5th Time Is The Charm, Pass and Done With AREs
I can finally say that after 7 lost battles and 6 victories I have conquered the ARE's. I started this journey a few years back during the 4.0 era. After a failed attempt at CDS and SPD I asked a friend for advice, she recommended Architect Exam Prep, I followed the system as indicated and was able to pass CDS, SPD, and PPP back to back. Then the 5.0 transition came into effect…. Having just passed 3 exams within 6 months I was thrilled and full of confidence to get started with 5.0. I tried using the same approach that had worked so well for me in 4.0 and quickly realized I was confronting a completely different animal. After several failed attempts at both PDD & PPD Is when I decided to change my study strategy.
In September of 2019 I made the best investment I could provide myself by joining the YA Bootcamp, and after 9 weeks of an intense regime of 30+ hours a week I was able to pass PPD. The mixture of studying from different books, study groups, practice exams, flashcards, and guidance from Michael’s program yielded the coveted result. It was like learning for the first time how studying should be done. It wasn’t about memorizing stuff but truly comprehending the material at its core and becoming a better at the profession. After passing PPD it took me two more attempts and over 1000 hours of studying to finally pass my nemesis PDD.
Pro Tip: Practice questions, Practice questions, and time management during the test. Don't give up, put in the time and you will succeed.
Here is my list of the best practice question starting with my favorite at the top
-Elif Bayram Quizzes: Nails down those supper complex concepts, summarizes them beautifully and points you to where to find them in the books. Helped me practice my math, and get good at it.
-PPI Learning hub: Huge bank of good questions.
-Hyperfine: Do these over and over until you master all the concepts.
-Designermasterclass: Good practice exam with helpful rules of thumb.
-Gang Cheng PDD Mock Exam: Well rounded type of questions resembling the actual exam.
-WeARE: Very difficult questions.
-Designer Hacks PDD: Easy but useful when you do not have much time to study.
-
Hi Jose, regarding time management during the test...what was your strategy? I'm about to take it for the 3rd time and I think the issue has been more time management on this exam and less knowing the content. Within the 4:15 duration, did you do all the multiple choice first, take a break and then spend x-number of hours on the case studies, for example? Curious to know what worked for you!
-
Hi Whitney, I am not sure how much time you have before your test, but my approach for the last two weeks before my exam was the following. Review my notes every couple of days, and do full 120 questions practice exams from any of the sources I listed above. The goal is to create stamina and practice time management before the actual test. Like you said a huge part for this exam is time management. Do this every time you take a practice exam: break down the 120 questions into 10 segment chunks. Every time you get to that 10th question write down your time for that interval (even if you skipped questions in that chunk) this will keep you on your toes and aware if you need to speed up in the next chunk of questions. As I was going through the questions I would skip all math questions and the ones that seemed complex or too time consuming. Once I got to the case studies I would do the same, answer any question I could figure out in a timely fashion and skip the ones I knew would take a long time. After doing this I realized that I had plenty of time to review my unanswered questions and some of the questions that seemed difficult at first became much easier now that my brain was warmed up. I then attacked all the math problems I knew I could solve and lastly any case study questions I knew would require a lot of digging. You will be surprised how many case study questions don't require much digging. Leading up to the exam I could see my time kept getting better and better and also my practice test scores. There is also something about taking that mental break every 10 questions to write down your time, and skipping tough questions that keeps your brain fresh.
In regards to the actual test always ask yourself what is this question truly asking, and too answer your question I took my break when nature called :) they keep those testing centers super cold.... You will know when you need to take that break. Hope this long reply helps and pardon my run on sentences. You got this!!!
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
3 comments