Just Tested

Just Tested

Postby shortkm1 » Tue Nov 29, 2016 11:34 am

I just got back to the office from taking the 5.0 PPD exam and thought it would download my thoughts in case it is useful to others: (Please let me know if I have divulged too much information here. I will be happy to alter or delete anything as needed. It is my understanding, that all of this information regarding the interface, etc, is available to testers prior to taking the exam.)

Some background: I transitioned from 4.0 (passed the first try: CDS, PPP, and SPD in that order) to 5.0. This was my first exam of 5.0. I had given myself about a month to study for it which is what I had done for each of the 4.0 exams (SPD I only studied for 2 weeks).

The interface of 5.0 was alright, had some lag time (but I think the clock stops during these lags too...they were not more than a second but still noticeable).

Things I liked:
Off the bat, I DO like the new testing style. It seems more in tune with the way architects actually work (referencing other materials rather than memorizing, etc). Being able to navigate to the harder areas first (case studies) was great! I was also very grateful for the set of resources that is provided in the interface. I found it so helpful and was relieved that I didn't have to cram so many equations in my brain.

Things I hated:
I HATE the way they make you highlight and strike through now. It is absolutely NOT user-friendly, especially for someone who gets jittery hands during a test. Also, the calculator!!!! You have to click each number you want to type in which was a problem for me (see previous sentence about jittery hands). Why oh why could they not make it work with the keypad on the keyboard!!

Multiple Choice:
The questions were similar to those of the 4.0 exams. I even had some of the EXACT SAME questions that were on my SPD exam which I had taken about a month prior. For some reason, that gave me confidence But in reality, I don't know (and will never know) if I got those questions right either time, so really doesn't help. I guess that does just tell us that the questions are generally from the same pool and not some new set of material that we are supposed to study. There were times during the test that I thought, "I am doing so great!" And then, there were times where I thought "no way I am passing this" (usually while reviewing my questions). Some questions were more specific than I had expected but overall they seem like something you would know if you studied and have worked in the "real world" for a bit. Also, I LOVED the new hot spot and drag/drop questions. I think these were by far the easiest (although I am not really sure why feel that way). There were very few of these that I flagged for review when going through the test (and I am a frequent flagger).

Case Studies:
First of all, the interface was mediocre for these. Although I like that you can tab through the pages while the question remains at the bottom, I did not like that when I changed tabs or clicked a "link" to a section in the code, the page scale went back to "Full View" even though it was still set to 100% or whatever. I had to reset it every time if I wanted to navigate the document quicker. This of course only took seconds but those seconds ended up being precious for me. I also don't like that you cannot highlight anything in the resources or that if you highlight something during a question in the scenario, the highlights do not carry over to the next question. But, with that said, I think it was all made up for by the fact that you can search the resources with keywords.

The questions of the case studies ranged from what I thought was too easy (felt like it was a trap) to being too hard that I ended up completely guessing. I spent WAY too much time on these case studies! Like 2 hours!!! That was a terrible mistake. My problem was that I KNEW (or maybe just felt like) all of the information I needed to answer the question was in the reference material somewhere. This sent me searching and searching through the documents multiple times. I eventually made a guess and moved on, but came back to them if I found something during another question that was helpful for the others.

The format of the case study questions are similar to that of the Multiple Choice - some multiple choice, type in the number, drag and drop, or hot spot. I really like the format of being able to reference lots of material at once. I feel like it is definitely more similar to the way architects actually work rather than memorizing everything for one 4 hour span.

Time:
I navigated first to the case studies which I still think was a good idea. As I mentioned before, I spent WAY too much time on these. Although I answered all questions in the multiple choice and case studies, I ran out of time while I was reviewing. Thank goodness I did the case studies first or I probably would have run out of time for answering them in the first place! I did take my optional 15 minute break before I reviewed my answers. This helped (slightly) relieve some of the heart pounding stress I was feeling since I didn't have much time left.

Overall, I feel the same as I did when I left the 4.0 exams - like it is 50:50 whether I passed. I do feel like it is an accurate assessment but it is A LOT of material to cover. If you are looking to just bust through these like I am, my recommendation for studying is to give yourself at least 1.5-2 months (if your weekends are busy like mine) of study time for PPD (or 1-1.5 months if you are able to spend all weekend, every weekend studying). I was only able to get through the Ballast sections before testing. I would have liked to review the 4.0 materials for the tests that transferred over for this 5.0 exam but didn't get to it in time. I think that would have really helped solidify my understanding of the information.

PS - The Ballast book seems to be absolutely riddled with errors. Not like "oh that is incorrect information." More like "where did the rest of that sentence go" or "why is the answer to this question in the practice exam the exact text from the next question" So I would suggest getting additional study material.
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Re: Just Tested

Postby tmston2 » Tue Nov 29, 2016 3:52 pm

^ I agree, the cases studies still have a clumsy clunky thing going on as far as software in the new millennium. I think it would be a good idea if they just handed you a hard copy book that corresponded to your exam.
In my mind itha you know it our you dont, so what difference does it make if you have a real book compared to spending most of your time fighting with crappy software & who really looks at
drawings, ibc, ansi, ada, cut sheets all on a 15" monitor at work?!?! JEEEESHHHH!
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Re: Just Tested

Postby eoanna » Wed Nov 30, 2016 9:15 am

Did you find the Ballast 5.0 practice exams to be helpful compared to the actual exam?
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Re: Just Tested

Postby shortkm1 » Wed Nov 30, 2016 1:20 pm

tmston2 wrote:In my mind itha you know it our you dont, so what difference does it make if you have a real book compared to spending most of your time fighting with crappy software & who really looks at
drawings, ibc, ansi, ada, cut sheets all on a 15" monitor at work?!?! JEEEESHHHH!


I actually like that it is all on the screen. I really like the search feature of the documents...makes it WAY easier for me than searching through a hard copy. (Personally, I do look at my drawings an such on my screen at work...saves some trees ;) )

eoanna wrote:Did you find the Ballast 5.0 practice exams to be helpful compared to the actual exam?


I found them helpful only in the fact that they helped me get a better understanding of the material. I would say they are NOT a good representation of what is actually on the exam however. I always feel like the Ballast exam questions are sort of based on opinion. The exam is not typically like that. [For example, Ballast might ask a question and I choose an answer...then look at the answer key and find out that they say its incorrect because it would be too expensive or something (even though the question makes no indication of budget or anything).] The exams are pretty straight forward with not a lot of "opinion based" questions (some could probably be argued that way, but those seemed to be few and far between for me). So overall, I like the Ballast questions just because they help me solidify my grasp of the material when I read the answers (and I read EVERY answer). The answers typically explain things in a different way than the actual book text does. They help me to identify things that I am not familiar with (like when I see a question and think "I don't even know what that is")

And for the record, I completely bomb every Ballast test I take, yet passed the first 4.0 three exams (waiting on my 5.0 score). I take the quizzes, review the answers (and take notes of the answer topics), review my study notes again, then take the quizzes again. But as I mentioned in my post, there seems to be a lot of errors in the 5.0 book and questions/answers.
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Re: Just Tested

Postby shortkm1 » Mon Dec 05, 2016 8:03 am

Update on my thoughts for this test:

As mentioned in this first post, I only ended up with enough time to study the Ballast material set for PPD. I am now studying the Ballast material for PDD. This material completely overlaps and builds on the material for PPD. As I am studying the PDD material, I am seeing answers to questions I had on the PPD exam. So, I would suggest giving yourself enough time to study for BOTH sections at one time. This is a TON of material, but I really think it would have saved me on the PPD test. Of course, I still don't know my score, but I know that I would have gotten more correct if I had studied ahead. This probably could also have been accomplished by studying the 4.0 materials that transfer over to the 5.0 exams. FYI - STUDY IT ALL! :(
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Re: Just Tested

Postby sirspens » Mon Dec 05, 2016 11:42 am

I agree. In my studying for PDD I found a bunch of information that would have been helpful on questions for PPD.
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Re: Just Tested

Postby eoanna » Tue Dec 06, 2016 7:35 pm

Good to know and thanks for the head's up. Are there any chapters in PDD you would recommend skimming over or should I look through it all? Testing next week so any advice is helpful!
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Re: Just Tested

Postby shortkm1 » Wed Dec 07, 2016 7:01 pm

eoanna wrote:Good to know and thanks for the head's up. Are there any chapters in PDD you would recommend skimming over or should I look through it all? Testing next week so any advice is helpful!


I would try to get through as much of it as you can, but at the very least, hit Ballast chapters 31-34. 35-37 would be good too but I found more overlap in 31-34.
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Re: Just Tested

Postby dklorensen » Wed Jan 11, 2017 12:34 pm

shortkm1 wrote:I would try to get through as much of it as you can, but at the very least, hit Ballast chapters 31-34. 35-37 would be good too but I found more overlap in 31-34.


shortkm- Are these chapters from Ballast 4.0? Thanks
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Re: Just Tested

Postby ptzumd » Sun Jan 15, 2017 7:12 pm

I would recommend studying chapters 44 (wind loads) and 45 (earthquake loads) in the Ballast 5.0 study guide. They are in the PDD section but focus on broad concepts instead of details. Those chapters should definitely be in the PPD section.
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Re: Just Tested

Postby shortkm1 » Tue Jan 17, 2017 9:48 am

dklorensen wrote:
shortkm1 wrote:I would try to get through as much of it as you can, but at the very least, hit Ballast chapters 31-34. 35-37 would be good too but I found more overlap in 31-34.


shortkm- Are these chapters from Ballast 4.0? Thanks



5.0
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Re: Just Tested

Postby dklorensen » Mon Jan 23, 2017 12:41 pm

Thanks Shortkm!
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Re: Just Tested

Postby architect23 » Sat Feb 04, 2017 6:56 pm

Shortkm and others who have posted on their experience... are you guys basing your exam experience on having studied from Ballast 5.0 material? How good is the ballast 5.0 material? Already own 4.0 material, and don't want to spend the money IF it's the same info.
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Re: Just Tested

Postby vrcat25 » Sun Feb 05, 2017 12:54 pm

I realize it may be a little early to ask this questions, but which of the tests are more difficult? I understand that the scores have not been released, but I'm just wondering if you guys are more or less comfortable with 5.0 compared to 4.0? I have only passed CDS and SPD and still need to pass PPP, before I'll even consider transitioning, but I just want to make sure I make a well informed decision. Sure, it sounds great that i can pass 2 more tests instead of 4, but what I don't like is that it seems like many people are essentially cramming double the information into 2 test which kind of beats the purpose of transitioning, if i have to study twice as much. I'm not too concerned about paying the extra $400 so that's not a big factor for me. Also, I had an issue with the vignette on one of my attempts for PPP, but all of the others were a cake walk so I look at the vignette's as freebies. As i mentioned, I'm still on the fence and would like some objective opinions. Thanks and good luck to all.
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Re: Just Tested

Postby cloudyy » Mon Feb 06, 2017 9:18 am

Without knowing the results of course, IMO the multiple choice are the same level of difficulty. The case studies are an extension of the multiple choice in that it's not something you have to specifically study for (like vignettes) but just apply your knowledge to an example question. The hardest part is not really knowing exactly what was going to be on the test or having guidance on how to study for it. I would say if you feel comfortable with the structure of 4.0, might as well finish on that, but in the end I think a person who has the knowledge to pass 4.0 can pass 5.0 and vice-versa.

I ran into my friend at the testing center and heard from her that Ballast 5.0 was nearly the same as 4.0, just shuffled around a little. I only studied with 4.0 material, which I thought was fine enough.

Actually...now that I think about it...if I didn't get the gift card and free re-take incentive, I probably would have stayed with 4.0.
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Re: Just Tested

Postby vrcat25 » Mon Feb 06, 2017 9:58 am

cloudyy wrote:Without knowing the results of course, IMO the multiple choice are the same level of difficulty. The case studies are an extension of the multiple choice in that it's not something you have to specifically study for (like vignettes) but just apply your knowledge to an example question. The hardest part is not really knowing exactly what was going to be on the test or having guidance on how to study for it. I would say if you feel comfortable with the structure of 4.0, might as well finish on that, but in the end I think a person who has the knowledge to pass 4.0 can pass 5.0 and vice-versa.

I ran into my friend at the testing center and heard from her that Ballast 5.0 was nearly the same as 4.0, just shuffled around a little. I only studied with 4.0 material, which I thought was fine enough.

Actually...now that I think about it...if I didn't get the gift card and free re-take incentive, I probably would have stayed with 4.0.


This was very helpful cloudyy!. THANKS! :)
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Re: Just Tested

Postby ArchiTX » Tue Feb 07, 2017 3:21 pm

This was announced in the NCARB channel. hope it helps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwtN-QpeRg0
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