i passed SS yesterday. i just kept refreshing my NCARB test page for the past week. my results came in at 8am (8 days after testing). that's it. i'm done. i completed all 7 tests in 11 months, if you don't count the black out. 9 months, based on reading posts on here i feel like I studied less than everyone else. My wife told me I'm terrible at studying. I think I read 15 minutes before bed every night for 6 weeks. 2 weekends before the test I learned the math. 1 weekend before the test I just read a lot and figured out the vignette.
what I studied for SS:
-I kinda sorta read about a quarter of the Kaplan guides from the ARE 3.1, my boss had them lying around, so I used them instead of buying new ones (i'm cheap), if you do the things listed below, I'm not really sure you need study guides at all.
-Buildings at Risk: Wind Design Basics for Practicing Architects: http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/d ... 016809.pdf
-IBC Chapter 16-- Its boring, and I don't know if it translated to test questions, but others say it did.
-learned this: download/file.php?id=1531&mode=view
-Jenny's notes are good for quick cramming: http://arendurance.files.wordpress.com/ ... nnypdx.pdf
-read FEMA Earthquake stuff chapter 4,5,8,9. i don't think the audio files exist anymore. http://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/8669
-watched Dilip Khatri's modules for free instead of paying hundreds of dollars for some lecture series, they are a bit excessive but FREE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsroawN … hKW2Q9AODo
-study the NCARB practice exam (duh.)
and please, do not fail the vignette, this vignette is like a freebie, i got done in 10 minutes then spent 15 minutes checking my work. I wasted 14 minutes doing that.