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ghack
Member
| Joined: | Mon Jul 30th, 2007 |
| Location: | New Orleans, Louisiana USA |
| Posts: | 33 |
| Exams Taken: | PD, GS, LF, ME, BD/MM, CD, SP, BP, BT | | Exams Passed: | PD, GS, LF, ME, BD/MM, CD, SP, BP, BT | | Describes Me: | Too old for this |
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| Mana: |   |
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Posted: Thu Aug 7th, 2008 11:07 pm |
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The letter came. I have passed on to a life without General Structures looming over me anymore. Still waiting on LF…
To sum up:
David Thaddeus’ seminar is worth every penny.
Of the non-calculation questions, about a third were easy. A third required a bit of deduction or eliminating the least worst answers, but generally were not too tough. The remaining were specific items you either knew or didn’t. 5-8 were on the much touted formula “concepts” and of those, most were basic. I think about 10 total gave me real pause.
Many seemed to be written in some kind of strange code. I think the NCARB folks are running the question through Google translator into Icelandic then Brazilian Portuguese and back into English.
There was one extremely odd question which seemed aimed at tripping you up by using some LF concepts in the answer.
One “where to put the hole in the beam” question
One history question, which was easy.
3 or so on foundations (all non-calculation)
3 or so on trusses, limited to “which member can be removed” type of questions.
There were about 3 on long span. One on system selection, one easy cable supported structure question, and one easy on pneumatic structures (you didn’t need to know much about them to answer it).
There were only two or three others on selection of systems.
There was nothing on Hooke’s Law, E , or the stress/strain graph.
I would say there were 10-15 calculations. I used no trigonometry in any of them. Only five or six involved anything more than a simple calculation, or looking up a value and plugging it in.
One seemed like a simple formula calc with an extremely obscure formula and a piece of information that were not on anyone’s “need to know” list. I did remember them, but what I came up with not in the ballpark of any of the answers. I suspect it was one of those "test" test question. If you get something like this. Don't panic and move on.
Nearly all the formulas were given in the reference section, but I did need to know the formula for S in rectangular beams.
The on-screen calculator is a POS. It is finicky and often does not register digits you think you have entered. Use the keyboard keypad and, if you have time, repeat all your calculations a second time as a check. I understand that working with poorly designed and temperamental equipment in extremely stressful situations is an essential skill in designing a safe functional building. I think instead of charging your credit card, test fees should be paid by feeding coins into a slot while the test is running.
“If I pass, it’s because of my intelligence and hard work. If I fail, it’s because they are just out to get me.” – anonymous
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LibraLogic
Member
| Joined: | Wed May 14th, 2008 |
| Location: | West Palm Beach, FL, USA |
| Posts: | 136 |
| Exams Taken: | GS, ME, CD, BT | | Exams Passed: | GS, CD, BT | | Describes Me: | Determined |
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| Mana: |  |
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Posted: Fri Aug 8th, 2008 01:37 pm |
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Great summary...thank you. Testing in about a week and a half, and you have answered several concerns of mine which inherently has settled a bit of my nerves too.
Indeed hope to hear from you when you get the PASS letter, sounds like you did quite well.
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