2.5 Years, Done with ARE

2.5 Years, Done with ARE

Postby B-Money » Wed Aug 02, 2017 7:11 am

Longtime lurker here...

I did the 3+2 ARE 4.0 & 5.0 Method
Took CDS, SPD, PPP then took a summer off before transitioning to the new 5.0. Was hesitant to jump the 4.0 ship but was glad I did. Many fails in both 4.0 and 5.0.

Study Materials Used for 5.0:
Building Construction Illustrated - heavily read
Building Codes Illustrated - lightly read
Ballast PPD and PDD sections - read and re-read
Jenny's and Caroline's BDCS, BS, SPD, PPP, Struct Notes - flipped through when I had breaks
Brightwood Word bank Questions - daily use
Designer Hacks PDD Exam Questions - daily use
Someone to help cook, clean, laundry - heavily used

Study Strategy:
Schedule my exam for a Monday about 3-4 weeks out.
Building Construction Illustrated - read cover to cover which took me about 14-18 days.
Ballast PPD and PDD. These need to be studied together. By the time I retook both, I had a good base of studying both sections and had marked sticky notes in sections to review for both PPD and PDD.
Took the last week to review all the sticky note tabs I had in PPD and PDD (about 55 tabs total, averaged out to 7 tabs to review a night.
Took mix of 35 questions every day. Literally every day. (10 from Brightwood, 25 from Designer Hacks or visa versa).
The last Saturday I used the Ballast PDD and PPD practice problems (250 questions total).
The last Sunday I used the Ballast PDD and PPD practice exam (240 questions total).
Get some good sleep with no phone distractions (airplane mode from Sunday until Monday after the exam).

5.0 Exam strategy:
Take all the multiple choice questions in order (took me about an hour, hour 20)
Skip, but mark, any equation or fill in the blank questions
Once I reached the case studies, I went back and did all of the calculation questions (took me about 20-30 mins)
This left about 1 hour 45 mins to 2 hours for the case studies
Finish the case study questions (about 45 mins left in the exam)
Hit my break (15 mins to cool off before reviewing everything)
Use the remainder of the time to review the questions I marked
Usually had time to review 60 questions and then narrow those down to 20-30 that I was really not sure of for a final review in the remaining 15-20 mins
Happy to answer any questions, I just wanted to share my personal strategy because I found it helpful when I read other people's strategies while studying.

The best advice is to not give up, it's OK to fail. They are doable.

BMoney
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Re: 2.5 Years, Done with ARE

Postby tdmiller » Tue Aug 22, 2017 2:44 pm

Hey, I PM'ed you about materials, but just wanted to publicly say thanks for your post. I just took PPD yesterday and found out I passed this morning. Have PDD scheduled for this coming weekend.

It just bummed me out seeing zero replies to your post because it was a really excellent breakdown, and was incredibly helpful for me. I'll be writing up a separate post soon about my experience, but just wanted you to know I really appreciated your insight.
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Re: 2.5 Years, Done with ARE

Postby galveznt » Tue Aug 22, 2017 3:28 pm

would anybody be interested in starting a OneNote file with study notes?
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Re: 2.5 Years, Done with ARE

Postby vrcat25 » Wed Aug 23, 2017 6:12 am

B-Money wrote:
Someone to help cook, clean, laundry - heavily used

BMoney


That must have been nice!

As for Designer Hacks, did you find information in there that wasn't in the other sources you listed? I've studied basically all the sources you listed and many others and still failed PPD. Grasping for straws now trying to figure out what i can do for the next test. I realize much of it is luck and i just had a bad test, but still will do EVERYTHING i can.
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Re: 2.5 Years, Done with ARE

Postby blancovero » Thu Aug 24, 2017 3:47 pm

Same here vcart25, I studied same sources and I failed PPD and PDD,,, perhaps I need someone to clean, cook, laundry... Maybe that's what I am lacking...

Great achievement B-money! Congrats an good luck and good life after ARE
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Re: 2.5 Years, Done with ARE

Postby B-Money » Tue Sep 05, 2017 8:26 am

tdmiller wrote:Hey, I PM'ed you about materials, but just wanted to publicly say thanks for your post. I just took PPD yesterday and found out I passed this morning. Have PDD scheduled for this coming weekend.

It just bummed me out seeing zero replies to your post because it was a really excellent breakdown, and was incredibly helpful for me. I'll be writing up a separate post soon about my experience, but just wanted you to know I really appreciated your insight.


Hey there, sorry. Just got back to you. Thanks for the kind words. I always felt like people's write-ups helped me the most in scheduling study materials. Happy to help.

vrcat25 wrote:
B-Money wrote:
Someone to help cook, clean, laundry - heavily used

BMoney


That must have been nice!

As for Designer Hacks, did you find information in there that wasn't in the other sources you listed? I've studied basically all the sources you listed and many others and still failed PPD. Grasping for straws now trying to figure out what i can do for the next test. I realize much of it is luck and i just had a bad test, but still will do EVERYTHING i can.


Yes, the menial tasks around the home helped a ton because I could dedicate all my free time to studying. I also have a bad problem with getting distracted by my phone. So I'd get home and lock that up in my room while I studied in the living room. Designer Hacks was helpful, but only in the sense that it was another 250 questions of multi-choice. I'm a big question person when studying so it helped me in that sense. No really "breakthrough" experiences in the material in those questions. Was just nice to have a new set of questions rather than the Ballast ones I had pretty much memorized by that point.

blancovero wrote:Same here vcart25, I studied same sources and I failed PPD and PDD,,, perhaps I need someone to clean, cook, laundry... Maybe that's what I am lacking...

Great achievement B-money! Congrats an good luck and good life after ARE


Thanks so much. It definitely feels odd having this free time now.

I forgot to mention, but I also used the Arch Exam Prep audio for PPD. I would listen to it on my commute to and from work. I listened it over and over again until I had pretty much memorized the words. I think it was helpful in the sense that I was using my free time to study, but it wasn't as detailed as the stuff I had learned in the Ballast book in my experience.
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