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Schematic Design Study Material?

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JustinJulianOSU

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Joined: 09/30/2010

Thu, 09/30/2010 - 16:00

Schematic Design Study Material?

I'm collecting all the study materials right now for the Schematic Design exam. I've got the Kaplan 3.1 Building Planning text, the one practice vignette for the Interior and Building layout downloaded from NCARB, and I've ordered the David Kent Ballaster "Schematic Design: ARE Sample Problems & Practice Exam (ARE)" book. Is there anything else out there that I should look into to be completely prepared for this exam? Like everyone I'd love to only have to take these once.

Any advice on study methods would be a bonus as well.

admin

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Joined: 04/07/2009

Thu, 09/30/2010 - 18:37

#1

Re: Schematic Design Study Material?

Hi!

Here is what you need to start with:

1.) Download NCARB study guide - this is the only official information about the exam. Any other book, class or publication is interpretation of this guide. Make sure that you analyze every single line in it!

2.) Practice the software very well. I tutor people for this exam and most common mistakes are from skipping the tutorial in the NCARB software or misreading the directions.

3.) Default NCARB problems have multiple solutions. Exercise your brain by designing several options for single problem. It is very important. Sometime people like to do many alternative problems once. I think it is more helpful to solve one program many different ways. It is used to be that we did not have alternative problems and the passing rate was just 10% lower. But it got higher perhaps for different reasons.

3.) SD is the only exam where you need to have design experience in order to pass. So, if you are not doing any kind of space planning on every day basis, you need to practice a lot. In this case, all books that you've got are very good. But remember that they all originally are designed for paper and pencil format. Every year those books are updated, but it seems like by the people who never took the exam. The books are extremely expensive as well. I must admit that I did not check all editions for this exam published by Kaplan and Ballast. I think any old edition is as useful for this exam as a new one. The goal is to give you more problems to practice. Ballast books are extremely good, but perhaps for multiple choice portion, not for graphics. You can get Dorf's Solutions. But then for sure you will spend more time reading then learning. Your first phrase is "I'm collecting all study materials ...". Do not collect. Use materiasl you've got for study!

4.) Download alternative problems if you do not like exersizing paper and pencil problems from the books.

I think you've got all you need. In reality, you need 15-20 hours of preparation for this exam. It is one of the least time consuming exams. Reading the books will take more time.

JustinJulianOSU

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Joined: 09/30/2010

Sun, 10/03/2010 - 12:48

#2

Re: Schematic Design Study Material?

After reading all of the material this weekend (there really isn't that much, like you said) I'm beginning to understand that you are completely right on the preperation for this exam. I've got several years of design experience so the vignettes seem to be common sense, but the hang-ups have been found in using the software. I'll continue to practice the software and get more familiar with it. Thank you for the advice... I feel much more prepared already. Have good one.

JustinJulianOSU

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Joined: 09/30/2010

Mon, 10/04/2010 - 11:54

#3

Re: Schematic Design Study Material?

Another Question...

After practicing the vignettes this weekend I feel like I'm really getting the hang of things. I think I'm getting close to now giving myself the time restraints and practiciing that as well. However, I spoke with someone today about a friend of theirs that had problems with finding new types of furniture (different from the practice vignettes) on the actual exam that really threw them for a loop. In this specific case he ran into a "stool." It just got me to thinking... is there any other types of furniture that others are aware of that aren't covered in the vignettes. And if so, are there any special restrictions on these I should be aware of?

admin

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Sat, 11/27/2010 - 11:55

#4

Re: Schematic Design Study Material?

Be ready for new furniture on the exam. I do not think it will happen much often. If you see an unfamiliar type of furniture on the exam, just categorize it as one of the existing types and apply same rules.