Welcome to Planning Certification, Your One-Stop Shop For AICP Exam Study Materials.

Our Story

AICP. I coveted those four letters. As soon as I had the required work experience to be eligible for the exam, I compiled my application right away.

I started studying and was so overwhelmed by all the resources on the internet. I was thankful for local APA chapters putting out their recommended study materials but their lists were long (oh so long!). I studied this here and that there. Sometimes I would study something and when I would go back to refer to it, I couldn’t remember what link it came from.

And don’t get me started on the recommended books. How was I supposed to read 100+ books in less than four months I had leading up to the exam? I couldn’t.

So I bought expensive study materials and tried to make sense of everything by making my own cheat sheets and study guides. My bedroom became a flood of index cards and sheets of copy paper with my chicken scratch in the margins.

But once I started creating my own study guides that made the information manageable, I felt like I was actually accomplishing something and retaining information, as opposed to feeling like I was drowning in information. I took the information for the exam and put it in a digestible, easy-to-read format.

And it worked. I PASSED.

I was the first of my graduate school friends to sit for and pass the AICP exam. I had no one to ask questions to.

How It Started

As time went on and more friends became eligible for the exam, I was the first to offer my tips for preparing for the exam. I shared my binder full of my highlighted notes and charts. And then they all passed on the first try, too!

I realized there was a secret sauce to passing the exam: putting the study material in a format that was easy (and * gasp * even enjoyable) to read, and having someone to ask about the exam.

THAT’S WHY we created Planning Certification - to streamline studying for you! Two AICP planners came together to develop study guides that included all the tables and charts, chicken-scratch notes in our margins, and everything we found to be essential to our studies. Now it’s all in one place. Just for you.

We set out to make our guides comprehensive and visual so studying isn’t a bore. You don’t have to go from source to source to find the information you need to understand a topic. And we decided to make them as PDFs so once you download them, they are yours forever.

As a practicing planner, I got so frustrated that some of the study materials I had purchased expired. I couldn’t refer to it at all when I was sitting at my desk and needing a refresher.

I was fortunate when I was studying for the exam to be able to do so at my office desk. But sometimes I squeezed in studying on the public bus to and from work, or in the passenger seat on a road trip, or lounging by the pool. Wherever I felt the motivation, I tried to study. With our PDFs, you can study on the go using your phone or tablet, or print out hard copies so you can highlight and make your own notes in the margins.

Our Mission

Our guides are designed to make you feel confident studying for the exam, making the information easy to process and easy to access.

Planning Certification is also intended to be a place you can ask your questions. Not sure how to apply to the exam? Unsure about your eligibility criteria answers on your application? Wondering when you should start applying or studying? We’re here for all those questions and more.

We’ve been in your shoes.

If you’re ready to add AICP to the end of your email signature, then stop struggling and start using Planning Certification resources NOW!