Tested Tuesday....

[sirspens]

(I have attempted here to aid candidates in gaining an accurate understanding of the scope of this new test, which the community knows almost nothing about, and how it relates to available study material without actually revealing anything about the exam. If anybody feels I have stepped over the line in any way, I will be happy to modify or remove any statements made here.)

So, I tested yesterday...

I don't know how to feel about my performance. The test was not what I was expecting. And I developed my expectations by reading the NCARB outline and listening to NCARB discuss what to expect from the exam. After the first two or three questions I was looking over my screen to see if I had accidentally scheduled PDD instead of PPD. I had not. The questions eventually settled down and it got mostly closer to what I expected, but it overall skewed to that feeling that I had scheduled the wrong exam.

I always score myself at the end of each test, as I go back through and check all my questions, breaking down how sure I am about my answers for each question into three categories: (1) I have no clue, (2) None/All of these are somewhat reasonable, but I narrowed it down as much as possible and chose the best answer, so I feel 50 to 75% sure of this; and (3) I am 90% confident I got this right. I then multiply out each of those sections, assuming I got 10% of the first category right, on pure luck, 50% of the second category right, being conservative, and 90% of the third category since I was extremely confident on them. There were a full 10% that fell into the "I have no clue" category for me on this test. I I put 40 in the second category and 58 in the third category, coming out to something like a projected score of 68%. That is just a few points lower than I have scored myself on the three 4.0 exams I have passed.

I don't even know how to address how helpful the AEP and Black Spectacles study material were, or even the Ballast practice test. If I had to guess, I would say that 60% of my answers on this test came from my personal experience, 20% came from study material, and 20% came from test taking strategies. I don't know if that means the study material wasn't helpful, but I think I can safely say I do not think either AEP or Black Spectacle addressed the material in this section in the same way NCARB addressed the exam.

Overall, the material was a lot more specific, a lot more of what I was expecting to be in PDD. Let me go through pieces of the NCARB outline and try to be helpful without actually saying anything about the exam...

OBJECTIVE 3.1: Determine mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems. You will need to evaluate mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, and select the appropriate system for a building based on function, cost, size, availability, programmatic needs, or other factors.
This sounds like you are going to be making some SD and early DD level decisions about these systems based on project parameters, right? Have an understanding of how these systems work without getting into the nitty gritty, kind of like in the NCARB example question 5, right? That would seem to be the wrong way to interpret this section. Sample question 5 is overly broad. At the very least, If I were writing this section, I think i would replace every use of the word "system" with "system and components."

OBJECTIVE 3.2: Determine structural systems. You will need to evaluate different structural systems and select the appropriate system and layout for a building based on its size, function, and structural loads. System cost and availability must also be considered.
Once again, this sounds like you are going to be making some SD and early DD level decisions about selecting the best structural systems based on the needs of a building, right? Maybe they ask a question like, "An 8,000 square foot coffee shop with a small kitchen and irregular shape is being proposed by a client. Which of the following structural systems will best fit their needs while satisfying code requirements?" Or maybe ask you in which situation it would be best to use an engineered lumber I-beam. Or, you know, some weird bunch of information combination type thing. Is that how you would interpret this? Get out your statics books. Not full PDD level, but get out your statics books.

OBJECTIVE 3.4: Determine materials and assemblies to meet programmatic, budgetary, and regulatory requirements. You will need to select a building’s envelope system, interior materials, and other assemblies based on cost, availability, program requirements, environmental conditions, or other factors.
Uh huh. Sure.

Look at the NCARB sample questions in their Exam Guide, as well. They seem very reasonable and almost exactly what you would expect based on the NCARB Exam Guide outline, right? Except for a few questions, they give a hilariously inaccurate depiction of what to expect on this exam.

Granted, a lot of this exam was analyzing situations and synthesizing answers. That is where personal experience comes in. And I think that is important. However, you know how they always ask you at the end of each test, "Do you feel this test accurately assessed your ability to protect the health, safety and general welfare of the public?" My answer was "No."

If I do not pass this exam, I will be spending a good deal of time digging into a lot more source material.

Here are my thoughts on taking the exam that do not relate to material:
1) The system was laggy. I probably spent a total of 5 minutes over the entire exam waiting for questions to load, or waiting for materials in the Case Studies to load. That isn't a huge amount of time, but anybody who has ever designed an interactive interface will know that it is enough to throw off the natural flow of work. It was jarring at times and broke my concentration.
2) You know how on 4.0 you could strike through an answer by right clicking it? And undo it by right clicking it again? They managed to make that more cumbersome and more time consuming.
3) You know how in 4.0 there was this annoying pre-test thing where they showed you some sample questions and then did the whole "Agreement" thing? In this exam there was the agreement then BOOM the clock was ticking. It took me a moment to realize I was looking at the first question.
4) Some of the questions that involved clicking on a portion of a drawing or image to indicate something were strange and poorly worded for what it seemed like they wanted you to do.
5) Maybe this has to do with the material, but this is a continuation of what has been the case on almost all the exams I have taken so far. Being born and raised Texas and gaining all of my experience here, the questions seemed to be extremely biased toward people in the North East. But that has kind of always been my assumption of these tests. "If they don't give you enough information, assume you are in Boston." I was just hoping that would be remedied in this new incarnation.

[ktli]

Wow, thanks for posting this! I am testing tomorrow and am honestly a bit concerned about how well I will do. I studied the ARE5 Ballast chapters for PPD, read a chapter, went back and took notes and did that for all the chapters. I also have been studying the Archiflash cards for BS and BDCS since I tend to find flashcards toward the end of studying to be helpful.

I took to Ballast practice test last week and did not do so well, but scheduled it for this week because otherwise I thought I would procrastinate too much if I waited. Your comments are a big help! We'll see how I do tomorrow!

Did you get an email letting you know that you were in the first 600? The $100 would be nice, but was not a huge driving force for me to take the exam early, I would just like to be done studying!

[tmston2]

I just Left testing center abt 2hrs ago and I agree with abt 75% of what sirspens posted.
(Disclaimer: I'm not trying to divulge any information about the exam regarding actual test questions only my thoughts and feelings and future strategy on this exam)

• There is no pre-practice test, just goes directly into testing and i wasnt even aware until abt 4 questions when I looked up and it says 4 of 120!!!!!
• Definitely alot of drag in the system #smh
• I think a person could definitely use waaaaaaay more time, 4hrs is not enough for 120 questions plus flipping through lagging case study material with no easy
way to navigate chapters.
• Seems like I had a good dose of ppp questions, I was like darn, I shud hav review ppp for a couple of days, which I didnt.
• I would strongly suggest starting wit case studies: IMHO it would be waaaaaaaay better to have an actual code, zoning, drawings, etc hard
copy than flipping through a slow dragging screen trying to answer mutiple questions!!!!!!
• Overall questions seem to be a range of very very easy to WTF!!!! are you talking abt!!!!! (typical a.r.e.)
• There is no mandatory break, i dnt think or i dnt get one.
• What I disliked: no heads up as to how the review, exam summary questions who deal. very confusing and frustrating at first:
• What I like: after I figured the review question doo hickey thingy out, it sweeter than 4.0!! so you can review your questions by
a., ones you flagged or
b. ones you left blan or
c. review all questions
• I really dont know how to feel about my performance, I think I passed, but I have failed exams I thgt I passed and passed exams I thgt I failed, but i do feel like
I may have gotten atleast 60% correct

Conclusion: IMHO
1) if you are cheap like me and dont want to fork over more $$$ for 5.0, then thoroughly review 4.0 structures, bs, ppp, with a hint of bdcs and you will be fine
2) do case studies first,
3) if you work a day job dont sweat hot spots basically a gimme,
4).for the sake of asking random questions, Im shocked they dont ask a bout autocad, sketchup, ram, graphic cards etc.. which is in the same mind frame to
me of asking random architecture history?

Blessings all!!!!

[sirspens]

Wow, thanks for posting this! ...

Did you get an email letting you know that you were in the first 600?

No problem. It was nice to get it out of my head. I need to clear mind and move on to PPD.

And, no. I have gotten no emails from NCARB, now just short of 24 hours after finishing.

[sirspens]

What I like: after I figured the review question doo hickey thingy out, it sweeter than 4.0!!

I agree with that! You could click on a specific question and go back to that. So the first thing I recommend doing is clicking on "Review Exam" and see how many Case Study questions there are. It breaks them out. And, the best part, you can click on a specific question and go directly to it!

The interface is also much cleaner, even if the strikethrough is more cumbersome.

Also... there is one 15 minute break. You could choose when to take it, but I was told I was required to take it. I did everything up to the Case Studies then took my break, with 2 hours left.

[Travisarch]

Thanks for insights, trying to decide to switch over or not at this point

[tmston2]

^ WOW! you got thru 120 questions in 2hrs?? NCARB says 30 seconds/ questions but for me its more like 2mins/question

[sirspens]

^ WOW! you got thru 120 questions in 2hrs?? NCARB says 30 seconds/ questions but for me its more like 2mins/question

No. I got through 98 questions in 2 hours and 5 minutes. Some questions took no longer than they took to read. I can remember one question that took me upwards of 8 minutes to do all the math on, and that wasn't even part of the case studies.

It took me almost another hour and a half to do the case studies.

Then a bit over half an hour to review all of my answers / grade myself.

[sirspens]

Thanks for insights, trying to decide to switch over or not at this point

I can see it both ways. It makes a lot of sense to take six weeks to learn the shit out of structures, then test on that.

Going this way is harder in some ways. For me, it is a gamble I am willing to take to get done sooner. I am going to take these two tests and see how I do. I figure, if I fail both of them and have to get more thorough in my studies and take them both again, I am still taking no more tests than under the old system. And the up side is... oh I just want to be done. I sooooo want to be done.

[architect23]

Do you think that studying the 4.0 BS and BDCS vignettes are helpful in preparing for the question types of the 5.0 PPD exam?

[tmston2]

^ IMHO, the vignettes are a challenge unto themselves so to speak. you are studying the vignettes to pass the vignette. I really dont see the point in studying the vignettes when you dont have them in 5.0
IMHO, you would be better off studying and understanding basic design principals (with the fundamental understandng that good holistic design is a culmination of environment, codes, budgets, sustainability, and materials construction types, (masonry veneer wall, wood veneer, precast, metal stud etc.)

[tmston2]

^ so in a nutshell what i am saying is, if i were you, i would not waste my time studying vignettes.
what code stipulates for an accessible ramp is something you should know for your career and you can find in study material
and code books, knowing how to work an elevation tag in generic crapy software is worthless
But thats just my take. I will let you know if I passed and I did not look or review any vignettes

[sirspens]

Has anyone who has tested been contacted by NCARB to be updated on the status of "The 600"?

[tmston2]

sirspens, u tested before me & I tweeted NCARB about the pool of 600; they responded saying im definitely in & will recieve an email about a week after testing;
on to project documentation

[sirspens]

sirspens, u tested before me & I tweeted NCARB about the pool of 600; they responded saying im definitely in & will recieve an email about a week after testing;
on to project documentation

Good to know.

And, me too! I've started Black Spectacles and posted a partial review over on that board.

[AVITWeb]

The things you list are the reason I am really leaning toward finishing in 4.0. I simply do not trust NCARB/Prometric to get this right right out of the gate. And, if your exams are any indication, this still needs a LOT of work.

[Travisarch]

Well I switched over and scheduled PPD & PDD exams before xmas, no going back now...wish me luck
(been studying CBDS, Structures & MEP next...hoping i got enough planning and ADA experience to fill the rest)

p.s. most good time slots were taken, only 7:30 am spots available in my center for that week before xmas

[tmston2]

^ Best of luck to you, Im trying to get it scheduled as soon as I can.

@avitweb, after taking several exams in 4.0 (failing 2 strictly on vignettes, bdcs & spd) and the 1 exam in 5.0, I definitely with no ambiguity prefer 5.0.
Although its not completely in the spirit of how NCARB says architects work, imho, 5.0 does relate waaaaaaay more to day to day practice, especially
the case studies! just wish they had a hardcopy drawings, code book, zoning book, etc...

[sdhalfen]

Thank you everyone for your posts this is really helpful. I'm testing in 2 weeks is there anything in specific that you would recommend I focus on while studying? any specific study material you would recommend?

Thanks again

[tmston2]

@sdhalfen
as I have already stated IMHO, only study material I have used is 4.0 stuff. with that said, I wud review ppp, study bdcs, ss, and bs.
I also would definitley do case studies first or maybe 1 then make sure i have time for 2nd.
Gud luck to you,

[sirspens]

Well I switched over and scheduled PPD & PDD exams before xmas, no going back now...wish me luck
(been studying CBDS, Structures & MEP next...hoping i got enough planning and ADA experience to fill the rest)

p.s. most good time slots were taken, only 7:30 am spots available in my center for that week before xmas

Yeah, I had to take PPD at a testing center other than my local one.

I would suggest, if you are capable, study for both PPD and PDD at the same time. If you can't do that, study what the NCARB exam guide suggests, but maybe err a bit toward things that seem like they would be on PDD.

[architect23]

Thanks so much for your input. How much time do you say the case studies would take?

[sirspens]

Thanks so much for your input. How much time do you say the case studies would take?

I got everything but the case studies done in 2:10. It took another 1:30 to 1:45 to do the case studies. Then I spent antoher 25 minutes going through everything again. I pushed "Finish Exam" with 6 minutes left.

[shortkm1]

I am not sure if you are allowed to say, but were you required to have the equations (such as acoustical calculations) memorized for the exam? Or did they provide the equation with the question?

Testing a week from tomorrow. SO much material!

[sirspens]

I am not sure if you are allowed to say, but were you required to have the equations (such as acoustical calculations) memorized for the exam? Or did they provide the equation with the question?

Testing a week from tomorrow. SO much material!

Look at the very end of the ARE 5.0 Exam Guidelines PDF provided by NCARB. It has all of the "provided resources" that will be available during the exam.

[shortkm1]

Look at the very end of the ARE 5.0 Exam Guidelines PDF provided by NCARB. It has all of the "provided resources" that will be available during the exam.

Thank you! I hadn't looked there! I appreciate it!

[seaccs]

Look at the very end of the ARE 5.0 Exam Guidelines PDF provided by NCARB. It has all of the "provided resources" that will be available during the exam.

They are also available in the demonstration exam through NCARB. Probably a good idea to get used to the interface.

[OCArch]

Has anyone who has tested been contacted by NCARB to be updated on the status of "The 600"?

I just made a new post but I found out right before the Thanksgiving Break that I was one of the 600. Email was sent out on 11/22

[lauren.vogl]

FYI: https://are5community.ncarb.org/hc/en-u ... 12-31-2017

Looks like we have until Jan 31 2017 to receive the incentive amount previously held for the first 600 test-takers.