Podcast
Military Exam Prep
Hosted by Ran Chen, EA, CFP® · EN
Military Exam Prep is a free, daily podcast by OpenExamPrep covering the most in-demand military aptitude, classification, and advancement exams — including the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery), AFCT, PiCAT, AFOQT (Air Force Officer Qualifying Test), OAR (Officer Aptitude Rating), ASTB-E (Aviation Selection Test Battery), SIFT (Selection Instrument for Flight Training), DLAB and DLPT (Defense Language tests), EDPT, NAPT, DoD Cyber Test, Air Force PFE, Navy NWAE, Coast Guard SWE, and Army Promotion Board. Each 5-minute episode breaks down one exam topic with concrete examples, scoring strategies (especially the AFQT line scores that determine job eligibility), common exam traps, and memory tricks to help you pass on your first attempt. Whether you're preparing for enlistment, OCS, flight school, language school, or your next stripe, the material is built around the way the test actually scores you. This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation for everyone — from recruits at MEPS to NCOs studying for promotion to officer candidates earning their commission. For free practice questions, AI-powered explanations, flashcards, and full study guides, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ Subscribe and listen daily — your enlistment, commission, or next rank is closer than you think.
49episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
AFOQT Exam Prep 61, Reading the Artificial Horizon
5d ago00:03:36Tap to summarizeThis podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to interpret the basic display of an artificial horizon, where blue represents the sky and brown signifies the ground. - The correct method for reading an aircraft's bank angle and direction by focusing on the miniature aircraft's low wing. - How to determine the aircraft's pitch attitude, whether climbing or diving, by its position relative to the horizon line. - To recognize common AFOQT exam traps, such as confusing the direction of bank or misinterpreting combined pitch and bank attitudes. - A simple mnemonic to quickly assess the aircraft's general state: 'Blue over brown, you're flying sound.' For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
Transcribe →AFOQT Exam Prep 60, Instrument Comprehension — Two Instruments to Read
6d ago00:03:10Tap to summarizeThis podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to quickly interpret the AFOQT's attitude indicator for both bank and pitch. - The most effective two-step process to eliminate incorrect answer choices under extreme time pressure. - Why the heading indicator is often a distractor and should typically be checked last. - How to avoid the most common exam trap: mentally reversing the aircraft's bank. - A memorable mnemonic, "Bank, Pitch, Pass," to systematize your approach to every question. For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
Transcribe →AFOQT Exam Prep 59, Table Reading Pacing — Guess After 12 Seconds
1w ago00:02:24Tap to summarizeThis podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to apply the '8-12 Second Rule' to conquer the AFOQT Table Reading subtest. - Why completing all 40 questions is statistically better than achieving perfect accuracy on only 30. - The importance of choosing a pre-decided 'panic letter' for strategic guessing to maintain pace. - How to avoid the common exam trap of lingering on a difficult question for too long. - To use the 'Scan, Spot, or Scram' mnemonic to enforce disciplined time management. For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
Transcribe →AFOQT Exam Prep 58, Table Reading — Negative Number Axes
1w ago00:03:01Tap to summarizeThis podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The AFOQT Table Reading subtest uses a large, four-quadrant grid with both negative and positive X and Y axes. - A frequent, high-cost error is misreading a negative coordinate (e.g., Y=-5) as its positive counterpart (Y=5) under time pressure. - Test designers intentionally include incorrect answer choices that correspond to the wrong coordinate signs to trap candidates. - Scanning across the zero line on the axes is a common point of visual error, causing test-takers to lose their place. - Use the 'Signs, Find, Finalize' technique to consciously verify the signs of both coordinates before locating the value to improve accuracy. For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
Transcribe →AFOQT Exam Prep 57, Table Reading Finger-Tracking Technique
1w ago00:03:32Tap to summarizeThis podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to use the two-finger tracking technique to master the AFOQT Table Reading subtest. - Why the Table Reading subtest is a test of psychomotor speed, not data interpretation. - To recognize common exam traps, like adjacent-cell values used as incorrect answer choices. - A critical test-day strategy: bubble your answer immediately and do not double-check to maximize speed. - The 'Lock and Load' mnemonic to solidify the finger-tracking process for better retention. For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
Transcribe →AFOQT Exam Prep 56, Table Reading Mechanics — 10.5 Seconds Per Question
1w ago00:02:23Tap to summarizeThis podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The AFOQT Table Reading subtest gives you only 10.5 seconds to answer each of the 40 questions. - This subtest is a high-speed visual lookup task that measures accuracy under pressure, not math skills. - The core task involves finding the value at the intersection of a given X-axis column and a Y-axis row. - The most common errors are being off by one row or column, and answer choices often include these adjacent, incorrect values. - The most effective technique is the "Point and meet to beat the sheet" method, using two fingers to trace the column and row to their intersection. For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
Transcribe →AFOQT Exam Prep 55, Earth and Space Science
2w ago00:03:24Tap to summarizeThis podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The official eight planets of our solar system and why Pluto's 2006 reclassification as a dwarf planet is a common AFOQT exam trap. - The correct order of Earth's atmospheric layers from the ground up: troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere, along with their key functions. - How to use the mnemonic 'My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles' to quickly recall the planetary order during the test. - The fundamental concept of plate tectonics, specifically that the lithosphere moves on top of the asthenosphere, causing geologic events. - The continuous transformation process of the rock cycle, detailing how igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks are formed and recycled. For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
Transcribe →AFOQT Exam Prep 54, Chemistry Basics — States, pH, Reactions
2w ago00:03:30Tap to summarizeThis podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to distinguish between the four states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. - The definitions of the six phase changes, including common exam examples like sublimation. - How to interpret the 0-14 pH scale to identify acids, bases, and neutral substances. - The critical concept that each unit on the pH scale represents a tenfold change in acidity. - Examples of common acids (HCl, H2SO4) and bases (NaOH, NH3) you might see on the test. For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
Transcribe →AFOQT Exam Prep 53, Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table
2w ago00:03:55Tap to summarizeThis podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The atomic number is the number of protons and uniquely identifies an element. - Mass number is the sum of protons and neutrons; the difference between mass number and atomic number equals the neutron count. - Isotopes are atoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons, while ions are atoms that have gained or lost electrons. - Atomic radius generally decreases from left to right across a period and increases from top to bottom down a group. - Ionization energy follows the opposite trend of atomic radius, increasing across a period and decreasing down a group. For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
Transcribe →AFOQT Exam Prep 52, Electricity and Magnetism
2w ago00:02:34Tap to summarizeThis podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to apply Ohm's Law (V=IR) to solve for voltage, current, or resistance in AFOQT-style problems. - The key differences between series and parallel circuits, including how current and voltage behave in each. - How to calculate total resistance in both series (simple sum) and parallel (reciprocal sum) circuits. - To calculate electrical power using all three essential formulas: P=IV, P=I²R, and P=V²/R. - How to use the right-hand rule to determine the direction of a magnetic field produced by a current. For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
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