Amber Book Practice Exam vs NCARB Practice Exam
I have covered most of the content I set out to cover in studying for these exams and have allocated some time at the end to take practice exams. I can take either NCARB's or Amber Book's, but realistically I can't take both.
Any advice from Amber Book subscribers or alumni?
I have taken the NCARB Demonstration exam to gain familiarity with the interface -- I'm asking about the practice exams for the individual divisions.
(For what it's worth, I'm also willing to take the Black Spectacles exams -- time is my big constraint here. Which is ironic for someone who has been putting this off for fifteen years...)
Christine Williamson
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I would highly recommend taking the NCARB practice exams. I did the entire Amber Book aside from the practice exams. I decided to replace them with the NCARB one because I figured they would be more similar to the real exam. I passed 5 if the 6 exams and just last month I took and passed my final exam. I think the NCARB practice exams had a good part to do with my success. They prepared me for the type of wording that is on the exam and get me ready for reading those types of questions.
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IMO there's no excuse not to do the NCARB exam. I didn't have four hours at once so I took it several times for about an hour each time. The annoying thing is that the questions get reshuffled every time you take it, so you can't just do questions 1-40 and then finish up w questions 41-80, you have to skim each question the second time around. (I don't have Amber Book experience)
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From my experience having taken and passed 2 of the real exams so far:
I feel like Amber Book's practice tests have been helpful in reviewing the content one last time in a test-style format, as the answers have great explanations. However, the NCARB practice exams helped me mentally prep for the real thing and made me feel more at ease when I actually went to take the real thing. The latter are obviously closer to what the actual exams feel like in terms of type of questions, their wording, and difficulty level. If you're feeling good about knowing the content, I'd say go with the NCARB tests. I should also add I failed both practice tests when I took them...
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Natalia brought up a good point. I only passed 1 of the 6 practice exams (all failed exams were in the high 50s or mid 60s percent range) but passed 5 of the 6 real exams. I believe the practice exams are set to a 70% or higher to pass. I could be wrong but I believe the real exams pass range is between 60% and 70%, depending on the exam.
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NCARB practice tests are the closest to the real thing. Amber book is not. He even states such in his book, his questions are meant to be thought provoking, not as a mock exam.
But I will say that if you don't have enough time, you should reschedule your exam. It's better to be prepared and have it take more time than to be unprepared.
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