what did you all think of the test?

Site Grading & Site Design Vignettes and Multiple Choice

what did you all think of the test?

Postby cma52572 » Thu Jun 28, 2018 11:23 pm

I just took SPD today.

I felt Ok about it. Its always the same thing. I study my butt off and then I get in to take the MC portion and feel like a moron. Also when I get home and marinate in the questions I can think of a few that I did get wrong. And spend the next week kicking myself and agonizing thinking I failed.

So I am freaking out. It was just so damn confusing. I just wish that NCARB would pull questions from the 1000+ pages of material we have actually read rather than out of thin air. I'd prefer more MC questions that are clearer than a select few that seem intentionally vague and obfuscated......because this test was only 65 questions which I guess means we can only miss about 18. That's what is freaking me out.

I just don't feel the MC allowed me to demonstrate my knowledge. I mean I read the Russ book page to page as well as the SWPPP among other things.

anyhoo I just figured Id check in on the last minute test takers and see how you all are feeling.

The vignettes seemed Ok...I say as I knock on wood. The site design vignette was so extreme that it seemed clear to me that there was only one real answer. I suppose in some ways maybe that made it easier.

I'm just worried about the MC. Do they throw out any questions on this one?
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Re: what did you all think of the test?

Postby Anob » Sat Jun 30, 2018 4:53 am

I'm worried about the vignette. I also felt there was only one solution, I'm just going back and forth in my head seeing if I missed something.

Also felt that a bulk of the question were not specifically site planning and design. I also felt that NCARB re-words a lot of the definitions and double-talk, which doesn't really test our knowledge of the subject. During the exam I usually make a list and check off the no brainers, the questions I had to think, and the wtf questions. At the end I checked off about 47 I really felt I got correct, 17 educated guesses and 1 wtf question (which I got wrong). So Im basically dependent on the vignette. Knowing NCARB we won't know the results until after the holidays smh.
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Re: what did you all think of the test?

Postby ntorres » Sat Jun 30, 2018 5:25 pm

I took SPD on 6/23 for the first time to try and knock it out right before transition. I definitely felt underprepared. I was ranging between 60% and 95% on MC practice exams. I thought questions were being pulled out of thin air as well. I used Ballast, Kaplan, jenny and carolines notes, archiflash and dorf. I literally did the practice vignettes the night before and had timing issues. The real site grading vignette wasn't bad, and I was trying to use less is more in regards to modifying the contours. I was trying to check maximum and minimum distances between contours but I was worried that I may have made mistakes on the maximum distances (minimum slope). I couldn't dwell on it too much and had to move to the site design to give myself enough time. The site design I thought was similar to practice ones so I was confident that those would translate over well, but it wasn't the case. It really wasn't working out the way I wanted it to. I got to a point about 15-20 minutes left where I honestly considered for about 10 seconds walking away and taking the L, I was having that bad of a time. Once I messed around and got something workable and the parking/circulation to work and checking the cut trees, I made a mad dash to just throw stuff on there, being uncharacteristically sloppy. I had seconds remaining and obviously had zero time to double check anything. I was fully expecting a fail after that. On 6/28 I checked NCARB site and saw a shocking PASS.
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Re: what did you all think of the test?

Postby cma52572 » Sun Jul 01, 2018 5:09 pm

I do the same thing at the end w/ the list. I only had about 30 that I felt confidant were correct. More that I thought were probably correct and at least 10-15 WTF questions.

When I got home I thought about a few and realized I missed a few that I really should have gotten right. So I'm now kicking myself for those.

I don't think I did the best job at guessing on the ones I wasn't sure of. I figured we could miss about 18 and pass and I've already counted 10 that I know for sure I got wrong.

So the suspense is killing me. More than anything a fail just kills my momentum and self esteem and that's why I worry about it so much.

I felt good about the vignettes but also felt I could have missed something. So I'm not 100%.

But fingers crossed we will make it to the finish line on this one!!!
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Re: what did you all think of the test?

Postby cma52572 » Sun Jul 01, 2018 5:13 pm

ntorres, Sooooo good to hear that you actually passed it. I keep hearing so many people say they felt confidant they passed and they failed.

I'm glad to hear you were winging it and managed to get a P. Congrats! I hope I am as fortunate.

I really focused hard on the SWPPP guide from EPA so I was disappointed not to have that many questions from that. I kept waiting for those questions. Instead I got questions from.....nowhere. I just wish we could feel confidant that we were being tested on specific study material instead of this infinite library of information they could pull from.
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Re: what did you all think of the test?

Postby cma52572 » Wed Jul 04, 2018 3:36 pm

results are up! I guess I squeaked by. I was agonizing over the MC because I knew of 10 questions I for sure got wrong and figured I could only miss 8 more and pass. I'm still dying to know if 70% is a pass or not.

Anyhow, thanks for all the support and help on the vignettes guys! A special thanks to Sparky and Coach. I hate to say it but I'm actually going to miss doing the vignettes :(

Best of luck to the rest of you on your results!
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Re: what did you all think of the test?

Postby ntorres » Wed Jul 04, 2018 8:43 pm

Congrats cma! I've been waiting all week for your result. But I had a feeling that if procrastinating royalty like myself can squeak by, then you definitely passed. Onto 2 big ones left on 5.0 to finish this thing!
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Re: what did you all think of the test?

Postby cma52572 » Wed Jul 04, 2018 9:25 pm

Thanks NTorres. I'm sooooo relieved!!! I studied so hard. I would have felt really discouraged if I had failed. that's the hardest part...what failing does to your self esteem and momentum.

Conversely, passing is like a jolt of motivation to keep going.

2 more to go! the end is finally in sight!!!
best of luck NT!!
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Re: what did you all think of the test?

Postby Anob » Tue Jul 10, 2018 4:19 pm

So I finally opened my results and I found out I passed. I had a hard time with this one. 2 more left and I will finish both this year, just putting that in the universe!!!
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