Just Passed C/E - Thoughts

Hello, Figured I would post my thoughts after my recent CE pass. I’ve been slow taking these test, not something I am proud of but just the reality of life. I own a residential construction company and I also moonlight / spend weekends as a project manager for a architecture company. Basically I take on 3-7 architecture residential projects and I handle them from conception to completion remotely. Typically spend 60-80 hours a week working between construction and architecture so it’s a bit rough trying to find a few hours to study. I started 2 years ago. I took PCM and I passed. I then got busy at work and waited a year took PM and passed. Now I just took CE like 10 months after that and passed. All is can say is wow would my life have been easier if I just could have dedicated 3 months of studying and did all of these test back to back to back. They all require a strong base in AIA documents and it’s hard to explain but they all overlap in some capacity so just do yourself a favor and study them all at once. My biggest fear with these exams Is that people get so worried about perfection that a lot of people, at least for these 3 test, over study.. My thought process is if you feel you know 75% of the stuff, go take an exam. Either you fail and count the $235 as a practice exam or you pass and that’s great that you cut out an extra 40 hrs of studying. I know everyone’s economic situation is different but half the people on here are buying $200 study programs so why not just spend $235 on a test and consider it a practice test.. For CE I used all the ballast material, designer hack test/quizzes and black spectacles tests. This was the first time I used black spectacles, I didn’t use the content just the test. People ask, “Were the black spectacles tests worth $200?” Idk...I live in Ny where beer is $10 at a bar, so over priced stuff is normal to me. If you want to know if I thought the practice tests were good. Ya, I do so and I think they helped. Quantifying the price though is difficult, that’s based off your personal experience and economic situation. On the other exams I used pluralsight and I really recommend that. They didn’t have it for CE so I couldn’t use it this time around. Anyways, it’s 2020, new year, new decade. Let’s kick some ass and keep it going. Good luck to everyone.