Nigel, angus, and albert bought packs of hockey cards and split them in a ratio of 3: 4: 5. nigel has 14 fewer cards than albert. how many cards did the boys have in total?

So the ratio is 3:4:5. But the difference between Nigel and Albert, hence the difference between the ratio is 14, hence 14 represents '2' in the ratio.
The ratio represents 3 + 4 + 5 = 12 parts, and if 2 parts is 14 cards, the the total number of cards is just 12/2 x 14, or 6 x 14 = 84.
So the boys have 84 cards in total.
Hope this helped