I took Programming, Planning and Practice (PPP) last week Monday. Here are some of my personal exam experience and thoughts.
I finished both sections with 25 minutes to sit back and review. I changed three questions. One of those, I was confident I changed to a correct answer. I had not read the question correctly the first time. In the vignette, I found an error that would have caused me to fail. I needed those 25 minutes to review, both times.
I’ll talk about the last part first, the 1 hour site zoning vignette. The massing profile was complicated in one lot, but the essence of simplicity in the other lot. That really messed with my head. I kept looking in the program for something to adjust the profile of the other lot. I only hope I didn’t miss an instruction somewhere. I looked and looked. Otherwise everything was similar to the sample vignettes at NCARB.
During the vignette, I had “finished” with 25 minutes to spare and I caught a big error. For the massing profile, I had drawn the elevation, rather than the section (at the cut-line). I was horrified, but I had plenty of time to change.
A couple days after the exam, the whole thing somehow hit me about the vignette. I didn’t see much in the program to modify the other profile. There is something about these exams that work the subconcious recesses of your mind. (Even though the Construction Documents and Services exam seemed managable for me, I still have a significant level of doubt as to wether I passed. This really didn’t happen to me in college. I generally knew whether I had passed or failed upon leaving an exam.)
The multiple choice questions were, I’m almost certain, the trickiest questions on all seven exams. (Be cautious of my statement though, I’ve only taken two exams!) Some of the questions were so simple, when I reviewed them I COMPLETELY reinterpreted the questions. That was scary. When that happened, I got totally perplexed and reacted by skipping the question. That was freakish! So freakish, I didn’t review as many questions as I could have. Nothing is scarier than totally reinterpreting a question, so that the exact opposite answers seem correct. I thought it best to go with my initial reaction to the questions. I slowed down my review, so as not to encounter any more unsettling confusion. That was not a good idea, but I didn’t want to upset my mind before the exam was finished. I still had the vignette to complete.
Like I said before, “If you were born from the womb of NCARB…”
This exam has opinion. Whose, I’m not too sure. Even if my preparation had been better, I would not have anticipated the perspective posed by about five to ten questions. That is why I have changed my mind regarding over preparation. Maybe over preparation is not possible for this exam. History questions came up in regards to planning and form (radial, linear, etc.), so if you didn’t know all four answers you might not be 100% sure you chose the correct response. Sometimes you know the correct answer, but you don’t know the name in it’s country. Do you know the French name of Corbu’s “Tower in the Park”? You should.
But I’ve given up thinking about this exam. When I get the results, I’ll know. Vignette and all… Two exams down, five to go! [With no results yet, I pray it's not seven to go!!!!!]
PPI
Sketchbook Project