So happy to receive my last and final pass today! Have been waiting for this day for so many months. Just in time to relax and enjoy the summer
I took PPD on Wednesday (31st May). This round of PPD felt a lot easier, maybe because I studied and prepared better.
MC questions:
I had lots of questions on climate and site conditions. Make sure you know each climate type and the significant design elements (site and building) for passive heat and cooling in the four different climates. Also some questions on programming and architect's responsbilities during early stages of project. Standard concept level questions on Building systems, lighting and acoustics. I did not need any complex formulas to solve any of the math problems. Structures was limited to basic concepts, mainly seismic and lateral force design and couple of questions on structural systems, which system work better for certain set of requirements etc.
CaseStudies:
Case studies were fairly straight forward and if you know which document to look at to find the answer, you can find the answer quiet easily with some smart searching (use key word seach, extensively). Also another trick that helped me was to note down the page numbers of the pdf, where important tables and sections were located on the scratch paper, so that I could open those pages witout having to scroll through the pdf too much (scrolling slows down the system a lot)
I completed the 100 MC question in close to 2 hrs 10 mins. Used 1hr 50 mins to complete the case studies. Used the last 15 mins to go back to 3 calculation questions I had skipped. I however had to leave them unanswered, since all the three were fill in the blank type and I had no clue how to solve them.
The following are list of items I studied for PPD
1. Amber (3-exam bundle) - very helpful to understand building systems
2. MEEB (chapters on active environmental systems,acoustics, lighting, fire protection and electrical systems)
3. Jenny's BS notes
4. Carolines PPP notes
5. Ballast 4.0 Review Manual
6. Ballast 5.0 Practise exams
7. My own notes from PPP qnd special
8. Archi flash cards and self prepared flash cards.
9. NCARB 4.0 BS exam, SPD, BS,
10. Flipped through Building code Illustrated.
Good luck to all other test takers!