ASTB Practice Test (CliffsTestPrep)

[WingForce87]

Hello all,

I am planning on taking the ASTB some time within this spring semester, and I feel pretty confident that I will do well. I took the math/verbal portion of the test in a practice test out of a CliffsTestPrep study guide the other day, and I though it was really easy--especially the math part. Is the real ASTB as easy as this practice test was? I mean, it was just basic addition/subtraction/multiplication/division problems (all word problems) with maybe a few algebra and geometry problems. I would say it's mostly stuff you would do even before high school (with the exception of the 3-4 alg/geom questions). It can't seriously be that easy, can it?

 

[jdflyer09]

Try the Barrons test prep. I didn't find it THAT hard but it wasn't easy either. Haven't taken the ASTB yet though, i take it in a week and a half. :icon_smil good luck

 

[OUSOONER]

Dude, avoid Cliff's Prep like the plague. Barron's is the way to go. ARCO is good as well because you can download it free on the internet and it is good for the mechanical gouge.

Suggest you also burn through the USAF and Army math questions as extra prep. Timing is everything on the test, not necessarily difficult content.

Good Luck!

 

[WingForce87]

Thanks guys, I will look into Barron's and I downloaded the Arco guide aslo. Oh... and I just attempted the mechanical portion on Cliff's and wow. 30 question in 15 minutes. I'm going to need to practice on that one.

 

[ASHWND]

The Cliff's book was HORRIBLE, about a quarter of the answers were wrong, so I feel bad for people who use that to study that and took what the book said to be true. It is like they didn't care when publishing it, I could see one of two, but there were 10's of screwed up questions or bad advice.

Like everyone has said, ARCO or Barron's, those are golden and practically exact replicas of the ASTB, just different wording in the questions. Timing is probably the thing that you need to worry about, the questions are not hard, but if you get stuck on one it can screw you... just move on and come back to it. I suggest taking the paper version, it was easier for me at least to go from writing on scratch paper to filling in a bubble.

NOMI has some practice questions on its website.

 

[WingForce87]

The Cliff's book was HORRIBLE, about a quarter of the answers were wrong, so I feel bad for people who use that to study that and took what the book said to be true. It is like they didn't care when publishing it, I could see one of two, but there were 10's of screwed up questions or bad advice.

Like everyone has said, ARCO or Barron's, those are golden and practically exact replicas of the ASTB, just different wording in the questions. Timing is probably the thing that you need to worry about, the questions are not hard, but if you get stuck on one it can screw you... just move on and come back to it. I suggest taking the paper version, it was easier for me at least to go from writing on scratch paper to filling in a bubble.

NOMI has some practice questions on its website.

I definately found a few errors in just the mechanical portion of the test on Cliff's. Not cool.

 

[OUSOONER]

I definately found a few errors in just the mechanical portion of the test on Cliff's. Not cool.

Seriously dude, drop the Cliff's book.....................into the trash even.
It will not help you, you could be doing other things.

Dropping a deuce will help you get a better score on the ASTB than thumbing through that POS.

 

[WingForce87]

Seriously dude, drop the Cliff's book.....................into the trash even.
It will not help you, you could be doing other things.

Dropping a deuce will help you get a better score on the ASTB than thumbing through that POS.

I think I might consider doing that.

About the mechanical section of the ASTB, is it mostly conceptual questions or are there more numerical/applied questions?

 

[OUSOONER]

I think I might consider doing that.

About the mechanical section of the ASTB, is it mostly conceptual questions or are there more numerical/applied questions?

It is a mix. Just know the concepts which will make the calculations quite easy. Remember, you have no calculator so they aren't that complex.

Mechanical Advantage calculations, weight distribution, force=mass x acceleration problems...stuff like that.

 

[Res784]

Cliffs, in general, does suck. I liked the first part of the book with "how to" stuff on math equations, verbal stuff, etc. But it has been said throughout the ASTB thread that the Cliff's Mechanical section has you doing college-level physics, i.e., how fast is a ball traveling after 7.5 seconds? Uhhhh, I'll have a beer.

I mainly used the ARCO flight aptitude book and ARCO officer candidate book. The latter will only cover math, verbal and mechanics...not spatial apperception, aviation/nautical.

 

[WingForce87]

Cliffs, in general, does suck. I liked the first part of the book with "how to" stuff on math equations, verbal stuff, etc. But it has been said throughout the ASTB thread that the Cliff's Mechanical section has you doing college-level physics, i.e., how fast is a ball traveling after 7.5 seconds? Uhhhh, I'll have a beer.

I mainly used the ARCO flight aptitude book and ARCO officer candidate book. The latter will only cover math, verbal and mechanics...not spatial apperception, aviation/nautical.

You know, I wasn't sure, but I thought the material in the mechanical section in Cliff's was more difficult than it should be. I really didn't know how anyone could do that caliber of physics question in such a limited amount of time (and I'm a physics major).

BTW, I got the Barron's guide today and it seems to be much better than Cliff's, and that's just in the first 25 pages or so.

 

[bucks87]

I thought the verbal and math sections were pretty easy too. On my form of the test neither of those sections were any harder than the practice test. If you thought that from the practice (like I did) then I would spend most of your time studying the mechanical section and all the aviation information you can. I forget who did it but someone posted a study guide in this section of the site that he typed himself and it covered 95% of what was on my test.