Prep time for PPD

[ccforus]

Just finished CDS, PPP and SPD and about to take PPD in 5.0. I haven't studied SS, BDCS or BS at all and how much time should I give myself for preparation? Any advice will be appreciated!

Happy new year.

[nickp1085]

I'm in a similar boat. I passed PPP, CDS, SPD. My strategy as of right now is dedicating approximately 60 hours to each BS, SS, BDCS through 4.0 material. Then re-review CDS, PPP, SPD with another 20 hours. @20hrs/wk x 10 weeks = 200 hours. However, I will be taking PPD and PDD back to back within a week.

Might be overkill at 10 wks but who really knows with 5.0. I want to be over prepared to bang out the last two tests together, since it appears a lot of the study material is covered in both tests.

[eoanna]

I would say about a month and a half. Gather materials, breeze through it all and then go back to focus on topics you didn't totally grasp. Focus on the concepts, no need to memorize equations or specifics.

I went through Kaplan 4.0 on BDCS, SS, BS. I thought ARE prep for 5.0 was not too helpful, but got much more out of Ballast for 5.0 (including the integrations chapters in PDD).

I also bought the MEEB book and used alkikats guides for BDCS and BS and used those as my reference guides throughout as it is a great collection of diagrams.

I took the NCARB 4.0 quizzes from their study exams, too and the NCARB demo exam for 5.0 to get a feel for the exam. There isn't much out there to prep for the case studies besides what's in the demo, so maybe go through those and time yourself a couple of times. About a week and a half before my exam I took the Kaplan 4.0 exams, Ballast 5.0 exams and ARE prep exams.

As mentioned in previous posts, there is NO tutorial before you take the exam, you just jump right into it.

I flew through the multiple choice, marked questions that looked like they would take much time, looked over the case studies, took my break, got back to the case studies, then to all the incomplete questions, then went back and got through about half the marked questions before time ran out.

Good luck!!

[dnlcorte]

I am taking this on the 17th after ~20 days of study time. I typically study 1.5 hours M-F and 6 hours S-Su. That gets me right around 60 hours of time, which is slightly more than I studied for the previous 3 4.0 exams...

No one really knows what is going to happen, so I figured to cram a bunch and take PPD and then I plan on moving right into PDD by the end of the month. They are similar exams so I don't want to have to REstudy all of the other 5.0 material.

[tmston2]

how much time should I give myself for preparation?

if you are single with fulltime job I would say maybe a month or so
if you a married with kids and full time job I would say maybe 2 1/2 to 3 months

[ccforus]

Thanks a lot guys. I bought the new ballast manual and oof .... lots of pages for PPD. I think 4-6 weeks are decent mount of time for prep. Good luck everyone!

[dnlcorte]

Thanks a lot guys. I bought the new ballast manual and oof .... lots of pages for PPD. I think 4-6 weeks are decent mount of time for prep. Good luck everyone!

I was able to read through ballast in about 2 weeks (~30-40 hours of study time). Yes, they are big sections but a lot of if should be familiar from day to day in practice. Only things I was VERY carefully studying was Electrical, Mechanical, & structural.

[ptzumd]

I took PPD just before Christmas and am now studying for PDD. If you have the Ballast 5.0 study guide, I would definitely recommend going through some of the chapters in the PDD section before taking the PPD exam. Focus on broad concepts for structural and mechanical, and definitely look at the chapters on earthquake and wind loads in the PDD section. No need to spend any time reviewing CDS for the PPD exam, but there will be some stuff from SPD and PPP.