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The 100 Percent Playbook: The Rules the VA Rates By, and How to Get Rated for What You Live With
Paperback
Personal FinanceConsumer ReferenceArmed Forces
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Sep 23 2026
Pages: 110
Weight: 0.45
Height: 0.23 Width: 7.00 Depth: 10.00
Language: English
You live with it every day. Your rating should say so.
Most veterans get rated on a short C&P exam and a thin file, not on their worst days. The VA does not rate by feel. It rates by written rules: the rating schedule in 38 CFR Part 4, the evidence rules, and deadlines that decide how far back you get paid. If nobody shows you those rules, you are guessing.
The 100 Percent Playbook puts those rules in plain English, so you can see exactly what the next rating level asks for and build the evidence that shows it.
Inside you will find:
- The rating criteria for 30 common conditions, including PTSD, sleep apnea, back and neck, knees, migraines, tinnitus, GERD and more, with what each percentage looks like in real life and the traps that keep veterans underrated.
- The secondary conditions map: what one service-connected condition commonly leads to, and what the medical link has to show.
- A statement workshop for your VA Form 21-4138 and buddy statements, so you describe your actual worst days accurately and completely.
- C&P exam prep: what the examiner measures, how to describe flare-ups and functional loss, and how to spot an inadequate exam.
- The deadline and lane guide: Intent to File, Supplemental Claim, Higher-Level Review, the Board, and how to protect your effective date.
- TDIU, P&T and SMC explained, with the rules for each.
- The benefits unlock checklist and VA math tables: what changes for you and your family at each rating, including Chapter 35 education and CHAMPVA.
Why listen to us? Joseph Coello is an Army Ranger veteran and the founder of 100 Percent Vet, which he runs with his veteran family, where everyone deployed. Every rule in this book is cited to the regulation or court decision it comes from, so you can check it yourself.
No one can promise you a rating, and this book does not try. It makes sure you know the rules the VA uses to decide yours.
100 Percent Vet is a private company and is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. This book is general education, not legal or medical advice.
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