Hello Everyone!
It's a PASS! First and foremost, THANKS to all of you who helped me by reviewing vignettes and sharing study tips and materials. Without your support it would have been VERY difficult to get through this one.
This was my first attempt at this test. Took it 2/12/16 received results 12/19/16. This was a tough one for me as I took it after PPP (which I failed). I was a bit disoriented & overwhelmed with what to study, since I thought I had prepped well for PPP and still didn't make it through with a pass. I read A LOT, still got quite a few questions from topics I was unfamiliar with or didn't study thoroughly. For those I answered by elimination, logical reasoning or took a wild guess. Without going into specifics I got A LOT of haz. mats stuff, sustainability questions and code (mostly ADA). The vignettes where pretty straightforward, nothing out of left field like my PPP vignette. I was able to finish both in 1 hr. 20 mins. so don't get frustrated when you can get the timing right during practicing. I was never able to get my practice vignettes under 2 hours and on test day I breezed through them.
Here's my study materials and process:
*Third test taken (1st CDS - pass, 2nd PPP -fail)
*Studied 70 hrs total over a 7 week period (non consecutively though). Had studied for PPP right before so that helped with the overlapping material.
*Focused on topics I had very little knowledge about, then reviewed familiar material.
BOOKS:
*ARE Review Manual Chs. 2, 3, 5, 30, 35, 55, 56
*Kaplan version 3.1 Predesign 1 & 2
*Site Planning & Design Hanbook by Thomas Russ (relevant chapters - most of the book!)
*ADA Stds. for Accessible Design (all chapter relating to ramps, site & parking stuff, general clearances, etc.)
*Fundamentals of Building Construction Ch. 2
*MEEB Ch. 3
*Whole Enchilada SPD Book (read part, listened to part, see note below)
*Archiflash 3.1
*Random readings from Google searches relating to unfamiliar topics
VIGNETTES:
*Dorf videos & book
*Ballast
*Whole Enchilada vignette videos.
PRACTICE TESTS:
*Whole Enchilada Online Test simulator.
*Old ALS computer test program for 3.1
*Ballast questions from old 3.1 version book.
*Kaplan 3.1 Predesign 1 & 2 book questions
A note on the Whole Enchilada: I was desperate the last two weeks seeing how much material I still had to cover, so I decided to take the plunge and buy the Whole Enchilada by Architect Exam Prep. It seems a bit expensive ($100 ea division) but I have to say it was well worth it. It has an audio guide which is basically the book read by one of the authors of the product. It is a bit light on the material, but if you have read Ballast or Kaplan prior, it will help you review the material and the best thing is you can listen to it anywhere (commuting to work, excersizing, doing laundry, etc) you really make the most of your time by having this audio resource. The other thing I found useful where the video vignettes and the online exam simulator. The test questions are a bit easy compared to the real test, but it is good practice and it will help you build confidence.
Good luck to you all and don't get discouraged, this road is tough but not impossible!