Passed PDD Failed PPD
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I agree. I definitely need to look at other materials to complement what I’ve used so far. I don’t think it is a large gap but it’s for sure a lot of content. Plus, if you get very intricate & specific questions, from that kind of projects you work on once every 10 years or that consultants usually take care of…well…
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I paid for the PPD/PDD bundle. They helped a lot. I got around 40-60% on her quizzes as well. I did pass both my exams.
Did you write down notes from amber book & the flashcards? BTW, the flashcards are almost better than the lectures. You should do them early and study them many times. I hear of some people sitting down to look at them for the first time right before an exam, but they are really like 50% of the course content.
Some other material you should read is FEMA 454. It's online for free.
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agrelo Let me know if you find anything. I just took this exam for the 3rd time and didn't pass, and I just had the same experience where I felt that about 30% of that test was not related to anything. I've used Black spectacles, PPi2pass, Clare, and Elif's material and I just can't seem to get it. So if you find something that works please post it.
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I think PPD will always have some randomness. This is a common complaint I hear from many candidates and aligns with my personal experiences. That's why it is much harder to pass this exam: the content is way too broad and includes ambiguity even in the Guidelines. The best approach I can think of is to deeply learn the material we do know is testable, so you miss fewer solid questions and have some buffer for the unpredictable ones. Hopefully, next time you'll get fewer of those random questions and pass. Best of luck!
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I agree with the first comment at the top ^... If there was a LOT of material that looked unfamiliar to you, you have a gap in your study materials somewhere. I just passed PPD two days ago, and I submitted the test with an hour left on the clock, after going back through and double checking all my responses. I felt extremely confident before going into it, and before I ended it and saw the "likely pass." I will say that this test had a LOT of questions that had horrible phrasing or explanation/context (and I plan on writing NCARB to complain about that, but that's a topic for another thread). If it helps, I would strongly recommend Kaplan's PPI course. You can pay for it one month at a time, and for PPD and PDD, that likely will not be enough time to make it all the way through the course.... But if you've already been through Amber book, you won't need to do the whole course. I actually used PPI exclusively for the first 4 tests, and passed all 4 on the first attempt. For PPD and PDD, I used Amber Book as a replacement for the reading that comes with PPI, just because there is SO MUCH content to read - it could take you months just to read through all the text. Amber Book does an excellent job of teaching you the content for those last two exams, and PPI offers an EXCELLENT batch of practice questions that you can create quizzes from and study at your own pace. For PPD and PDD they have a bank of over 1,000 questions for each exam. So if you go through all or even most of those, there is NO WAY you will see something on the exam that you've never heard of before. I also think PPI has a direct/contractual relationship with NCARB. The cover of their book says "NCARB Approved" and I've not seen a study resource that has questions more accurate to the real tests. My advice, for what it's worth, is (especially if you've already completed Amber Book) pay for a month of PPI and go through as many of their practice questions as you can - the more the better. When you get questions wrong, make sure you put them in the next quiz you take so you see them again. Keep doing this until you remember the concepts and why you got the question wrong, until you have either gone through all the questions, or feel confident enough to retake the test. That's been my strategy so far and it's worked for me. I take PDD in 3 weeks, though I might move it up sooner because I feel ready for it. Hope this helps, and good luck with your continued studies!
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