I need some guidance and am getting nervous. I have taken the structures exam now three times and three times I received 1's in all areas except general Structures which I always receive 3. I always think i do well, I have ballast, and all of the study guides recommended on this forum. What am I getting wrong !!! So nervous it's my last test and i only have one more shot before June 30.

Thanks

Sorry to hear about this. Exams are scary enough without mysterious downgrades! Have you done all the Kaplan Q&A you can for this area? Did you do Thaddeus and then study his handout for this area? He's really strong on General Structures. A colleague of mine has engaged an online service that looks over your weaknesses and assigns specific study guides/areas for improvement.

Hi
I did do the Thaddeus seminar, I have the Kaplan book but concentrated more on Ballast

Thanks for the advice

bmmguru, my study strategy is similar to what jdunks mentioned about finding weaknesses.

Here's what I did about two weeks before the exam:
Take all the practice quizzes.
As I take them, mark any answer I'm are unsure of. Just like "marking" on the ARE.
Check all answers.
For any question I got wrong or marked, write the topic(s) of the question next to it.
A few topic patterns may emerge or a handful of peculiar items will be highlighted.
Focus on those topics.

For example, I took the SS quizzes and I found I missed a lot of the concrete material questions, like mix ratio, design failures, additives, efficient design, etc. So I read anything I could find about the basics of concrete design.

Don't forget to read the Ballast BDCS sections for steel, concrete, masonry, and wood.

Good luck!

Thank you for your help !

My general recommendation on the MC portion is to really understand the concepts and don't get too caught up in the equations and calculations. Typically if there is a calculation involved, they give you all the information you need, nothing more or less to solve the question. If you understand the concepts, the 'math' becomes much easier. I studied Kaplan and watched the Dilip Khatri videos on YouTube. For me, his explanations, in conjunction with Kaplan, were very helpful. Not sure where you are located, but I am in the NW and so lateral forces (earthquakes) were somewhat familiar to me. I can imagine if you live and work in a part of the world where earthquakes are not common (or large wind events for that matter) lateral forces can be tricky to understand.

Best of luck!