Got my final PASS this morning on SS and am finally done with the ARE. I had a rough start to the exams. At the end of 2014 I took and failed SS, BS, and SD. Took a while off and started again in April of 2016. Passed CDS, then failed PPP in May of 2016. Took more time off, and restarted the exams again in November of 2016. This time I gave myself more time to prepare for each exam and took one a month until i completed. Passed SD in November, Failed SPD in December on a silly site design vignette Error, Passed PPP in January, SPD in February, BDCS in march, BS in April, and Just took and passed SS on Saturday (Results today).
Overall, if you have the time, i recomend 4.0. I say this with NO experience in 5.0 but just felt more comfortable. The vignettes are not bad in my opinion. They are tricky, but not fairly straight forward once you get the hang of the silly program. AS for MC, unlike some, i didnt find the MC horrible for any exam. Yes there was a WTF question here and there, but never did i have more than 3-4. I did have some questions that i didnt know the answer to, not bc they are out of left field, but because i hadnt prepared for that topic enough. Just remember, you dont need to get a perfect score, you just need to PASS!.
At the end of the day, you have to choose whats best for you, but i felt 4.0 was more straightforward.
I thank you all for your feedback over the years and wish you all good luck. I will hang around from time to time to help as best i can with 4.0 testers.
Now all i have to do is wait for NCARB to send my transmissital to NY and get my license number. hopefully this is quick but im expecting a long drawn out process. lol
Cheers.
SB