Black Spectacles or ARE Exam Prep?

[Yakety_Yak]

I have studied Ballast, Kaplan, are used NALSA flash cards in the past but my principles are lacking on each exam. Has anyone found that Black Spectables or ARE Exam Prep to be anymore beneficial than Ballast, Kaplan, and NALSA flash cards. I have failed about 8 exams only passing SD and am looking for some insight on how to grasp the concept better.

thanks!

Yak

[rwwon]

The combinations of study materials for these exam are endless, and everyone has their own mix of study guides that gets them to where they need to go so it might not hurt to try Black Spectacles or ARE Exam Prep to see if they do anything different for you. Specifically which test are you trying to focus on now? How are you doing in other areas such as the vignettes? My first exam was PPP, so I tried a variety, including those two. I found Black Spectacles to be a little too general, but since you mentioned needing to nail down the principles, it may be up your alley. ARE Exam Prep just felt like a better-organized version of Jenny's Notes - which is free, but it again, it presented the material in a slightly different manner. I ultimately gravitate towards Ballast and a little bit of Kaplan, and then I looked at items only specific to the exam, such as AIA contracts or various lectures like Schiftman, or Amber Book for BS, Mitalski for Structures, etc.

Something I've found to help is teaching other people concepts to solidify your understanding, or verify where you are lacking. I think my spouse, who knows nothing about architecture, could pass some of these exams because I would explain concepts to them to see if I knew them and if I could explain them clearly enough that they would understand it. That helped me to get out of my head and verbalized my understanding, and it went a long way to helping me really understand basic concepts.

[corbismyhomeboy]

I have studied Ballast, Kaplan, are used NALSA flash cards in the past but my principles are lacking on each exam. Has anyone found that Black Spectables or ARE Exam Prep to be anymore beneficial than Ballast, Kaplan, and NALSA flash cards. I have failed about 8 exams only passing SD and am looking for some insight on how to grasp the concept better.

thanks!

Yak

I really liked Black Spectacles for PPP, SPD, SD, CDS, and BDCS for grasping the concepts. It helped me pass all of those. It really focuses a lot on the concepts, but for the more specialized exams like BDCS, it was almost not specific enough. I'm planning to use it on SS and BS to grasp the concepts, but pair it with Ballast, Kaplan, Amber Book, etc., for more of the math and specifics. I'm not sure you could ONLY watch the videos and get enough out of them to pass; you'd most likely want to still read/study flashcards. All of that to say, Black Spectacles definitely helped me (especially with the vignettes) but I also some combination of Kaplan/Ballast/ArchiFlash depending on my experience level/prior knowledge of the information.

[Yakety_Yak]

The combinations of study materials for these exam are endless, and everyone has their own mix of study guides that gets them to where they need to go so it might not hurt to try Black Spectacles or ARE Exam Prep to see if they do anything different for you. Specifically which test are you trying to focus on now? CDS, SPD, and PPP How are you doing in other areas such as the vignettes? Great, pass those My first exam was PPP, so I tried a variety, including those two. I found Black Spectacles to be a little too general, but since you mentioned needing to nail down the principles, it may be up your alley. ARE Exam Prep just felt like a better-organized version of Jenny's Notes - which is free, but it again, it presented the material in a slightly different manner. I ultimately gravitate towards Ballast and a little bit of Kaplan, and then I looked at items only specific to the exam, such as AIA contracts or various lectures like Schiftman, or Amber Book for BS, Mitalski for Structures, etc.

Something I've found to help is teaching other people concepts to solidify your understanding, or verify where you are lacking. I think my spouse, who knows nothing about architecture, could pass some of these exams because I would explain concepts to them to see if I knew them and if I could explain them clearly enough that they would understand it. That helped me to get out of my head and verbalized my understanding, and it went a long way to helping me really understand basic concepts.

That is excellent advice, I do find when I talk about things it definitley solidifies more in my head. Also as an update I purchased the audio for CDS from ARE exam prep and it's a lot of the same stuff from the audio in SPD. I guess it's better than nothing while I communte to and from work. Thanks again for your tips

Yak~

[Yakety_Yak]

Update of my purchase of Black Spectacles: If you are going to listen to it while you commute to and from work like I did. I find it personally very cumbersome to use and log in each and every time for every single video. I had an iphone that I used and played it through my stereo day in and day out. What I did like was the exams that it came with. The more practice the better for me. I prefer still, using the ARE prep audio that I have on my Dropbox. This for me is easy to listen to and get to. Hope this helps others.

P.S. What I really am learning, is that I personally need to listen to audio only while looking at the material. I am changing my study habits constantly b/c nothing has worked for me yet. Taking SP&D for the 4th time end of April.

Yak~

[sb84]

I have used black spectacles for SPD and PPP with good results for both. If you are using it as "backround" noise at work, but not watching the videos then you are not doing yourself, nor the material justice. if you watch teh videos while listening, and taking notes you will grasp much better.. at least i did. AEP was essentially like someone reading notes. I didnt like it at all , but to each their own.

I wish you good luck going forward.