Military 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: - Distinguish between conductors and insulators and explain one-way diode current flow. - Compare electrostatic capacitor energy storage against chemical battery discharge mechanisms. - Explain transistor switching and electromagnet magnetic field generation principles. - Differentiate AC from steady DC and explain why transformers require changing magnetic flux. - Calculate ideal transformer turns r...

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 single-path series circuits contrast with branching parallel circuits in voltage and current distribution. * How to calculate total resistance, branch current, and circuit power in DC resistor circuits. * Why parallel resistance always decreases below the value of the smallest individual resistor. * The fundamental operational difference between routine control switches and single-use protective f...

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: • Definitions of electric charge, current, potential difference, resistance, and complete circuits • How to apply Ohm's law to calculate current when voltage or resistance changes • Key conceptual traps including why voltage does not flow and current is conserved • Plausible mathematical errors to avoid when solving circuit calculations • Assumptions of ideal resistive models tested on the ASVA...

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 physical distinction between short-term weather and long-term regional climate. * How Earth's axial tilt causes opposite seasons in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. * How the water cycle demonstrates conservation of matter across phase changes. * The formation and properties of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rock types. * The gravitational organization of terrestrial planets and g...

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: • Distinction between atoms, elements, compounds, and mixtures • Difference between physical changes and chemical reactions • Conceptual properties of acids and bases without hazardous procedures • Law of conservation of mass in open versus closed systems • Exam traps involving gas production, dissolving, and boiling Prepare independently for the ASVAB exam with practice questions at https://open-exam-p...

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 producers, consumers, and decomposers interact within ecological food chains. - The fundamental metabolic differences between photosynthesis and cellular respiration. - Why matter continuously cycles through ecosystems while energy flows unidirectionally. - Reasons usable energy decreases at higher trophic levels without assuming fixed percentages. - How to separate direct ecological impacts f...

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: - Core differences between plant and animal cell structures - How respiratory and circulatory systems cooperate during physical activity - Basic inheritance vocabulary using a single-gene model - Common exam traps regarding DNA, cell structures, and dominant alleles - Key distinctions between genetic genotype and observable phenotype This independent study resource helps l...

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 classify short passage structures into explain, compare, describe, or argue using transition words. - Why comparative passages weigh alternatives without declaring one option universally superior. - How to solve Word Knowledge context questions while avoiding plausible distractor traps. - How to identify main ideas in Paragraph Comprehension without confusing q...

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 separate justified inferences from unsupported predictions and outside facts on ASVAB Paragraph Comprehension. - How to analyze a concrete passage scenario to identify required conditions versus unstated timelines. - Why tempting distractor choices fail by making extreme claims or assuming permanent conditions. - How to distinguish among certainty, probability, a...

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 locate explicit facts, sequence, and conditions in Paragraph Comprehension passages. - Why qualifiers like only, unless, before, and after determine correct answer choices. - How to trace pronoun references accurately back to their specific antecedents. - How to avoid the trap of confusing a narrow exception with a general r...

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 identify the main idea of a short reading passage using structural clues. - How to distinguish central ideas from overly narrow supporting details. - How to avoid distractors that rely on unstated outside knowledge. - The role of limiting sentences in defining passage scope. - How to apply the U...

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 distinguish vocabulary pairs that share broad meanings but differ in intensity or implication. - How context distinguishes economical resource use from the low-price or inferior-quality senses of cheap. - How to differentiate between literal meanings and figurative expressions such as a warm welcome. - Why assuming synonyms are completely i...

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 analyze sentence structure to infer word meanings using restatements, contrasts, and illustrative examples. - How to decode contrast clues in sentences like "unlike the cluttered storeroom, the office was orderly." - How to differentiate functional meanings, such as sturdy versus decorative, in context sentences. - How to avoid the t...

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: - Key prefixes such as pre, inter, and trans for vocabulary decoding - Core roots including cred and port for recognizing word meaning - Step-by-step structural analysis for exam vocabulary questions - Why morphology serves as a working hypothesis checked against context - Common test traps such as misinterpreting the prefix in o...

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 use the substitution method to identify the closest synonym in context - Why word function and grammatical role dictate accurate synonym replacement - The semantic distinction between concise, brief, and vague in sentence analysis - How context determines whether hesitant or unwilling best matches reluctant - How to avoid p...

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: - Difference between boundary perimeter, flat area, and spatial volume - How to calculate perimeter and area for rectangles, triangles, and circles - How to calculate volume for rectangular prisms - Why doubling all linear dimensions changes area and volume by different scale factors - Common unit traps involving linear, square, and c...

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: • Straight-line and interior triangle angle relationships summing to 180 degrees • Calculating right-triangle hypotenuse length using six and eight unit legs • Determining coordinate plane slope as rise over run between point pairs • Avoiding Pythagorean traps on non-right triangles and reversed coordinate order • Memorizing the slope rule of y difference over x difference This independent prep resour...

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: - Rules for multiplying, dividing, and evaluating integer powers with nonzero bases - Finding principal square roots and solving quadratic equations with two real solutions - Determining prime factors and finding the greatest common factor of numbers - Factoring quadratic polynomials into linear binomials and verifying with expansion - Avoiding the sum-of-squares t...

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 maintain algebraic equality using inverse operations to isolate a single variable. • Avoiding incomplete distribution errors when expanding algebraic terms inside parentheses. • Verifying solution accuracy by substituting calculated values back into original equations. • Reversing inequality symbols whenever multiplying or dividing by a negative number. • Using concrete test values to confirm valid inequality...

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: • Defining variables to represent unknown quantities in word problems • Preserving comparison order and understanding why less than flips written terms • Distinguishing algebraic expressions from equations and avoiding invalid term combinations • Translating linear scenarios like fixed plus variable rental rates into equations • Applying check values and reading parentheses aloud as times the quantity For indepen...

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 calculate the mean by dividing total points by the count of items * How to determine a required score on a future test to achieve a target average * How to find the median after sorting, along with mode and range * How to compute a weighted mean when combining groups of unequal s...

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 model individual workers and machines by fractional work rates per unit time. • Why adding completion times or taking simple averages is a major exam trap. • The core decision rule: convert completion times into fractional rates, then add rates. • How to solve step-by-step word problems involving staggered starts and remaining work. • Key test-ta...

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: - Core distance formula D equals rate times time and its algebraic variations. - Unit compatibility rules for converting time units before calculating travel rates. - Why calculating average speed requires total distance divided by total time instead of averaging speeds. - Techniques for solving simple relative motion problems for objects moving t...

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 set up conversion factors as fractions equal to one to cancel unwanted units cleanly. • How to calculate time conversions such as converting two and a half hours into 150 minutes. • Why converting square units requires squaring the linear conversion factor, turning 1 sq ft into 144 sq in. • How to avoid the trap of using...

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 differentiate part-to-part ratios from part-to-whole relationships in math word problems. • How to solve part-to-part mixture problems by finding the total number of ratio parts. • The exam trap of treating a part-to-part ratio as a direct fraction of the whole mixture. • How to set up and solve direct proportions with consistent units for...

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 calculate successive percentages on updated bases for discounts and sales tax. - Why combining percentage discount and tax rates directly creates common exam calculation errors. - The formula for percent change and why growth must be divided by the starting base. - The key difference between a percent change a...

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 read decimal place values and stack decimal points for addition. - Why multiplying positive decimals by values less than one yields a smaller product. - How to shift decimal points consistently to simplify decimal division on the ASVAB. - How to use rough estimation as a sanity check to a...

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 find common denominators and convert fractions to equivalent forms without a calculator. - Step-by-step addition of fractions using the worked example of three quarters plus two thirds. - Division of fractions using the keep, change, flip rule to solve three quarters divided by one half. - Key traps to a...

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 number-line movement and double negatives govern signed addition and subtraction. • How to apply sign rules for multiplication and evaluate equal-precedence operations from left to right. • How parentheses change evaluation order in multi-step signed integer expressions. • How to calculate absolute value as non-negative distance between numbers on a line. • Common exam traps including n...

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 construct a diagnostic, practice, error-log, and retest study cycle - The structural differences between adaptive CAT-ASVAB and fixed-form paper tests - Why calculators are prohibited and how to prepare for mental and manual arithmetic - How embedded tryout items impact test timing, question totals, and pacing strategy - Common e...

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 distinction between individual ASVAB subtest standard scores, the AFQT percentile rank, and service-specific line scores. - How the AFQT score is derived from four core subtests: Arithmetic Reasoning, Mathematics Knowledge, Word Knowledge, and Paragraph Comprehension. - Why an AFQT percentile score reflects relative performance against a reference group, not a p...

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 no-calculator Math Skills Test using estimation and reasonableness checks. - How to manage the OAR's computer-adaptive format, where you cannot return to previous questions. - To use evidence-based reading to find answers directly supported by the passage in the Reading Comprehension section. - How to interpret Mechanical Comprehension d...

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 quickly determine the direction of rotation for any gear in a simple gear train. - A simple method to calculate the mechanical advantage of a pulley system by counting supporting ropes. - How to interpret fluid pressure in a manometer diagram by comparing liquid column heights. - The critical d...

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: - That frequency and wavelength are inversely proportional when wave speed is constant, a key concept for proportional reasoning questions. - Why sound travels fastest through solids like steel, not air or water—a frequently tested exam trap. - The law of reflection states that the angle of incidence always equals the ang...

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 principle of energy conversion that distinguishes electric motors from generators. - How to apply the Right-Hand Rule to determine the direction of a magnetic field created by an electrical current. - The three primary methods for increasing the strength of an electromagnet, a common OAR question topic. - The c...

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 calculate total resistance for series circuits by summing resistances and for parallel circuits using the reciprocal formula. - The distinct behaviors of voltage and current: current is constant in a series circuit, while voltage is constant across all branches of a parallel circuit. - The effects of open and s...

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 relationship between voltage, current, and resistance as defined by Ohm's Law (V=IR). - How the Navy OAR's Mechanical Comprehension section tests electrical principles through direct calculation problems. - A common exam trap involving unit mismatches, such as kilovolts or milliamps, that require conversion before solving. - The distinction b...

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 differentiate Temperature (average molecular kinetic energy) from Heat (energy transferred between objects). - The three modes of heat transfer: Conduction (direct contact), Convection (fluid movement), and Radiation (electromagnetic waves). - How to apply the Specific Heat Capacity formula (Q = mcΔT) to solve for heat energy, mass, or temperature change. ...

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: - Pascal's principle states that pressure in an enclosed fluid is constant, leading to the formula F₁/A₁ = F₂/A₂. - How to calculate force multiplication in hydraulic systems using the ratio of piston areas. - The most common exam trap: confusing piston radius with area and the necessity of using A=πr². - The...

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: - Pressure is force concentrated over an area; a smaller area results in greater pressure for the same force. - An object's relative density (specific gravity) determines if it will float or sink in water. - Hydrostatic pressure increases in direct proportion to depth in a fluid. - Buoyant force equals the w...