anyone else fail PDD?

anyone else fail PDD?

Postby tammy2329 » Wed Nov 15, 2017 5:55 pm

Having trouble w this one! Anyone want to study together?
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Re: anyone else fail PDD?

Postby bwatts259 » Thu Nov 16, 2017 9:43 am

Have you taken PPD? I just got the pass on that one yesterday and was thinking of taking PDD soon. I'm just not sure what the heck to expect on this one. Can you give me some advice on areas to study up on? I was fully prepared to tackle MEP after ordering the Amber series...hardly any showed up. I had quite a few structural concepts but no real calculations, mainly diagrams and pictures. There was much more site related grading/drainage/slope questions then I expected too. More of the same on this exam? Any guidance would be very appreciated. Thanks!
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Re: anyone else fail PDD?

Postby psalm23 » Thu Nov 16, 2017 10:51 am

Hey Tammy-

I also recently failed PDD first try. I took PPD 3 days prior and passed but no luck with this one.

I'm also trying to get back on my feet but a bit lost as to how to go about it. Aiming for this to be my last exam.

Are you looking for a study group? I'm in LA so not sure where you're located but I'd be interested in an on-line study group too.

Hope we can gather a team to help/support to each other!

Best,
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Re: anyone else fail PDD?

Postby lauren.vogl » Thu Nov 16, 2017 12:45 pm

@Tammy + @Psalm23

I would be interested in an online study group as well, as I'm in Denver. PDD is all I have left and was very close on my last try (missed it by one section). I've signed up for Jan 12th and would be open to any kind of online sharing of information, study tips, asking questions, etc for this monster exam.

Maybe just an email thread to kick things off?
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Re: anyone else fail PDD?

Postby tammy2329 » Sat Jan 20, 2018 9:50 am

Thanks
Last edited by tammy2329 on Sun Mar 04, 2018 10:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: anyone else fail PDD?

Postby Anob » Wed Feb 28, 2018 6:06 am

Are you only looking for those who failed? Just getting out of 4.0
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Re: anyone else fail PDD?

Postby lnuh » Tue Jul 17, 2018 11:11 am

I failed PDD as well. I am at a loss trying to get back on it. I am now starting to read PPI... any tips?

I am in Florida/Miami. where are you at?
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Re: anyone else fail PDD?

Postby blancovero » Fri Jul 20, 2018 6:16 am

I failed already 4 times, FOUR FREAKING times and I tried everything possible,,, just keep studying and trying
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Re: anyone else fail PDD?

Postby Sarcasmo » Fri Jul 20, 2018 8:30 am

blancovero and lnuh --

What study materials are you using?
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Re: anyone else fail PDD?

Postby blancovero » Sat Jul 21, 2018 1:09 pm

Sarcasmo: EVERYTHING in the NCARB recommended book list and more,,,
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Re: anyone else fail PDD?

Postby Sarcasmo » Mon Jul 23, 2018 9:42 am

blancovero wrote:Sarcasmo: EVERYTHING in the NCARB recommended book list and more,,,


blanco --
Wow, yeah, four times. Well, despite your studying of "everything", I would suggest that you need to change your approach. Something is not clicking for you...?
I've often said that on 5.0, piling up a giant list of study materials is often very counterproductive.

If it helps at all, I wrote this post a while back:

"A lot of candidates on this and other forums are now subscribing to the 'more is more approach' with 5.0 study materials. Many of the posted lists of study materials seem to be getting longer and longer. One person passes, so then anything they list get added to the next person's list, and so on. So, we now have the Big List.

I of course understand that 'everyone is different', etc., and it's also true that "whatever works" can certainly hold some water. But it's like anything else... 10 percent of testers will pass with pretty much no effort, and another 10 percent will suffer numerous fails no matter what they do -- so, I'm thinking more about that middle 80 percent.

I would suggest that a candidate instead use the "top references", found at the end of each ARE 5.0 Division in the 5.0 Handbook. I'm of average intelligence and a decent test taker -- and those 3 or four "top reference" books are all I used to pass each of the six divisions on the first try -- which is no different from the approaches and results of a pretty big group of other candidates I'm now acquainted with. I took the NCARB practice exam, but I never took a third-party practice exam or read the manuals, and didn't use third-party practice questions.

I always studied with my phone lying next to me -- if I did hit a concept I didn't understand, I would quickly google it. This was effective, made the text make sense, and typically only took maybe 15 minutes.

Again, any candidate is obviously free to do whatever they want -- and I'm not mad, bro -- I'm only suggesting that slogging though an additional bunch of third-party manuals and big online courses may not be the best path to passing for most candidates. I think the "top reference" path represents a more logical approach, since those references are given straight from the Most High -- ya know, NCARB... the folks that wrote the exam. And, I think this approach is certainly more efficient -- which, incidentally, might be the single greatest advantage of 5.0 over 4.0 -- I've read posts from lot of candidates reporting that they study about a month for each exam -- sometimes a bit longer for PPD / PDD. Which, means that a lot of candidates are passing 5.0 very quickly compared to 4.0. (That was my time frame as well, and if you have a job and life, the Big List doesn't fit into that time frame.)

So that's my two cents. Sometimes more is not more.
"
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