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1st Fail and counting

PostPosted: Sun Jul 30, 2017 6:27 am
by mdrnarch
So I took this exam hoping for a pass but that wasn't the case. Content of the exam has improved from 4.0. I like this exam better however without giving too much away there was a particular hotspot question that I got that I had no idea where to place the markers. They need to indicate the options on the exam.

This was the least of my problems. It started off well UNTIL I got to questions that had images attached to them. For the dear life of me! The question wouldn't load! I literally had to get the proctors attention because it would take too long and the clock was ticking away! It was taking wayyyyyyyy toooooo long! Needless to say I get to the case studies and the scrolling of the PDFs was painstakingly slow to load. Ugh! I gave up on those and went back to try to solve questions I had marked and in the midst of doing that I ran out of time. :cry:

This never happens in 4.0 and I always had plenty of time left!

So these are thoughts:

- I had 1 or 2 structure calculations.
- Barely any structure.
- Mostly calculating cost estimates and choosing alternates based on cost savings
- coordinating drawings which is easy (if only the questions would load fast enough)
- I had a ton of building system question
- study r/u values
- a few site planning questions
- a few section detail Drag and drop

Overall a very random exam. I feel like they need to figure out what is causing this issue. Add more time to the exam until they resolve it. I honestly felt I got scammed. Lol. Funny but not funny. Oh well I'm moving on to PPD and I hope that I don't run into the same issue.

Re: 1st Fail and counting

PostPosted: Sun Jul 30, 2017 7:08 am
by vrcat25
PPD and PDD are just BAD all around...The questions are poorly worded and sometimes blatantly with errors or missing information. When you contact NCARB customer service about it, the rude operators will either give you false hopes that somebody will contact you back or they will blame it on your lack of knowledge and refer you to google +. I have submitted over 20 questions for feedback and quality control and they have never been wrong. Also,the screen resolution for some of the questions is WAY too small and even moderator made note, but still no resolution...I fear that the questions will still be too small to read next time and many others will have the same questions and problems since NCARB will not acknowledge them and/or address them. The only way to have things looked at is to contact NCARB corporate. The operators won't do anything and are very rude and condescending.

Re: 1st Fail and counting

PostPosted: Sun Jul 30, 2017 7:18 am
by vrcat25
mdrnarch wrote:
So these are thoughts:

- I had 1 or 2 structure calculations.
- Barely any structure.
- Mostly calculating cost estimates and choosing alternates based on cost savings
- coordinating drawings which is easy (if only the questions would load fast enough)
- I had a ton of building system question
- study r/u values
- a few site planning questions
- a few section detail Drag and drop

Overall a very random exam. I feel like they need to figure out what is causing this issue. Add more time to the exam until they resolve it. I honestly felt I got scammed. Lol. Funny but not funny. Oh well I'm moving on to PPD and I hope that I don't run into the same issue.


Thanks for sharing! Sounds a great deal like my test(s). PPD is a little more reasonable pace, but you still don't have an adequate enough time to go thru case studies and alternate between tabs. There's definitely not enough time for both tests though. I have heard countless people say that they don't have enough time for this and literally nobody has said that they have extra time. Welcome to the club.

Re: 1st Fail and counting

PostPosted: Sun Jul 30, 2017 3:05 pm
by Knotnine
Yep. PDD was kind of a train wreck for me. I've passed all the other tests on the first go and really had no problems with them. I didn't mind the vignettes in 4.0 and I really debated whether to continue that path. I immediately regretted switching over in PPD but it wasn't that bad and a pass is a pass so I assumed PDD was more of the same.

The bother of squinting at poorly drawn sketches, full site plans at insane scale or at blurred graphs with miniscule text which are photocopies of photocopies was nothing compared to the full page length questions with questionable math. So much math. Fill in the blank math. At least I'll have a better sense of the time management involved in the next try.

"According to this chart drawn by my toddler, how many flarvins can you assume the contractor will deliver on Tuesday if the U-value of a ceramic chimney pot is measured in Tx2?"

Re: 1st Fail and counting

PostPosted: Sun Jul 30, 2017 4:18 pm
by cianchetta0
waiting on my score report from my test today, but I agree with the above comments. so many basic math questions that took long because of all the information attached. And the scale of some drawings made my eyes bleed, literally was squinting at the screen. I got home and had to rest my eyes for an hour or two to recuperate.

Re: 1st Fail and counting

PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:36 am
by tarynbone
vrcat25 wrote:
Thanks for sharing! Sounds a great deal like my test(s). PPD is a little more reasonable pace, but you still don't have an adequate enough time to go thru case studies and alternate between tabs. There's definitely not enough time for both tests though. I have heard countless people say that they don't have enough time for this and literally nobody has said that they have extra time. Welcome to the club.


I am prepping for PDD now, but I did just pass PPD the first time and I did have a lot of extra time. I have always left every exam with a significant amount of extra time, so I'm probably an odd-ball like that. I can attest to the insufferable lag time throughout though.
I don't add this comment to brag, I wanted to post here to offer insight as someone taking it for the first time and this fall, so a little later than most of you seem to have last taken it. After another poster has recently commented that the ambiguous pond questions are no longer ambiguous I will say that I agree. I had two of them on PPD and while I had to think a little bit "what does NCARB want here?", after a minute of pondering (pun intended) I think I figured it out, so I'm guessing my exam had more info on those questions than what you've taken previously.

I also totally recommend doing the case study first on these exams. Those are the areas with the worst lag (IMO) and getting those out of the way I think helped me to more easily power through the rest.

I am rooting for you to pass on your next try! I'm really really hoping for a first pass with PDD, but I'm in no way hopeful that it will happen.

I'm also interested in all the talk of PPP being ambiguous, because that was the only other exam I've passed on my first try. Maybe I'm just someone who does well with ambiguity?! Or with exams that begin with P?
I feel like this forum is a psychologist for me, helping me to figure out how my mind works in relation to others in my field.

Re: 1st Fail and counting

PostPosted: Sat Nov 18, 2017 9:02 pm
by jajacob
Can someone guide to where I should look for the information related to the pond questions. I think I have my concepts wrong about where to place a building in a cold climate near a water body. I always thought it was on the North side to avoid the wind but someone here mentioned south side.Please help.
thank you.