Amber Books - Does it work?

Amber Books - Does it work?

Postby justavase01 » Mon Feb 26, 2018 12:11 pm

Hi, I'm seeing a lot of requests for partners for the Amber Book Bundle. But I don't see any posts of actual success stories. (aside from their website)

I've studied and passed the first time by the traditional set of materials (Ballast, Kaplan, Jenny's notes, etc) for all of my previous exams. However, the Amber Books are completely new to me and almost sound too good to be true.

Can someone actually confirm if:
(A) They have used it and successfully passed PPD and PDD?
(B) Can confirm that they have passed PPD and PDD using ONLY the Amber Bundle? (As they claim)
(C) If (B), is not true, what other things have you used to supplement your studies?
(D) If the content they are selling is truly fitting to the ARE 5.0 exams?

Thank you so much! :)
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Re: Amber Books - Does it work?

Postby TAParkitekt » Tue Feb 27, 2018 9:53 am

Very good questions. Sub'd to see responses.
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Re: Amber Books - Does it work?

Postby yoyoyu » Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:16 pm

The short answer is: it depends on your experience.

On the back of Amber book, it said:
Michael Ermann is an associate professor of architecture at Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture + Design, where he teaches design studio, environmental building systems, and architectural acoustics. He has passed the 4.0 version of the Building Systems ARE.

That means if you not familiar with the technical stuff, Amber is a great resource. But there are other topics in PPD & PDD either not covered in Amber or himself need more study.

(A)No. I went through the video once and skimming through once in 10 days during Christmas. Failed both PPD & PDD all in level 3(which I don't think it's bad since that's all the study I did).
(B)Great material, great format, give you a good background for general information, just don't depend on it to pass.
(C)FEMA 454 and IBC for PPD, and building construction illustrated for PDD. Structure is very light on 5.0, be familiar with shear diagram and moment diagram.
(D)No, however, none of the books fitt to the ARE 5.0 exam yet...

Overall, I like Amber(even though I didn't pass). if you pretty good at MEP, lighting, acoustic already, Amber is not for you.
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Re: Amber Books - Does it work?

Postby Coach » Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:24 pm

yoyoyu wrote:On the back of Amber book, it said:
Michael Ermann is an associate professor of architecture at Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture + Design, where he teaches design studio, environmental building systems, and architectural acoustics. He has passed the 4.0 version of the Building Systems ARE.

That means if you not familiar with the technical stuff, Amber is a great resource. But there are other topics in PPD & PDD either not covered in Amber or himself need more study.

The original book was for BS only. The 5.0 bundle is not that book.
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Re: Amber Books - Does it work?

Postby yoyoyu » Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:29 pm

Coach wrote:
yoyoyu wrote:On the back of Amber book, it said:
Michael Ermann is an associate professor of architecture at Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture + Design, where he teaches design studio, environmental building systems, and architectural acoustics. He has passed the 4.0 version of the Building Systems ARE.

That means if you not familiar with the technical stuff, Amber is a great resource. But there are other topics in PPD & PDD either not covered in Amber or himself need more study.

The original book was for BS only. The 5.0 bundle is not that book.


5.0 bundle is the one I use.
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Re: Amber Books - Does it work?

Postby yoyoyu » Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:49 pm

yoyoyu wrote:
Coach wrote:
yoyoyu wrote:On the back of Amber book, it said:
Michael Ermann is an associate professor of architecture at Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture + Design, where he teaches design studio, environmental building systems, and architectural acoustics. He has passed the 4.0 version of the Building Systems ARE.

That means if you not familiar with the technical stuff, Amber is a great resource. But there are other topics in PPD & PDD either not covered in Amber or himself need more study.

The original book was for BS only. The 5.0 bundle is not that book.


5.0 bundle is the one I use.


OK, here is the updated info on their website...Sorry...
"He has completed the ARE 4.0 version of the Building Systems and BDCS divisions, and was the first person to pass all six ARE 5.0 divisions."
anyway, earthquake and IBC is not covered as far as when I used it last month. They do have some new video regarding professional practice, but if you passed CDS in 4.0, you should know those already.

I am not saying Amber is not good, just don't use as the single resource.
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Re: Amber Books - Does it work?

Postby texasARE » Tue Feb 27, 2018 2:33 pm

I have taken and failed both PPD and PDD and I used the Amber 5.0 series as part of my studying.

I think there is a misconception about these exams - at least my exams were not over BS and BDCS material? Has anyone else had that experience? What I mean by that is there were hardly any questions on HVAC, plumbing, electricity, concrete, wood, steel and those types of things. I was very well prepared for BS and BDCS - especially from the Amber videos. My tests ended up being mostly about site planning, codes, planning, and some structures which I wasn't quite prepared enough for. I had pretty good results on my tests but not good enough to pass - most of what helped me was my SPD, PPP, and CDS knowledge.


I do not think the amber series is updated enough for 5.0. I absolutely loved the videos and I learned so much but they did not contribute to my preparedness for ARE 5.0 PPD or PDD. The videos provided to me were geared towards BS, BDCS, and SPD
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Re: Amber Books - Does it work?

Postby BnyBen » Tue Feb 27, 2018 2:36 pm

I'm finding the videos very helpful to study for a retake of PPD. Watching them, taking notes and doing the problems in the book is a nice change of pace from reading. I still have a lot more to watch and I can't attest to whether it will help me pass though. The videos don't go into too much detail so I still think you need other resources typically listed on here etc.

In short, if you can afford it I think it's worth the money but if you can't I certainly think you can pass without them. At the very least, watch the free ones he shared on YouTube!
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Re: Amber Books - Does it work?

Postby Coach » Tue Feb 27, 2018 7:45 pm

yoyoyu wrote:just don't use as the single resource.

It would be foolish to use any single resource.
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Re: Amber Books - Does it work?

Postby justavase01 » Wed Feb 28, 2018 11:57 am

Thank you everyone for all of your insight. This is very helpful! I knew it was too good to be true! But it's also good to know how other test takers felt about the exam versus the content covered in the Amber Bundle.

ARE 5.0 is making me nervous because it doesn't seem as straight forward as ARE 4.0 :(

Testing in less than a month....!
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Re: Amber Books - Does it work?

Postby texasARE » Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:47 pm

One more thing - please reread the NCARB 5.0 guidebook/handbook. Read what they are trying to tell you about the exam content. Now that I’ve taken it I see where I was ignoring valuable information. Don’t believe everything you read online - it’s valuable too but be cautious.

I would highly recommend focusing on the “top reference resources” for PPD.I thought I could just study the 4.0 materials and tests and be fine but NCARB should not be ignored.

But I’m also just a random person on the internet lol so do what you feel comfortable with!
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Re: Amber Books - Does it work?

Postby Sarcasmo » Fri Mar 02, 2018 8:41 am

As far as the Amber Book working or not goes, take a look at the thread I wrote called 5.0 Study Materials. (It's not a magical post, but I don't want to write all that again, thus the reference.)

For some candidates, it just does not matter what they study -- they could study the phone book and pass the ARE 5.0 with flying colors, and you may be in that category. Are you? For the majority, there are approaches that typically work out well, and those that typically do not work out so well. I mention that to somewhat discount the random posts that "All I used was the "X" third-party manual, and I passed!" I'm not doubting them -- some candidates have done just that. In a sense, it's their version of studying the phone book. To be clear -- I absolutely love the stories of candidates killing the ARE 4 or 5 in record time -- that is so awesome -- but most won't quite be able to pull that off.

The Amber book, Brightwood, Ballast, etc. -- all have value, but you do not want to use them as a primary study source for 5.0

A minor point: it always did made me pause a bit, too, to look at a given third-party manual and realize that the manual was published prior to the launch of 5.0.....as I've said elsewhere, yes, the profession and it's associated technical information remain the same, architecture was not suddenly reinvented -- and that's one of the pro-third party arguments that is constantly made, but that's not the issue at hand. The real issue is that you're looking at someone else's abbreviated version of their opinion of what everyone should study. It's not that these third-party resources don't contain a lot of great information -- of course they do -- but as I wrote in my other post, candidates come to the table with a very wide bandwidth of knowledge and experience. And, tests like PPD and PDD are very broad. So, it's quite a gamble to hang your hat on any given third-party resource -- what are the chances that it fits your specific needs? Beyond that, the chances that it contains all of the information in the resources suggested by NCARB itself is zero.

NCARB tells you what to study for the NCARB exam -- you won't need to read every bit of it, because you'll be stronger in some areas. But you can also look at the list and division/section outline and immediately realize your specific areas of weakness, and then dive into those parts of the ARE 5.0 top references.

So, if anything, use the third-party materials as secondary review. For example -- some of the 5.0 exams are contract heavy -- PjM, CE -- so once you're through studying what you need from the "top references" in the ARE 5.0 Handbook, you may certainly benefit from going over the associated chapters in, say, Ballast. The flip side may be someone to saying, "Hey, I'm using the (fill-in-the-blank) study resource for PPD / PDD..." --- which, is typically not going to work out well for most candidates on exams like PPD/PDD.

That's my opinion, and good luck with your exams!
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