. what was the best known dive bomber used by the USN in WWII?) which I wasn't expecting so much as I was expecting questions about aerodynamics and the like, but alas.
As for what I thought was superfluous ... well, I think I honestly massively overprepared for the math section. I too got a weird question about writing digits in something other than base 10, but it wasn't hard, and I don't think you could have really 'studied' very well for it. Likewise, I didn't get that many
'pure' math questions other than some questions about number properties (e.g. given that A>0 and B <3, what MUST be true of the following ... followed by various statements testing number properties, basically you would need to be able to identify when a statement must necessarily be true given the premises. Know your rules about positive and negative integers and how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide them, and what happens when you do this). I also got lots of questions about radicals, exponents, and fractional exponents. I think studying too much for the pure math may be inefficient, given the number of Qs you will get. With that being said, I was lucky that I had been brushing up on my algebra for quite some time before hand (for reasons other than the ASTB), so take from that what you will...
I will say, word problems featured very heavily and they were not at all easy. They did not follow the 'expected' pattern or types of questions the prep books will lead you to believe will appear, so be prepared. I would suggest you be very comfortable working with fractions and percentages as many of the questions gave you various scores for tests, then asked you what the final two tests scores would have to be, given various limitations/parameters (e.g. the 4th test score is 9/8 of 2/3 of the 3rd test score) to get a given average e.g. J scored an 82, an 85, and an 89. If his 4th test is 5/6 of the average of the first 3 scores, what must the 5th score be for his average score to be a 78?). Given enough time, I'm sure most of us could work this out, but it seems pretty intimidating in the test setting and certainly required several calculations to get to the right answer. Just be sure you are confident working with fractions and percentages.
As for timing, honestly, I don't know what to recommend here. I worked as quickly as I could but I likewise made sure to work through my problems as best as I could. I wasn't sure if I was taking too long or too little time. I think I was stopped about 10-12 minutes before the allotted time. I think you just have to go with your gut here. Don't waste time but don't skip questions and blindly guess just because they look intimidating.
PBMs ... these were actually pretty good fun. I honestly dont know how I could have better prepared for this. I played MS flight sim a bit and that kind of helped me train my brain to focus on various pieces of info at the same time, but the thinking is not entirely analogous to what is tested. As other folks have said on this site, make sure to use the nav flashcards you can find on the internet. There is likewise the ability to do the practice test in the APEX system repeatedly. I think I did pretty well but definitely missed a few and just lost my orientation. the most difficult ones for me were when you were told the UAV was heading in a diagonal direction (if you can call it that i.e. you were going NE, SE, SW, or NW). just practice the flashcards alot.
As for the other things, I really dont think the dichotic listening test was at all hard. You'll just have to give it your best here. I will say that the actual aircraft tracking is bloody hard and I thought I had done very poorly at the end of the test. If you have taken the AFOQT ... it is basically the same as the TBAS. Playing videogames might have prepared me well for this (especially FPS) but suffice it to say that I did not do much of that.
Overall, the test was easier than I was expecting. I was very intimidated by what I had read on here. Don't be too afraid. It's not easy, but it certainly isn't terribly difficult either. Just make sure you feel comfortable going in and don't skimp on preparation. At the same time however, don't waste 3 months doing 3 hours a day of practice tests. I think you are better suited using that time to become more generally familiar with aviation, mathematics, science, and determining whether or not flying really is for you. Best tip I can give you is to just do lots of mental math. DO it in the supermarket. Do it when measuring stuff out with cup measures at home. Get yourself in the habit where you can quickly and accurately perform basic operations. This will take some time if you did not use mathematics alot at university (I did not - but relearning basic math has really got me back into and interest in science and mathematics! so perhaps taking a few months to really familiarise yourself isn't the worst thing. you will be learning aircraft systems, aerodynamics, and about the avionics if you do end up going to flight training, so it can't hurt you at all to get into a more scientific and technical mindset as early as possible). Also give yourself time to prepare. I gather that Navy recruiters want you to take it seriously. Marine OSOs seem to just want you to do the test as quickly as possible and I think this is probably not a good idea for most candidates. So if you have to stand your ground a bit, stand firm, politely decline and explain that you want time to prepare. dont short change yourself and burn up 1 of your 3 chances and make yourself wait 90 more days. more importantly, just smash it out of the park the first time. get it over with.
For what it's worth, I got a 62 8/8/8. Disappointed about that first number but did well enough on the other 3 I guess.
Good luck.