architect54

Tic, toc, tic, toc. That’s the clock counting down to exam time. My Schematic Design exam is at a Prometric at 34th Street, Manhattan on the west side directly above Penn Station. When I rescheduled, way back when, I chose this location. Here in the metro NYC area, there are a significant number of Prometric locations. I don’t recall my reason for keeping this location, but it means I have to get up earlier than usual to make my appointment. It also means I’ll be taking the exam where it took me down. I get to meet the challenge on the same grounds as before. I expect to be the winner this time.

What a storm last weekend! That Nor-easter or north-eastern storm took down our power on the weekend and I don’t know how many neighborhood trees. When power returned Sunday, I went to my pc, only to discover my phone landline was down! It is still down. (I’m having withdrawal from no internet.)

Ok, what to tell you? Including today I have 10 days to prepare for Schematic Design. It is no excuses time. I gotta make sure to put in an MINIMUM hour a day and practice, practice, practice. I took off one business day, a Friday, before the exam, on a Monday. I’ve got plenty of time for last minute studying. As always I expect to get my last minute, three-days-before-exam-anxiety attack on Tuesday. I’m just readying myself for the inevitable.

From here and next week on I’m going to place as little stress as possible on myself. No 9:00 am field meetings unless absolutely necessary. The whole point now is to be in an exam state of mind. Studying is one thing, but being exam oriented means doing those obscure daily activities that promote your mind will be relaxed, conscious, aware and alert on exam day. (My daily cup of tea, for example, will not be missed.) Here goes to a strong, productive final week!

First, thanks to everyone for participating in my ARE in a Flash giveaway contest. The winner of PPI’s ARE in a Flash iTunes app is Meg!

Meg has been notified by email. Congratulations Meg! I hope you find the product a useful aide in studying for the architectural registration exam.