by corbismyhomeboy » Thu May 18, 2017 7:04 am
Vrcat, I bought Amber for 4.0 BS and it was fantastic - one of the best resources I had for my whole testing experience. And it's good that you have the FEMA docs included, those were really crucial to my SS exam. (I'll shortcut for you and say there is a lot of overlap between the FEMA docs, so if you feel confident with the material, you don't have to read all of it...)
That said, have you checked out some other's accounts of their 5.0 PPD and PDD testing experience to see what kinds of questions were on those exams in regards to building systems content? Or if 5.0 has percentages of the exam that covers BS in both of these exams? It sounds like you do have your hands full with the amount of resources you already have, but from the looks of it, these exams both cover a TON of topics so the amount of study prep is going to be massive. As you know from taking 4.0, you study pages and pages of material, and the test only realistically asks you about maybe 10% of the ground you covered. I would expect PPD and PDD to do the same. Some may suggest you buy the Amber Book on Amazon without the course, personally, I wouldn't do this. When I went through the book, I thought to myself that I'd be pretty confused if I didn't watch the videos first - even though there are lengthy explanations for each question and answer. Personally Amber was good for me because I tried reading Ballast for BS, and even with knowledge gained from experience, I was very puzzled by their explanations of different systems. Even my boyfriend, who has been licensed for 13 years, would say 'I have no clue what they're talking about' after I asked him for explanation.
And gbalaka is right. Amber is a TON of hours of material. I watched 2x. Took notes the first time, just watched the second time, often while working out at home. When you buy the subscription, you only get it for 3 weeks so you HAVE to power through. I used that and NALSA flashcards and I felt more than adequately prepared.
Last note, there is a good chart in Jenny's notes for BS about different system types and their similarities and differences.