Just took the test..
This was a difficult test and time was an issue - previously I have taken & passed PjM, PA, and PPD.
Topics one should be familiar with:
- Point load & uniform load calculations on a beam
- Height & horizontal spacing of light fixtures (how to calculate light intensity levels)
- Know what k is
- Be comfortable with U and R values
- Construction Details: placing the correct material and/or labeling the parts
- Foundation types & the water table
- Know types of glazing in windows and when to use them
- Wall types and when to use certain ones
- Types of sprinkler systems
- Acoustic issues and how to design for them
- 'Random' mechanical system and electrical questions (sorry I can't help more here)
- Seismic waves and building strategies
- Locations of details/information in a set of drawings
- Know how to calculate a material costs for a given area
- Make sure to know how to convert cubic yards to cubic feet (I know that is basic but pay attention to the units!)
Issues with the software/testing facility:
- VERY VERY slow (20 seconds to load each question completely)
- Crashed mid-test (15 minutes waiting which caused a loss of focus & frustration)
I hope this helps! Good luck!
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Shari,
Because of the loss in time, the clock kept ticking I presume, would you or did you request the opportunity to retake the test?
I guess if you pass it doesn't matter. But if you don't pass, are you going to ask to retake with the cost to be waived?
I keep hearing that the clock stops from NCARB but so many testers are saying that they lost time. What's going on here?
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Hi William,
As for the crash - seemingly I did not lose time but I had not looked at the clock before it crashed. I have no idea if they would allow me to retake the test at no cost (I do not know how I did yet).
The text for the questions would pop-up immediately but the images associated with the questions would not load until some time later (ever 20 seconds adds up!).
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Shari, for the lighting questions, did they give the section diagram as used in this method?
http://www.are-advisor.com/analyzing-the-lighting-diagrams-on-the-mep-vignette/
Or was it using the zonal cavity method? Zonal cavity seems insanely math heavy for a single question. Just doing one room would take 10 minutes and the formulas to do that are not on the test. -
K is a factor to calculate column buckling that adjusts for the types of connections possible between column and beam
I posted this on YouTube) to help explain ithttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvvaCi_Nn94&list=PLRqQUel8W0R6t0eDPnaCi1sPt4ao9CXQA&index=1
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