Just finished SS first shot. Not many pure calc questions and just a few fill-in-the-blanks. Most questions focused on specific structural concepts and could be worked out based on logic, if you understood the concepts and how they can affect material and overall structural performance in all sorts of situations. I had a lot of diaphragm situations on my exam. I thought it was a well-designed exam, definitely tested me on life-safety, and if I'd had more time to study I'd feel better about my performance. I crammed intensely in the week before this thing after light studying for about a month.

I blank out when I even glance at math more complicated than figuring out the tip. So I took Thaddeus online in addition to reading Ballast Structures (not the math parts), Ballast BDCS on concrete and steel, also browsed through Mikes Notes and read a good chunk of BAR Seismic, and about 1/4 of Wind. I did not do any practice exams except NCARB study guide. Thaddeus was great but I needed to practice in his workbook after each lecture (as he tells you to do). And maybe gone through the videos twice...

On the vignette I panicked-- in practice I had assumed I needed to space my joists at max deck span. In the exam room it dawned on me that maybe I am supposed to be using one of the other options in their little dropdown joist spacing menu. So I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what spacing the joists would need to be but without knowing the loads or framing depths I was at a loss. I used 36" spacing in the widest joist bays (looked weirdly tight), 42" for middle of the road and did not exceed deck span. Other than the unexpected spacing discovery, vignette seemed straightforward and similar to the practice one.

Will follow-up with my likely fail when The Man issues it.

Coach wrote:

Raja wrote:On the vignette I panicked-- in practice I had assumed I needed to space my joists at max deck span.

That's correct.

In the exam room it dawned on me that maybe I am supposed to be using one of the other options in their little dropdown joist spacing menu. So I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what spacing the joists would need to be but without knowing the loads or framing depths I was at a loss. I used 36" spacing in the widest joist bays (looked weirdly tight), 42" for middle of the road and did not exceed deck span.

Ugh.

Sigh. Good to know about joists, thank you. Perhaps a ray of hope that I had instinctively made a correct assumption though missing the obvious...

FAIL. Remarkably I passed the vignette. Level 2 in lateral forces, level 3 for all the rest. I have a lot of work to do on this topic. Unfortunately it seems to make the most sense to switch to 5.0 now, since I work full time, June is rapidly approaching and I still have BDCS, BS, SD plus retake of a pretty bad fail in SS. Disappointed