This is one of my first times posting in this Forum throughout this whole journey, but I have been a very active reader and I appreciate everyone who has shared their knowledge, so at this time I feel I owe the same to the Forum to share my experience.
I just PASSED the CSE exam last Monday. It's been a hell of a journey from taking the ARE's to finally passing the CSE.
Here is how I did it:
- Timeline:
I studied for a total of 3-4 months as I procrastinated a bit because I took various trips in between my study time. But it can be done in a 3 month period with focused study.
What was very helpful for me was laying out a schedule (on an actual piece of paper...) how I was going to distribute my available time to study, with marked down deadlines of when I needed to tackle and complete each portion of the study. That kept me focused...
I started studying 1-2h on weekdays and 4 hours on weekends whenever I could, as of course life and work always get in the way.
Don't stress to keep the schedule too firm, I always ended up balancing my time in the end, like if I studied less one day I could study more the next, etc.
The last 2 weeks I laid out a very tight and focused schedule, and marked down on the calendar what I needed to complete each day for the last 2 weeks of study. This would help me focus on my study each day and be sure I wasn't leaving anything out.
For that I did 4hr on weekdays and 6-8hr on weekends.
With this layout, I felt fully prepared and CONFIDENT when I sat down for the test.
- Study Material:
- TWE (The whole enchilada): Good source, tackles every topic. I read the whole thing 3 times thought the 3-4 month period. What I found really helpful and easy to focus, was to read the Guide along with the Audio Companion @ 1.7 speed. I was skeptical about the Audio companion at first, as I am a very visual person, but give this a try, it will ease your study effort so much.
- TWE OMCES: I took these the last month and ended up scoring at the high 90% in the end. Great source to retain the info.
- TWE 3 project Scenario: helpful in understating the actual format of the CSE.
- Woo study Guide: I read this once and re-read the Energy and CalGreen code chapters as he has some great summary notes on that.
- Woo Exams: More convoluted/specific questions. I disagreed with some of the answers but I learned from them that's for sure.
- CalGREEN Building Code, Non-residential mandatory measures: Know this very well.
- Wetland project permitting guide: read + understand the Big four, very important.
- Caroline's CDS Notes: great refresher for the AIA Contracts, etc. Give this a one read.
- Mechanic's lien/Stop Notice/Design Professional Lien: read the main sources and understand deadlines, etc.
- Schiff Hardin Lectures: AIA Contracts. Know these inside out (AIA A-201, AIA B-102, AIA B-201), very important.
After going through all of these I was pretty confident and was able to fly through the exam in a calmly manner. The timing for the Project Scenario portion is tight, so you must work efficiently thought it. I was able to spear 15' in the end to re-read some of the questions.
The General section timing is more generous and I was also able to spare 20' or so to double check some of my answers.
I think with this I have shared my knowledge, I hope you find this helpful.
Good luck to all of you out there, it's quite a journey but with discipline and diligence you will power this through!
Thank you all and thank you COACH!!!