I will post my thoughts on the test Wednesday morning.

thanks. I am next on 7/24.
I'll share whatever I can as far as the experience...no matter what. Good Luck to you

Good luck today!!!!

Ok so I tested today. From my impression I concur with most people here; PPD is very conceptual. PPD hits heavily on PPP, SPD, BS (to a lesser extent), SS (to a lesser extent), and BDCS (to a lesser extent). There were a few rando's where I was like "uh, what" then again there were a few questions that heavily resembled something from a BALLAST exam (or practice exam). There was also a proportional mix of graphic and straight up MC questions. When I got to the case studies I was pretty tired. I proceeded to go after the more conceptual case study questions, and then attempted to answer the more in depth case study questions after that. There was 1 or 2 where I just didn't have the mental juice to put 2+2 together. I finished the MC and case studies with about 25 minutes to go, then tried my best to review my marked questions. I typically mark questions even if I don't change them. When I see the question again I confirmation bias my answer, or sometimes I know I don't have that question solidly.

Guess I will find out tomorrow morning. I might stay up till 2am PST because that's when the 4.0 exams usually drop, although on the thursday following the monday after your exam.

Happy to find out that I passed. Here's what I used to study.

I had just tested CDS PPP (twice) and SPD, so those things really helped me.
Brightwood Kaplan 5.0. read cover to cover. This is not enough to pass imho
Building Construction Illustrated. Very good.
MEEB. Skimmed it, but should have read more in depth.
Building Codes Illustrated. Skimmed it, wasn't that helpful anyway.
Ballast and Ballast exams for BS, SS, BDCS. Very helpful. Some questions on the exam look like they might have been written by PPI.

Big Congrats! it seems all the effort paid off!

Great news & congratulations. I am studying for this one now....thank you for sharing what you used to prepare!!

Thanks all. I hope my input helps.

cianchetta0 wrote:
Happy to find out that I passed. Here's what I used to study.

I had just tested CDS PPP (twice) and SPD, so those things really helped me.
Brightwood Kaplan 5.0. read cover to cover. This is not enough to pass imho
Building Construction Illustrated. Very good.
MEEB. Skimmed it, but should have read more in depth.
Building Codes Illustrated. Skimmed it, wasn't that helpful anyway.
Ballast and Ballast exams for BS, SS, BDCS. Very helpful. Some questions on the exam look like they might have been written by PPI.

First off, i'd like to say CONGRATS!

I find it to be interesting that your study sources are almost identical to mine. The only difference is that instead of reading Brightwood Kaplan 5.0, i read all of the notes (mainly Jenny's notes) based on Kaplan. Do you think this may be a key to me failing? Do you think Kaplan 5.0 was a valuable source for you? I also have a myriad of other sources that i could list, but the ones you listed are pretty much identical to the core sources that i felt had the most relevance. Have you taken PDD yet?

vrcat25 wrote:

cianchetta0 wrote:
First off, i'd like to say CONGRATS!

I find it to be interesting that your study sources are almost identical to mine. The only difference is that instead of reading Brightwood Kaplan 5.0, i read all of the notes (mainly Jenny's notes) based on Kaplan. Do you think this may be a key to me failing? Do you think Kaplan 5.0 was a valuable source for you? I also have a myriad of other sources that i could list, but the ones you listed are pretty much identical to the core sources that i felt had the most relevance. Have you taken PDD yet?

Thanks vrcat25!!

Yes, Brightwood/Kaplan PPD was very helpful. It was the first study item that I read and it helped me get the gist of everything. Jenny's notes, while good and obviously derived from Kaplan, don't have all the ancillary knowledge that you'd get by reading Kaplan. Reading Jenny's notes doesn't give you all the background info. as to WHY you should understand that fact.

I don't know why you failed. IMHO, I think I passed PPD 1) because I beat a probably very low cut score 2) I studied various resources and scoured this board as well as NCARB community for knowledge 3) Because I scrutinized each answer choice. Meaning, for the 40 or so questions I was unsure of, I A) Highlighted key portions of the question stem B) struck through the obvious wrong answers 3) took my best guess, flagged it, moved on. I've never been confident coming out of an ARE, my only solaces have been to rest east knowing I studied as much as I reasonably could have and that the cut score is your friend.

I'm currently getting my head wrapped around what I need to study for PDD and will start my studies soon.

Rcantone80 wrote:Great news & congratulations. I am studying for this one now....thank you for sharing what you used to prepare!!

Thank you and good luck!