Black Spectacles PPD Study Videos

[sirspens]

I'm about two-thirds the way through the Black Spectacles study videos for PPD. He has a REALLY in-depth Section 3 "Building Systems, Materials & Assemblies." It goes much further than the AEP material, and there is surprisingly little overlap. He also has a very long Section 2 "Codes & Regulations," but I have skipped that for now, as it is not the part of the test I am most concerned with.

I think my biggest disappointment, and this is shared with the AEP material, is that Section 4 "Project Integration of Program Systems" is the biggest part of the test, at 32-38%, and it is one of the shortest sections of the study material for both AEP and Black Spectacles. Although, reading the description, "In this section, you’ll pull together all the decisions from the previous three sections regarding environmental conditions, code, systems, and assemblies," maybe looking at applications through the other three sections has taken care of all the studying for this section. Hopefully?

The bad side, it's 28 hours long. Thankfully it's not as much a slog to get through as the 14 hours of AEP since there isn't much repetition. It is very obvious that he almost completely started from scratch putting together these materials.

[ghost]

Thanks for the reviews. Do recommend using both the AEP and Black Spectacles material? What is your overall study strategy for the PPD exam?

[architect23]

^ What Ghost said wondering whether I should use both black spectacles and AEP and whether they are worth the purchase.

[tmston2]

my big questions is how far off is all this new material from 4.0 material?
my goal is to walk right in with my 4.0 knowledge and own 5.0

[sirspens]

Good or bad, this has been my 5.0 study strategy...

I finished the last of my three 4.0 exams about three months ago. First, I took two weeks off from studying.

I already had ALL of the AEP material for 4.0, so I spent the next month or so listening to SS, BDCS & BS audio companion while driving. Pretty casual, but I'm a good absorber of information.

The moment AEP released PPD, I finished it off in under a week. There was very little in it that wasn't in what I had already been listening to over the previous weeks or studied for my 4.0 exams, but it was still good to get a focused review for what they anticipate to be covered in the scope of this test. Even though it was quite long, I felt like the AEP material wasn't as thorough in Section 3 as it could be.

Once I completed AEP I went back and took the 12 NCARB provided test questions, which I had purposefully ignored previously. I got 75% correct (with one being a stupid math error on my part). This further convinced my that I needed more Section 3 study, as the two not-stupid-math-error-questions I got wrong were from Section 3.

That is when I found Black Spectacles. I did all 28 hours of Black Spectacles in a week and two weekends. It was quite a bit of review of things I had studied previously, especially the site design, code and costing (Sections 1, 2 & 5 of NCARB's outline), but it had a great Section 3 and a decent Section 4.

Even though BS has a lot of review, this is very important: AEP and Black Spectacles have almost no overlap. For the topics they both cover, they approach them in completely different ways. I think using both of them, with a total cost of $160, was an easy purchase and unquestionably worth it for me.

During this entire time I have also been reviewing the AEP flash cards, which are always really good, while working out (easy for elliptical, stationary bike or treadmill).

I then took the Ballast practice test. Which, I am not too proud to say, really kicked my ass. I got 60%. I don't consider that to be scary as the test was really hard and seemed to be aimed at finding what you don't know more than testing your general knowledge and ability to perform as an Architect. I also found the Case Study for the Ballast test to be very subjective on a several of the questions ('Both A and D have good and bad qualities as answers, therefore D').

I have taken the first of the AEP practice tests. It was far easier. Probably a little too easy. There was also no Case Study, which is a huge fail on their part. I got 85% on that.

During all of this, I keep an ongoing list of everything I come across in studying that is novel to me, or questions I get wrong on practice tests, etc. I review that every day.

I have also gone through the IBC back-half and reviewed all of their definitions to help expose any areas where I lack understanding.

The only other outside material I have used specifically for this test (not counting that this test includes some repeat 4.0 material, and I read Russ cover to cover during SPD, and Defensible Space and all kinds of things for where there is overlap with SPD, PPP & CDS) is that each evening for the past week I have spent about an hour or two casually making my way through The Architect's Studio Companion. I chose this book because (a) it was mentioned several times in the NCARB explanations for their sample questions, (b) I have never looked at it before and most importantly (c) because it is aimed precisely at what this test is aimed at: making informed decisions during schematic design and early design development.

All that, and I have to say that I feel like raw experience is really important in this new formulation of the AREs, so my main goal has been to supplement where I know I am weak in my personal experience.

I test on Tuesday, so I will let everyone know how I think my prep worked for me.

[architect23]

Sirspens, that was incredibly insightful and I am currently going through 4.0 material now, although right now doing Kaplan, Ballast... I will take your advice and look into AEP/black spectacles. I look fwd to hearing how your approach went for 5.0 testing! Thanks much, your post was greatly appreciated.

BY the way- the Black Spectacles videos you are referring to- are these the 4.0 videos or the 5.0 videos?

[sirspens]

BY the way- the Black Spectacles videos you are referring to- are these the 4.0 videos or the 5.0 videos?

The 5.0 PPD videos. I think it is the only one that is fully complete right now. PDD is getting close to complete, and the others all have at least some videos.

[architect23]

Got it, thank you. How did 5.0 testing go?

Edit >> Saw your other post- thanks!