THAT CLOSE - Fail By One Point w/ Test Review

[ARE_we_there_yet]

So I did it. I finally sat down for the CSE. After months of procrastination and finding anything else to do in general, I got my act together and studied for this thing. To be honest, the true impetus for prepping to take the thing was CAB's changing of the exam come March 1. After calling PSI (because my city wasn't available to schedule online) I found out that the last date to sit to test before March 1, was going to be Tuesday, February 14. Well I wasn't too hot on having a day between the weekend and my test, so I opted to take it first thing Monday morning, February 13.

Everything seemed to be going well. I ended up getting a solid five weeks of studying in - much less than I had wanted, but still enough to prepare, IMO. Nailing all of the different California specific codes and regulations seemed to be the hardest part for me, and obviously I still have some work to do in those areas. I end up taking the exam (for the full 3.5 hours of time, mind you) and came out pretty exhausted. I end up receiving my report from the PSI employee and I missed the cutoff threshold by a whopping 1 point. I almost couldn't believe it at first, and frankly am still processing much of it - where could I have studied more, what could I have answered differently on the test, etc...

I'm planning to take it six months from now, with a strong attempt on not forgetting what I've learned over these past 5 weeks. Should be slightly different with CAB's new 2014 Test Plan, but I imagine it can't be that much harder. All in all, I just think I needed more repetition with the material to help cement the obvious stuff.

Study Material -

Doucette's WE - The whole gamut, pretty much just went through everything twice.
PassX Flash Card - Went through the whole stack once, probably should have done so a few more times. I honestly prefer the format of these to that in Doucette's WE.
Schiff-Hardin lectures for AIA Docs and related.

Test day -

There was much more reading than I had anticipated was going to be on the exam. Not that I'm bad at reading, it just requires a lot more time than I had experienced while taking all the practice exam material. There were time within the Project Scenarios where multiple questions in a row contained two or three sentences. This is quite a bit to process when you have to re-read for clarity and analyze every word.

Other than that, the test was OKAY, not overbearingly hard, just make sure to get through the questions and leave enough time for review.

See you all on here over the next six months.

[kass]

I suggest registering for the Doucette's coaching program. it helped me second time around.

[b5000]

Hey - I'm right there with you. Blew it by 2 goddamn points. What kind of frustrates me is I put in a lot of time I'd say maybe 90-150 hours into studying (and I felt like I was solid and was confident about all aspects) - apparently not!!!

**Similarly to my experience with certain ARE exams is that certain exams can sometimes be absolutely nothing like the practice material in the way questions are worded... and they do go through an effort to make it tricky and confusing... I generally knew what they wanted - but was left super frustrated guessing between two possible good choices and then making a goddamn guess. Additionally I was at one point squinting around on some smallish floor plans looking for a door ID tag! hahhahahah - surreal. After the initial anger and self-loathing...which will hopefully wear off a bit I feel that a good part of this is just luck - hell - It could have come down to guessing wrong on 1 or 2 questions!! How ironic is that?! Well - I'll have to choice but to get back to it in 180 days (lame) and see if I can smash this turd out the next time. I think a good exercise would be to spend some time to try to devise my own study questions that try to use the same confusing techniques and try them out on someone else who is studying and maybe exchange devilish questions and just work on trying to train around this.

I agree - I don't feel like it was a hard test per se- just that it seems like it was designed test not so much for knowledge of the concept as much as for very precise reading and whatever logic they use for each question. (and I guess that's the point on these things). After a huge bulk of studying I did feel very comfortable with the material and concepts but - intentional obfuscation?...thats another thing...that has to be overcome. I was hugely naive about that.

- Def. not happy about the wait period.

[hnQ_9999]

Didn't see any post for "Pass" lately.
v2016 must be very hard.

[cabcandidla]

don't get too discouraged folks. as I have tried to reiterate several times already this test throws things at you from left field and forces you to use your own judgement. that's why it is difficult.

If you have a solid handle on all the concepts and have gone through the CSE test plan you should be in good shape. It doesn't mean you won't be confused or a little scared during the exam (I sure was) but it at least means you covered as many bases as you could. Just remember that you will have to deal with questions that you are not familiar with. A lot of them. Experience helps a bit.

I do offer a virtual pat on the back for attempting to surmount this badass test though. You have already accomplished quite a bit if you studied for and took it once. For that you should be commended!