Failed NCARB practice test, passed black spectacles and Amberbook
Hi,
I've gone through all of amberbook, black spectacles, and taken their practice exams and averaged about 70-80% on all of them. Just tried to take the NCARB practice test for PDD and failed so badly, only got a 50%. I feel like I didn't enocounter almost ANY of this information studying using black spectacles, the Ballasts, and Amberbook. My test is in two weeks. Should I reschedule? I am just coming off of failing PDD back in december and am feeling extremly depressed and now hopeless. What am I missing??? I have a friend who got a 90% on the NCARB PDD practice exam and failed the real test. I am worried I will never pass. I didn't have any trouble with the first 4 tests and found them relatively easy. why is PDD so hard!
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PPD/PDD are naturally more difficult than the other exams due to the amount of content and broad topic coverage presented in relation to systems, structure, seismic, sound, etc. If you don't feel you're prepared and have the chance to re-schedule, it could be beneficial to have the additional time to study more and understand the topics and questions presented better.
If you feel confident in your studying and the knowledge of the topics, then you shouldn't let a practice score shake your confidence if you know what you know. You could fail the mock exam and pass the real exam. If you feel the study materials you've used didn't cover what you saw on the mock exam, a shift in study materials and strategy could also work. Utilize the references matrix for the core materials that are used to help build the exam questions. Good luck!
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IMO - don't reschedule. You already passed 4 easily. From my experience exams in the same category have varying levels of difficulty. You may have encountered a difficult practice test where a 50% score is not far from passing. I passed all study material and NCARB practice tests and failed two real world exams.
Maybe study the topics of the questions you missed on NCARB practice test, review flashcards from your study material including flashcards from other relevant exams since this final boss exam is a compilation of many broad topics that may be relevant from other exams. It's easy to go down rabbit holes in this one since this exam is so vast. Step back and look big picture. Study for quantity over quality. Try to be in the mindset of being clear headed. In my opinion, that is most important with this exam process.
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Hey there!
In my personal experience, I do not own Amber, and I have always failed Black Spectacle tests prior to passing on test day. A piece of advice I grabbed in another post/forum is that third-party exams are only a good indicator for their own material, so passing the third-party exam sources does not necessarily give me a good indicator to know that I know enough.
However, I need you to take this next part with a grain of salt. If there is one test that would be a good indicator, it would be the official NCARB test prep. I failed PDD in October 2025 and have recently passed earlier this January 2026. In my experience, the NCARB exam prep is significantly easier than the actual test. I took the prep exam once prior to failing initially, and only once more for a skim review prior to passing because doing the same exam over and over will only give me a biased score due to memorization.
If there is one big resource for PDD that I would recommend, it is thoroughly reading Building Construction Principles, Materials, and Systems by Madan Mehta et al. Elif's AREQ does a thorough review of this book that really enabled me to break down the foundation of knowledge that helped me with PPD/PDD through her questions, not that you would want to pay more for other resources in this economy :P.
I hope this helps; best of luck!
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Hi Amberdr00,
I've spoken with probably a dozen people who passed PPD or PDD after not quite passing the corresponding NCARB practice test and passing a corresponding Amber Book practice test. The NCARB practice tests all set 68%? (all of them have the same passing score, I'm almost certain it's 68% offhand) as their passing score, while PDD's actual passing range is 58-66% correct to pass. Especially having passed other exams, I wouldn't let it touch your confidence.
Here's the secret about practice tests - the important thing is to care about learning from them, so long as you're within 10-15 points of the passing range, which you are. You need to get to know both why the incorrect answers are incorrect, and why the correct answers are correct for all the questions - not just the ones you didn't answer correctly. Do that, and your score doesn't matter.
Especially for PPD and PDD, the number of topics that can be covered is far larger than the number of questions on the test, so you'd need a minimum of about 10 practice tests to actually cover all the possible topics that could be tested on. In addition to understanding the answers, the other thing to develop an understanding of what NCARB cares about testing about - questions that feel oddly specific or out of left field are often testing on something that has the potential to be high-impact or high-consequence, but even then, unlike a university midterm or final, where you in theory can score 100% and have been exposed to all the topics, almost everyone will score around 2/3 of questions correct on any given ARE - and almost everyone will not know the answer to at least 20% of the questions. Part of taking the ARE is getting comfortable with knowing you won't always know the answer, and having a plan for when you know you don't know.
Best,
Ralph, the Amber Book Team -
Hi amberdr00,
Lots of great advice shared here! I especially agree with not letting the practice exam scores shake your confidence. They can definitely be used as a tool to test your readiness, but they are primarily intended to be a learning tool. Analyze your practice exam performance beyond the score itself - how you're performing in each content area/objective, which types of questions you struggled with, how you approached the questions and applied different strategies, how you managed your time, and your understanding of the topics presented. These all contribute to how you will perform on exam day.
Different practice exams are similar to the ARE forms - it's a total gamble! You know generally what you'll be tested on (NCARB objectives) but the actual questions could be unpredictable. Using the practice questions that you encounter as topics to focus on when studying is a great strategy too. To Henry T's point - the practice exam score should be taken with a grain of salt. You might score lower on a practice exam, then ace the real thing! It's all about how you use the practice exams to your benefit in the process.
Congratulations on passing your first 4 exams! Keep that momentum going and you will do awesome on these next ones :)
Good luck!
Kiara | Black Spectacles | Community
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