PA Pass - Third Try

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    gzazueta3613

    Congratulations! Thank you for sharing your notes!

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    Pui Tong

    Very organized and well covered notes for the PA exam. Thanks for sharing.

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    Emeline Gabbour

    Congratulations and thanks for sharing your notes. I have a similar story as yours, I thought PA will be a walk in the park because I had the experience working with Civil engineers for three years, I failed my third attempt recently, and I'm going to retake in three weeks. Other than repeating practice questions, did you change your strategy while taking the exam? especially with the new WB tool? 

     

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    Katie Layne Shay

    Hey, Emeline! 

    I didn't really change my strategy from the second to third attempt, other than the fact that I didn't take a break halfway through the general questions as I had before. I'll break down all three strategies below so that I don't get my words all scrambled:

    Attempt 1: Started from question 1, answered 50 questions, took my break, came back and finished the exam. I ran out of time and did not have any remaining time to review any marked questions. This was NOT a good method.

    Attempt 2: Started with the case studies, gave myself 90 minutes to answer all case study questions plus 25 general questions then took my break. I came back, finished the remaining general questions and had about 20 minutes to review all marked. This was a comfortable strategy and I actually felt really good about my test, even though I still failed.

    Attempt 3: Similar to above. I started with the case study questions, only I gave myself 1 hour to answer and review all the case study questions (I had 14) then took my break. When I came back from break, I started with question 1 and ended up not taking another break and just answering and reviewing all of them (the remaining 61). I was afraid if I split it up to answer and review, I would run out of time due to the fact that the questions lock when you take a break. So I just didn't take another break. I don't think this is ideal, but time management is huge and I really didn't want to risk it. 

    No matter what your break strategy is, I definitely recommend starting with the case studies for the simple fact that they take more time and it's much harder to quickly answer them if you are running low on time.

    As far as question types/topics that I had on each test - it seemed to focus on space planning diagrams, ADA diagrams, locating a building on a site plan, and topography. I didn't have any questions on structure really, just a few on soils and geotech reports. A few questions on Historic Preservation so make sure you have a general knowledge of the 4 processes. I didn't have many calculation questions, so the whiteboard issue that other people were having didn't have much of an effect on me, but the few times I did have to use it, it was inconvenient for sure.

    GOOD LUCK! You've got this. In my opinion, the new exam format is less intimidating with the lower amount of questions, so go in with confidence and that will be a great first step.

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    Sabrina Richter

    Thank you so much for sharing your strategy and notes! I didn't think about starting with the case studies. 

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    Sean Engle

    Congrats on your pass and thanks for the notes - it provides hope for everyone here!

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    Zhenjun Zhao

    Thank you for your notes! Much appreciate!

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    jshealy15

    I took PA in 2020 and failed, so I decided to devout myself to trying again this year; and I JUST took PA again today: failed 😒. Like you, I felt incredibly confident all up until the case study questions, which I gave myself an hour to complete. Unfortunately I was still rushed and did my best guesstimate. The weird thing, despite relatively going through the case study docs, the questions didn’t seem to require referring back them, it threw me for a loop.

    I am still determined though and will try again asap. Thank you for sharing and the notes!

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    bcame012

    This is such a weird exam, you can totally feel confident and you would think a lot of the needed information was taught in school and work. I passed PcM, PjM and CE on my first try even though I failed NCARB practice test every time before the actual exam. For this one I have been studying for quite some time, finished all black spectacle’s lectures and quizzes, all related videos and flashcards from amber book, read ballast and passed the BS (60%) and NCARB (72%) practice exam. However, today while I was taking the exam I wasn’t confident at all in the questions, some of them are so vague or have many possible solutions that I just felt like nothing I studied was helpful very helpful. I guess I’ll just keep reading information from different sources and hoping I get a bit of luck in the next exam. I appreciate if anyone has any resource that felt more useful than the ones I mentioned. I read your study guide, and it’s very good but knowing those topics didn’t helped me too much today (or maybe it was just a bad day).

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    kkgalicinao

    bcame012 congratulations on being halfway done with the ARE (it is a huge accomplishment!!!) but I am sorry to hear about your PA experience. It is a completely different ballgame now that you are in the technical divisions, after the professional practice exams, and it does require a mindset shift. You're not alone in this struggle, so don't forget to get yourself grace in this process.

    I'm glad to hear that you have been utilizing Black Spectacles along your journey. I'm not sure when you last viewed the PA lecture videos, but we recently revamped them in January, so if you haven't seen the new content I'd high encourage you to check them out! We've improved our 2D and 3D graphics, voiceovers, and overall content to ensure that you are studying the right things to pass the exam - with tactics to help reinforce the information in your mind for later recall. Used in tandem with the flashcards, quizzes, practice exams, and Virtual Workshops - our suite of study materials are designed so that you are not just learning the content, but you are understanding how to apply your knowledge to the ARE format.

    If you'd like to meet with one of our licensed architect consultants to review your score report and help you determine a game plan for your retake, please reach out to me at kiaragalicinao@blackspectacles.com. We are here to support you along this journey, especially during the difficult times!

    Best of luck and hope to hear from you soon.

    Kiara Galicinao, AIA, NCARB
    Black Spectacles
    ARE Community

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