CDT exam 8 weeks out and struggling with Divisions 3 and 9 — anyone else?
I've been prepping for the CDT for about 4 weeks now and feel reasonably okay on the MasterFormat structure and general spec writing principles, but Divisions 3 and 9 are killing me. The level of material-specific detail expected in those sections is way more granular than I anticipated.
Current study routine is about 1.5 hours on weekdays and 3 hours on weekends. My practice scores are hovering around 68–71%, and the pass rate is somewhere around 65% from what I've heard, so I'm borderline. I need to clear 75% to feel confident going in.
The referencing standards questions are also tricky — knowing which ASTM or ANSI standard applies to which product type. I've started making flashcards for the most common ones. Does anyone have a sense of the top standards that show up repeatedly? Would save me a lot of time in the last stretch.
68–71% with 4 weeks left is actually a reasonable position. I was scoring 65% at week 5 and passed with 73% on exam day. The last two weeks of targeted drilling make a bigger difference than the first month of broad reading.
For standards, focus on ACI 301, ACI 318, ASTM C150, and ASTM E84 — those came up in different forms on my exam. Don't try to memorize every standard, just know which product category each one governs.
Division 9 tripped me up too. The finishes section has a lot of product overlap and you have to know the spec section numbers cold. I made a one-page cheat sheet of the 09-series numbers and drilled it for two weeks straight before my exam.
Related Discussions
- NAATI CCL — how do you actually build interpreting speed when you're self-studying?4 replies
- CRE exam - has anyone actually taken this and what's the format like?4 replies
- CDT exam passing score and which chapters to actually prioritize4 replies
- Finally passed CDT on second attempt — here's what actually worked3 replies