Actually in OR school were are told that only those applying for designators that require the entire ASTB should take the entire ASTB, most designators do not require the entire ASTB, the only ones that do are PILOT/NFO and AMDO for AQR so people taking just the OAR is very common and preferred, once they get the windows issue fixed and the new ASTB actually starts having a person take the whole thing will waste about 4 hours.
There could be a few reasons why he wants you to take the entire thing, one is that the test administrator doesn't know how to give just the OAR, however my test administrator was not the sharpest tool in the shed and had no problem, another is he is aware that he wants to put you in for something in aviation since to get credit he just needs to get an application submitted, yet another is that your recruiter is at one of those districts that is on independent operations and if so you might be screwed since those are the ones that have been having issues.
you can take the ASTB anywhere, so if you are going on leave somewhere outside of where you are at you can take it there, if you PM me where you will be or where you are at I can direct you to another place to take the exam.
If you are at where your profile says I am sorry you have to deal with them.
