As a preface: I passed Programming Planning and Practice / Construction Documents and Services / Site Planning and Design from ARE 4.0
I had taken Building Systems 4.0 twice, failed the vignette the first time on a stupid error, and barely failed the multiple choice on the second round.
Based on the above information, I focused my study efforts on Structures since that was the only subject matter that I hadn't looked at.
The exam barely touched structures, and when it did it was super schematic. I was diving into details such as connection types, technology, formulas etc. that was just plain unnecessary. A generic understanding of free body diagrams, how beams/columns/joists/roofs/walls work would have been adequate. The same goes for systems, super generic. It was more of an exam testing programming, planning, and basic design decisions up front. Overall, I didn't study any material in preparation for this exam that was tested, but felt comfortable due to retaining information studied for 4.0 PPP/SPD/CDS. Either way, I will not be surprised if I fail (due to the nature of these ambiguous exams and seemingly arbitrary and contradictory questions and solutions provided [per usual for NCARB testing]) nor will I be surprised if I pass.
Like mentioned in prior posts, the lag time was atrocious. A good .5 to 1 second between questions, and a good 5-10 seconds for the Case Studies and about 2-5 seconds for the hot spots. I almost raised my hand because I thought my computer was broken. Another weird thing is that there is no introductory procedure, you click on it seems like one "I agree" box thingy and it dumps you right into the first multiple choice.
The Case Studies also seemed like it was a terrible decision by NCARB for testing. It required a lot of reading and familiarity with IBC, Zoning Ordinances, and Drawing Sets. It was also ill-suited for the screen, seeing as you had to keep scrolling up and down between the reference document and the actual question since they wouldn't fit on the same screen. There was also quirky zooming issues, where if you switched between reference documents the zoom status would "reset" from 100% or whatever you had it set at to it's default, until you clicked on it again then it would snap back to the zoom setting you had it on. It was quite annoying. Regardless, to save time I would be super familiar with how to read and interpret IBC, how to calculate, interpret, apply, and understand occupancy, building types, building usage, heights, floors, etc. If you've never laid eyes upon the IBC before, you are pretty much guaranteed to fail 8 questions at the end of the exam, plus a handful of others throughout the exam.
Regardless, I just hope people start taking this thing! I don't want to wait until July to get licensed due to a lag in grading my exam!