Well this will be my first of the two (PPD/PDD) in the forced switch over to 5.0. I've got a long NCARB history, started way back in 3.1 but those expired due to life events. I re-started in 4.0 to find that they were moving on to 5.0. There's not much guidance out there on what to study and how to pass PPD and PDD, I guess because the format is so radically different. I'm not sure what I will be tested on despite carefully reviewing all of the NCARB-provided materials (handbook, tutorials, practice exam and forum). On the NCARB forum I see a lot of multiple fails and "study literally everything, but fewer structural calcs". Conversely, I have a friend who took PPD and PDD recently, he didn't study at all and passed. Maybe his brain just works like NCARB.
For anyone still on this forum, I'll post an update when the exam is over. Fingers crossed.
My study materials (4 weeks of study time) have been:
- The Architect's Studio Companion (read basically cover to cover, helped me get more into some weak areas on egress, construction types and HVAC systems)
- Building Codes Illustrated (for IBC 2015) chpt. 3, 5, 6, 10
- FEMA Earthquake chpt. 4 & 5 -- I found this incredibly helpful and relatively easy to understand
- Grant Adams videos along with paging through Fundamentals of Building Construction (that's his text for his classes)
- All free Amber videos on YouTube
- some other random videos searching YouTube (especially The Engineering Mindset HVAC videos, also Titus Chilled Beams)
I paged through these for more info when I felt I wasn't getting enough from the other resources:
- Building Construction Illustrated
- Architectural Graphic Standards (I have an ancient one, 8th edition, still seems relevant)
- MEEB-- I actually love this book, it's well put together but it seemed too much detail for the scope of PPD
- Ballast ARE 4.0-- very lightly reviewed various topics in the main book and question books (MEP, SPD, wind/lateral forces..some structural but no formulas)
- Jenny's Notes-- SPD, BS, BDCS
- Sun, Wind and Light-- I'm LEED certified, with most of my experience designing sustainable, ground-up buildings, and I found this book to be weird and confusing. Hopefully they don't test me on this one.
- I wanted to re-watch Thaddeus structures seminar since I am so weak in understanding which formula to use where, the maths... but given the broad scope of this test I decided to make other things a priority. Possibly a mistake, we'll see.