Passed all 6 ARE exams - AMBER BOOK for PA, PPD & PDD!

My ARE journey- TL:DR - important info in bold below

Passed all 6 ARE exams last Saturday and got confirmation yesterday from NCARB. It sure is a long and excruciating journey.

I took PcM, PjM & CE last year in a span of 5 months. I started with PcM using ballast and on taking the NCARB practice test realized I was no where close to being prepared for the actual exam so I got Black Spectacles (BS) & passed after about 45 days of studying. A lot of this time was spent just taking notes from the videos as opposed to actually studying but making these notes did also passively help retain the over-arching concepts. Once I was done making the notes (Canva board really helped with this because I am a visual learner and being able to group the notes & images into separate sections on a large white board really helped me visualize & highlight important topics. I mainly did digital notes for the ease of editing & search function even though I prefer handwritten notes).

Then I took the practice test again to really remind myself what I should be focusing on while I sit down to study from above notes. 

I HUGELY RECOMMEND TAKING A PRACTICE TEST BEFORE YOU START STUDYING FOR A DIVISION or at least when you're 50% there. Hit submit, look at your score but DO NOT look at the answers. This gives you a good window into specific concepts you must be focusing on and to gauge how close you are to being able to take/schedule the actual test. 

After this I studied for a week from my notes & took as many practice tests as I could from BS, Ballast, Designer Hacks etc until I scored atleast 75%. PRACTICE TESTS ARE ONE OF THE MOST CRUCIAL PARTS OF THE STUDYING PROCESS to train your brain for test-taking and arriving at right answers, pay attention to why an answer might be right or wrong.

My actual PcM exam was nowhere close to the difficulty level of the practice exams,  especially the Case studies were overwhelming and threw me for a spin. My strategy was to get thru alteast one set of case studies before I get to the other MCQs which really helped since the Case studies sometimes have contracts & code info that really come in handy to answer other questions as long as you did not take a break.

My test-taking strategy- PROCESS OF ELIMINATION - generously use highlight & strike through. 

Sample MCQ - 6 options, choose the right 4. My strategy - easier to eliminate/strike through the least likely two options that do not pass the smell test. Ones that use hyperboles & superlatives are most likely wrong. NCARB essentially wants architect to be legally safe, profitable & advocate for the cheaper but more appropriate & sustainable design options. 

I stayed in the exam hall till I was done with all my time rereading the questions to make sure I did not miss or misread a double negative in the question. Did I pick only three options where I was supposed to pick four? Did I miss which direction the North arrow was pointing (mainly for PA). I was not losing a point over a silly over sight. Through this process I made  sure I was sure of atleast 70% of the questions & ended up passing PcM.

Next in line was PjM & CE but felt like Black Specs did not really go in depth into what the actual exam was testing on so I went thru the NCARB cited AIA contracts & made notes especially on - whose duty it is, who is liable, who pays, what is the right response, who to delegate, how many days of notice etc.  I made a spreadsheet of this as a visual road map which hugely helped my PjM & CE exam which I took within a month of each other. SO MUCH CONTENT OVERLAP!!

I then took a break for couple months, I could not physically keep up with study every night after work schedule. Glad I listened to my body.

I got back to studying earlier this year for PA with BS but again felt their content was very superficial. So I looked into Amber books & got an account under the group discount.

AMBER BOOKS totally changed my studying game. I had renewed interest in learning new concepts. It took me a really long time to get thru the videos but I decided to go their recommended way of studying for the remaining three together & taking the exams back to back cuz otherwise I would be stuck studying for possibly another 7-8 months for the longer exams.

Using amber, I studied for PA, PPD & PDD for about 4 months. Again more than 3 months of this was just taking notes, watching videos, collecting resources. Right after, I took NCARB practice tests for each of the 3 divisions, not looking at right answers but made note of the concepts that were being tested on the exams & focussed on those when i started studying from my notes. I scheduled the exams for every other weekend and last week before every exam, I took ALL THE PRACTICE TESTS I could and read all the explanations.

ON AMBER - DO. NOT.SKIP.THE.FLASHCARDS!!!

My PA exam was again nothing like the practice test but again through the process of elimination & rereview, I made sure I was getting atleast 70% right & passed. I took PDD next as I heard PPD was the hardest. PDD might have been my most difficult exam as I only knew the larger concept in the questions. I was flagging atleast 80% of the questions because I was only taking my best guess but after multiple rounds of review, I narrowed that number down - luckily passed & it gave me confidence to take PPD right after and my version had a huge overlap with PA so again I ensured I was confident on atleast 75% of my answers, before the exam ended.

What worked for me - taking PcM, PjM, CE together then PA, PPD & PDD & doing them back to back.

I am still registering that it is finally done & now I can get on with my life. 

My advice to myself - it's okay to give up when you no longer can keep up with how demanding the process can be. Get back to it when you are ready again.

One thing I  would have done differently - get Amber book sooner & take all 6 back to back, probably would have been done with this sooner but no regrets. Sorry about long post & if you made it to the end, my best wishes in your journey! :)