Passed...my thoughts FWIW

[vtrkatech]

Passed BS, on 6/26! Studied for about 7 weeks using Kaplan, Ballast, Ballast Q&A Book, Jenny's Notes, and skimmed MEEB.

Here was my process:

1. Kaplan - read and took notes, did chapter quizzes, and final test - use to develop general understanding of the subject matter.
2. Ballast - read and highlighted - reinforces what is covered in Kaplan and gets into a little more detail.
3. Jenny's Notes - Basically an outline of the subject matter, good to pull together what you learned in Steps 1 and 2
4. Skimmed thru MEEB from cover to cover. Once I had a decent handle on the info from Steps 1-3, I took about 8 hours and skimmed the MEEB book for diagrams and areas I felt I was weak on.
5. Vignette Practice - I use the online NCARB practice system, no need to do ALT's in my opinion...pretty straight forward, just practice until you can do it quickly and understand the process.
6. Ballast Q and A Book and Final Kaplan Test. At this point I felt ready to take the practice tests as a gauge for where I stood, but this can be deceiving...I had a pretty good understanding of the info but still got around a 70% on these which was a real let down, but as I reviewed I it was clear there are some really specific and random questions on there that I didn't cover in my studying. I was getting the major concepts right and missing on the random specifics, so once I reviewed the answers I now had those random facts to add to my arsenal to attack this test.

GENERAL ADVICE: Know the overall topics well and do not get bogged down in the details. Review the Calculations Sheet to help understand what factors are relevant to each topic. Skim MEEB only after getting good understanding from Kaplan/Ballast. On test day my good overall understanding of the info allowed me to answer about 70% of the questions fairly quickly, another 25% I really had to stop and analyze to answer, and maybe 5% I just had no idea...just make an educated guess and move on.

I hesitate to include this nugget but I will...about the AMBER SERIES...I had Mike Ermann as a Professor at Virginia Tech, he's a really awesome guy, very knowledgeable, and I like the way he delivers information...BUT...you don't have to spend hundreds of dollars on Amber to pass this tests (Sorry Mike!). It's certainly a great series and a great tool for some people, but you can pass without it. I did watch the free videos he has on YouTube, the videos on Acoustics, Lighting, and Refrigeration Cycle are top notch!

Good Luck to Everyone, I have one test left (BDCS) and then I get my life back!

[introversed]

Thanks for the feedback.

I bought Ermann's "Amber Book" for $40 on Amazon and it's pretty broad and thorough in a good way. Nice supplement to the typical guides.

[dbayrami]

thats awesome! i found the amber book very helpful. i did the same thing, bought the book on amazon, and he discounted that from the course price. still waiting on the results

BDCS was actually an easy one. at least for me. it was a one shot test that was very straight forward and didnt require a lot of studying. i wish they all made sense to me like this one did.

Good luck!