Finished The Exams!
I managed to finish my exams!! This process was extremely exhausting, but very rewarding. However, I will say that these exams do feel very "wordy" and at times and could have a lot of improvement done to make them more fair for different populations. For example, I could see people of an older demographic struggling with the whiteboard features as they are extremely slow, glitchy and overall not to 2026 standards of technology.
I do encourage younger architects like myself (25) to undertake this process now, as life seems to get harder as the years go by. I just want to thank the people that helped me get here and share some insight into the resources that seemed KEY, as they best summarized the material and helped greatly with answering exam questions.
-Amber Book: Great lectures, structure and practice exams. The panic notes and flash cards are key for the days before the exam.
-Erik Walker Practice Exams: These exams are really hard! But to me, they seemed as the best set of practice questions. Erik, goes through why each question is RIGHT AND WRONG. He helps you greatly into starting to "see" through the eyes of people writing the exams, and all the quirks and little things that might trip you up during the real thing. He is an outstanding guy, very reachable and his study guides as well as study resource matrix are game changers. Great price too.
-Elif Bayram's ARE Questions: I used the bundles for PPD and PDD. They are available at a very reasonable price. They are very similar to the real thing, and show the resources under each question answered. I found them as great practice for the PPD and PDD exams and definitely recommend. I believe this was a great supplement for me, as I have very little experience and it helped me cover the technical aspects of the exam.
- In terms of books I would recommend:
-Ballast for each division
-Reading the b101, c401, and a101 for PCM, PJM and CE, (this exams felt less way demanding than PA, PPD and PDD to me)
-Heating, Cooling, Lighting (for PPD and PDD)
- Architects Studio Companion (For PPD and PDD)
-Building Construction Illustrated (For PPD and PDD)
-Fundamentals of Building Construction ( PPD and PDD)'
- I did not read through the entirety of these books. Just read and highlighted the relevant sections based of Erik Walker's Study Matrix. ASC is super helpful with their different charts for used of HVAC and Structural systems! Fundamentals of Building Construction is great for explaining the areas which you are less strong in the technical side! Ballast is a great read for all and for the weeks before an exam. I can also see HCL being very helpful for PA. It was great and not too bad to read its different chapters.
I am happy to answer any questions! Reach out! and to everyone going through this process, be proud of yourself no matter what! You got it! It is just an exam. You can be a great designer and suck at test taking or be an awful designer and be really good at test taking! So please don't beat up your ego or self worth over this! Most important than all of this is to be a great person:)
The only way is through is through and we will get there.
Also i wish the ARE published more in depth and honest statistics ab these exams.
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Juanguidaw,
Congratulations on passing your exams! Could you provide insight in regard to the structure of your studying strategy? For example, Amber Book recommends taking all of the exams back to back only after completing the entire guide. Did you follow this recommendation and then move on to other guides after finishing Amber Book or were you supplementing other guides along the way and testing as you go?
Thank you!
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