…that I might have had an “good” exam. The entire exam covered material that I studied and nothing seemed off topic for the test. I only had one question that didn’t seem to have a correct response, but maybe I didn’t understand the question. All in all I felt like it was a fair exam. Now if I find out that I failed the exam… Well my whole outlook will change!
In preparation for my exam I reviewed:
- B141-1997 Commentary Standard Form of Agreement between Owner and Architect (with commentary)
- A201-1997 Commentary General Conditions of the Contract for Construction (with commentary)
- C141-1997 Standard Form of Agreement between Architect and Consultant (There is a copy on the areforum ftp.)
- CSI Masterformat 2004 (I was familiar with some of these. The Ballast book recommends familiarity with 00 to 32 and the book notes some differences between Div. 10 Specialties and Div. 11 Equipment. Knowing page Intro-3 of this summary will help. NOT THE WHOLE THING!)
- Ballast Construction Documents and Services chapter in the ARE Review Manual and the Construction Documents and Services practice exam book
- Other study materials
Regarding B141 and A201, review AIA documents edition (1997 as of this post) that applies to your exam and review them thoroughly. Check NCARB’s site to know what year AIA documents to use.
I reviewed the areforum, well before my exam as time permitted. A topic may be posted and discussed that you never heard of or thought to study. As did in my exam. So check the forum every now and then. Go back and review older posts, you may find a topic or phrase that you are not familiar with and will help you in the exam room.
I reviewed as many mock exam questions as I could get my hands on. For me they were very effective in driving home the correct answers. This really helped when it came time to sit the exam. I was prepared to sit down for two hours and answer 100 multiple choice questions AND review as many as I could in the time remaining. In my next post I’ll give a kind of what happened time wise in the exam (as I explained it to “Just“).
PPI