Aviation Selection Test Battery

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The goal of this document is to provide a summary of study aids for the ASTB. You may also want to check in at the ASTB Forum at Airwarriors for updates, gouge, questions, and scuttlebutt. Airwarriors is a pretty useful forum. Anticipate making much use of it when you finally get to Pensacola.

Contents

Files

For convenience, links to all files used:

Test Overview

The Naval Operational Medicine Institute (NOMI) released the following datasheet on the new version of the ASTB (forms 3,4,5), issued in 2004: NOMI ASTB Overview(PDF)

It covers every imaginable administrative detail about the exam, including statistical nonsense like distribution and predictive validity figures.

Executive Summary for Test-takers

The test consists of 6 sections, administered over 2.5 hours:

ASTB Subtest Length Time Limit
Math Skills Test (MST) 30 items 25 minutes
Reading Skills Test (RST) 27 items 25 minutes
Mechanical Comprehension Test (MCT) 30 items 15 minutes
Spatial Apperception Test (SAT) 25 items 10 minutes
Aviation and Nautical Information Test (ANIT) 30 items 15 minutes
Aviation Supplemental Test (AST) 34 items 25 minutes

Math Skills Test / Reading Skills Test

  • These are comparable to the SAT, in difficulty, pace, and type of questions. I found them slightly easier, actually, than the SAT, though it's been four years since I took the SAT and that may just be hubris settling in. The topics covered on the MAT are chiefly arithmetic and algebra, with some geometry. No calculus is required.

Mechanical Comprehension Test

  • This section test topics covered in an introductory high school physics course. A review book for a standardized high school physics test (e.g. the Regents in N.Y. State, figure out what your equivalent would be) should cover it. If necessary, consult an SAT II Physics book, but that's overkill. The test covers principles of gases and liquids w.r.t pressure, volume, and velocity, as well as simple machines (pulleys and levers), gears, electricity, and components and performance of engines. No complex calculations are required, and you will not be permitted nor should require the use of a calculator. The test is on how well you understand the principles and not how well you can juggle absurdly random figures in a calculator.

Spatial Apperception Test

  • A 10 minute test of ability to perceive spatial relationships from differing orientations. This is undoubtedly new for most people. You are given the view from the cockpit of an aircraft, and you are asked to match it to one of five external views of the object, with a coastline as reference. TODO: find/make jpg of a sample pic.

Aviation and Nautical Information Test

  • A 15 minute test of aviation Information and nautical knowledge showing an interest in Naval aviation. This is essentially a Naval Aviation trivia test. You will ace this if you grew up in Miramar and your dad flew Phantoms in 'Nam. If, like me, you grew up in NYC and your dad trades securities for a living, fear not, you can still do well on the exam with some smart preparation.

Aviation Supplemental Test

  • This section is just made up of a variety of questions from each of the preceding five subtests

Scoring:

The scores from the six sections are combined in some manner to produce four scores:

  • AQR: Academic Qualification Rating, scored 1-9
  • PFAR: Pilot Flight Aptitude Rating, scored 1-9
  • FOFAR: Flight Officer Flight Aptitude Rating, scored 1-9
  • OAR: Officer Aptitude Rating, scored 20-80

The scores that matter for aviation programs are the AQR, and PFAR or FOFAR, depending if you are applying for pilot or flight officer programs. These scores are derived from your performance on all six sections. AQR and FOFAR is biased towards the Math Skills Test; PFAR towards the ANIT and SAT sections. The minimum score as of Spring 2005 is a 4/6 for Marine Corps, but that can change at any time; your OSO will have current information. For Marine Corps purposes, my observation is that the test is essentially pass/fail for purposes of selection for OCS - the rest of your package will determine your selection to OCS, but it's not so competitive that they're comparing ASTB scores. As of Spring 2005, one-point waivers were fairly common. This appears to no longer be the case.

For non-aviation Naval applicants, the only score that matters is the OAR, derived from the first three section of the exam (highlighted in blue). You will only take those three sections and receive your OAR score.

Primary Study Aids - Short Term Strategy

Goals

The short term goals are preparing you for new material you have not seen before, namely Spatial Apperception and Aviation/Nautical Terms and Acclimating you to the types and level of questions similar to those you've seen before - i.e. on the Math/Verbal and Mechanical Comprehension sections. Since the primary audience for this document are college students/graduates, this assumes you have taken and done well on the SAT/ACT or similar exams. The ASVAB may be similar but I've not taken it and can't speak to similarities in question type/difficulty (again, if you have, please weigh in with your opinion). If you feel you need more preparation, get a SAT prep book from the library and study it. Learning basic test-taking techniques is a surefire way to up your score.

Let me emphasize something. Practice is essential. A large portion of succeeding on standardized exams is familiarization with the material on the exam. These exams are in some ways like a race - you want to keep a steady pace. All the questions are worth the same, so it's not to your benefit to spend three times as long on one question as another. Time your practice exams diligently, and compute the average time you spend on one question. If you notice yourself taking significantly longer on a problem, make the best choice possible and MOVE ON(remember, decisiveness is an important trait of an officer!). Return if you have time.

Primary Review Materials

There are three primary review materials.

ASTBgouge (PDF) This is a review sheet prepared by the USMC and which has been floating around the internet, sometimes referred to as the Marine Prep Sheet. This is the single most useful review material for the exam. In particular, it covers ~70-80% of the material on the Aviation/Nautical section, so study this sheet! If you commit the Aviation/Nautical information in this sheet to memory, that's already good enough for a competitive score on that section. It's only failing is that it lacks Spatial Apperception Questions. For that, you will want the following:

ARCO's "Military Flight Aptitude Tests" There are a number of review books out there. I studied out of the Cliffs and ARCO books, and found the ARCO more accurate. Even better, courtesy of the USAF, it's available online for free at the above link! Scroll down halfway to "Military Flight Aptitude Tests", and click on "More Info", then "Read this Book". Due to the DRM stuff that prevents you from saving the file, some people have had trouble getting the book to load, getting a message saying "In order to view this PDF file, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or greater installed". Like most military sites this one was built for IE. Some people have problems in Firefox, with Acrobat Reader 7.0 installed, but manage to get it to work in IE. If necisary reinstall Acrobat Reader, and try several browsers.

Now that you've got your hands on a copy of the book, here's how to use it. IGNORE all sections not applicable to the ASTB - the Army and Air Force have additional material which is different.

The two most useful parts of this book are the Spatial Apperception review in Chapter 6, and the practice ASTB. Chapters 1-3 are general info not applicable to the test. Read up on the the test format and strategies in Chapter 4 and 5. In chapter 6 study from the beginning to Mechanical Comprehension, and also cover Aviation Information, Nautical Information, and Spatial Apperception. For all but the Spatial Apperception, this book should be SUPPLEMENTAL to the ASTB gouge.

ASTB Mechanical Gouge(PDF) This is a review sheet for the Mechanical Comprehension section.

Supplemental Reading Materials

If you have time, it's a good idea to read up on Aviation and Nautical information in addition to retaining trivia. As an aspiring aviator, especially, you should have a good grasp of basic aerodynamics and aeronautics.

A good reference for the aviation material is the FAA's "Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge". Don't think you need to know all of it for the ASTB, but it's an excellent reference if you want an explanation of the answers in the review sheet.

Some websites with some good info: NASA's Beginner Guide to Aeronautics Aircraft for Amateurs

For Nautical terminology, this link is useful. Read Chapters 1 and 3 only. The rest is mostly applicable to civilians and not the Navy (civilian regulations and the such).

A must read for any pilot is Stick and Rudder. To this day this book is considered one of the best books ever written on the art of flying.

Spatial Apperception Strategies

It's all about time. These aren't particularly hard to figure out given enough time. The challenge is finishing on time. You have 10 minutes for 25 questions, so shoot to be finishing a question in 30 seconds or so. Don't get hung up on one question, especially if you aren't finishing the practice test or your pace is less than 2 questions a minute. If you're stuck, make a choice, note the problem on your scratch paper and MOVE ON. Don't waste two minutes trying to decide between two choices. Return if you have time.

With practice, you should be able to do the questions in an automatic fashion. The questions can be complex, but you can break it down into parts. There are four things you need to look for:

1. Direction of bank.

  • The simplest way to determine this is the following rule: The side of the diagram on which the ground is higher is the direction the plane is banking to. E.g. If the diagram has ground covering all of the right side and none of the left side, the plane is banked to the right side.

2. Pitch.

  • Is the plane pitched up or down? This too, should be fairly simple. If there's more ground than sky, it's pitched down. If there's more sky than ground, it's pitched up. Some cases it's hard to tell. Compare the amount of sky along one side of the diagram with the amount of ground on the other, using your pencil and fingernail as a makeshift ruler if necessary. More sky = pitch up. More ground = pitch down.

3. Heading relative to the coastline.

  • If land(the dark patch) is touching the horizon, the plane is heading inland. If the sea is touching the horizon, the plane is heading out to sea. Use your hand as a model airplane and the edge of the exam as the coastline. In fact, as you figure out 1-3, model it with your hand. It helps your visualization a lot.

4. Angle of bank

  • Usually, 1-3 are enough. In a few problems, you will have to distinguish between two planes that have different degrees of bank. I'd recommend looking for this last as it's somewhat difficult to keep track of in addition to the other factors and can be a judgement call.

The diagrams can be vague at times, for example, between a head on and a tail view of the aircraft. The plane depicted in the exam is a propeller plane (think WWII fighter). If you can see the propeller and the cockpit, it's a head on view. If you see the empennage (the tail assembly - rudder and elevators), it's a rear view.

Practice until you can go through 1-4 by rote. If you break up each question into these 4 steps, you can get down to a 30-40 second pace, which should be good enough for a competitive score.

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