PDD: Passed. AREs: Complete!

I took PDD for the first time this afternoon and received a likely pass, thus concluding my ARE adventure. I'm feeling like Frodo on the side of Mt. Doom right now - "it's gone, it's done!"

After passing both PPD and PDD in 10 days (PPD pass on 02.29) I can not recommend Amber Book enough for these exams. Not only is the material informative, interesting, and relevant, but from AB I also got the motivation to take the tests so close together. The morning after passing PPD I buzzed through the NCARB PDD practice exam and got 55% correct just riding on my PPD knowledge. Knowing that a passing PDD score is between 58 - 66% I spent the next ten days focusing on the weak areas exposed in the practice exam.

What I Studied:
- NCARB PDD Practice exam results. I printed the whole exam and went through each question, highlighting, noting, book-marking
- All my Amber Book notes and material from PPD
- Elif's quizzes. Once again, her questions are harder than the exam. I didn't pass one quiz while studying, but AREquestions.com is another invaluable resource.
- Arch. Graphic Standards: jumped around, but tried to focus on concrete slabs, glulam beams, various wall assemblies, various wood framing details
- Whatever I looked at in Arch. Graphic Standards I shored up with Bldg Construction Illustrated
- Second to the Amber Book material, maybe the biggest resource was a CSI Construction Specifications Practice Guide. My weakest area on the PDD practice exam was specifications and I was frustrated when I couldn't find any apparent reference material in the NCARB suggested books. While the Arch Handbook for Professional Practice has some stuff, the CSI doc had everything and more, and using the find function on the PDF made finding practice exam terms easy.

The exam:
- A lot of overlap from PPD, but this test has a lot of it's own little treats
- The Amber Book material covered in Wood, Masonry, Thermal, Plumbing, Acoustics, and Electrical all felt like it came up on the exam.
- Know about both brick and wood veneers
- Plumbing diagrams
- Know the ins and outs of the non-material spec sections
- Familiarize yourself with building expansion details

Thanks to this community and all the content creators that post regularly - this place has been a big help for me while getting through these exams, but I have to say I'm very excited to not have to log in anymore.

Godspeed.

sophcc123 March 11, 2024 19:22

Congratulations Nathan! Thank you for posting about your achievement. You mentioned taking PPD shortly before taking PDD. What was your studying like for PPD? Was it a combination of the same sources you mentioned for PDD?

narwell March 11, 2024 21:47

Thanks, Carla! I actually posted a similar celebratory PPD post where I broke all that stuff down.

Here's a link:
https://are5community.ncarb.org/hc/en-us/community/posts/21721418078487-PPD-Pass-Brain-Dump

Hope this helps.

dwinstead May 15, 2024 19:02

Any advice on studying the spec section? not really sure how to jump into that area of the exam

narwell January 07, 2025 16:01

I missed this, dwinstead

Still studying for this exam?

chrislaggis January 07, 2025 20:26

Nathan thanks for this post, I'll have to have a look at the CSI Construction Specifications Practice Guide.

PDD: Passed. AREs: Complete!

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