PA PASS on first try! And I was worried sick
Wanted to share what worked for me as the posts here helped me inform my approach. Spoiler, TAKE PRACTICE EXAMS!!!
Studying
- Ballast PPI ARE 5 Review Manual
- PPI ARE 5 in a Flash
I read every page in the Ballast Review Manual for the PA section and took notes on flash cards, and sticky noted what was too long to hand-write. Aside from the "History" chunk, that whole PA section was helpful to read through.
The PPI flash cards were more of a vocab game than something to rely on. The questions are very simple and just give you an idea of what words you should familiarize yourself with.
Practice Exams
- Erik Walker PA Practice Exam
- 2 PPI Practice Exam Bundle
- DesignerHacks 25 Question Free Quiz
Practice exams were the most helpful part of my studying. I took my first one about a week before the test and wanted to cancel my appointment because of how bad I did. I took the first 20 questions of the Erik Walker exam and got 5 right and it took me 2 hours... I thought just reading and studying the Ballast book would have prepared me pretty well but I was wrong. You really need to get familiar with the way the questions are asked. The questions on the PPI Flash cards are non-analytical, unlike the questions on the actual exam.
I took the rest of the Erik Walker exam the next day and of course did horribly. I reviewed the answers with his very detailed answer review and retook it a few times over a few days just to commit the processes of some answers to memory. I'd highly recommend his PA exam, I also bought the PcM exam which I'm looking forward to using later.
After having scared myself with my poor performance on the Erik Walker exam I knew I needed more practice exams. PPI offered a bundle of 2 PA exams for a reasonable price, $34. Those were just as helpful as the Erik Walker exam because I did very badly on my first attempts on those too. 60% on both so I had a lot of reviewing to do with the answer key. The answer keys for the PPI exams were not as detailed as the Erik Walker exams, but they're still worth the money.
Considered:
- Black Spectacles
- DesignerHacks Premium Practice Exam
If I failed the exam, I might have found a way to justify the high price tag of Black Spectacles. I was just interested in collecting practice exams, not all the rest of the stuff BS comes with.
DesignerHacks was almost purchased too, but the 25 question free quiz reminded me of the PPI flash cards in that they weren't that challenging and felt more like a vocab review. I didn't want to pay for a full premium exam with the same types of questions.
My background:
My NCARB record shows 6 years of experience, and I have worked entirely for interior architecture firms for those 6 years so the Site Analysis and Environmental aspects of this exam were my weak point. I was comfortable with the Building Analysis and Code sections because that's what I mostly interacted with in the past.
Hope this helps someone!
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Congratulations and Thanks for the tips!
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Nice work and thanks for sharing! I am getting ready to take this same exam and of course a nervous wreck. I have been using the same stuff you mentioned. I was curious if when we come to any drag and drop items for where to place a building on the site such an example is in the demonstration exam...is there a way to rotate the buildings or piece or are they rotated the proper way already.
Thanks and again awesome work!
K
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Korynn,
I have taken all the exams. Up until my last exam (PDD) I did not even know you could rotate items, so if it was necessary for PA, I either did not get those questions, or did not get those questions correct. ha. I passed first attempt.
TO ROTATE ITEMS in drag and drop - RIGHT CLICK and it will ask you how many degrees you would like to rotate the item.
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Hello,
Congratulation on your pass! Would you please share how you did on your score report? Like how many of the sections you got level 2, level 1 or 3? I think this will be helpful for people since there are a lot of confusion about how the scoring and passing based on that works. I would appreciate your help.
Thank You,
Mitra Sajjadi
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Mitra,
Passing score reports do not tell you how you did by each section. They only record a PASS.
Only the fails tell you which part you scored at which number on.
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Congrats on the pass!
If anyone else is looking for study advice for the PA exam, I made a YouTube video about how I was able to pass in one month. I cover the best resources to study from and a sample study schedule. Feel free to check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPKOq9rqgMg
I will also be releasing a new video every week, so be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any future videos!
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