PDD Pass - Finally done after a crazy journey!
First I'd like to address this post to anyone who is feeling disappointment or even shame about where they are in their ARE journey. You are not alone, this is your story and you are crushing it! Don't worry about how long this is taking. You're in the driver seat, and it needs to take however long it needs to take. Don't put that extra pressure on yourself!
Next I'd like to say to all the parents out there that are juggling these test while also being present to your babies, YOU ARE THE MVPS! We welcomed our first baby when I was 5 test down and one to go. Getting over this last test while juggling a part-time architecture job and full-time mom was no joke. But it is possible!!
Now for the tips and tricks. Here's what helped me:
1. Good supportive community: Surround yourself with people that believe in you and can help remind you that you are capable of doing this
2. Study friends at work or people you graduated college with
3. AmberBooks and HyperFine were the best recourses for PPD and PDD. I think if you set aside a solid 3-4 months and take your time with each, you can pass both test back to back.
3a. I made note cards based on other recommendations on here and read them out loud to my husband. This was incredibly helpful as it forced me to explain things to him in a way that would make sense to someone that doesn't know architecture.
4. I passed Pjm, PcM, PA, and CE within a year, but it literally took me 4 years to pass the last two tests. A lot of that was life just "getting in the way" (COVID, marriage, moving, children). But it's also because these tests are HARD. You have to approach these last two test differently than the other 4. I learned this the hard way.
5. This past attempt I kept track of every question that I thought was hard. I knew that worse case scenario I had to get around 60 questions right, and only 91 are graded. This built my confidence when it would have been easy to think "what the heck, I've never seen any of this! I'm going to fail again!". I knew that even though I marked around 40 questions that were hard or that I second guessed myself on, the odds were in my favor. (I hoped!)
Funny enough, with the change in how the score was displayed I missed my pass/ fail result at the testing center. I had to wait eight days to see my result! Talk about an ironic ending to a 6 year journey!! I don't know if this will help anyone, but hang in there! You're doing great!
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This is encouraging and amazing! Huge Congratulations to you!! I passed the first five in about a year and a half but failed PDD three times and had to wait 6 months to retake it...I'm now finally a few weeks out from my fourth attempt of PDD and VERY nervous because I don't want to fail it again! However, I went from using all of my own study resources (NCARB's textbook resources) and my own flashcards, to using Elif's ARE questions last fall, to finally now using Amberbooks since March/April. After taking PDD three times already, I'm nervous that Amberbooks isn't enough of a resource this time around...curious if you agree or disagree with that? I've felt like PDD is a random assortment of details and such a wide variety of questions every time I take it....like a lottery system.
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