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 resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.

In this episode you will learn:

- Mastering 40-50 high-yield Latin and Greek roots can help decode over 60% of unfamiliar words on the AFOQT.

- The "Root Stripping" technique allows you to isolate a word's core meaning by analyzing its root, prefix, and suffix.

- Use roots to solve Verbal Analogy questions by identifying relationships, such as antonyms (e.g., 'bene' for good vs. 'mal' for bad).

- Beware of common AFOQT traps like distractor words with similar sounds but different root meanings.

- Roots like 'chron' (time), 'photo' (light), 'vor' (eat), and 'mort' (death) consistently appear in the complex vocabulary tested on officer aptitude exams.

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

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 resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.

In this episode you will learn:

- The AFOQT Word Knowledge section provides no context, requiring pure synonym matching.

- You have only 5 minutes for 25 questions, demanding instant word recognition.

- High-frequency words often relate to leadership (mettle, fortitude), discipline (austere, stringent), and military bearing.

- Common exam traps include antonyms or words that sound similar but have different meanings.

- The most effective preparation strategy is drilling the top 200 most-tested words using flashcards.

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

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 resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.

In this episode you will learn:

- Permutations (n!/(n−r)!) are for arrangements where order is critical, like assigning specific job titles.

- Combinations (n!/(r!(n−r)!)) are for selecting groups where order is irrelevant, like forming a committee.

- A helpful mnemonic: **P**ermutation means **P**osition matters; **C**ombination means the **C**ommittee is unordered.

- For multiple event probabilities, the keyword 'AND' signals multiplication, while 'OR' signals addition (subtracting any overlap).

- The AFOQT uses small numbers, so practice calculating factorials manually to save time and avoid errors.

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

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 resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.

In this episode you will learn:

- To master the simple interest formula (I=Prt) and the basic compound interest formula (A=P(1+r)^t).

- Why you must always convert interest rates to decimals and time periods to years before calculating.

- The critical difference: simple interest is based only on the initial principal, while compound interest is based on the principal plus accumulated interest.

- To identify whether an AFOQT question is asking for the total interest earned or the final account balance, a common exam trap.

- How to handle questions that require comparing the outcomes of simple versus compound interest over a specific period.

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

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 resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.

In this episode you will learn:

- Direct proportion means as one value increases, the other increases; solve using cross-multiplication (a/b = c/d).

- Inverse proportion means as one value increases, the other decreases; solve by finding the constant product (e.g., worker-hours).

- A common exam trap is incorrectly applying direct proportion cross-multiplication to an inverse relationship problem.

- For problems with a total quantity and a ratio (e.g., 3:5 with a total of 800), sum the ratio parts first (3+5=8) to find the value of one 'part'.

- Mnemonic: "More means more, so make a cross" for direct proportions, and "More means less, so multiply across" for inverse proportions.

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

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 resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.

In this episode you will learn:

- How to correctly calculate percent change using the (New - Old) / Old formula.

- Why successive percentage changes, like a 20% increase followed by a 20% decrease, do not cancel each other out and result in a net loss.

- The correct order of operations for AFOQT problems that involve applying both a discount and a sales tax to an original price.

- How to identify and solve the common exam trap involving a percentage increase followed by an identical percentage decrease.

- A simple mnemonic, "New minus Old, over Old we're told," to remember the percent change formula under exam pressure.

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

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 resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.

In this episode you will learn:

- How to apply the core principle: the sum of the parts equals the whole for all mixture problems.

- A mnemonic to solve any mixture problem: A-C-T (Amount x Concentration = Total).

- How to set up and solve exam-style solution, coin, and alloy mixture problems.

- To identify common exam traps like inconsistent units and misinterpreting the final mixture amount.

- The importance of converting percentages to decimals and dollar values to cents for accurate calculations.

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

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 resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.

In this episode you will learn:

- The fundamental combined work-rate formula: 1/A + 1/B = 1/T, and what each variable represents.

- A time-saving shortcut for the AFOQT: the 'product over sum' method, T = (A*B)/(A+B).

- How to recognize and solve pipe-filling or draining problems using the same work-rate logic.

- To identify common exam traps, such as when a problem provides a rate (e.g., '1/4 of the job per hour') instead of a total time.

- The strategy for setting up the equation correctly when you need to solve for an individual's time instead of the combined time.

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

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 resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.

In this episode you will learn:

- The core formula for all motion problems is Distance = Rate × Time (d=rt).

- How to solve 'two objects meeting' problems by combining their rates when they move towards each other.

- Why simply averaging two speeds to find the average speed of a round trip is a common exam trap and always incorrect.

- The correct method for calculating average speed, which is always Total Distance divided by Total Time.

- A specific shortcut formula for calculating average speed on a round-trip journey with two different speeds: 2(r1·r2)/(r1+r2).

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

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 resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.

In this episode you will learn:

- How to instantly translate common English phrases into algebraic expressions to save critical time on the AFOQT Arithmetic Reasoning subtest.

- To identify and avoid common exam traps, especially the word order in subtraction phrases like 'less than' and 'exceeds by'.

- A mental shortcut using the word 'is' to quickly find the equals sign and structure your equation correctly.

- A step-by-step process for breaking down multi-sentence word problems by defining variables and using substitution.

- Why creating a personal phrase-to-algebra 'cheat sheet' during your prep is essential for building the necessary speed for test day.

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