Ridiculous PPP Questions

Site Zoning Vignette and Multiple Choice

Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby Coach » Tue Mar 20, 2018 3:43 pm

anonymous283 wrote:Rofl every shopping mall I've ever been to has been linear... (Axial is the right answer according to Kaplan)

Virtually every one I've seen is axial. A primary trunk with minor branches.
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby anonymous283 » Wed Mar 21, 2018 3:26 pm

I'm going to just trust the test over caroline's notes. So labor taxes are not overhead but all other taxes are.
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby anonymous283 » Wed Mar 21, 2018 3:41 pm

Ballast refers to partnering in question 14. Is this referring to partnerships or joint ventures or neither? Says a partnership could be as casual as a handshake.
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby anonymous283 » Wed Mar 21, 2018 4:30 pm

This one really makes no sense to me. To moderate the microclimate, you mimic vegetation which has low albedo and low conductivity so that heat is captured longer. High conductivity would be man made materials that make temperatures more extreme the opposite of moderating them.
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby anonymous283 » Wed Mar 21, 2018 4:52 pm

thd7t wrote:
anonymous283 wrote:I answered a, they say b. high ceiling in hot arid? That contradicts caroline's notes based off of kaplan which says go compact

Seriously? Surely you thought about the fact that heat rises and knew that this kind of question is a gimme...


Nothing is a gimme on these tests with so many variables. Caronline's notes say high ceilings are for hot humid. Heres Ballast later saying it should be a compact building too. Of course I understand hot air rises but when multiple sources say to keep the building compact you start to think high ceilings aren't compatible and reserved for hot humid.
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby anonymous283 » Wed Mar 21, 2018 8:18 pm

Should I memorize the ibc occupancy table? There was a question that required it.
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby thd7t » Thu Mar 22, 2018 7:22 am

Okay, I think that this thread is showing some of the challenges of focusing on third party materials too much. If you see conflicting information between sources, you should reread the questions to see if they are really saying different things, but after that, you should look into sources that NCARB references. You probably don't even have to buy the materials. Most of them have exerpts online.

You reference Caroline's notes a lot. Her notes were just the notes she used to pass the exams. They're not even third party materials. You need to be analytical with them, because she's one test taker and made mistakes just like anyone does.

Finally, can you clarify about the question that required you to memorize the IBC occupancy table? Memorizing it is unnecessary, but you should probably have a good working knowledge of that table if you're working in Architecture, though. It comes up in every stage of design and having an idea of how it works is going to make your life much easier.
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby anonymous283 » Thu Mar 22, 2018 12:59 pm

Well Ballast says compact too but anyways here is the occupancy table question. Although by reviewing the other answers you find numbers close to 7, which I remember as a occupancy load so I got it right. If I remember correctly there is like 5, 7, 15 for assembly. There's a lot of them so I am sure you don't need to memorize them.
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby anonymous283 » Thu Mar 22, 2018 1:04 pm

I understand caroline's notes aren't perfect but they are by far the best study material for me to actually memorize things. I can barely remember anything I read from kaplan or ballast 3+ weeks ago. Coming here and fixing inconsistencies in her notes helps me tremendously. So here's another one. According to Caronline's notes, which are mostly Kaplan material, general taxes would be the correct answer to the ncarb 3.1 question. Ncarb says general obligations are. The two seem pretty interchangeable since general obligation bonds come from the money from general taxes. So the ncarb question is trash?
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby cma52572 » Thu Mar 22, 2018 2:40 pm

"I've done zoning in NYC and thought for sure the answer would be abef but alas I'm wrong once again... who knew minimum lot sizes were not fully addressed by the zoning code..."

my interpretation of that was that youd need to look at zoning but also something like a plat plan for subdivisions to see which is the more stringent? Am I wrong?
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby cma52572 » Thu Mar 22, 2018 2:44 pm

"This one really makes no sense to me. To moderate the microclimate, you mimic vegetation which has low albedo and low conductivity so that heat is captured longer. High conductivity would be man made materials that make temperatures more extreme the opposite of moderating them."

I agree should be low and low. This one HAS to be wrong. Is it Coach?

And sand and soil have LOW conductivity!!!!
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby Coach » Thu Mar 22, 2018 4:39 pm

anonymous283 wrote:Well Ballast says compact too but anyways here is the occupancy table question.

Actually, it isn't. It's a programming question that requires you to know how much space theater seating requires.
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby Coach » Thu Mar 22, 2018 4:59 pm

anonymous283 wrote:I understand caroline's notes aren't perfect but they are by far the best study material for me to actually memorize things. I can barely remember anything I read from kaplan or ballast 3+ weeks ago. Coming here and fixing inconsistencies in her notes helps me tremendously. So here's another one. According to Caronline's notes, which are mostly Kaplan material, general taxes would be the correct answer to the ncarb 3.1 question. Ncarb says general obligations are. The two seem pretty interchangeable since general obligation bonds come from the money from general taxes. So the ncarb question is trash?

The question doesn't say "general taxes" which is a meaningless phrase. It says "general SALES tax".

General obligation bonds ARE NOT taxes at all. Bonds are often accompanied by a special assessment (usually temporary) on property taxes, but not always.

Bonds are a financial instrument that cities create and sell on the open market. They're essentially loans.

Examples:
1) A city needs a parking structure. To fund construction, it issues bonds that will be repaid with parking income.
2) A county wants a new regional sports park. It issues bonds to cover construction cost and imposes a new special assessment on all residential units in the county at a rate of $12/bedroom/year for 10 years.
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby anonymous283 » Thu Mar 22, 2018 6:31 pm

I meant to say general sales tax and I'm talking specifically about the ncarb 3.1 question asking about how capital improvements are funded. But here's ballast also saying general taxes fund capital improvements. Wouldn't your first example be a public enterprise revenue bond? Which again sounds very familiar to just revenue bonds. And your second one sounds alot like ballat's general sales tax definition and like a special sales tax. This is insanity. Why do I need to know this?
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby anonymous283 » Thu Mar 22, 2018 6:59 pm

This is what I gather:

general sales taxes and property taxes are used for general maintenance

special taxes are for larger projects which require a majority vote

general obligation bonds are loans backed by general tax revenue and is essentially a way of the government giving itself a loan when they don't have enough money for an improvement. This is also voted on.

revenue bonds are the same as general obligation ones except they are backed by (existing?) revenue

public enterprise revenue bonds are similar to revenue bonds but are paid back by the revenue produced by the improvement

tax-increment financing is insanely confusing to me the way ballast describes it but basically the increase in future property value pay off loans and doesn't require a vote

development impact fees require the developer to pay fees for off-site infrastructure improvements necessary for new development

subdivision exactions are similar to development impact fees except its not for construction and the developer is required to dedicate land for public use or contribute cash to local governments

special district assessments are property owners contributing to a public space improvement
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby anonymous283 » Thu Mar 22, 2018 8:33 pm

Do I really need to memorize all these test numbers for the test or can I skip it?
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby thd7t » Fri Mar 23, 2018 7:27 am

anonymous283 wrote:Do I really need to memorize all these test numbers for the test or can I skip it?

Skip it.
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby anonymous283 » Sat Mar 24, 2018 1:33 pm

My test is monday but if anyone could help clear up the question posted at Wed Mar 21, 2018 7:30 pm I would appreciate it.
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby noahinblue » Wed Mar 28, 2018 6:39 pm

anonymous283 wrote:I'm going to just trust the test over caroline's notes. So labor taxes are not overhead but all other taxes are.


My understanding of this is Labor Taxes would not be thought of as Overhead because their "quantity" is directly tied to the quantity of labor. The overall cost of labor taxes increases at the same rate that the overall cost of labor would be increasing. I've typically seen treated the same as employee benefits - packaged into the employee's "fully burdened" hourly rate.
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby noahinblue » Wed Mar 28, 2018 6:40 pm

anonymous283 wrote:My test is monday but if anyone could help clear up the question posted at Wed Mar 21, 2018 7:30 pm I would appreciate it.


Was that the right question?
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby nickedemus » Thu Mar 29, 2018 4:52 am

noahinblue wrote:
anonymous283 wrote:So labor taxes are not overhead but all other taxes are.


My understanding of this is Labor Taxes would not be thought of as Overhead because their "quantity" is directly tied to the quantity of labor. The overall cost of labor taxes increases at the same rate that the overall cost of labor would be increasing. I've typically seen treated the same as employee benefits - packaged into the employee's "fully burdened" hourly rate.


That is an interesting point about taxes being tied directly to the quantity of labor. I bet there is even some debate about it among accountants.

I think state and local taxes fall under G&A (General & Administrative) costs, which become part of the fully burdened rate along with fringe and overhead expenses. Not sure about federal, though. But I assume it is also considered an indirect cost.

I doubt this level of detail will be on the test. They mainly test for your knowledge of concepts, like the difference between a direct cost and an indirect cost.
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby Coach » Thu Mar 29, 2018 12:52 pm

nickedemus wrote:That is an interesting point about taxes being tied directly to the quantity of labor. I bet there is even some debate about it among accountants.

Of course there's a tax component to labor costs. There is no debate about that.

I think state and local taxes fall under G&A (General & Administrative) costs, which become part of the fully burdened rate along with fringe and overhead expenses. Not sure about federal, though. But I assume it is also considered an indirect cost.

I doubt this level of detail will be on the test. They mainly test for your knowledge of concepts, like the difference between a direct cost and an indirect cost.

Taxes are tied to the item being taxed. If a direct item then tax is a direct cost. If an indirect item, then tax is indirect too.
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Re: Ridiculous PPP Questions

Postby nickedemus » Fri Mar 30, 2018 3:06 am

Coach wrote:
nickedemus wrote:That is an interesting point about taxes being tied directly to the quantity of labor. I bet there is even some debate about it among accountants.

Of course there's a tax component to labor costs. There is no debate about that.


That sentence of mine came out stupid. It's not a complete thought.
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