PPD Failed - Please help with some Study Tips
Hi! I failed PPD the second time today, I was more confident the second time but still, I failed. I used Amber books, Elif questions, etc, and I felt pretty good before I took exams today, so now I feel a little lost, what else can I study to pass it next time. Thank you so much for any help!
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I took and failed PPD for the third time yesterday, 12/23/24. Very frustrating as I realized it mid way that it was not going well. I thought I prepared myself well for this, my final ARE exam especially given I just passed PDD last month and there is overlap with the two. I honestly don't know what is worse at this point, failing the first one multiple times or failing the last one multiple times. Anyway, putting my foot forward to prepare for the next opportunity in 60 days. elifbayram I would greatly be interested in heating your suggestions if you wouldn't mind?
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I am sorry Hernan… I wish PPD wasn’t such a struggle for everyone. NCARB blocks some of my posts and allows some. Don’t know why. I guess all the chatter about supporting minorities, women etc is just talk. Sama goes for AIA.
Anyway, please email me so I can send you the response they don’t let me post here.They don’t even let me to post my email so please google it. Sorry. -
I used Amber the first time and black spectacles the second. Amber got me the other 5 within 6 weeks of each other but didn't seem to capture the questions I pulled. I'm still looking for information to study for costing as neither really went into it and most of the questions were seemingly older data compared to current estimates I had been reviewing in the weeks before I took it again. There are thousands of possible questions you can pull for each and so my two takes were very different from each other which makes this exam seem trickier than the rest.
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I'm sorry to hear that you all are struggling with PPD. Rest assured that you are not alone - I also did not pass PPD along my ARE journey and it was a difficult obstacle to overcome. Half the battle is knowing the content; the other half is understanding how to apply your knowledge to the exam format.
Jgilbert, there is a ton of content for PPD (and PDD) and it is overwhelming to feel like you need to study it ALL. I recommend that you check out page 95 of the ARE 5.0 Guidelines for a breakdown of how the five content areas are distributed within the PPD exam. You will see that Section 5: Project Costs & Budgeting only make up 8-14% of the 100 items you will encounter. Therefore, you don't want to spend too much time studying for this section or going too far in depth. You likely won't asked to recall specific construction cost figures (and if a question asks about it, you would likely be provided with appropriate resources to reference), so you'll want to focus on the high level topics related to the objectives.
Utilize your knowledge and experience from previous attempts to help you determine a game plan for your retake. From your score report(s), identify which content areas will require a comprehensive studying approach versus a passive studying approach.
Good luck!
Kiara Galicinao, AIA, NCARB
Black Spectacles
ARE Community -
Hi,
I recently passed PPD and these are the materials I used to study:
Ballast was my main study material, I read the PPD section thoroughly and also a few other related chapters in the book.
Architecture Student's Handbook of Professional Practice - useful for learning about cost estimating.
Building Construction Illustrated- I thought this was useful because it has more diagrams than Ballast.
Architect's Studio Companion - I thought this was very helpful because it has good diagrams and it explains code in a straight-forward format.
FEMA Designing for Earthquakes manual - This was a weak point for me so it was a very useful read.
NCARB Practice test - very helpful for understanding the general type of questions you'll find on the exam.
These forums have been great for knowing study resources, test taking strategies and understanding the general format of the exam. This was my first exam so I had a lot to learn about the format.
I hope this is helpful! Good Luck!
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