I’ve read on the areforum that fellow ARE candidates are failing BDCS due to the vignettes. It seems they underestimated the places for error. Through office conversation and visiting the forum, here are some things I’ve discovered about the stair and roof vignettes.
An error on the stair vignette is not placing items at the correct elevation. For example on the stair problem in haste some count down from the top floor. Let’s say the upper door is at 11′. If you “count down” 5′, you might place a stair landing elevation at 5′. Really the correct landing elevation is 6′ above the floor.
The error to be made on the roof vignette is thinking it is easy to solve. There a lot of little things (that add up) to miss, like gutters, flashing, crickets, vent and chimney placement, and adequate heights or clearances for windows in a vertical plane. Dispel the notion that this is an easy vignette.
Hopefully I have learned these lessons from others. Practice will help me solve the vignettes quickly and avoid other small errors that may add up to “minor deficiencies”. If you know of any other “common mistakes”, I encourage you to comment.
PPI