Well, I can officially put the ARE behind me after 5 long years. I started with CDS in 2012, PPP & SPD in 2013, and failed SD in 2014. In early 2015 my wife tragically passed away, and I put my ARE studies on hiatus for almost two years. December of 2016, I realized that my rolling clock was coming up fast, so I put together a plan to get everything done this spring. Every time I took an exam, I would sign up for the next one right away. I used video seminars to help speed up the process on some of the harder exams (BS and SS). I found out this morning I passed my last ARE. It was a bittersweet moment, because it was something my wife always wanted to see me to finish, but I can finally say I did it and put the ARE behind me.
I was surprised because usually results don't post until Thursday early AM, so they were a day early. I spent about 5 weeks studying, and studied about 90 hours total.
My resources:
David Thaddeus course (30 hours of video, but pausing to take notes takes about 50 hours)
Buildings at Risk - Seismic & Wind (read both completely)
FEMA 454 (I mostly skimmed - Buildings at Risk Seismic covers many of the same topics)
IBC Chapter 16 (skimmed and looked at tables)
Jenny's notes
Ballast study guide
Ballast Q&A / practice exam
Coach's SS vignette video
The multiple choice wasn't too bad. I had a handful of equations, and about half were fairly straightforward. I skipped the more involved ones and came back to them later. Spend your time studying concepts and basic equations. Both Kaplan and Ballast are too heavy on the math--it's more important to know the concepts. Jenny's notes are a good guide for what formulas to memorize. I would recommend taking BDCS before taking this exam, because there is some overlap.
I tried doing Kaplan 500, but I found Ballast Q&A more beneficial for the limited time I had. I probably only did 20 Kaplan questions, so I'm not really counting it as a study source. I didn't even crack open the Kaplan study guide--Ballast was all I used.
Jenny's notes are a great way to quickly go through info in the last week of studying. I use them as a guide to see where my weak areas are, and if there are topics I am less familiar with, I highlight them as I go along.
The vignette was pretty straightforward. I only practiced it twice beforehand. Coach's video tells you what not to do...it's worth the $30.
Thaddeus's video course was worth it, although I feel that even he goes too far into the math. For all the time I spent pausing the video and taking notes to understand the math, there was very little actual math on the exam. However, he does a great job covering a wide array of concepts that will come up and providing strategies to find the best answer in the multiple choice. It's a pricey seminar, but it was worth the $395 and gave me confidence on this exam.