PPD - What worked for me
Hello All,
Passed PPD last week and have some comments that may help a few of you.
I have had a lot of interruptions in my studies for family and work (some lengthy), so have been literally unable (as well as unwilling at times) to do the recommended non-stop push through the whole thing. Nevertheless, my study has been rather consistent in approach and fruitful (thus far). Here is the PPD synopsis:
I have relied heavily on this forum for study topics and emphasis (keeping track of all the pertinent comments). A hearty thank you to all again! Beyond that, my overall focus for the “technical exams” (PA/PPD and PDD yet to come) is to really study a few of the main references and blend that subject matter into the concepts, principles, and structure of the Amber course.
For the past ~2 years, I have had Fundamentals of Building Construction propped up on my treadmill, as I studied for other exams, and have read/highlighted most of it in very small chunks. This is my favorite book in the references and it is actual literature – not just dry stuff. You can learn a TON from just this one book. A little-known resource is their student website that has fantastic annotated photos and other stuff like flashcards in the left menu:
https://www.wileyvws.com/wileypdhighered/9781118138915/index_Student.php
Merely watching the Amber videos a couple of times was not sufficient for me to absorb everything. Ermann packs multiple points into each sentence and for some reason I wasn’t retaining enough of it. So I bit the bullet and sat down for many, many hours, taking copious Word doc notes on each video – almost to the point of transcription. That allowed me to add my own supplementary notes to these sheets. I printed out ALL of this, making the printer paper/ink companies very happy. This was the key for me. After spending months on this, I went into “synthesis” mode. Made folders for each set of Amber chapter notes (this was mostly the old Amber version and part of the new version) and then added other folders as needed. Along the way, I also studied:
- MEEB -- Looked through areas I thought needed reinforcement and read some parts.
- Architect’s Studio Companion (ASC) -- Read through a lot of this, but not the whole thing – based mostly on my weak areas for additional explanation and support.
- Looked up things I was unsure of in --
- Building Construction Illustrated
- Olin’s Construction
- Graphic Standards
- COUNTLESS YouTube videos and Internet searches
- ADA -- I skim through this (which I printed out and have in a binder) for each exam.
- FEMA -- Printed out chapters 4, 5, 8, & 9 and read all of those, marking pages with sticky notes.
- Reviewed some of my PA notes.
- IBC -- This I cannot stress enough. I purchased the 2015 version for the first exams, thinking I could buy the Commentary separately. It doesn’t work that way (I found out). Didn’t want to pay all over again (since they wouldn’t let me “upgrade”), so I waited and purchased the 2018 IBC WITH Commentary. This is extraordinarily helpful! The Commentary explains each section and gives you examples to work out problems, as well as numerous drawings, figures, and diagrams. There is so much to learn in the IBC when you can cut through the techno-speak. The Commentary makes it so much easier to read and comprehend. I never even needed the Building Codes Illustrated that I bought.
For practice/preparation, I relied on Amber, Hyperfine, and Elif Bayram’s quizzes. During the 3-4 weeks prior to the exam:
- Carefully reviewed all of my Amber notes, including the Amber Panic Notes and various problems. This one resource proved to be golden (no pun intended). I felt very prepared for over half the exam based solely on the concepts I absorbed from this course.
- Went through all of Hyperfine’s PPD/PDD worksheets, looking up everything I wasn’t sure of. Very, very helpful.
- Went through all of Elif Bayram’s “ARE Questions” 20-question PPD quizzes, again looking up things I got wrong. Also very helpful.
- Prior to all this, I quickly moved through the Ballast Practice Exam (not doing too well), and looked up some of the wrong things. This didn’t seem as helpful to me, so I didn’t dwell too much on it.
- Have done almost daily quick 10 question drills on Designer Hacks since my first exam – helps keep your mind limber and a few of these points do come in handy.
The day before the exam, I did Hyperfine’s PPD/PDD Case Study and I think it helped me to get my brain into “search mode” for looking things up on drawings in the Case Studies. Don’t forget! ... You can use the exam’s search box for finding things IN THE DRAWINGS – like if you can’t quickly find the name of the room you’re looking for. The search feature is not just for text documents.
As for time strategy with the new question locking.... I knew I would have to take a bathroom break because 4 hours, 5 min. is quite long. So I broke the exam up into 2 “sessions”. First “session” was the Case Studies. I allowed myself 1 hour, 5 min. for that so there would be 3 hours for the rest. Unfortunately, I had to sacrifice one question that seemed complex because I was afraid of running out of time. Second “session” was everything else.
At the beginning of “session 1”, I deliberately skipped straight to the 2nd question of the first Case Study so that I could return to the 1st question in the Case Study later in the exam to make use of the resources. Also stopped short of the last question of the 2nd Case Study for the same reason.
After my break, I raced through all the “regular” questions, skipping a couple and flagging many. At the end I discovered that I really didn’t need the Case Study resources after all, so finished those last 2 questions and any unanswered regular questions. At this point I looked at the clock and was astonished to see that I had a full hour left to go through all my flags, etc.
Overall “intense” study period for this exam was 3.5 months, but I don’t regret it. When I got into the exam, I felt (much to my surprise) very prepared for the questions and besides, a good deal of this study will apply to PDD, so that prep period will (hopefully) be shorter. Even so, afterwards I realized I had overlooked things on a couple of questions that were undoubtedly wrong (in the “fog” of exam jitters), but managed to pull out a pass anyway.
Hope someone finds a few useful points in amongst all this, as I have found in many of your posts.
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Hi Ramya,
I was most nervous about being able to find things in the IBC, so was reviewing those tables the morning of the test. That turned out not to be much of an issue for me, but you cannot predict these things. Probably the best last-minute thing I did was the Hyperfine case study the day before (for practice and to build confidence). In the test itself, I got ridiculously hung up on one question due to a silly arithmetical error. It took me forever to find what I did wrong and it was merely baby-level arithmetic. When you are under pressure, sometimes you can make stupid mistakes and not even see them. Prepare for the usual arithmetical/ratio stuff you see in all the 3rd party prep materials, as many other people have said, but don't feel undue stress about that. I understand your feeling of being overwhelmed because I was too and had trouble sleeping for a full couple of weeks beforehand. Even had a terrible night before the exam, so it's a wonder that my brain was functioning at all. If I can do this at my age, believe me, anyone can. (Chocolate helped ;-)
The best advice is probably to try to stay as calm as possible, pass up any long/hard questions and return to them later (using time strategies for the question locking), and read very carefully. Often the question is much more simple than it seems initially, given that you are probably reading it with anxious/nervous eyes and expecting it to be hard. They are not trying to trick you -- every bit of information in the regular questions is usually relevant. Try to adopt a workmanlike attitude of having a job to do, rather than a test to pass. (Easy to say, harder to do -- I know.) And good luck !!!
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Everyone has his/her own way of learning. I am glad you find a way that fits you.
For me, I learn much better by reading and highlighting, I hate taking notes because once I start to take notes, I miss the key points of actually understanding the content. Highlighting a book help me tremendously since I often read slowly for the first pass, and understand every bit of the information, for the second read, I can easily grasp the main content by looking through my highlighted portions.
Congratulation and thanks for sharing.
Gang Chen, Author, Architect, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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Yes, I actually agree with you 100%. This is exactly my reading style too. My Fundamentals book and Site Planning & Design Handbook are completely marked up with underlines and symbols. My Kindle books (incl. MEEB) and IBC PDF have highlighted blocks of text in different colors all over them in certain chapters. I then go back and review those sections exactly as you describe. The problem with the videos is that you can't do that, so I had to take laborious and very comprehensive notes. I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who has to read things more than once (and sometimes, in my case, multiple times).
If anyone has any tips on how best to pivot from PPD to PDD in terms of emphasis, I'd be very interested to hear them.
Deepannita, I hope you'll report back ... Good luck with it!
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Robin, I made the huge mistake of not taking PDD right after PPD...I took PPD 3 years back :/ So firstly, do not make that mistake :) The material has a LOT of overlap so you should do fine. I think with PDD the focus should be on details (a little more than PDD) - connections, flashings, formwork, shoring, material compatibilities, value engineering systems/equipment etc. The other area of difference is PDD evaluates if you can read/ check an architectural drawing properly, specify materials correctly, and calculate material costs.
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Wow, Deepannita, this is hugely helpful ... thank you! I have a couple more days of doing our taxes and then will launch straight into PDD prep. I think I will mostly go over all my previous studies, looking this time at the micro rather than the macro level. If it makes you feel any better, I think they have made these exams a bit more manageable than they were a few years ago. So hopefully you can wrap this thing up!
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