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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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Posted: Fri Aug 22nd, 2008 07:50 pm |
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Well, my time on these boards has drawn to a close. I have passed LF and have moved on to a world of new business cards, insurance and CEU’s .
First, this test was second only to the CD test (at least the one I took) in terms of selecting the least incorrect, deciphering the odd nomenclature, and deducing the concept behind the odd assemblage of words being passed off as a question.
Read up all the test taking information you can. Look for “strong” words, such as “must”, “always”, “never” etc. in the answers. Often they are incorrect. Also watch for double-negatives; they cancel each other out. Look out for overly complex answers. A simple answer in like “somewhat based on X” in a sea of long answers citing multiple factors, was often the correct one.
And by all means read and learn Flat’s “Kick the ARE MC in the Butt” as hosted by Ironwarrior here: http://ironwarrior.org/ARE/Flat%27s_Kick_the_ARE_MC_in_the_Butt.pdf
Secondly, I have to say this is really a concept based test. You need to understand and be able to identify them from the strangely similar but not what you studied terminology the ARE folks like to throw at you. A question may have you thinking WTF at first, but look for the concept. A reference to a site condition might be pointing to an exposure type, etc.
Thirdly, the calculations should not intimidate anyone. I ran across nothing more complex than finding a moment, or a tributary area. Again, the questions clearly were aimed at testing your understanding of how the concepts such as torsional moment, tributary area, shear force, overturning moments, etc. actually work. There were several that looked like big calculation problems, but were quite simple. If a calculation type question has an answer option of “0”, think it through, it may be the correct one.
And to close, my suggestion for preparing for this is that you will benefit greatly from studying the same material from a variety of different sources, which present the same information in different ways. You need to recognize the basic concepts from the gibberish of ARE question-speak. The FEMA 454 chapters really are essential reading in this regard.
As a parting gift for all the help this board has been, I have put together a comparison/summation of the Ballast and Kaplan base shear and Wind force formulas. While studying, I correlated the concepts represented in the Ballast (UBC) and Kaplan (IBC simplified) methods and I have written it up as a guide.
I have been trying to upload it to the FTP however I keep getting a “disc full, try again later” error every time. Does anyone have any suggestions?
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flats
Member
| Joined: | Tue Jul 10th, 2007 |
| Location: | Cleveland, Ohio USA |
| Posts: | 461 |
| Exams Taken: | PD, ME, BD/MM, CD, SP, BP, BT | | Exams Passed: | PD, ME, BD/MM, CD, SP, BP, BT | | Describes Me: | In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns. |
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Posted: Fri Aug 22nd, 2008 08:12 pm |
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Congratulations!!!!!!!! As my boss, who lacks any sense of humor would say, "Great, now you can get us sued too." 
Gotta love the smell of new business cards. Enjoy your success............
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Alright
Member
| Joined: | Tue Feb 6th, 2007 |
| Location: | A R C H I T E C T !!!, Houston, Texas USA |
| Posts: | 210 |
| 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: | Glad to be done. |
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Posted: Sat Aug 23rd, 2008 12:12 am |
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I had a question that was ridiculously unfair. I can't say the exact question but the 4 choices were basically (it was one of those 'pick the 'correct' answer'):
a) ____ is as expensive as _____
b)_____ is almost as expensive as _____
c) _____ is not expensive compared to _____ , but is still fairly costly.
d)_____ is not expensive compared to _____, but is expensive to replace.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. That is SO unfair. I won't use the word unethical on these boards, but some might. Gee, could you be more vague? These choices are WAY TOO DISSIMILAR MAN!!!
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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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Posted: Sat Aug 23rd, 2008 01:56 pm |
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That had to be a "test" test question...or at least you can keep telling yourself that.
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lc_newyork
Member
| Joined: | Thu Apr 17th, 2008 |
| Location: | New York, New York USA |
| Posts: | 33 |
| Exams Taken: | LF, BD/MM, CD | | Exams Passed: | LF, BD/MM, CD | | Describes Me: | |
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Posted: Sun Aug 24th, 2008 03:28 am |
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Thanks for the post.
Any luck with the FTP?
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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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Posted: Tue Aug 26th, 2008 03:07 am |
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Still no luck on the FTP. Tried two computers, various browsers, and a couple of FTP programs. I still get a “disk full” error.
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Current time is 12:29 pm | |
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