The No Nonsense Guide to Graduating Ranger School

Ranger School: The stakes are high. You need self-confidence or you will wash out in the first couple of days. But even motivated individuals can fail at Ranger School. And bad fortune has caused some very capable people to leave the school without their Tab. If you are looking to increase your odds, to turn the tables in your favor, to have a better than just average chance of success, you have come to the right place.

As a 2010 Ranger School graduate and a former 6th Ranger Training Battalion Ranger Instructor, I provide in this book the basic outline of the course, the most common pitfalls that hurt students’ chances for success, and my keys for preparing yourself physically and mentally to pass the course. This guide is divided into five sections: what to do to prepare yourself before Day 0, Ranger Assessment Phase (RAP) Week, Darby Phase, Mountains and Swamp Phases, and my overall Dos and Don’ts for while in the course. Everything I share here is built off my observations as a student, an instructor, and as an Infantry leader who helped prepare and send successful students to the course from regular Infantry units in the U.S. Army.