SP&DH chapters for PPD
What chapters of Site Planning & Design Handbook (2nd edition) to focus on for the Project Planning & Design division?
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TMU I saw a few other posts of yours that are similar to this asking about various references. It's a tricky question to answer because the specific chapters to focus on could vary by each person, and each exam form for that matter. NCARB doesn't specify chapters in their reference chart for these very reasons - all information in the given book could be relevant to the exam, but it's a matter of determining which sections you personally would benefit from and where your time is best worth spent.
As general advice, I'd recommend approaching the NCARB references like this:
- Review the reference's Table of Contents to identify topics you personally struggle with: This is more of a subjective approach, as you're leaning on your own personal knowledge and experience to guide your further studying. For example, if you are confident in topics related to Site Grading, you could probably just skim that chapter; if you don't know much about topics related to Environmental Site Assessment, that would be a great chapter to dive deeper into.
- Align the NCARB content areas (along with individual objectives and target percentages) to the reference contents: For example, PPD Section 1: Environmental Conditions & Context makes up only 10-16% of the exam, meaning that you don't need to prioritize this section or spend too much time getting into the weeds of SP&DH. Rather, use the individual objectives in this section (1.1 Determine location of building and site improvements based on site analysis, 1.2 Determine sustainable principles to apply to design, 1.3 Determine impact of neighborhood context on the project design) to help you identify sections in SP&DH that relate directly to these.
- Use practice questions to guide your studying: If you encounter a topic that you are unsure of or you want to dive deeper into, use that as a starting point (i.e. use the textbook's index to pinpoint the specific page #). This is the most efficient approach in my opinion, as it should cover a variety of topics throughout the book without reading each page word for word.
Remember, the ARE doesn't require you to be an expert in all topics. You just need to know a sufficient amount about each topic, enough so that you can effectively apply that knowledge to the scenarios presented.
Hope this helps! Happy studying :)
Kiara | Black Spectacles | Community
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Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, and Appendix A are recommended. These materials are widely rec'd by third-party resources and by past test takers across platforms such as YouTube, Reddit, and this forum.
I also encourage you to conduct your own research by reviewing previously posted discussions on similar topics, rather than creating multiple new threads on the main page.
You should already be familiar with much of this content from the Programming & Analysis exam, as it is one of the core topics assessed there, depending on the order in which you are completing the tests.
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Thanks, Henry T! These are the exact same chapters I read for P&A, so will definitely review them again for PPD.
I did browse through several pages of content regarding recommended chapters/content for certain resources, but some (i.e. SP&DH) we discussed under discussion topics for other ARE divisions. Thus, I wanted to confirm resource content for the PPD division specifically. Thanks again!
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