actual studying

Where to Study
The most helpful thing for me to do was to go out to study. Studying at home was much less effective. I started studying in the lounge at our apartment complex for the first couple of weeks, but it closed at 10pm and people came in and out. Then I tried to study at borders, but getting a table took up to 20 minutes as I had to compete with students. Also, on Friday night, they had a live band which was nice, but not helpful for concentrating. Around February 23rd, I stopped by Target on my way to Borders to get a snack and discovered the Target food area. It was perfect! I tucked myself away at the far end of the seating area. The tables are big, there are lots of windows for plenty of natural light and food service guests do not usually stay a long time. There is plenty of food and free refills on soda, a restroom nearby, and a Starbucks (for coffee drinkers out there). Once I became a regular, the servers at Starbucks offered me first pick at their sample concoctions. There are no outlets at Target, but I mostly had to read and create flashcards.

What to Study
During the first three weeks, I mostly read. As a break from reading, I copied all of the sample questions that I could get my hands on onto index cards. For the amount of information that needed to be written on the answer side, 5x7 index cards worked better than the 3x5. Since I was at Target, when I ran out of cards, I could just go in the store to buy some more. Each evening after work, I had from 7pm - 10 pm closing to read or make flashcards so I broke down the study material into 2 and a half hour sections, half an hour of flashcard making and 15 minutes for unexpected dilly dallying or caffeine breaks or sections that took extra long to process. On Saturday and Sunday, I tried to keep to three two and a half hour sessions. In between, I would walk around the store or pick up a magazine near the cashiers to give myself a break.

Readings include all the AIA Contract Documents listed in my 2/5/08 blog especially the Owner-Contractor Agreement, Owner Architect Agreement, Architect Consultant Agreement and the corresponding sections when a Construction Manager is involved. There were many questions related to the Contract Documents that required information about which party is responsible for which tasks during specific phases of the project. In at least two questions, I was asked to list specific tasks that came directly from the Contract Documents. Unfortunately, memorization of the Contract Documents was really helpful. I did not memorize everything, but I would have come out of my exam a lot more confident had I known the material better. I came up with acronyms or phrases to help me remember points such as the responsibilities of the architect during Construction Administration. I picked a word from each section of the Contract and just tried to remember those words to trigger my memory of the details of each task.

I spent at least 5 hours on the Architects Practice Act. The Act had more things to memorize, but also had concepts for protecting the public to understand. I tried to get my hands on every sample question out there about the Act and derived answers to those questions from the Act. My goal with these straightforward questions was to be able to repeat the answers word for word from the Act which left more room in my mind for the more complicated questions that required more thought.

I also studied all possible consultants an architect and an owner could have and their impact on a project, their responsibilities and relationships with all parties involved. The Boardway workshop was very helpful in understanding how to construct an answer when questions involve consultants.

There were several other documets to study such as CEQA, the Historical Building Code, Essential Services Act, Energy Code, Building Code, etc. I ran out of time to study these well, so I focused on remembering the purposes of the documents and what part of the project was affected and how. When asked to list specifics, I relied on my experience and common sense.

How to Study
Three methods I used to study were: read, create flashcards and practice (with people, with a camera). I skimmed all of the material first, organized it and started to read. About two weeks into reading, I realized that I was going to run out of time, so I started integrating reading and flashcards. As I read, if the content answered a question that I wrote on a flashcard, I would find the flashcard and write down the answer immediately. How did I find the flashcard? I broke down the flashcards into one of the four categories in the exam booklet and wrote a little A-1 or A-2 or A-3 and so on in the corner if it belonged to category A. The Boardway workshops offer questions that go with a sample project which was very helpful to practice drawing a relationship between the answer and the project.

After reading enough to answer all of my flashcard questions, I stopped reading and focused on practicing with my flashcards. First reading them to myself at Target, then saying the answers outloud, then filming myself answer and replaying it, and finally having my coworkers and husband read me the questions and answering while being filmed. After the read and answer sessions, I asked them for critiques. My coworkers suggested that I relax more because it seemed like knew the answer, but was nervous to answer confidently. My husband noticed that I was taking a long time to speak after hearing the question. I told him that I wanted to organize my answer before starting to speak. He suggested that I let my panelists know that I will probably be silent for a few minutes before I answer first question is asked. His reasoning was that the panelists are people too and I should react to them as I would to anyone with whom I have a conversation. "If you were talking to someone, you wouldn't sit there quiet for five minutes and not say anything and then all of a sudden start talking, would you?" he asked. The panelists are there to help the profession and to help me. The panelists and I have to be in the hotel room together for anywhere from 45 minutes to three hours. The worst thing that can happen is that I fail and have a bad time during the exam. The best thing that can happen is that I pass and have fun doing it. That was probably the best critque. During the rest of my time studying and during the exam, I tried to think of the exam as something that I have worked hard for and have finally arrived at the final stage. I will pass eventually whether or not it was this time. During the exam, I was lively and showed my enthusiasm for the profession and most importantly, remembered that I wanted to be there and hopefully made my panelists want to be there too.