SIFT Write Upo

[Ryno]

I took the SIFT yesterday. Here is a solid in-depth write up on how it went, what it’s like, and background information about me.

 

 

Background

Age: 20

Education: 2.5 years college, Aviation Science major (100 hours of single engine fixed wing flight time)

MOS: 15T

My score: 58

Perceived difficulty of the SIFT: 6.5/10

 

Studying

I studied for about a month, trying to spend 30 minutes each day studying and familiarizing myself with the content of the SIFT. The last week I was trying to spend 45 to 60 minutes per day studying. I should say that I have known about the SIFT and it’s sub test since August, I just needed time in my schedule to study and actually take it.

·         I bought the Aegis group complete SIFT study guide (paper) from Amazon

Grade: A-     Nothing out of date, rather accurate for my test. The only reason why it’s not an A+ is because it’s a book and didn’t translate well to my online notes.

·         I lurked around and read through just about every post here on the Army Aviation subreddit and several on Vertical Reference

Not really a great source on actual questions but it made me feel more confident in what the test was like, this is where I learned about most of the test prep resources. I don’t really count these as a study source

·         I did each Trivium (free) online test about a dozen times over the course of 3 weeks

Grade: B      These tests were nice for having a feeling of what it’s like to do an online test and it tells you what you missed and what the correct answer was. The layouts are all weird and that didn’t help much for the simple drawings and hidden figures. Note that the reading section is not really accurate to the real SIFT at all. Over all, this is a good site to study, but it doesn’t get the small things right.

 

·         I did the Military Flight Tests online tests as well in the last week of my studying

Grade: C   The test is good for knowing how fast you need to go. It does grade you on accuracy but doesn’t tell you what you missed. The timing makes it very difficult for simple drawings and hidden figures since there’s not very many to do in their given time span. I’m nearly positive their given average scores are all BS by the way.

 

·         I read through FAA Helicopter Flying Handbook chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 9

Grade: A+    The FAA Helicopter Flying Handbook has a bunch of content and is a great resource to study from. My only critique is that there’s a lot of information in it and I’m lazy didn’t want to sift through it all. Many people recommend reading the whole thing cover to cover. If you don’t have a background with helicopters and flight physics, I would recommend it as well.

 

·         Helicopter lessons in 10 minutes or less I watched 4 of these videos, particularly retreating blade stall, dissymmetry of lift, advancing blade compressibility, and effective translational lift.

Grade: A     I think these videos are great, but many of them are too advanced for what you’ll see on the SIFT. Excellent for flight training though. If you’re shooting for that 80 and you have the time for it, then watch these videos. 

 

·         MSC ASVAB study sites for mechanical comprehension and mathematics.

I can’t really grade these, but I still recommend them. The ASVAB math is a little less difficult than the SIFT and the same goes for mechanical comprehension

 

THE SIFT

The DOD civilian who set up my test took me into a little room right next to his office, I’d say 4x4x8 feet. I was given 2 sheets of paper, 3 pencils and some big noise cancelling headphones. My test proctor allowed me to bring gum and a water bottle in with me. Watch, phone, and all other electronics had to stay in the office with him. Once he left the testing room, I was allowed to take my mask off and proceed with the test on my own time.

Pre info: you have to fill out some background info about the following categories:

Major and GPA if you have any higher education after high school

Flight experience, number of hours, type of aircraft you have experience in

Video Game and flight simulator game experience

What video game console you played on and hours per week you spent gaming

What component/branch of the military you’re in.

 

Between each section, you get 3 to 7 slides of directions to prepare you for the next subtest. You get unlimited time to go through these directions, so you can take a 15-minute break between each section if you wanted to.

 

Simple Drawings

Completed 89/100   my estimated score 83/100

I was very jittery, out of some anxiety and a fair amount of caffeine, I miss clicked/double clicked a few of them. 

The shapes are smaller than I expected from the Trivium Test prep. There is a little bit of lag between each question, so you have a bit more time than it first appears.  This section is just about your lizard brain instincts about finding the odd one out.

This is basically what the test layout is like for Simple Drawings. The boxes aren’t that defined but Microsoft paint is what I had to work with. You click directly on the shape that isn’t like the others in the SIFT.

 

Simple drawings question layout (imgur)

 

 

 

Hidden Figures

Completed 37/50   my estimated score 25/50

I still felt a bit jittery. I really feel like Hidden figures is hit or miss. I didn’t know how to study for these, you just either see it or you don’t.

The layout is the same as the Simple Drawings, except in place of the row of drawings is the main picture and then you get 5 shapes to choose from.

 

The shapes stayed the same while the main picture changes between each problem. At question #25 or so, one of my shapes switched to another shape, but the rest stayed the same.

 

Army Aviation Information

Completed 40/40    with 20 minutes left.

The Aviation information, Spatial Apperception and Reading Comprehension subtests allow you to skip, flag, and come back to questions whenever you want.

 

This is the subtest that I felt the most confident in going in, and probably the best in while I was taking the test. 

 

 

Army Aviation information question layout (imgur)

 

 

There were absolutely no questions on blade regions (stall, driving, driven)

Here are the following questions that I guessed on:

·         What is a skid

·         Night flights and scanning

·         Class G operating in weather

·         What lets you turn the helicopter? changing the amount of

tail rotor torque

tail rotor thrust

tail rotor velocity

·         Rigid rotor systems (see my drawing above)

·         When the CG is too far forward….

·         When in hovering flight the tail rotor thrust is….?

·         What decreases the performance of a helicopter more?

Warm weather

High humidity

·         The cyclic changes the pitch exactly on the _____?

Advancing and retreating blades

All of the rotor blades

Some more options that I don’t remember

·         Load element in steady state flight =

Less than 1

1

2

3

4

·         How do you turn while hovering?

·         What is the definition of Payload?

·         What is a Fenestron tail rotor?

“is a protected tail rotor of a helicopter operating like a ducted fan. The term Fenestron is a trademark of multinational helicopter manufacturing consortium Airbus Helicopters” – Wikipedia

There was a question about the Kiowa warrior which was odd because I was under the impression that the Army doesn’t use them anymore.

A few questions about which of the following fits the description of a utility tactical transport helicopter, which of the following is an airframe that US Army Aviators can be trained to fly on, and other airframe names.

 

Spatial Apperception

25/25 questions completed with 33 seconds left.

This section is probably the most straight forward. The pictures are all in black and white, land (like a farmer’s field) and darker water.

My test didn’t have any cliffs or rocks in the water like some of the study guides showed. The pictures were somewhat difficult to read because the looked like your 5^th grade history test that had been photocopied since the 90s.

 

The aircraft was some fixed wing single engine plane with a prop. Not too difficult to see which end was which. 

 

Reading Comprehension

Completed 20/20 with 12 minutes left over.

This section was rather easy for me.

Note* The Trivium test prep reading section is like the ASVAB, asking definitions, subjects of the passage, and what most correlates with what the author is saying.

 

The SIFT has one ‘big question’ that applies to each question. If I wrote the directions for this subsection, it would read:

“The following section contains 20 passages. For each passage, choose the answer that best summarizes the passage/is most accurate based on the passage.”

There are generally 2 choices that don’t make any sense if you actually read the passages.

 

If you read through the passages, look at the choices, re-read and then choose your answer you’ll do well.

 

Math Skills

Finished all questions with 15 minutes remaining

I haven’t taken a math class since 2019 and have used a calculator for pretty much everything other than basic math. It was a bit rough.

 

There was lots of probability, using dice, a standard deck of cards, and fishing based on how many fish there are in the lake. Know how to multiply fractions.

Know long division so you can find speeds. There was a stupid amount of if Elaine runs 8 mph and has 10 miles left in the race and Katy runs 6mph and has 4 miles left in the race, how many minutes apart will they finish.

I got some simplifying of polynomials. What is (X-1)^1/2 and X^-1  I didn’t go over these at all and definitely should’ve

Also I got a Log₅ in front of a polynomial, no clue what was going on there either.

 

By the way, for the math section they give you the equations for basic geometry (like πr² and 1/2BH) I was under the impression that they would have it written on a paper sheet or something.

 

Mechanical Comprehension

No clue how many questions I got through, the second the subtest was over it went right to my end score.

There were no lever questions. I really thought I would get tons of them based on the Trivium test. There were a few gear questions, like which gear goes faster (there was a small one and a big one) and which gears turn the same direction.

There was one about the flow of a faucet, nothing difficult there.

There were some about electricity, like what Ohms represent, capacitors, Amps.

Know the definition of Speed Vs. Work. In a similar note, one question that I found odd was if you have two 10J bricks and pick them both up off the ground to waist height (no actual number given for how high that was) and hold them for 2 minutes, how much work was done?

 

One about using a torque wrench to provide 80-foot lbs of force when the wrench can only produce 60-foot lbs, how much longer would the wrench need to be?

Only one question on Newton’s third law, no others mentioned.

2 or 3 questions on velocity and what I now remember is Pascal’s Principle

 

 

 

Summary:

I think my first 2 weeks of in class time in AIT was more beneficial to me than 1.5 years of flight training. Helicopters are different than fixed wing airplanes and rotors/rotor heads are quite complicated.

 

Leading, lagging, flapping, coning, are all rather new to me, but I learned about them in 15T AIT. I would highly suggest reading the FAA Helicopter Flying Handbook if you have no experience with helicopters/flight.

 

This test is not that hard. If you study reliably for 30 minutes a day for a month you can do just fine. It’s basically that ASVAB but with Army Aviation Information as a subtest. I honestly think that I could’ve walked into the test last month and passed with a 40+.   

 

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns feel free to comment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rat_Taylor]

This is great!! I tell everyone interested in WOFT that; yes! you need to study no matter how you did on the ASVAB, and to check out Helicopter Lessons in 10 Minutes or Less on Youtube, and take practice tests.   

Great write up. Congrats on the passing! I got a 52, wanted a 60, but people have been selected with a lot less. 

[Rat_Taylor]

2 minutes ago, Rat_Taylor said:

This is great!! I tell everyone interested in WOFT that; yes! you need to study no matter how you did on the ASVAB, and to check out Helicopter Lessons in 10 Minutes or Less on Youtube, and take practice tests.   

Great write up. Congrats on the passing! I got a 52, wanted a 60, but people have been selected with a lot less. 

I would also like to add that I learned a lot about how the rotor head works by watching this series of videos on helicopters from Destin of Smarter Every Day. His channel is awesome anyway, and he's a legit rocket scientist. 

 

[GM1]

3 hours ago, Rat_Taylor said:

I would also like to add that I learned a lot about how the rotor head works by watching this series of videos on helicopters from Destin of Smarter Every Day. His channel is awesome anyway, and he's a legit rocket scientist. 

 

I definitely learned a lot from this series of videos. Also knowing what OP said on how to read Ohms, ground and resistors on an electrical diagram because they threw that at me and caught me off guard as it’s not in any of the study guides I had. Know what the letters for each helicopter mean as well like UH AH CH. But it has been a long while since I have taken it that’s just what I remember. 

[Patriot17]

Anyone know why it's relevant to the army how long someone plays videogames or flies in simulators? 

[FAQ_Guy 12]

Great write up! Thanks for doing this for us who have yet to take the SIFT. 

[Moose63]

Is there any good reading for the "army aviation" section that is produced or written by the army?  I understand that the FAA book falls into that category, but for things that are truly Army specific such as the Model differences and things of that nature.  Study guides you'd say?  

Also, I've been studying about an hour every day at least and take my test in two months.  I know you said you think 30 minutes a day for a month was adequate for you, but do you feel your Aviation science background played a large role in it being that easy for you?   Thanks for writing all of this up, it's been super helpful thus far! 

[mike0331]

On 12/16/2020 at 2:26 PM, Rat_Taylor said:

I would also like to add that I learned a lot about how the rotor head works by watching this series of videos on helicopters from Destin of Smarter Every Day. His channel is awesome anyway, and he's a legit rocket scientist. 

 

If you don’t watch SmarterEveryDay you are a loser. I’ve watched almost all that dudes videos on everything.

On 12/17/2020 at 4:24 AM, Patriot17 said:

Anyone know why it's relevant to the army how long someone plays videogames or flies in simulators? 

Is it? 

 

On 1/17/2021 at 7:13 PM, Moose63 said:

Is there any good reading for the "army aviation" section that is produced or written by the army?  I understand that the FAA book falls into that category, but for things that are truly Army specific such as the Model differences and things of that nature.  Study guides you'd say?  

Also, I've been studying about an hour every day at least and take my test in two months.  I know you said you think 30 minutes a day for a month was adequate for you, but do you feel your Aviation science background played a large role in it being that easy for you?   Thanks for writing all of this up, it's been super helpful thus far! 

For the SIFT, the FAA helicopter flying handbook and commercial SIFT study guides are more than enough.

For stuff to familiarize yourself with for flight school, there are more options that aren’t really relevant to the SIFT, IE 95-1.

[DevilDog1775]

Did anyone purchase/use the King Schools online ground school to help/study for the SIFT?  If so, did it help you?

[sonam249]

Dont waste ur money on that stuff, theres enough resources online for free. 

helicopter lessons in 10 min on youtube

FAA handbook pdf is free