ASTB-E · Performance Based Measures
Directional Orientation
Directional Orientation, which applicants call the UAV section, is an ASTB-E Performance Based Measures subtest: a voice names one of four parking lots and you click it in the view from an unmanned aerial vehicle's forward camera.
- Items
- 48
- Answer options
- 4 lots: north, east, south, west
- Scoring
- Accuracy and median response time
- Counts toward
- ASTB-E composite scores
- Equipment
- Mouse, headphones
Screens of the trainer
The subtest
Measures
The subtest measures spatial orientation: relating a north-up map to the forward camera view while the vehicle flies a fixed heading.
It is the first subtest of the Performance Based Measures, played with the mouse and headphones before the stick and throttle are used. It counts toward the ASTB-E composite scores.
Format
The subtest has 48 items: each of 12 headings, 30 degrees apart, with each of the four lots. Each item is answered with a click on one lot.
Scoring
The subtest records the number of correct answers and the median response time, and combines the two into one score. The instruction is to answer as quickly and accurately as possible.
Item types
Tracker Map and Camera View
On the left, the Tracker Map always has north at the top. The vehicle is a red dot with a yellow cone. The cone's tip, on the red dot, points along the heading, and the heading is printed under the map.
On the right, the Camera View shows a building with four parking lots around it, at north, east, south and west. The top of the view is the direction the vehicle is heading, so the lots turn with the heading. A voice names one lot, and the Camera View prints the same sentence. You click that lot.
Example
The heading reads 120, so the lots sit at 11, 2, 5 and 8 o'clock in the Camera View. The sentence reads "Image the South parking lot." South is 180, which is 60 degrees clockwise from the heading, so the South lot is the one at 2 o'clock.
The trainer in play
The Frontline Forge trainer
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The same 48 items
The trainer plays the same 48 items, each of the 12 headings with each of the four lots, in a new order every attempt. Training mode marks the correct lot after each click and explains where the heading puts it, with the clock stopped until you press Next.
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A spoken instruction
The trainer speaks each instruction and prints it under the Camera View, as on the subtest. The "Practice without sound" option keeps the printed sentence alone.
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Speed in the score
In the trainer, a correct answer within 1 second scores a full point, a slower one scores less, down to zero at 10 seconds, and the total is out of 48. The results give the number correct out of 48 and the median response time. Each score is ranked against other test-takers, and the Statistics page plots the ranking of every attempt.