NCARB Exam Guide Quiz Results 70%

Building Section Vignette and Multiple Choice

NCARB Exam Guide Quiz Results 70%

Postby chandrab » Sun Feb 12, 2017 9:27 pm

I'm taking CDs in 5 days and only scored 70% on the NCARB quiz, wondering if this seems bad and I should re-schedule. Anyone have thoughts on this? Planning to take the Ballast 2 hr quiz tomorrow night.

I work 50 hrs+ a week at a firm and have been cramming on the weekends and evenings for 3 weeks...it's starting feel like the information is just getting garbled in my brain and it's difficult to retain more new information. In the past I gave myself 6 weeks to study and passed each one first time but now I want to get them over with quicker (all four that I took expired with the stupid rolling clock). 4 weeks might not be enough time.... :?
chandrab
 
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Re: NCARB Exam Guide Quiz Results 70%

Postby arearcher » Sat Feb 18, 2017 3:58 pm

What materials are you using to study? Mine is scheduled for next Saturday. For what it's worth I took the NCARB quiz last night and scored a 77. I've been scoring in the 60s on the Ballast tests. I've been studying since mid-January. My brain is starting to get scrambled as well, especially when it comes to $$ and insurance requirements

Edit: I think the number of hours you're able to devote to studying is more important than the number of weeks you're studying. You sound like you're in a time crunch, and there's an $80 fee to reschedule so close to the exam. There's a 60 day retake policy. What exams have you passed so far, not including the ones that lapsed? Will any additional tests lapse if you have to retake CDs in 2 months?

Is there a pattern to what answers you got wrong? Are they similar topics? Study up on those. Use the test to see what you've got to study more.
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Re: NCARB Exam Guide Quiz Results 70%

Postby chandrab » Sat Apr 01, 2017 9:03 pm

Thanks for your response arearcher, sorry for the late reply. I failed the exam because I failed the vignette (level 3 fail). I passed the other portions. And honestly I walked out feeling as if I had studied for an entirely different exam than the one that I took. Did you take it? Pass?

I haven't taken any other exams in 4.0, just the ones that I took and passed and that expired in 3.1, years ago:
CDs, Building Tech (which included the building section), Mech and Elec, Materials & Methods

The study materials I used for 4.0:
(for second attempt I am adding in "Professional Practice: A Guide to Turning Designs into Buildings", seems like a good overview)

-NCARB booklet: quiz and vignette study
-NCARB practice software vignette on their site (I only did it once, that was not enough. Practicing this thing until you can do it in your sleep is advisable)

-Ballast (read very thoroughly once and made full notes, but skimped out on ANSI/ADA (and there were a number of ADA questions on my exam)
-Ballast quiz (read answers very thoroughly and took some notes...sometimes I thought I was right and they were wrong)

-AIA contracts (thoroughly read A101, A201 and B101, skimmed the others)
-Schiff Hardin lectures (listened to sessions and took notes on A201 General Conditions and B101 Owner-Arch, and listened partially to a few others at random. These were absolutely crucial to understanding contracts more fully-- why and how--and useful to have around when it was hard to focus on reading)

-Caroline's notes (reviewed but didn't really get into the project management style stuff)
-Jenny's notes
-AHBP (I skimmed through this but it is so massive I really did not get into it)
-"The Life of a Project" visual map, good overview but outdated with the old CSI Masterformat (the one I grew up using)

Others:
-ARE in a Flash PPI ARE (cheap flashcard app for my phone, actually pretty helpful in conjunction with the other stuff)
-ARE Advisor CDs vignette e-book (helpful but not remotely the same as actually practicing doing the vignette...that software is a dinosaur and dreadfully slow)
chandrab
 
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