ARECoachies,

After 10 months I passed all my tests in the 3/2 strategy, first try, final one being PDD.

I felt that this test is misunderstood so I wanted to offer some guidance.
I don't believe this test should be described as a structural exam even though that is what the vast majority of the study material covers.

If you can understand the structural, construction and energy related qualities of materials and systems you will do well.
Again, understand the nature of materials and then the structural performance as a by product.

I studied equations a fair amount and found that studying generally useless. Important but don't waste tons of hours.
Using Jenny's notes 4.0 I memorized the equations a couple days before the test.
I recommend memorizing them first and then reading so you can understand the examples more easily.

Thematically understanding the information is the key to all of the tests but especially PPD and PDD.

Good luck!

Study List:

Ballast 5.0
Brightwood 5.0
Jenny's Notes 4.0 Structrual Systems
Jenny's Notes 4.0 Building Systems

Hi Loridan, Congratuations in your success... I am taking this test for the second time on November 29th and I am a bit frustrated. I passed SPD, CD, PPP, BS in 4.0 and then I transfer to 5.0 but I found PDD and PPD easier tests but I failed both, which made me very frustrated. I see your study resources were small, do you think that this helped you?
Thank you for the advice

congrats! Sometimes keeping the list small is better---I am starting to understand what NCARB wants after very thorough reading of what type of questions I have encountered in these exams.
I do find that the 4.0 materials are better and I am sticking to also studying NALSA archiflash