Hi All,
Just walked out of the testing center with a "provisional pass"...waiting for the official fail. That would suck.
All joking aside that exam was a beast. I purchased the Amber Book about 6 weeks ago and followed his method of studying as pretty much my only resource. I will say passing the big three (PPP, CDS and SPD) helped out a lot on this one. There was way more site design, grading, and cost estimating that I expected which was about none. So I really had to dig deep in the memory bank and hope I pulled out the right answer.
My testing strategy was to leave the case studies until the end, thinking they would suck up all of my brain power...they did. Before the test I would definitely review the chapters 3 and 5 of the IBC. Be comfortable with navigating through those chapters and knowing where things are.
I felt like a lot of the case stufy information was either missing or left up for interpretation. I kept wondering if I should keep digging for an answer somewhere in the resources or this was a question where you are supposed to just rely on your instincts. That was the biggest use of my time.
Multiple choice
I was shocked with how much structures there was on mine. I was anticipating 4-5 structural questions but I was hit with many more. I wouldn't focus too much on calculations but rather knowing overall principles. This is something the amber book does not touch on too much so I would look to other resources on that. I have heard Thaddues is pretty good which I will review for PDD.
I will update on the official pass/fail but I wanted to get my thoughts out there ASAP. I will answer any questions I can without overstepping the NCARB rules. Womp womp.