ARE 4.0 Study Material

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samiha
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Hi Tatjana,

Hope you are doing great. I did my BT test well i suppose. I was left with lot of time to recheck my solutions hence feel satisfied. Now rest is all luck, hope I pass!

I was getting started to study for my next test in 4.0 and wanted to check with you about study guides. Do we need to purchase new material or the 3.1 books would still hold true? For example if I plan to take Programming Planning & Practise test next, would it be sufficient to study the 3.1 version Kaplan & Ballast material for Pre-Design and the Site Zoning portion of the Site Planning book? If 4.0 has new study material, where can I purchase it from? Please advice.

Thanks,

Samiha

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admin
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Samiha,

I compared content areas and references for Pre-Design 3.1 and 4.0 PPP.

The references are absolutely identical for both formats.

The content for 4.0  is as follows:

1. Programming & Analysis
2. Environmental, Social & Economic Issues
3. Codes & Regulations
4. Project & Practice Management

In 3.1 format we used to have additional content area #5 – Site Planning and Design. This area is now separated to Site Planning and Design Exam.  

I am sure that you are good to study with older books. All publishers like to have new editions every year, but I never noticed much difference from edition to edition, except the covers. You can review the content of the 3.1 books you have and leave Site Planning area for later if you wish. But I would still review it.

admin
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I also checked references and content areas for M&E Systems 3.1 and Building Systems 4.0

Content areas are absolutely the same. References are the same as well but all noted with later editions. I think for this exam it is important to read more (in addition to 3.0 books) about sustainable design. But one can always find plenty of information about it online. I doubt that new editions of books written specifically for the ARE candidates will have sufficient information about it. Most likely is will be somewhat outdated as well.

Note that some very old books have outdated information about Acoustics and Lighting. They mention units that are no longer in use.

samiha
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Thanks, Tatjana for the advise. This saves me time and money. I am glad I can use the same old material.

 

Regards,

Samiha

cyrus94519
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Greetings Tatjana,

Where can I find additional practice alternets for interior layout and building planning?

Thank you,

 

admin
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Both vignettes (Building Layout and Interior Layout) are multiple solutions problems. Using one program and background plan you can develop many solutions. For example, I encourage you to practice NCARB problem 5 times in lieu of downloading 5 alternative problems and solving each once. You can develop flexibility and better design skills that way.

You mention additional practice problems. I can assume that you practice some already. Unfortunately I don’t know which ones you have.  Everyone has access to NCARB problems and you can download additional problems by clicking on the class that you attended and scrolling to the bottom of the page. You need to be logged in order to see the attachments with downloadable files.

pi1031
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Admin:

Thanks for the info above but I was wondering where did you get the titles above from... I also am using Kaplan 3.1 books (Pre Design 1 and 2) to study for PPP 4.0, I am trying to pin point exactly which chapters will be the most applicable to the PPP 4.0 Exam. Thanks!

admin
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All information about the exam content is on NCARB website. They keep redesigning it, so every time I look, the old links do not work. But most of the information can be found now here.