PPD Pass - All Divisions Complete 4 Days to Spare
I'm not a big writer in the forums, but I've followed many of your posts and written a couple of things here and there.
Now is my turn to say I've passed my last division (PPD) and with that, my last ARE division with 4 days to go until the Clock ran out. Afterwards, I would have lost three exams and effectively had to retake the entire ARE if you were to factor in PPD with those potentially lost three exams - a SEVERE penalty. Thankfully I successfully avoided becoming a victim.
My closing feedback:
I had a hard time with certain subjects throughout this ARE process simply due to how I think, consume and process information. For me, passing took a lot of self-awareness in that regard. Ultimately, I think what helped was...
(1) Don't blindly consume your study materials hour-after-hour, day-after-day... Test your knowledge regularly. When you're tired of reading, tired of taking notes - find a quiz and take it, find a practice test and just do ten questions or however many you have time to do in the moment. Be an active and not passive learner and think critically about what you're absorbing.
(2) Practice within the truest simulated environment, and that was Black Spectacles practice tests.
(3) DO NOT study the day before your exam. I've even had friends tell me don't study 3 days before the exam... I was not successful on that front, but I did take either the weekend before the week of my exam off (usually by happenstance) but I think it was a contributing factor to success twice. On my PDD re-take I was literally on a flight home from a weekend at a wedding and I was online at Black Spectacles on the 5 hour flight, taking a Practice Exam on that tiny little flip down table on the plane. Three days later, I passed, but I did NOT study the night before. I was anxious during the weekend before the test because I was barely studying, but I was having fun and my mind was likely relaxed and the things I'd been absorbing the week before were working their way into my synapses (supposedly).
(4) Study anywhere. Get something accessible on your mobile device and if you're on the bus, look at it. If you can play it over your speaker (Black Spectacles videos on auto play) - do it. If you have 10 minutes for a PP2i quiz, make it, take it, review it.
Signing off.
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Malika,
Congratulations!! Wow 4 days spare. That’s so scary!! I just can imagine what you would have gone through clicking those answers for the survey and you get to see you results.
You advise number (3) is something that I should have read last week and I am sure it would have saved me some $$$. I had PPD last weekend and have no idea how I messed up because the questions were straight from the materials I had practiced and knew for sure but I did a lot of last minute catch up just stressed me out and messed with my head during the exam it was my first fail in ARE but anyways I know now that it’s just another exam and still have PDD and PPD retake to get to your end of the lane.
Congratulations again!! Enjoy the feeling of liberation!!
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Manoj,
Thanks alot! Yes it was a surreal feeling seeing the preliminary results, but I knew before then that I had passed and I think that was the better feeling truly. I didn't need those results to tell me that I'd been successful.
If I could add another important note(s) for me:
(4) Answer the first 10-15 questions and then complete the Case Study questions. This will allow you to treat these first few questions as warm-ups and then hit the Case Studies while you're still mentally sharp.
(5) If you don't need to take a break, don't. Sometimes, it's really not worth the mental disruption. For my PDD re-take I skipped my break.
Best wishes!
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Thanks Dandi,
The first part of this article explains it pretty well I think. (There are some other links in the article that seem interesting in terms of exams and studying as well.)
http://theconversation.com/revising-for-exams-why-cramming-the-night-before-rarely-works-67459
Essentially, if we study the night before, that information will not have had enough time to be processed deeply in your mind. It will only become a part of your short-term memory and therefore, when under the stress of the exam it is likely you will not be able to recall that information because it's not yet become real knowledge. In fact, the act of trying to add additional information the day/night before will contribute to your stress (whether you're conscious of it or not) and therefore lack of restfulness, which is essential to forming deeper understanding of the information you've consumed up until that point in your studies.
The article explains briefly.
In short, you won't really learn deeply anything new in that short period of time before your exam. You're better off resting so that your mind can further deepen your understanding of what you've already learned, so that you can successfully recall the information when the time is needed.
Hope that helps.
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Thanks Alan,
I'm a person who had to transition from ARE 4.0 to ARE 5.0, so I only have experience with PPD and PDD in the ARE 5.0 exams. For me the hardest ARE was ARE 4.0's Building Systems. However, between PPD and PDD I think PPD was broader in it's scope because there's a lot that goes into the process of Project Planning, and I suppose by sheer volume of the things an architect has to consider to get a project going, I guess it makes sense that PPD could be more challenging than the others as it's where you're starting to bring all the things together to get the project going.
I hope that reflection helps.
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