Pass!

[ck1909]

I found out that I passed last week and wasn't going to update, but after looking at the posts by others regarding their experiences that resulted in passing, it seems I took a slightly different (less rigorous) path. Thought I would share.

I gave myself 2.5 weeks to study for this exam. I have friends who studied for months and did not pass, and they have attributed their score largely to overstudying and over thinking. I commonly heard others say that they found themselves trying to recall minute details from one of the thousands of texts they reviewed. For this reason, I chose to keep it simple.

In 2.5 weeks I went through the Kaplan study guide, did the Kaplan 500, and one vignette on the computer. I was averaging about 70% on the Kaplan 500. I felt prepared going in and felt like I had the concepts down. There were some topics that I struggled in but with a short time clock, tried not to get caught up or freaked out about it.

I felt certain that I failed when I walked out (a common feeling for many test takers it seems). Throughout the week as I thought about it, I realized that the answers I was confident in (or at least narrowed down to 2 possible answers) outweighed the complete guesses. My advice would be to stick to the concepts as much as possible. It's easy to focus a lot of time on the math because of the abundance of practice problems available. Seek out problems that will test your conceptual understanding. As a disclaimer, structures was one of my better subjects in school, but that was several years ago. This may not be the right approach for everyone but it worked for me and I wanted to share: Short, focused study time frame with select but thorough study materials.

Good luck!

[ad2011]

Congratulations on the pass!

Did you review the FEMA 454 at all? I am testing on Wednesday and am trying to determine whether this would be a priority over more of the Kaplan 500.

[ck1909]

I did not review FEMA 454. I felt like Kaplan covered seismic conceptes well enough... but it might be a good idea to review FEMA 454 for existing structures and nonstructural design considerations. Kaplan didn't get into those topics much.

[tinaruiz]

Congratulations and thanks for sharing. I'm just getting into studying and your insight is helpful. I'm giving myself 6 weeks but trying to stay focused on concepts. Its easy to get caught up in the math...