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Bauheezian
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| تاريخ الالتحاق: | السبت يوليو 19th, 2008 |
| الموقع: | USA |
| عدد المواضيع: | 11 |
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كتب: الاثنين أوكتوبر 20th, 2008 10:21 pm |
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So I took PP&P last week and I thought it went pretty ok. I felt really comfortable with how much time I had for each part. If you haven't heard already, you have plenty of time for the MC (120mins) and vignette (1hr). I finished the MC and the Vignette with 30mins to spare for each. I would suggest spending a day doing as many vignettes as you can practice until it's second nature to you cause the exam zoning vignette is very similar to what you will see. After that, I would focus mostly on the MC.
I studied from Kaplan and Ballast. I have a unique experience where I took Predesign 3.1 and didn't pass and was forced into 4.0. (The equilivant of Predesign 3.1 is now PP&P) When I took Predesign all I studied from was Kaplan. And even though I could recite the Kaplan study guide along with the test bank answer from front to back (Kaplan 4.0 PP&P study guide is exactly the same as Kaplan 3.1 Predesign study guide), it didn't help me much. I felt caught off guard. However, this time around I used the Ballast book and if you can get a hand on one, I would highly recommend it for this exam. The questions at the end of each chapter is similar to how it is asked on the exam. I felt comfortable enough to narrow questions down to 2 if I didn't know the answer right off the back.
Also, get really familar with AIA contracts (specifically B141, A201, A101, & C141) if you aren't already (Ballast helped me out a lot). I also used this below:
http://www.aia.org/movie/flash/docsprimer/start.htm
Pay attention to the diagram they draw in terms of who is responsible to who.
Lastly,I found that the quantity of the topic of questions was similar to Husky Musher's experience. See link below:
http://www.areforum.org/forums/forum21/61531.html
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cure
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| تاريخ الالتحاق: | الخميس أوكتوبر 9th, 2008 |
| الموقع: | New York USA |
| عدد المواضيع: | 28 |
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كتب: الجمعة أوكتوبر 24th, 2008 05:58 pm |
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wow good luck on that, i hope you did fine! thank you for the links, i'll be watching that during lunch break. keep me (us) posted on your status 
اخر تعديل في الجمعة أوكتوبر 24th, 2008 05:58 pm بواسطة cure
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Bauheezian
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| تاريخ الالتحاق: | السبت يوليو 19th, 2008 |
| الموقع: | USA |
| عدد المواضيع: | 11 |
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كتب: الجمعة أوكتوبر 24th, 2008 06:01 pm |
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| Will do Cure!
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tireless walker
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| تاريخ الالتحاق: | السبت يونيو 16th, 2007 |
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| عدد المواضيع: | 7 |
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كتب: الاثنين نوفمبر 17th, 2008 06:27 am |
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Bauheezian, Thank you for your post!!!
As you said, I really found the MC in Ballast are wrote much better than those in Kaplan. I have being preparing for almost one month and studied Kaplan 4, old ballast, AHPP and many different materials from FTP. Unfortunately, when I tried the MC in ballast MC practice book, I got almost 50% wrong, those questions are too too hard for me. It seems you need to find a way which they require to think of the problem, that's the most hard part.
I am wondering the MC in real test is so difficult? If they are, I might have to postpone it again Now there are only two weeks left, what should I focus????
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Bauheezian
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| تاريخ الالتحاق: | السبت يوليو 19th, 2008 |
| الموقع: | USA |
| عدد المواضيع: | 11 |
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كتب: الاثنين نوفمبر 17th, 2008 04:38 pm |
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Tireless Walker, first of all I don't think anyone taking the ARE's feel absolutely prepared with any exam. And even when you do feel pretty confident going in, almost most of the time you feel differently coming out. However, I would say that you wouldn't want to feel rushed but i'm pretty sure you also don't want to keep postponing. So you have to find that balance for yourself.
What to focus on? To tell you the truth from the exam I received, I think that if you keep going over the all the questions in Kaplan and Ballast, and understand the concepts, you should be fine. During the exam, you'll see the same concepts reoccuring. I saw a few Ballast questions almost straight from the book during my exam. Although it was but a few (3 or 4 questions), it makes you feel good that you're hitting a homerun on those and it can give you the boost of confidence you may need.
I didn't get all the questions right in Ballast at first but I made it a point to go over them again, re-read the concepts that apply to the questions, and even started to re-word questions that I already knew the answer to. For example, if the question was something like, "Who is responsible for providing the survey; owner, architect, contractor, etc" I would reword it to say "Who ISN'T responsible...." and list them in my head.
Of course I'm giving advice from the standpoint from someone who is confident that they've passed but haven't yet received the offical notice. That's my disclaimer.
Good Luck Tireless Walker. You'll do fine.
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rony-b
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| تاريخ الالتحاق: | الخميس يناير 4th, 2007 |
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كتب: الاثنين نوفمبر 17th, 2008 05:44 pm |
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Great post Bauheezian, In the question related to the contract does it make a difference on which version to study 1997 or 2007? Or could you make the difference of the source 97 or 07 from the question you had?
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kmonkey10
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| تاريخ الالتحاق: | الاثنين أغسطس 7th, 2006 |
| الموقع: | Nevada USA |
| عدد المواضيع: | 120 |
| Exams Taken: | PD, GS, LF, CD, SP | | Exams Passed: | PD, CD, SP | | Describes Me: | tired...just plain tired... |
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كتب: الاثنين نوفمبر 17th, 2008 09:08 pm |
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rony-b
Contract related questions are conceptual, not specific, therefore it doesn't particularly matter if you study the 97 or 07 version. The questions are more of "who is responsible for what" that "in what section of B141 will you find..."
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tireless walker
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| تاريخ الالتحاق: | السبت يونيو 16th, 2007 |
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كتب: الثلاثا نوفمبر 25th, 2008 01:12 am |
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Hi, Bauheezian
Thank you so much for your great reply. The more I studied and practiced all kinds of mock exams, the more I felt your words were so helpful. I am focusing on the questions I did wrong and review those concepts again and again. You know it took several times mistakes before you really grasped the concept and know how they will ask you on the concepts. I feel I am on the right way but I might give up the Kaplan history book (too thick and can't memorize much).
As you said, Ballast did much better for the mock exams, even they made me feel so bad. I will let you know how it goes next week.
Have a very nice Thanksgiving
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Bauheezian
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| تاريخ الالتحاق: | السبت يوليو 19th, 2008 |
| الموقع: | USA |
| عدد المواضيع: | 11 |
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كتب: الثلاثا نوفمبر 25th, 2008 01:16 am |
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Word. 
Hope you do well Tireless Walker and Happy Thanksgiving to you too.
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mfquevedok
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| تاريخ الالتحاق: | السبت مايو/أيار 14th, 2005 |
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كتب: الخميس نوفمبر 27th, 2008 01:47 pm |
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tireless walker wrote: Bauheezian, Thank you for your post!!!
As you said, I really found the MC in Ballast are wrote much better than those in Kaplan. I have being preparing for almost one month and studied Kaplan 4, old ballast, AHPP and many different materials from FTP. Unfortunately, when I tried the MC in ballast MC practice book, I got almost 50% wrong, those questions are too too hard for me. It seems you need to find a way which they require to think of the problem, that's the most hard part.
I am wondering the MC in real test is so difficult? If they are, I might have to postpone it again Now there are only two weeks left, what should I focus????
I agree MC tests are the worst part, always. No matter you've read carefully all books published regarding the scope of the test, you can pass or fail because the way they make the questions/answers some times are very tricky or confuse. To fail doesn't mean you are not well prepared like architect. The fact was you weren't well prepared for the test. I'll make this test January next, and I'm trying as well to develop an instinct feeling/sneezing in order to catch the correct answer just reading carefully through a clever way. Some times you can find the correct answer no matter you DO NOT know what the hell they are asking about!  Good luck Walker
What Bauheezian wrote down are so smart and useful.
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Bauheezian
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| تاريخ الالتحاق: | السبت يوليو 19th, 2008 |
| الموقع: | USA |
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كتب: الثلاثا ديسمبر 30th, 2008 01:43 am |
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So Cure, I only had to wait 10 weeks to hear from NCARB but I finally got my results Friday and I passed. It's exactly what I asked for for Christmas and Santa came through...only one day late.
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Cheli_chu
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| تاريخ الالتحاق: | الاربعا يونيو 11th, 2008 |
| الموقع: | California USA |
| عدد المواضيع: | 31 |
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كتب: الاحد يناير 4th, 2009 08:48 pm |
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Bauheezian wrote: So Cure, I only had to wait 10 weeks to hear from NCARB but I finally got my results Friday and I passed. It's exactly what I asked for for Christmas and Santa came through...only one day late.
Congratulations!!! That was a nice Xmas gift from you to you!
Hey, on your previous post you said that you studied from the Ballast questions do you mean: the sample problems and practice exam book? --- I been study from both Kaplan and Ballast, but I do not have the question book for the last one. So I was wondering what is the difference between those two books? I am planing to take this test in 8 weeks, I took sometime off after taking BDCS but now it's time to get on the study boat again.
Happy New Year and good luck with the rest!!
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