I just passed all (6) divisions, took a year and half to finish (two and half years, if you count the one year break I took for Masters).
Rules of thumb:
Do not take breaks in between.
Amber Book and Black Spectacle are all you need and more.
As Amber Book will tell you, take as many tests together as you can.
Read blog posts at Amber Book website, and it will answer FAQs - which order should I take them in, pass rate, score...
My experience:
I started out with Black Spec, and PPI (formerly Ballast I believe). I started with Div 6 - Construction Administration, because I was borrowing my friend's PPI book, and he was studying for Div 1. I used these two resources for Div 6, Div 1 - Practice Management, and Div 2 - Project Management. (2) months of studying in between.
Then Masters, then starting back up again once I started working again. My firm had an Amber Book subscription, and one of my colleague swore by it. That is where I heard the idea of studying hard for two months (Amber Book's study schedule), and take all divisions at once). However, I was too much of a coward, and took (3) months before I took Div 3 - Programming and Analysis. I took (1) more month before taking Div 4 - Project Planning & Design, and Div 5 - Project Development & Documentation on the same weekend.
Although I was confident before every exam, I never left thinking it was a slam dunk. I am a confident tester, and I always took half the time needed. But I did always re-checked my answers, and always found one or two dumb mistakes I made (e.g. I selected four multiple choices when it asked for three...) .For Div 4&5, I spent probably 30 minute each using the shitty computer with small monitor zooming into plans to read room tags and other notes to answer Case Study questions. Sometimes the drawings will black out, and you have to reload the question page. The testing centres, at least here in NYC suck (I have been to two, midtown and downtown).
My feeling:
Absolutely take as many tests together as possible. You would think you won't get programming and prelim site questions on PDD, which is supposedly Contract Document focused, but you'd be surprised how many programming and SD questions there are in PDD. That is why I took PPD and PDD together, since they were so similar, even though I was too scared to take PA, PPD, PDD together.
You hear that NCARB is trying to make questions less memorisation, and in my experience, it is true. For example, if they ask you about CSI divisions, they will provide you the names as well, They won't just say "CSI Division 23" and expected you to have memorised all the divisions.
PPI sucks. It is just outdated. I always felt it was off, and after passing supposedly 'harder' divisions without touching PPI, I recommend not wasting time on them.
Conclusion:
As much fun it is to read threads about the evil NCARB, if you actually want to pass, get Amber Book and get licensed.
Bench
Dec 15, 22 12:18 pm
That last sentence - well said.
Congrats on passing all of them !
Non Sequitur
Dec 15, 22 12:47 pm
The whole post is a unpaid add for amber books.
Chad Miller
Dec 15, 22 12:53 pm
They are good study guides . . .
Bench
Dec 15, 22 1:18 pm
Non, they're pretty widely regarded as the best study resource for the exams down here. The review above is pretty closely in line with everyone else i've spoken to about it. Pricey though ...
I just passed all (6) divisions, took a year and half to finish (two and half years, if you count the one year break I took for Masters).
Rules of thumb:
My experience:
I started out with Black Spec, and PPI (formerly Ballast I believe). I started with Div 6 - Construction Administration, because I was borrowing my friend's PPI book, and he was studying for Div 1. I used these two resources for Div 6, Div 1 - Practice Management, and Div 2 - Project Management. (2) months of studying in between.
Then Masters, then starting back up again once I started working again. My firm had an Amber Book subscription, and one of my colleague swore by it. That is where I heard the idea of studying hard for two months (Amber Book's study schedule), and take all divisions at once). However, I was too much of a coward, and took (3) months before I took Div 3 - Programming and Analysis. I took (1) more month before taking Div 4 - Project Planning & Design, and Div 5 - Project Development & Documentation on the same weekend.
Although I was confident before every exam, I never left thinking it was a slam dunk. I am a confident tester, and I always took half the time needed. But I did always re-checked my answers, and always found one or two dumb mistakes I made (e.g. I selected four multiple choices when it asked for three...) .For Div 4&5, I spent probably 30 minute each using the shitty computer with small monitor zooming into plans to read room tags and other notes to answer Case Study questions. Sometimes the drawings will black out, and you have to reload the question page. The testing centres, at least here in NYC suck (I have been to two, midtown and downtown).
My feeling:
Absolutely take as many tests together as possible. You would think you won't get programming and prelim site questions on PDD, which is supposedly Contract Document focused, but you'd be surprised how many programming and SD questions there are in PDD. That is why I took PPD and PDD together, since they were so similar, even though I was too scared to take PA, PPD, PDD together.
You hear that NCARB is trying to make questions less memorisation, and in my experience, it is true. For example, if they ask you about CSI divisions, they will provide you the names as well, They won't just say "CSI Division 23" and expected you to have memorised all the divisions.
PPI sucks. It is just outdated. I always felt it was off, and after passing supposedly 'harder' divisions without touching PPI, I recommend not wasting time on them.
Conclusion:
As much fun it is to read threads about the evil NCARB, if you actually want to pass, get Amber Book and get licensed.
That last sentence - well said.
Congrats on passing all of them !
The whole post is a unpaid add for amber books.
They are good study guides . . .
Non, they're pretty widely regarded as the best study resource for the exams down here. The review above is pretty closely in line with everyone else i've spoken to about it. Pricey though ...