The most recommended book for the AFOQT.
Barrons Educational Series; Fourth Edition (July 1, 2018)
Military Flight Aptitude Tests (Barron's Military Flight Aptitude Tests) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1438011040/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_2V6xFbENTAFDP
I took the exam in late June or so, so here's what I recommend:
First, get a study guide. Barron's is commonly recommended, but I would highly suggest you use more than one if you really want to knock this out of the park. I used this Trivium study guide and can tell you that it's short, sweet, and to the point, but lacks in details that you're gonna find in Barron's guide. I'd say that going all the way through Barron's guide first, then using the Trivium one as a quick review a couple weeks before your exam will do you well. In total, these should put you back around $40-$45 and should be the only real purchases for study material barring a HOTAS setup.
Next, definitely check out airwarriors.com's extensive ASTB study and questions guide here. I can't find the exact page, but there should be a litany of Google Doc resources that you can find there that will cover a lot of specific problems and information that you'll come across on the exam. If you can't find them, then pm me and I'll share them to you that way. You can also look through the most recent posts on the blog I linked and see what people have to say about their time taking the exam, what kind questions they had, and so on.
Now, for the HOTAS part, your experience will heavily depend on how much experience you have with flight sims at home or with using a joystick/HOTAS setup. There's not much trick to it as it's designed to be difficult even for people who're good at sims and HOTAS. The general advice for it is to just have fun with it and trust your instincts; I did both and did pretty well on that portion. You don't need to ball out on a HOTAS setup at home, so I recommend this cheap joystick/thruster for about $60 (or console equivalent) that I used (and still use) to practice flying on Microsoft Flight Sim, Elite: Dangerous, and War Thunder (War Thunder is free if you don't want to spend the money). Just practice following planes around from behind while managing your throttle and using inverted flying controls and you'll be fine.
Finally, the OAR portion was far harder for me as I never took any physics courses in my life and haven't had any math classes for 5 years, and I still got a 47 on it my first try (I may need to re-take it, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there). The only difficult parts came from stuff that I didn't study for because I simply never came across them in my Trivium study guide, which is why I highly recommend having a DIVERSE set of study materials. Give yourself at LEAST one month to study for this thing, ideally two, and put in at LEAST 2-3 hours per day (or more) studying with some sim practice time if you can manage it.
This guy's right, search the sub, and I've drafted a longer form plan/advice for new test takers:
How far out are you from taking the exam? What is your end goal after taking it? Depending on that and how many times you've taken it so far (assuming zero) it could vary and be in your best interest to focus on certain areas, but this is what I had done with relatively good success when gunning for a pilot slot:
Take an initial practice test, complete with timings and an environment similar to what test day will be. This allows for focus on certain areas of improvement and to really aim for that 99 pilot subsection (for example, when I first took my first "simmed" AFOQT, I knew I had to focus on Table Reading). Keep track of your scores in an Excel sheet (happy to share mine if you PM me, goes for anyone else as well).
Set up a study plan! I did this before I even had an AFOQT scheduled, and gave myself an aggressive timeline of < 30 days to really put the pressure on, but I recommend basing it off of your scheduled date and scheduling backward based on that day, with some wiggle room. Life happens, and each of us has our own schedule, so you may know best when to study for yourself, and I focused on studying in the morning and after work, but never too late at night since sleep is important for memory retention. Get decent sleep, abide by your schedule, and bang it out, and you'll be well on your way. There will be days you don't want to study, but push through that knowing what you can get from a 99!
Specifically dedicate study sessions (~30-45 minutes straight of practice problems) to those sections you found to be more difficult and where you perhaps got more wrong than you would've liked. If that aviation section is still only 50% correct, for example, get on the Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge and start reading that chapter by chapter (free version can be found on the FAA website: https://www.faa.gov/regulations\_policies/handbooks\_manuals/aviation/phak). As the instructors mentioned, if you're not doing so hot on another non-pilot related section, try to study and perform on that section better but do not make it a primary focus unless you are getting <50% correct.
Be honest with yourself, if you don't have the time to prioritize studying everything because your test is in 3-4 days, but you know your aviation knowledge is closer to 60%, focus your efforts there.
Ensure you go over your incorrect answers, I would use reddit as a "sounding board" if you've questions that aren't immediately "Google-able" to let us help you hash it out!
I briefly touched on this, but "practice how you play" rings very true with studying. While I mentioned the "study at any hour you can" advice, when it comes down to test day, you'll likely be taking it at ~0800 and perhaps having to drive >1 hour to the test center. Prepare for all these variables the best you can and try to structure your practice exams, at the very least, around this time so that you prime yourself for test day.
Is your AFOQT on a computer or is it a scantron with bubble answers? If it is the paper test, account for the time it actually takes to bubble. None of the questions are "difficult" but the additional stress of being in a time crunch adds up, with bubbling with a pencil taking up more time than a click. I accommodated this by cutting each section's time down by 10% if it were online when I practiced, but that is perhaps overkill.
Get some good sleep (7+ hours for most is considered "good", but this is entirely up to your own body) and the 2 days immediately before to set yourself up on that schedule of the testing day. Is your test on a Monday? If so, practice getting up at ~0600 or earlier the Saturday & Sunday to ensure you have a good sense of being ready for it.
Testing material I found useful is as follows:
- AFOQT Guide website, has study guides and printable practice tests and 1 online test --> https://afoqtguide.com/
- Barron's Test Prep for AFOQT, has other branch tests in their for aviation but no need to focus on those --> https://www.amazon.com/Barrons-Military-Flight-Aptitude-Tests/dp/1438011040/ref=sr\_1\_1?crid=BRWFVYUN6U44&keywords=afoqt+barrons&qid=1666264089&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIxLjg1IiwicXNhIjoiMS43MiIsInFzcCI6IjEuOTAifQ%3D%3D&s=books&sprefix=af...
- Trivium's AFOQT book, 1 paper test and 1 online test --> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1637981961/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_search\_asin\_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
- Another 2022/2023 AFOQT Book --> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1950159116/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_search\_asin\_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Best of luck!
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I used this book and got a good score.
I used to be a whiskey as well. I used these two, I got a 74. I couldn't find an updated version of the accepted one but it's probably for the best, the math answer key was off. There's had some very similar question to the actual test. Read the beginning for how the test is conducted. Some sections are more time restricted than others. I didn't have time to answer all the questions in some sections and others I finished with several minutes to spare.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1438011040/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_vp9qFbPFCE2MT
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1941743641/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Hs9qFbXPWAZXQ
I personally am using a few books. My library has an old copy of Peterson's which is pretty good but its not up to date for the most current form but I've been using it so far to help me to prepare as well as Barron's which I found very very useful,
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Barron's is the only one I've purchased. Check your local libraries as well! You might be able to grab a few ASVAB books which are useful for the reading comprehension sections as well but really check out your local library you will probably find some prep books you can use without spending a penny.