Freaking Passed!!

Structural Layout Vignette and Multiple Choice

Freaking Passed!!

Postby mikeolivier » Thu Apr 24, 2014 7:31 am

So I logged onto NCARB this morning and saw that I had passed! I had all about convinced myself that it'd be a fail. This was my second test so I'm 2/2 right now. I can breathe again and move on to BS.

Anyway as far as thoughts on the test go, I walked out feeling ehhh. Didn't know if I felt good or bad. The questions were about on par as what I expected, and the calculations were pretty basic. The vignette was pretty on par with the NCARB practice.

Study wise I took 2 months to pace myself. I set up basically a syllabus in Microsoft Excel of what I would study each week and day. Obviously this was altered multiple times throughout because you can never account for real life. Honestly, if I hadn't done this it would have been much more difficult to stay focused and motivated.

I started out with the Thaddeus videos (took two weeks to go through these, taking notes). Next I began reading FEMA and B@R, both were pretty dry and I needed the audio of the two to help get something out of them. I also read 'Why Buildings Stand Up' (basic overview of structures) and 'Why Buildings Fall Down' by Mario Salvadori. These two books were really great to get a feel for earthquakes and wind. They basically give you historic case studies on what happened before modern day reinforcing was brought forth. Both are easy reads, and I got them for about $6 a piece used on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8 ... lias%3Daps

I also read through Mike's Notes and Jenny's Notes a couple times to get an overview of information. Both were helpful. Having access to only one practice test, I broke down and spent the $60 for the EqUALS program. I HIGHLY recommend this and wish I would have done it earlier in my study process.

Here is a break down of what I studied:

-Week 1: Thaddeus Videos
-Week 2: Thaddeus Videos
-Week 3: ....work and reality took over
-Week 4: FEMA, B@R, Jenny's Notes
-Week 5: 'Why Buildings Stand Up' & 'Why Buildings Fall Down', Vignette Practice
-Week 6: EqUALS questions all week, Rewatched some Thaddeus videos at 1.5x speed to relearn the problems
-Week 7: Jenny's Notes and Mike's Notes, Vignette practice, Equals questions
-Week 8: Test

I have read a few posts about people taking practice tests and getting low percentages correct. Honestly when I first started working practice problems, I was only getting about 30% correct. I think the best I got was 50-60%, so don't get discouraged if you aren't blowing the practice problems out of the water! Just focus on understanding basic concepts and applying them to different situations!

I gained a lot of confidence from reading previous posts about study habits and test experiences, hope I was as helpful as possible with this post. And goodluck to everyone else taking on SS!
mikeolivier
 
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Re: Freaking Passed!!

Postby AKK » Thu Apr 24, 2014 12:06 pm

Congratulations! This is my last exam and I really appreciate your feedback!
Question: Regardng FEMA and BAR: where is the best place to find the audio for these books?
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Re: Freaking Passed!!

Postby mikeolivier » Thu Apr 24, 2014 12:38 pm

AKK:

Go to this post viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5252&p=17068&hilit=fema+AUDIO#p17068

If I remember correctly, I think B@R is only the Seismic reading, but the FEMA Chapters are in there.
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Re: Freaking Passed!!

Postby AKK » Thu Apr 24, 2014 4:48 pm

Thank you!
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Re: Freaking Passed!!

Postby veuxx » Mon Apr 28, 2014 9:12 pm

Hey can you post your excel study schedule?
That would be awesome!

Thanks
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Re: Freaking Passed!!

Postby Sumarch » Tue Apr 29, 2014 8:42 am

Congrats!!!
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Re: Freaking Passed!!

Postby Nickers » Thu May 08, 2014 4:54 am

Thank you so much for your post. I took your advice and printed off a blank calendar for the month of May, I test on the 20th. I put life events that I could not back out of in one color and each day had a different study task to keep me on track. I have swayed from it a bit here and there but it is helping push me along. I also have been freaking out over getting mid 50's on practice exam/questions. Just last night I finally scored a practice set of questions out of Kaplan and received a 64%, you would have thought I won the lottery.
Congrats on your pass and thanks for your post. It was what I needed to see last week.
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