Customer Reviews

Officer Candidate Tests (4th ed)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Out of 16 subtests of the AFOQT, this book provides practice only on the 6 academic ones, with very few practice problems with even skimpier explanations. The only reason ARCO is still managing to publish this rip-off is because they have no competition. The most you'll get for your money is a good idea of what sort of questions they'll ask and how well you can expect to do in the allotted time for each subtest (but you can get that for free on the 'net). For serious study purposes, I strongly recommend you spend some quality time with Barron's SAT Study Guide. I scored phenomenally well on the AFOQT, and I owe it all to Barron.

Having recently joined the Air Force ROTC, it was inevitable that I would have to take the AFOQT (Air Force Officer Qualifying Test). Knowing this, I grabbed a copy of /Officer Candidate Tests/, as recommended by AFROTC and my own detachment. The book offers a good overview of the requirements for becoming an officer of any branch of the military, the hundreds of career paths available, what sort of degree and traits you need for a given field, a rough estimate of pay grades, etc.

The real meat of the book, though, and the reason most people will buy it, is the coverage of the various officer tests. I can't comment on how well this book prepares you for other branches of the military, but I can say that /Officer Candidate Tests/ is a good starting point for the AFOQT. There are hundreds of sample problems that give a good idea of what areas the real test covers. In fact, I found many of the samples to be a good deal more difficult than anything I had on the actual test -- a good thing, since if you can handle the subjects the book presents with reasonable competence, you know you will do fine on the real deal.

There are some significant drawbacks, however. Firstly, the book only covers the "academic aptitude" (verbal and math/logic skills) and electrical/mechanical comprehension portions of tests. There's good material on the former and fairly skimpy preparation on the latter, but on the AFOQT, academic aptitude makes up only half of the exam. That's fine if you're not planning on being a pilot or navigator, but the remaining half of the test is rather critical for pilots. There's not even rudimentary descriptions of what the electrical maze, scale reading, instrument comprehension, block counting, and hidden figures questions are like. Again, if you are interested in being a pilot or navigator, that's a pretty large gap in knowledge to have when going into such an important test.

This isn't the world's best prep book, but I feel it was a big help in preparing me for the AFOQT, insofar as the half of the test it actually covered. I probably would have done better on the other sections if I had had any way of preparing. Even sections like the electrical maze, which are not something you can really "study" for, would have had a bit less shock value if I had at least seen an example or two. Then again, this is the military; you need to be able to handle some shock and pressure...

Bottom line - if you are wanting to become an officer, grab this book. It's decently priced, there's good info on career possibilities, and you'll get a feel for where you stand on the academic portions of a given officer test. Definitely a good starting point.

A screw has 8 threads per inch and a vise must travel 2 inches along it. How many revolutions must the handle make? 16, right? The book says 18, with no explanation of the mysterious missing threads. Do you have to spin a couple of times to get going?

In short, the explanations stink (the editors routinely use oddball approaches in their math and skip whole series of steps) and there is not enough background material or pointers to references.

The entire mechanical comprehension section is lifted wholesale out of two freely-available Navy manuals and the test questions are just the examples that the Navy used.

There is no online companion to this - not even an errata so the authors could point out some of their mistakes.

I take this exam next week and I'm scared.

This book is great for those who do better on batteries that they can actually see or practice with prior to test day. I was able to take a number of sample quizes and it really let me know on what to work or focus. After using this book and the "Military Flight Aptitude Test" book from the same publisher, I scored over 90 in each section of the AFOQT so the practice works! However, other books would come in handy since this book only provides reviews of the tests and samples, with no instruction on concepts.

As other reviewers have said, a book which explains certain math problems or english theory would help those who find they are lacking after taking a couple of this book's sample tests. I would agree that an SAT book might be helpful as a companion. Also, the Verbal portion of the real AFOQT is much more complicated than the examples given here, so make sure you are a good reader and adept at pulling meaning out of passages.

So again, brush up on basic skills with another book but practice with this one. Good luck!

I bought both this book and Military Flight Aptitude Tests to prepare for my Naval Officer Specimen Battery. I think that this book is nowhere near as helpful as the other. Even if you don't want to be a pilot, the other guide is much more comprehensive.

The sample tests were good to use to review, but the book did not contain any tutorials on how to do the "engineering"-type aeronautical questions. It does give you the correct answers, but no real help if you're starting from zero on these sections. Overall, the book is better than using nothing, but I would search the web for help on some of the electrical mazes and such if you are not familiar with those items. Also, when practicing, keep yourself strictly within the time limits - the biggest problem when taking the test (for me) was the time limit.

This book is definitely NOT the only book you will need to prepare for any officer candidate test. While the problems are good for practice, some of the answers are wrong. Further, the explanations are not particularly adequate for some of the harder questions, so you'll have to do some leg work to find more satifactory explanations. If you are using this book in conjunction with another study aid, such as a "Teach Yourself Algeba" book, you will definitely get more out of it than if you just used it alone. A great book to use would be Cliffs Standardized Tests review, which covers a wide range of problems that you will see on the military tests, while offering better explanations than the ARCO book. Also, you might consider an elementary Algebra book.

As for the reading comprehension, any GRE or SAT book will be more than adequate to handle the military tests, and again, the ARCO book will just offer you more practice, and some insight into the difficulty level you'll be facing.

If you are looking to go Navy, you'll have to deal with mechanical comprehension. Alegbra books cover this as well, particularly books that deal with Word Problems. The ARCO book is OK in mechanical comp, especially for those who may not be used to seeing these types of problems.

Three major problems I see in using this book alone are: 1) Some answers are wrong; 2) some just don't offer enough explanation; and 3) there are not enough practice problems to make someone who is a bit shaky in math really comfortable.

I recommend this book as a supplement. If you did well on your SAT or ACT, chances are this book will not offer you much (except perhaps some exposure to mechanical comp). If you are bit shaky on math, than get a book or two on word problems and algebra to go along with it.

Good Luck!

I bought this book because I thought its prepare me for the test the reality is other. The book was not good. I took the ASTB test for Navy officer and the test is completly difference.

I studied this book inside out, and learned the hard way that it was worthless. Try the SAT or GMAT for real help.

This book will give you a very very general review of what you need to know. However, there are sections on the actual test which are not in the book like. The math problems don't look much like ones on the test either. However, there are no one books out there which are for officer candidates. Good luck everyone, I know that I need it.