how i began studying for the oral

It's been several months since I got my license and I want to share my experience in hope that it will help someone with their oral exam adventures.

I began thinking about starting the studying process when one of the former director's in the office told me about a workshop she attended that she couldn't have passed the exam without taught by Michael Boardway. I looked up his website here: www.mba-architectural.com. The best way to get information about the seminars is to call the number on the website and leave a message. Professor Boardway is prompt to answer voice mail. It's probably a good idea to print out the schedule before he calls back.

I signed up for the overview seminar held on 01.26.08, which was in Irvine, and my employer was kind enough to let me take time off for the four week workshop in San Bernardino. The workshop was held from 1pm - 5pm on Wednesday afternoons. Driving from Newport Beach, it took from 45 minutes to well over an hour. There is a Fastrak lane on the 91 that helps. My classmate drove from Frank Geary's office in Los Angeles and the traffic for him was about the same.

Looking back, I probably could have skipped the overview seminar as it was an abbreviated version of the four week workshop, but it was a good jump start for me to get back in the mode of studying and allowed me to pick up the study guide before the workshop began on 01.30.08. During the overview session (9am-12pm), Professor Boardway went over codes, acts, sections of the AIA contract documents and topics listed in the Examination Test Plan. In addition to content, he also discussed strategies for recognizing the type of question being asked and how to format answers in a way that covers all of the content for which the panelists are looking.

In my next blog, I'll write about how I studied.