Just found out I passed and wnated to share my experience because like many others I was really afraid of this exam.
I originally had it scheduled for the day before the blackout but chickened out 2 days before and decided to keep studying after I was getting too many wrong on the Kaplan 500.
for the vignette It was a little more challenging than the NCARB but used an all steel system with beam below the clearstory, and interior upper walls, Max Span joists 30' beams 40'.
Studied:
Thaddeaus Course in Jax- GREAT!! I would highly recommend his course or the online course to begin studying. He broke it all down and made it seem not so scary and overwhelming and made all the other material i studied after make more sense.
kaplan
Ballast
Kaplan 500- I would recommend starting on these 2 weeks before the test to take and review your answers after. All the other tests I would just take the practice test 3 days before my exam and go over the answers.
Archiflash ** very helpful
IBC Chapter 16- My entire test was basically this and FEMA 454. I would almost memorize it- which was my plan if i failed...
FEMA 454- Look at the diagrams VERY closely! I had about 4 questions of diagrams directly out of this and many more conceptual questions from it.
Buildings at Risk Wind and Seismic.- read over this multiple times.
http://www.khatrinternational.com/AIAexam.html **** Best videos ever for help with structures principles**
http://www.arch.virginia.edu/~km6e/arch ... /lectures/
http://www.arch.virginia.edu/~km6e/arch ... es/lec-05/ change the lecture numbers at the end for more.
As you can see i used a ton of resources and I still didn't feel very confident leaving the test! BUT it can be done!!!
Good luck!