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Passed and Done!

PostPosted: Fri Sep 22, 2017 12:36 am
by nings87
Today I finally passed and done all the ARE divisions, BDCS was my last one and I read all the Ballast, Kaplan, Amber Video, FBC,
and did the Gang Chan Mock exams, Ballast Kaplan sample questions. It took me one month and a half to finish them.

I found the most useful books are FBC and Amber Video. Michael Ermann is really a great teacher who helps me to find the tree
structure of the knowledge, then I went back to Foundation of Building Construction and read it page by page. It turns out that
the final exam is exactly what I have read, plus BS+ PPP+ CDS.

I also post my vignette solutions to Google Plus, and I really appreciate that someone replied on the early morning of the exam day.
I finished the exams half an hour ahead. Check a little bit and even now I am still not sure about some questions.

Thank you ARE Coach!! I am waiting for my CSE now, hopefully my experience can bring you good luck!

Re: Passed and Done!

PostPosted: Fri Sep 22, 2017 5:22 am
by aninaz
congrats on the pass . Did you rad the whole around 800 pages of FBC? how long did it take for you?

Re: Passed and Done!

PostPosted: Sat Sep 23, 2017 2:13 pm
by nings87
Yes, actually I read it before when I took SPD, so this time I just reviewed it and read about 100 pages per day, 200 pages
in the weekend. I skip some Fridays so I would say 8-10 days in total.
The first time I read 50 pages per day. I have the feeling that the best way to pass this division is spending all the time on it,
and the result is definitely better than taking exam twice.
Amber video is also very helpful, which will make the reading easier and faster. Hope this helps,

Re: Passed and Done!

PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 6:38 pm
by yomanda
On the vignette sections, does it make you exit each vignette for good, or can you return to review if you have time? Also, how long did you give yourself for each vignette?

Re: Passed and Done!

PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 10:06 pm
by nings87
I have 40 mins or so left to review the vignette. For me the stairs take a long time, because I still want to make some "design" -- and I have remember my landing just reach the minimum height so I doubt if there is a better way to do it.

Please don't follow my example, just go ahead and do it. This is the second time I took BDCS. First time was two years ago I failed on the roof one maybe that's why this time is much faster.

I recommend the Norman Dorf video. Just follow what he said and you can pass it. You can also send your vignette to the Google plus for others to comment. Hope this helps!

Re: Passed and Done!

PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 4:22 pm
by Coach
nings87 wrote:I recommend the Norman Dorf video.

I recommend mine. ;)

Re: Passed and Done!

PostPosted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 1:32 pm
by SLOmustang713
Huge congratulations! Good luck on the CSE! That one seems scary....