6 for 6 with Amber Book

I wanted to share my experience and give huge thanks to Michael Ermann and the team for producing such an incredible resource in Amber Book. 

I graduated with an M.Arch 10 years ago and have been working almost exclusively in boutique residential practice. I came to the course with limited knowledge of structures, materials, systems and building code as applied to anything larger than a house. 

I started with Amber Book in October 2023 and studied 20 hours per week for 8 weeks, took a 6 week break and picked back up at the pro practice section of the course. I took my first test in late February 2024 and passed all 6 divisions over the following 5 weeks. Before PPD and PDD I rewatched sections of the course I felt less confident about at 2x speed. I took Michael’s advice and focused less on memorization and more on understanding the concepts. The process of elimination was an important strategy for me in answering the exam questions.

I dabbled with several other resources but ultimately came back to Amber Book because their content is simply better. The only additional I would use again are the official NCARB practice exams.