Pass!!! Here are some tips.

[ssarch25]

Oh thank God, this was the WORST one I've studied for by far. That's 5 down!

Chalk this post up to another person telling you not to freak out. It really wasn't that bad. Most of the calculation questions are very basic. Be sure to pay close attention to what they are actually asking you to solve. For example, there were questions that were in plan with forces on shear walls that basically were the equivalent to a simply supported beam. Don't let that fool you.

Here is what I studied.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsroawN ... hKW2Q9AODo
Great videos, some of them you probably don't need to watch completely. I watched these over lunch at work, helped me understand concepts and he has some tips/tricks that are very simple to remember.

Ballast - Honestly I wouldn't bother with this, I wasted a week + reading this. I've used ballast for everything else, just a miss on this topic.

Kaplan - Great study material, you don't need to read all of it. Grasp the basics and don't get too caught up in solving calculations. Understand what they are asking and how you need to approach the problem.

Kaplan 500 - I did about half of these, it started to get very repetitive so I stopped.

Jenny's Notes - always helpful, great in a cram.

FEMA - read 4, 5 and 8. This was actually very interesting and very helpful. It uses a lot of real world examples. I found myself stopping during reading to google something and find out more about it. You will have many questions on the topics this covers.

Vignette - Mine was slightly harder than the NCARB practice. Understand why beams are needed where and understand that things don't have to line up. Think about the section, once I started doing this it all made a lot more sense. Practice this a good 5-6 times, don't under estimate this. It was easy, but easy because I was ready for it.

Rich's Notes - Absolutely the best thing I studied. These notes are amazing, just when something is slipping from your memory he hits you with it again. I stopped taking practice exams 2 days before the test and just read this and Jenny's notes. It was the best thing I could have done. Cleared by head and just crammed.

NCARB questions explained - There was a question that was almost exactly like one on the practice test that I didn't understand. Reading his notes the night before I understood all of NCARB's questions (for the most part) going into the test. It was extremely helpful.

Don't freak out, understand the basics, know wind and seismic and you'll pass and be over this one!

-Scott

[tinaruiz]

Congratulations and thanks for the insight!

[iDefy]

Congrats, and thanks for the tips.

[j_kingdc]

congrats! can you tell me where to find "NCARB questions explained" ?

[ssarch25]

congrats! can you tell me where to find "NCARB questions explained" ?

http://pegroup.us/areforum/Mikes%20NCAR ... mments.pdf

Here you go

[sanjuan1]

Congrats!!! Where did you get Rich's notes?

[ssarch25]

Congrats!!! Where did you get Rich's notes?

I think I had them already from the AREforum days. I'm not sure where to find them online. I'd be happy to upload them to a dropbox if you'd like.

[j_kingdc]

the ARE forum ftp site is still alive: http://www.areforum.org/up/GeneralStructures/ most study notes can still be found there

[iDefy]

http://www.ironwarrior.org/ARE/General_ ... 0Notes.pdf

Here is the PDF of Rich's notes. I really like these. It makes a lot more sense if you read these before diving into the corresponding Kaplan Chapter.

[sanjuan1]

Thanks for all the info!