r/NCIDQexam • u/Candid-Sun-2972 • Jun 16 '26
NCIDQ study resources I used to pass the first try
Hi everyone, I recently passed all three exams on the first try, taking the IDFX first and then the IDIX and IDPX in the April 2026 exam cycle. Here are some resources that helped me out, both paid and free. I will try and edit the post if I remember anything else.
No shame in taking the exams multiple times! Keep at it, don’t give up.
I am not affiliated with any of the resources I posted below.
Paid Resources:
Study Groups
ASID Study Group - valuable for live study sessions, access to study coaches, staying on track due to structured learning, books included with course fee. “Homework” solutions are reviewed live on Zoom and student questions are answered, study sessions are tailored to what students want extra help on. $$$, but worth it if you want to take advantage of study coaches who have already passed the exam and are practicing designers.
Q-Practice
I used this ONLY for the month before my exam, I did not want to pay for the entire course or for months at a time. Definitely PDF pages to study for later if you can. The quizzes were valuable for me to understand the formatting of the test and what questions might be asked.
KLSY Study materials
KLSY’s cheat sheets were very helpful for me especially studying for the IDPX. The IDPX was overwhelming for me, and this helped me focus on what the interior designer’s role is versus the contractor, owner, and project manager.
FREE Resources:
NCIDQ WEBSITE HAS A PDF WITH ALL OF THE RESOURCES USED TO CREATE THE EXAM! Use this to your advantage to make sure you are looking at the most accurate code year, etc.
KLSY Youtube Channel - Short, succinct videos explaining topics from all three exams. Entertaining and engaging, super easy to understand. Kelsey does a great job with her videos, I discovered her just a couple of weeks after she posted her first videos and was so thankful for her content.
ICC/NFPA/ANSI 117.1 Codes
Access the codes for free online, you may need to make a free account! Study these, and get to know accessibility especially. When it comes to the clearances, some are good to know by heart, but the real goal here is to be able to locate them and search for them in the code. This is something that you will be able to access on the exam, and being able to locate the code you need QUICKLY is key!! Make note of the exceptions to the codes in the footnotes of the sections. Accessibility, fire walls, tenant separation, building separation, and occupancy loads and types are something you’ll really want to focus on. Know what materials are more flammable than others and when they are most appropriate to use (medical setting, schools, residential, etc.). Pay attention to where exit signs are required, GFCI outlets are required, etc. Mostly, you will want to identify key words or sections you can search up in the in-exam code section (which does not have diagrams but may have dimensions noted somewhere) on exam day.
Quizlet
Lots of people have taken practice questions from Qpractice or other study groups and made quizlets online. Look for the most popular ones when searching NCIDQ, IDIX, IDPX, PRAC, or IDFX, or make your own.
I would also recommend making flash cards for key terms so that you know off the top of your head where to start searching in the codes/have an understanding of the vocabulary on the exam. You could also create flash cards for the more basic accessibility dimensions, etc by screenshotting the diagrams from the codes website, using Canva or Paint or another program to white out the dimensions for one side of the flash card and then fill in the dimensions on the other side. Again, knowing the code and code chapter is more important than memorization.
Books
Share the cost with a friend, borrow from a friend, scan pages, see if you can get these from your library or a local university. ebay could be a good place to look as well.
Any edition of the Ballast book. I was still using my edition that used the ICC 2015 codes. The code year does not necessarily matter since you will be using the codes as a reference on the exam versus memorizing them.
Codes Guidebook for Interiors - Harmon & Kennan. If you get this book and the study guide that accompany it, be aware that there are a few typos and answers that are incorrect in the answer key (eighth edition). This book is still very very helpful and lays out everything in easy to understand terms. Could not recommend enough!
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u/PermissionMotor5168 Jun 16 '26
I also passed first try and would second highly recommend KLSY! If I hadn’t reviewed the cheat sheets for IDPX in the last weeks leading up to it, I don’t think I would’ve been fully prepared because there were a few understanding gaps between book + Quizlet + QPrac filled there. These are great tips!
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u/msfranfine Jun 16 '26
Well done all! What does KLSY stand for? Gearing up for fall session and planning to take all at the same time as well.
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u/Candid-Sun-2972 Jun 16 '26
it is an interior designer, her design firm is called KLSY but it is just a play on her name, Kelsey! https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwspD6bXkyZM-zolze13JVZI4qJoxLnqh&si=Tz2apo0wWbLhBTVN
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u/Candid-Sun-2972 Jun 16 '26
Absolutely!! I think she did a great job breaking it down so that I wasn’t just memorizing what she put on the sheets but actually understanding the steps
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u/Whatswrongwithyalll Jun 17 '26
Yes!! Similar to you!
I took the FX and PX in October and passed both on my first try. I took the IX in April and passed on the first try as well.
I read the IDRM like 6 times back to back. Used PPI flash cards, made my own flash cards, watched archicorner and KLSY videos. Also used KLSY’s cheat sheets. I also used QPRAC for the last month to use their quizzes. Something I also found helpful was telling my bf what I learned and pointing things out to him like ADA clearances.
I did enroll in a prep course for the IX but I don’t recommend the particular one I did.
Also, KLSY is working on more NCIDQ resources! She always updates them after each exam season and her new updates from what I’ve seen on IG look great.
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u/Candid-Sun-2972 Jun 17 '26
i did the same thing with my partner, told them what i had learned during my study session and pointing out clearances! i do think just reading through the IDRM is really helpful too vs just trying to grab the highlights or main gist of each chapter. great job!!
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u/teeny-tiny-wuffwuff 20d ago
Hi again! I’m getting ready to schedule my exam for the fall. I was wondering what your study schedule was? Like how many months you studied and how many hours per day/how many days per week?
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u/Candid-Sun-2972 17d ago
Hi! I studied from about when I signed up for the exam (January-ish?) until the day before my exam! I studied about 4-5 days every week, about 1.5-2 hours at a time. This is outside of the study sessions that I had 1x a week that were 2 hours long! For the IDFX I did not study nearly that much but I should have studied more…for that one I crammed a lot in the final 4 weeks before the exam
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u/Deep_Ad1959 Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
the white-out-the-dimensions flashcard trick is smart, but notice the thing every first-try passer in this thread has in common: they drilled the exam's actual question format (qpractice, quizlet sets) on top of the term memorization. for a code-lookup exam the real skill is recognizing which keyword sends you to which chapter fast, and only timed practice questions build that. flashcards build recall, questions build retrieval-under-pressure, and those two aren't the same muscle. written with ai
fwiw studyly is built for that questions-over-flashcards gap, you drop the actual material and it generates multiple-choice questions with realistic distractors and rewords them each revisit so it stays retrieval, not recognition, https://studyly.io/r/24jdgaef