An apparatus and method allow accurately determining properties of an anisotropic material, such as a multilayer printed wiring board, in a non-destructive manner using scanning acoustic microscopy. The apparatus and method includes special signal processing that allows determining the time of flight of an input waveform from a transmitter transducer on one side of the printed wiring board to a receiver transducer positioned on the opposite side of the printed wiring board in a position that opposes the transmitter transducer. The special signal processing includes an auto-correlation function and a cepstrum analysis. Once the time of flight is determined, the velocity of the input waveform may be computed. The Young's modulus and shear modulus for the printed wiring board may then be computed from the velocity of the input waveform. The preferred embodiments allow determining properties of a printed wiring board without the necessity of destructive testing.