Spatial Apperception plane

[TSmyth]

To all who have recently taken the test, I understand that the SA section is no big deal as long as you have a system in place. However, what is the actual plane that they use. Is it a prop or a jet?
I know it seems trivial, I'm just trying to figure out how hard it is to determine if it's coming towards or going away.

Thanks

 

[Recidivist]

prop.
that was the hardest portion of the test for me.

 

[mules83]

I have said this before and people tend to like it so I will say it again. People tend to overthink this WAY too much. For me, pitch was the hardest to judge, so I looked for that last. Bank and if its going to/from the beach is alot easier. If you are having trouble with to/from beach, just look for bank. That will usually eliminate all but one or two answers. If there are two answers left, than use to/from beach view. You barely have to figure out the pitch if you use this method.

 

[ItsTurboTime]

There was a short tutorial at the beginning of that section (on the computer) if I remember correctly. I think they go over the difference between toward and away.

 

[Slammer2]

if you're really having trouble determining the pitch, use your finger or a pencil or whatever to measure if theres more sky or more ground. But I would reccomend using the pitch last as was mentioned above. Its really not that hard at all, but I guess relatively its the hardest of the three.

 

[nugget81]

If I remember correctly the airplane was a silhouette of a F6F Hellcat. Stick your pencil or finger in the middle of the picture and see where everything is at. Is the ground above the pencil or below? And so forth....

 

[theblakeness]

I agree with what was said about pitch...just figure if there is more sky then terrain. The way to handle the test is rule out the possibilities quick..and like what was said, the best way to do this is to start with bank.

In my opinion, this whole portion of the test wasnt really to determine if you could figure out unusual attitudes, but if you could handle the fast pace of the test

 

[Schnugg]

When I took it, I used my hands. It helped. And with a little practice it becomes more intuitive as to how to interpret the pictures.

For example, a horizon down low, means a nose up high, etc...

 

[Wingnut]

The plane could be a Hellcat. I don't remember very well what it looked like for sure, but it seems to me that it could be something like a SBD Dauntless.
Whatever the plane, I think the test is easier than some make it out to be. I don't think it's just there for a twist though: it tests how quickly and how well you judge what you see. If you have aviation experience you'll probably have an easier time judging what's going on, and I think it's important as a pilot to have a good feel for position and attitude in space. Really, it's something that's not too hard to pick up on with a couple techniques if you're having trouble, but in my case I nailed the questions in the Arco manual and the ASTB without any particular technique. Also, I think just looking at lots of planes and playing around on a flight simulator, those sorts of things, are likely to help you as much as anything.

 

[batman527]

Steps to doing well on the Spacial Apperception Test.

1) use simple sytem. as mentioned above, you can usually quickly eliminate all of the wrong answers in the first two steps of a good system.

2) keep head out of ass. be careful, but don't overthink.

 

[smattles1of2]

Also, there is a tutorial in front of the test that you can keep looking at while taking the test. Yeah, that wastes time, but there were only 25 questions instead of the 30 I was expecting, so I had a few more seconds per question

For some reason I kept overthinking...bad bad!! But then I calmed down

 

[staff]

Are the spatial apperception questions similar to those on the ARCO study guide? I can do those fairly quickly and easily so I hope they are.

 

[smattles1of2]

Yeah they were pretty much the same thing.

 

[theblakeness]

Are the spatial apperception questions similar to those on the ARCO study guide? I can do those fairly quickly and easily so I hope they are.

When I took it, I thought the test ones were actually slightly harder. To me, the ARCO ones always were really easy to rule out the wrong ones, but on the test there were always a couple of possibles. Of course I took the paper version a few years ago, so I have no idea how much it has changed

 

[Schnugg]

Steps to doing well on the Spacial Apperception Test....

2) keep head out of ass. be careful, but don't overthink.

Best advice...EVER!!!