Missing 3 questions- what should I do next?
Hi Everyone,
I retook my PDD in April 2025 and October- there was not much progress forwards and I am planning to retake by the end of this March.
For those who have had similar situations, what should I primarily focus on reviewing for the third (and hopefully last) try? 
I would also like to hear about valuable experiences and solutions.
I have studied:
Amber's practice exam, flashcard, quiz, videos,
The Fundamentals of Building Construction,
Building Construction - Principles, Materials, and Systems
Building Construction illustrated,
Hyperfine,
Desk Crits
Now I am very anxious to fail again and feeling directionless to improve the content I missed.
Thanks!
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Hi CC2696,
I see a lot of people who were extremely close - in a revise and resubmit situation where they need to spend the vast majority of their review time maintaining the knowledge they have and retest as soon as the 60-day wait is over - but they don't realize it and spend all of the time in the 2 months before their retake reviewing new topics and forget a third or more of what they knew before their first attempt (6 months between doesn't help either - your mind is a leaky bucket, and there is a lot to forget for especially PPD and PDD).
What are your 3 digit scaled scores from those two attempts? The calculator is great for showing you which content areas you actually have space to get enough questions correct in, but it makes some assumptions that tend to underestimate how close you actually were to passing.
Best,
Ralph, the Amber Book Team -
Hi CC2696,
That's 2-3 questions from passing. Half of all divisions taken score within 4 questions either side of the cut score (when you're very close to passing, the way the score report calculator handles the range of questions within each content area tends to slightly overestimate the number of questions you were from passing) - 25% pass by 1-4 questions above the cut score, 6% exactly pass, 5% each don't pass by 1,2,3 questions, 4% don't pass by 4 questions. That means by far the most important thing for your retake is maintaining the knowledge you've built - plan for 75% of your study time preparing for your retake to be review your notes on the topics you know - our minds are leaky buckets, and you have to actively keep them full! Trust your professional judgement, don't second-guess yourself and change answers when you're feeling wishy-washy at the end of the exam, read the questions carefully - you should be ending with no more than 20 minutes or so for review, if you're ending with more time you're likely reading the questions too quickly and missing at least a couple that you shouldn't be missing. Remember - you only need a small adjustment to get over the line, all the work you've done so far has clearly been effective.
Best,
Ralph, the Amber Book Team
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