Passed 4/6 with Amber Book 6 weeks
I never post here I just lurk but just want to say I passed 4/6 and I used Amber Book its really good and worth it 1000%. These kinds of posts helped motivate me so ill make one and hope it motivates someone else. I took all the tests in the same week and took a week off of work - Sat - PCM Mon - PJM Wed CE Thurs PA Friday PDD Sat PPD and got my 4/6 and the 2 I failed I totally had a feeling I got stuff wrong also I was pretty mentally exhausted by PPD so that might have affected me as well.
Some background: I took PCM and PJM without studying just to see f I could pass them with my experience I am like 2 years out of college totally bombed those. After I failed those I tried using the ARE Prep with Eric and David which is a really good program and I know for sure would work with some people that are audio learners but just not me, I took CE and failed it with them. Then I switched over to Amber Book and it changed everything super easy to understand and I just ended up passing PCM PJM PA and PDD.
I have a 2 year old son and wife, work full time and then studied at night pretty much every night until midnight using only Amber Book. I think I'm a visual learner and Amber Book really helped with that. I studied for 6 weeks probably about 30-40 hours a week watched the videos took notes, EVERY DAY did not skip a single day even if I was dead tired! did the calcs, and yeah that's pretty much it. I think if I gave myself another 2 weeks I would've got PPD and CE as well. So I also had used the Michael Hanahan lectures and I watched like maybe 2 of them for the B101 series really great stuff.
Overall Tips for people using Amber Book:
- Look at the flashcards and really at least the first 100 flashcards understand well.
- Take all the amber book practice exams and everything you get wrong literally write down on a flashcard that makes sense to you why you had gotten those wrong especially if its something you consistently get wrong in PCM or PJM.
- Recognize test patterns you miss consistently.
- Watch the videos multiple times if you don't understand it, I prolly re watched the HVAC videos like 20 times it helped a lot on PDD.
- Use other resources if necessary, I think using other sources is typically good especially if you have the time for it but definitely prioritize getting 100% amber book.
PPD is so hard its such a wide array of questions, I actually did really good almost passing on the technical side I just failed the code stuff and some of the environmental stuff. I will say Amber Books code and structures section is pretty light, but it should be enough to pass ill have to go over the Code stuff again.
CE I failed but got 530 I can get it ill just retake and study A201.
I have 2 more tests to go I was going to wait until I passed em all but I just wanted to post here because Amber Book really helped me a lot and its worth it big time I felt like I was back in College again but with one of the good studio professors. Michael is really good and I did not fall asleep easily because I really wanted to know this stuff for my career. Although I will admit the Pro Practice section is really boring.

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