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Picked this book up about 10 days before my SIFT was scheduled. I had previously taken the AFAST so I had some idea what I was getting into even though the test are quite different. This book helped me the most with the hidden figures, math, and mechanical knowledge sections. I already felt comfortable with the other sections from previous experience. I won't even discuss the portions of the test that I thought were very easy. Just remember they are very short on time for a reason. Depending on your level of knowledge in the math Department you may want to brush up with other resources. I simply spent 4-5 hours on YouTube relearning how to properly solve factors, fractions, decimals, whole numbers, simplifying, geometry, areas, cubes, perimeter, radius, diameter, and so on. In regards to mechanical knowledge just use this book and make sure you understand all of the concepts inside of it. If you can track down an old AFAST guide it had pretty good mechanical knowledge that carried over to this test. This book will give you a good idea whats on the test but don't rely solely on the practice test to explain solving problems. I did find some minor issues in the practice test which appear to be typos regarding the correct answers. In terms of the helicopter knowledge on the SIFT you will want to read the FAA Helicopter knowledge handbook from roughly chapters 1-4. Understand aerodynamics, forces on the helicopter, coning, translating tendency, flapping, the difference between sliding and skidding, helicopter controls, army aviation and it's purposes, weight and balance, load factors, and whatever else you see in this study guide. Reading comprehension wasn't too bad. It was very similar to this book. I started out trying to read all the answers first but found it wasn't helpful if the answers were very long. So for the most part I read the question and then eliminated each answer systemically. Some answers are very close to correct so be careful and don't just settle on the first one that appears correct. For the aircraft orientation section(or whatever it's called) the picture of the aircraft is actually much smaller on the real test. The pictures are also very low quality like they were taken from a 1960's publication. Just ask yourself which way the nose is pointing, are wings or nose level, what degree of bank and pitch, land or sea in front? They will try to trick you on the test with minor differences so take your time and review if you have time. I am a college educated low hour fixed wing pilot and that did help partially on the test, but certainly not necessary to do well. All in all, I studied with this book for about 6 hours and 5-6 hours with other means. I've been out of college for 9 years so I had a lot of touching up to do. I'll finish by saying if you take the time to work on your weaknesses you will do well. Do not rush through the sections, read the entire question/answers, and take your time in between sections. There is no time limit in between the sections despite how you feel during the test. Read the intro to each section very carefully. Remember you will not be able to complete some of the sections but that is not the point. Also the adaptive math and mechanical knowledge never seemed to get too hard for me and ended very quickly. It was not as difficult on the real SIFT as depicted in this book. The back of this book has some overall guidance that I mostly agree with. For example, don't go back through and change your answers on a hunch. Make sure you have a concrete reason to change an answer. I hope this helps and I apologize if this wasn't structured very well. I would like to thank the makers of this book for helping me. I did pretty well by scoring a 67 and the test took roughly 2 hours for me to complete. Good luck!Read full review
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