by randar82 » Tue Apr 04, 2017 5:31 am
As someone who has taken this exam and passed, I would recommend the following:
Think of PDD as being an exam that tests 50%DD thru 100%CD. What are the decisions being made at this phase of a project: selection, integration and detailing of materials, integration of structures, estimating.
STUDYING
- If you have 4.0 study materials, focus your time on studying BDCS, BS and CDS. Know these 3 sections inside and out. Read SS but you can probably skip anything that involves equations - know the basics like moment and shear, but a conceptual knowledge of materials and systems is really all you need.
- For PDD: Read Building Construction Illustrated. If you haven't done a lot of detailing (wall and building sections, enlarged details) at work, this will be in invaluable resource.
EXAM
Every question is worth 1 point, so the approach that I took was:
- Start with multiple choice, but only spend 60-75 minutes on it. If the question required any math, flag it and leave it blank. If I was unsure, put down an answer, flag it and move on. The beauty of 5.0 is that you can go back and just see unanswered or flagged questions, so it's easy to quickly lay down a foundation of multiple choice before starting the case studies.
- Case Study 1 would be next. 1 hour. Skim the brief for information, and then move on to the questions. My experience so far is that they provide a lot of reference material that you don't even need. You should be able to complete each case study in about 60 minutes.
Break
- Case Study 2. 60 minutes
That leaves the last hour+ to now go back and deal with the questions that require math (the ones you left blank) and then revisit those flagged questions. You have to be efficient but it's totally do-able.
I would also add that when it came to the calculation questions, read carefully! I had several that seemed very challenging in terms of time and things needed to calculate, but then when I read the question again, it was actually pretty simple.