PPD Fail and Upcoming PDD
I failed the PPD earlier this fall but still scheduled to take the PDD in February 2021. Does anyone have an opinion if I should retake the PPD first or just stick with taking the PDD and then retake the PPD? I got level 3 for four out of five of the sections and level 2 for one section. Basically if I would have gotten one or two more questions correct for those four sections I would have passed. Frustrating to say the least and like many these are the last two exams I need to pass....
Also, I wonder if it would be helpful if people would indicate how many years experience they have when making new posts for passing or failing an exam. I know that experience is not everything but maybe helpful when deciding what resources to study for the PPD and PPD exams, in addition to taking practice exams and studying for other exams. I have about 13 years experience with a variety of project types and feel pretty good about my knowledge of sections and details but may struggle a bit with building code in a testing environment.
-
I would highly recommend taking PDD as scheduled. Your experience and PPD story sound exactly like mine. I failed PPD but passed PDD. If you are comfortable with details n documentation and broad concepts of designing and code, you should be fine. Studying for PDD helps strengthen PPD knowledge as well.
-
I also highly recommend continuing with PDD. Personally, I thought it was a much more conquerable test than PPD (I've failed both once prior). For my 2nd round of testing, I decided to do PDD first and it proved successful. I think the test is more project mgmt/CA and detail/assemblies oriented, so for me, the material came more naturally. I focused on code-related practice questions and a code-related workshop in order to improve since it was my weakest area (esp in the case study part of the test) - its important to get very familiar with where all important charts are exactly rather than very specific numbers/values (so you know where to look it up quickly). Hyperfine has a good rundown of the top 10 code items to study and it was very helpful.
-
I thirdly echo the sentiment. Take the PDD.
As soon as testing centers reopened I scheduled PPD and then PDD ONE WEEK LATER.
I failed PPD on account of site planing and project costs sections. I was very nervous about attempting PDD after being disheartened by my fail.
I took PDD anyway, and I PASSED. Very glad I did it this way. And worst case, study for both at the same time and know which areas I needed to work on.
Take the Exam!
Mark, Archizam - Practice Exams for ARE 5.0
-
I am going to dissent here... If you failed PPD, continue studying for PPD and take it as soon as possible, schedule it for 2 months out.
Moving on to a different exam will mean that you have to re-study everything for PPD later. And while these 2 exams do overlap somewhat, it's not enough to take both without covering the material for both exams, and more...
PPD is preliminary design, where PDD is more cds, and structures.
Hope that helps.
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
4 comments