Total Page : 544
Publisher : Barron s Educational Series
Publication Date : 2007 06 01
>> Barrons Military Flight Aptitude Flop
I can only speak for the AFAST Barron did a horrible job with the Cyclic Orientation It s more than obvious that who ever created this portion of the practice test hasn t the slightest idea of what it is like in a cockpit For instance Question 96 on AFAST 1 shows a horizon tilting to the left the right side of the horizon drops while the left side rises This is clearly a left bank indicating the cyclic is being applied to the left Also the horizon is getting lower indicating nose up So the conclusion is aft left But no the dyslexic SOB that wrote the book states the correct answer is forward right Most of the other answers are just as bad 95 of AFAST 1 shows the horizon rising and just barely i mean barely tilting to the right They state Forward right for the answer anyone with stick time knows that a applying the cyclic that far to the right is going to send the helicopter into a far greater bank than what is shown Question 100 clearly a hard left they state aft right Yes i do fly helicopters yes i can recognize the maneuvers and yes I am trying to apply for the extremely competetive position of Army Aviator So yes this pisses me off Barron if people are going to PAY you to make a book to help them prepare for a test THEN GET IT RIGHT Don t prepare yourself to fail with this book
Don t waste your money
Peterson s master the military flight aptitude is better
AJ
>> Very helpful despite poor composition and many errors
I am reviewing this book with respect to the AFOQT which I recently took and achieved a near perfect score 99 highest possible in Pilot Navigator Technical Academic Aptitude and Quantitative and 95 in Verbal I credit this book in large part for my score being that high Although obviously not everyone will score that high just because they studied this book I ve always been a good student and test taker
I want to stress right now before I rip the book to shreds that I found it very helpful in preparing for the AFOQT I managed to complete every subtest which I m told is very rare I definitely would not have accomplished this without having taken practice exams first Two AFOQT practice tests are in this book I recommend this book to those who are studying for the exam but with some significant caveats So with that said I must be bluntly honest about the contents of the book itself
SHORTCOMINGS
1 The book is fairly poorly put together For example I didn t even read Chapter 2 pp 19 68 because it s fifty pages of irrelevant information specification tables and associated descriptions of aircraft after aircraft currently in use by the US military weight dimensions payload range manufacturer etc Who cares The book s declared purpose is to help people prepare for the military standardized exams and that s why I bought it But those tests do not cover this information So while this chapter may be interesting it is completely useless for studying for these exams and it should be omitted It is a waste of time and it fills nearly one quarter of the text proper The non practice test portion ends on page 228
2 The book contains many errors even within the practice tests/answers at least for the AFOQT which were the only two I took This didn t bother me much because I d read this about the book before buying it and I d decided to turn it into a challenge to identify such errors you know you understand the material when you can do so You shouldn t ever just memorize what you read in school or in this book always seek to understand A simple example the diagram at the top of page 162 is just flat out wrong It depicts the three axes of motion for an aircraft but all labels associated with the lateral and longitudinal axes are swapped Search Google Images for precisely airplane axes aviatorthings for a very similar but correct diagram See the difference
3 One study area I specifically found to be lacking in this book was a section on basic aviation systems and protocols It wouldn t need to be exhaustive but a little coverage of some ubiquitous systems would be helpful For example a brief description of VOR What do taxiway or runway lights do e g for glide slope on landing Or plane lights What colors are all of these and what do they mean Are they solid or flashing etc I found a few of these sorts of questions did actually show up on both the practice and real exams There were only a few but it s enough to justify at least a short section covering them Omit Chapter 2 add a sub section or two containing this information under Aviation Information in Chapter 7
OTHER COMMENTS
I did not read Chapter 6 Mathematics Review Information although I did quickly flip through it This is because my formal training is as an engineer and this level of mathematics was surpassed long ago It appears to me that the section should be sufficient review for the test although I d definitely recommend that people practice the really basic stuff to attain speed and accuracy In other words practice your multiplication and long division skills on paper because they re major time consumers on the exam and they crop up a lot And learn to estimate if your answers make sense
Also I read much of Chapter 5 Language Review Information but not all of it Specifically I did not read through the full listing of definitions for the nouns verbs and adjectives I have a decent vocabulary and most of the words were already familiar to me This section might be useful to some but I find that word knowledge and understanding comes more with use than just with a reading of a definition though that is important as well Personally I found the information earlier in the chapter to be more helpful but I can understand why the vocabulary lists are included
SUMMARY
The book itself is only mediocre But the practice tests are invaluable If you buy this book TAKE THOSE TESTS And do so in as close to real test conditions as possible They more than make up for other short comings errors and all Also skip Chapter 2 since it s simply a waste of time instead do a little outside reading on common aviation systems e g VOR compasses meanings of light colors flashing/solid on planes/runways/whatever etc You don t need to get into extreme nitty gritty details but look at the basics of the common systems Above all take those tests and apply what you learn Time constraints are MAJOR factors in taking the AFOQT
Read my two comments below if you want to see how I compare the book s practice tests to the real test in terms of difficulty and also if you want to see a listing of the errors I identified in the two practice tests I felt that including them in the review itself while still relevant would make it far too long
>> Bad for AFAST
For the AFAST section there were several mistakes in the Barron s book in the test portion almost to point it was misleading me The only thing the book really helped me with was Complex Movements Everything else Mechanical Cyclic Orientation Helicopter Knowledge was just wrong If you are going to take the AFAST buy another book
