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ASTB - Prep/Study Guide feedback

skim said:
CaptainRon,
what were your scores? I took it the first time and got 4/4/4 44, I took it again and am still waiting for the results. Its been 5 weeks now, dumb paper tests....
Click to expand...
me 2 i am looking to test again! how did your second test go? i am looking to score higher i also got a 4/4/4 44
 
What's up everyone? I have a question regarding a flashcard within the study set below. This is a mechanical comprehension review set and has popped up on airwarriors multiple times.

https://www.proprofsflashcards.com/story.php?title=astb-mechanical-comprehension-test

1660258871415.png
Assuming the answer choices are read left to right, the pully system to the left (choice A) is the indicated correct answer. I'm having a hard time understanding why and am actually coming to the opposite conclusion when completing the FB diagram/Newton's first. For example, I calculated the rope tensions as follows,

Tension A = mgsinθ
Tension B = (mgsinθ)/2

So, as I interpret this Tension A = 2Tension B and the answer should be B. What am I doing wrong here?
 

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heeberman said:
What's up everyone? I have a question regarding a flashcard within the study set below. This is a mechanical comprehension review set and has popped up on airwarriors multiple times.

https://www.proprofsflashcards.com/story.php?title=astb-mechanical-comprehension-test

View attachment 35998
Assuming the answer choices are read left to right, the pully system to the left (choice A) is the indicated correct answer. I'm having a hard time understanding why and am actually coming to the opposite conclusion when completing the FB diagram/Newton's first. For example, I calculated the rope tensions as follows,

Tension A = mgsinθ
Tension B = (mgsinθ)/2

So, as I interpret this Tension A = 2Tension B and the answer should be B. What am I doing wrong here?
Click to expand...
This must be a typo, since the mechanical advantage is clearly 2 on the right and 1 on the left. So assuming A and B are the left and right images respectively, B should require less force. A and B have pulleys with MA's synonymous to A and B in the below image.
1660873070847.png
 
CaptainRon said:
ASTB: My Gouge

First things first, DO NOT purchase the Cliffs book. The consensus on Airwarriors is that it may actually hurt your score. It is full of errors and is very different from the actual ASTB.

You will get some benefit from the Arco book, however. You can also get it online for free (link below). I printed the ASTB sections on my school's tab.

The member mmx1 on Airwarriors has already made a must-see page that helped me out big time: www.columbia.edu/~mmx1/astb/ This should be where you start your studying.

Here are some additional tips for each section.

Math Skills Test
The Arco book and the marine gouge, especially, on mmx1’s page will show you exactly what types of problems you will need to study. However, these two sources do not give a good explanation of how to do the problems.

For that, you will need this book: http://www.amazon.com/ARCO-GMAT-Math-Review-Gmat/dp/0768918316 The GRE/GMAT math review covers EVERY type of problem on the ASTB and shows you the simplest way to do them. Look at the marine gouge and the other Arco book to first see what type of math problems you need to study. Then go through this book and highlight the problems that you need to do. After that, here is the key: treat math like any other section and study really hard for it; it is a fallacy that you cannot study for math and improve. Practice the problems a million times until you can do them in your sleep. Believe me, I am not that good at math and I felt perfectly at ease on the section because I studied really hard using this book.

Reading Skills Test
The Arco’s practice problems will do the trick. They are just like the real ASTB.

The key thing is to remember this: toss any previous knowledge aside and answer the question based ONLY on the information given in the passage.

Also, there is no sentence completion. There is only reading comprehension.

Mechanical Comprehension Test
The marine gouge and the mechanical gouge from mmx1’s page are the best things out there, but even they are not that helpful because a lot of this section is just common sense.

You can look over the sections in the Arco book too, but they are only slightly helpful.

Take an introductory physics class if you can. I took one the semester before I took the test, and there were about 4 out of 30 problems that I would not have been able to answer without the class. That’s good enough to raise your score a point or two, which is definitely worth it considering how competitive aviation slots are.

Scan the entire ASTB section of Airwarriors for every last shred of gouge you can find. I cannot stress this enough, because this will give you an idea in some cases of the exact types of questions you will see on the test. This helped me big time.

This book may help you if you are hopeless in this area: http://www.amazon.com/gp/explorer/0764123408/2/ref=pd_lpo_ase/102-7094373-4438523?. I haven’t actually used it, so if somebody who has wants to chime in, that would be great.

It also won’t kill you to learn about how engines work.

Since much of this section is just common sense, studying can’t help you for all of the problems. You can just figure them out when you get to them, even though you’ve never seen anything like them before.

Spatial Apperception Test
The Arco book is great for this. Mmx1 also has some nice tips on his page.

Keep in mind that the pictures on the real ASTB are different from the examples in the Arco book. You can find samples of the real pictures here: http://www.nomi.med.navy.mil/NAMI/astb/astbwebsitewriteup.htm Click on the blue button on the bottom of the page to get NOMI’s sample questions.

The actual ASTB’s spatial apperception questions are more difficult than Arco’s, with very confusing angles in almost every case. Most of the time, you will probably only be able to narrow it down to two answers. Therefore, DO NOT just pick the first one that you think is right; look at all possible answers first, then pick.

Aviation and Nautical Information Test
This is the hardest section to prepare for because the information comes from such a vast amount of knowledge about ships and planes and narrows it down to only thirty questions.

The marine gouge and mmx1’s boat link will help you a lot. The Arco is worth a look, but isn’t very helpful when it’s all said and done.

The FAA’s Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical knowledge is an absolute must. Use the marine gouge and the Arco and all of the gouge on the ASTB section of Airwarriors.com to get a feel for the type of stuff you need to learn. Then go through the book, highlight the relevant material, and study, study, study.

I also studied The Annapolis Book of Seamanship and it definitely helped. As with the FAA book, I took a look at the gouge and the Arco book first to see what type of stuff I should highlight in it. Then I read the highlights more times than I can count. Since this book is geared only towards sailing, however, I’m sure there are better books out there. If somebody else can chime in with a good book they used that would be great.

Since this section is so difficult to prepare for, to get an edge you are honestly going to have to scan EVERY single thread in the ASTB section of this forum and note what types of things people say will pop up on the test. Also, get addicted to Airwarriors (pretty easy to do) and read aviation related stuff on here as much as you can. Go to all of the links people post. Get interested. Go to wikipedia.com and read about planes and the Navy. My addiction to reading about planes (more emphasis on planes than ships on the test) online helped me out BIG TIME.

One last tip. Do not rush into taking the ASTB. I studied for 6 months for this test
(no joke), mostly to acquire airplane and ship knowledge. It was worth it, however, because my studying paid off; I will never have to take it again (it was a rough few hours in that test room), and it absolutely helped me to get pro rec’d. Have fun studying!
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How relevant is this information in 2022
 
Hey everyone! I got a lot of great information here from Air Warriors and a couple other sites that I used to study. I got a 53 8/9/9, so I did pretty good with the stuff here. None of what I am putting here is mine, it was gathered from others.

To be clear, I went pretty overboard with my studying. I was not familiar with most of the concepts in the Math and Mechanical Comprehension sections, so I spent A LOT of time going over those. I probably studied for a total of 3-4 months before taking the test. People could definitely cut that timeline down if they are familiar with the concepts. The Aviation section was familiar to me because I have my Private Pilot's License, and am working towards my Instrument rating. For the most part I did not study for the reading comprehension; the key to this section is identifying which questions are blatantly wrong, and then finding the most accurate answer. I was also told to avoid "absolute answers" like "always" and "never".

For people just being introduced to the ASTB, here is a good overview:

Books: I used the Barron's Flight Aptitude Test and the ASTB Secret Study Guide, you can get both on Amazon. I found these helpful for all sections, but the Barron's had a lot of great aviation/nautical information: (Barron's) - https://a.co/d/9Ba1ck0 (ASTB Secret Study Guide) - https://a.co/d/3Oi0F3U

PBM Simulator: I would practice on the hardest difficulty for both "stick" and "throttle" and do the listening portion at the same time until I got all the listening cues correct and a consistent score of under 120 for "throttle" and under 100 for the mouse. You could definitely get by having scores under 125 though. The only issue I found is that it has you listen to only odd for one target ear and even for the target ear other, instead of listening for both in the same target ear. With that said, the skills translate to the actual test. And it has an emergency procedures portion that I also found helpful; you do need a Hotas system for this though (in the PBM help section I attached a link to the one I used): https://jomo1-1.github.io/ASTB-remade/

Online Study Material: this is what I used for the bulk of my study. It has a OAR guide that is really helpful for knowing which parts to study for all subjects, but in particular, math and mechanical comprehension. You can find that document under the aviation section titled "Air Warriors Study Material- All Sections.pdf". For the math specifically, I memorized the formulas for every worksheet in this section and worked until I aced every test: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1IxIizps2bu2ljw1bYjFPajWv8RYvLWyv

I also used an app only available on apple devices (to my knowledge) called ASTB Prep, its $35 but it was my main way of studying for the UAV section and it has other good study material. I would practice the UAV questions until I consistently got 42 in a row back to back (make sure to turn off the animations for the most realistic version) under one second per question; doing that is the closest you can get to the actual test: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/astb-prep/id1549216388

The Terrain Identification really tripped me up. Even in the app, I would consistently get around 7/10. Again, this app is the only accurate practice of these sections I have found. I think the only reason I scored so high on the FOFAR is because I was getting around 1.3 seconds per question on the other UAV section. I have heard most people do better with the "compass trick", you can look that up on YouTube.

PBM help: I bought a X52 Hotas Joystick and Throttle on Amazon and played Warthunder Simulator Battles in the first person to get used to the devices. Although this helped, I would say the other simulator above was much more realistic for the actual test. This was kind of a way to "study" when I didn't feel like learning anymore math: https://a.co/d/f5mfPyN

Thank you to everyone that has posted here and helped me to get the score I got. Last important thing I will say: It is better to be overprepared than underprepared. Good luck to everyone studying!
 
If anyone has any specific questions let me know. I posted the same thing above in the 1001 questions about the ASTB. That forum has a lot of great stuff but you kind of have to go through a lot of posts to find what you are looking for.
 
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