Tag: study methods

ARE Studio Holiday Giveaway

I have a surprise for all of you for the New Year! For every month of 2022, I will be giving away a free practice test or study material within the ARE Studio Facebook Group!

The winners will be announced on the 1st of each month, based on who the Top Contributor was for that month. The Top Contributor is based on the person with the most likes, posts, and comments, in short, the person who engages the most within the Facebook group. Once you’ve been announced as the winner, I will reach out to you for your email, and purchase the material on your behalf.

This giveaway will start with the first award on January 1st, a free copy of the *Walking the ARE 50 PPD40 Exam* by Erik Walker, which will be a great resource for those studying for the PPD exam (Project Planning & Design). Here’s the page for the practice exam if you want to know more about it: https://gumroad.com/a/211973235/SvSNa

This is the first PPD exam from Erik Walker, and this is actually a partial exam, hence the reduced price of $22. Another benefit of this practice exam is that you will have email access to ask Erik Walker questions about the material. He will be releasing the full set of questions soon, after which he will be releasing his PA exam.

Here’s a quick description of the product according to the website:

“This exam will test you in all of the exam areas described in the NCARB handbook, as well as some areas outside of the handbook designed to help you understand the content for this exam. The questions have been written so that they apply to real-life scenarios to promote the understanding and application of the exam content as these exams are not simply a ‘What is this?’ or ‘What is that?’ type of exam because that is not what you will find when you take the exam.

The other standout about Walking the ARE is that the answers give a better explanation of why they are correct, or incorrect. Some questions might also explain why an answer this time might be correct but could be different if the question was worded just slightly different than it is.”

Since the first giveaway is in January, you can start participating now! Just like comment, or post within the ARE Studio Facebook Group, and the Top Contributor by January 1st, 2022 wins! You can join the Facebook Group here, and make sure you fill out all the membership questions!

How to Use Flashcards for the ARE

Flashcards are an amazing tool for people working on gaining a better understanding of subjects and detailed information. However, creating them can be a time consuming task, almost bordering on procrastination if not approached with efficiency in mind.

Let me show you the ways that I use flash card decks to avoid wasting time and focus on the relevant information in my new video on YouTube.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube Channel and Facebook group to get access to more of my regular ARE content!

PDD Mega Playlist Now on YouTube!

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

I just finished my last exam PDD! The blog post for the materials I used is coming shortly, but I did a short post on it within the ARE Studio Facebook Group if you want to take a sneak peek. If you are not a member of the ARE Studio | Study For & Pass the ARE group yet, make sure to answer all the membership questions to get accepted.

This new PDD Mega Playlist is the result of my two attempts at PDD, with over 450 videos! I created this playlist for my first take of the exam, and after I failed, I kept adding on to it with the new material I learned to fill in my gaps. Some of these videos are very comprehensive, such as the ones from the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI), from 45 minutes to an hour long. I really like using long videos while I work, as they become like Schiff Hardin Lectures for me.

Another video medium that I made use of, which is not included in the YouTube Playlist, are the Construction 144 Grant Adams lectures that you can find on Vimeo. Again, I used these as Schiff Hardin lectures, and listened to them in the background all day. These videos are basically a building materials and structures course, broken down by the different material types, and I think a lot of the content comes from the Fundamentals of Building Construction: Material and Methods textbook.

I hope you find these resources helpful, and make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel to get more updates on ARE 5.0 content like this. Good luck on your exams!

How to Use the PcM Study Guide: Live Event on Mar. 30

If you’re interested in learning some of the methods I used to pass the ARE 5.0 Practice Management (PcM) exam, you don’t want to miss tomorrow’s live Facebook session. In the Q& A Tuesday: Free Training on How To Use the PcM Study Guide, I’ll be taking you through my free One-Page ARE 5.0 PcM Study Guide, with resources, and study tips, as well as giving a Live Q&A on the PcM exam, and questions on starting your exam journey.

This live event will be taking place today, March 30th at 8:00pm EST, and is free to attend. There will also be a Live Q&A with me at the end, for any questions you may have related to the ARE 5.0. 

Bonus!

I’ve also decided to provide a giveaway opportunity for those participating in today’s session. In order to be eligible, all you have to do is watch the session till the end, and post your hourly study goal for the PcM exam.

I will select one person to receive a gift of the Walking the ARE PcM exam, which you can check out here, so make sure to comment and engage to be eligible.

The live stream will take place within the ARE Studio | Study For & Pass the ARE Facebook Group, my new ARE exam community.

ARE Studio Facebook Group Cover

ARE Studio Facebook Group Banner

This group is for support, providing information, doing live webinars, live Q&A, exclusive free live training (like this one), and study resources. This group is a community both for those just starting out on their exams, or those who have a few passes under their belts.

ARE Studio Facebook Group Goals

Look forward to seeing you all today, and happy studying!

*P.S.*

If you miss this session, you can still watch the recording inside the ARE Studio Facebook Group! Just go to the Guide/Unit for Practice Management after the session is over, and you will find the recording.

Ways To Reset Your Study Process After the Holidays

Trying to get your motivation back after the holiday season? Use these tips to get back on the wagon.

Happy New Years Everyone! I don’t know about you, but I may have been a bit ambitious in my productivity expectations for the month of December. I didn’t have family visiting, and I hadn’t made extensive social plans, but I still ended up studying way less than I had originally planned. It’s really easy to get bogged down with feelings of guilt and ineffectiveness at times like this, but I decided to reset my thinking instead and shift my focus. You can take advantage of these tips as well, and let me know in the comments if any of these tips work for you.

Book an Exam

I have found that I work best under a deadline. As I’ve shared in my past videos, my entire study process changed when I bought my first exam seat in 2020. My energy, focus and priorities changed. Even though I am taking PPD in a few weeks, I decided to go ahead and buy a seat for PDD a month afterwards. This will allow me to keep up the momentum, whether I pass PPD or not, and stop me from losing focus if I do fail.

Connect With Your Study Buddies

I have both an accountability and study group for my upcoming exams, both of which I meet with once a week. In my first session with my accountability partner, she reminded me that everyone tends to fall off during the holiday season, and that it’s normal to fall behind during these times. It was great to hear that, since I tend to hold myself to very high expectations.

Connecting with other people going through the same thing as you will give a fresh perspective and understanding that we’re all going through the same struggles. It will also help you figure out how to move forward in spite of your setbacks, with a second set of eyes that can sometimes see a solution that you can’t.

Reorganize Your Calendar

One of my favorite concepts/thought exercises is this:

  1. Write down your top 3 priorities in life
  2. Open Up Your Calendar
  3. Check Where Your Priorities Show Up in Your Calendar

I love doing this exercise, because it really forces me to put my money where my mouth is in terms of organizing my time around the things I say are important to me. Long story short, if you say passing your exams is a priority for you this year, then your study time, exam dates, and study group meetups need to all be blocked off (marked as “Busy”) on your calendar.

For me, this helps avoid double booking myself, promising someone I will attend an event or a meeting when I’m supposed to be studying. This also helps me keep a regular routine, and build a consistent study habit. I did not have my study times marked out this December, which I hold partially responsible for my loss of focus.

Did you experience the same problems that I did this holiday season? If you did, let me know in the comments, and how you plan to overcome them. If you’re interested in receiving more updates and content from me, make sure to sign up for my mailing list.

ARE 5.0 CE & PA Video Playlists: An Essential Resource

Hey everyone, I wanted to share these playlists with everyone, since I have finally been able to upload all the videos into my official YouTube study playlists for the Construction & Evaluation and Programming & Analysis exams.

I was able to pass PA on the first try this week, and doing so finally gave me the free time to catch up on some items I’ve had on the backburner.

Both of these playlists are based on the actual videos I used to study for and pass both ARE 5.0 CE & PA recently. There are over 100 videos in each, from a variety of lecturers, companies, ARE test prep providers, and more, explaining essential concepts for these exams.

Construction & Evaluation Playlist

I took CE twice because I was unclear on what exactly the scope of the exam was. They always say that the ARE is the best practice exam. Once I had a better grasp on what the exam involved, I felt better able to conquer my gaps, and redirect my studying. Here are the videos that helped me pass this exam on my second try.

RMSM Studio ARE 5.0 CE Playlist

If you are currently struggling with CE, stay tuned for my upcoming live course, featuring 4 week training series, going through essential concepts for studying for the CE exam. It will feature at least 4 live one hour in-depth training sessions followed by Q&A, with recordings sent to you after every session. If this is something you are interested in make sure to sign up for my mailing list.

Programming & Analysis Playlist

I am so excited about passing PA this week! This test was so challenging just because of the shear quantity of topics that you have to cover and understand. Imagine having to know about soil types and egress calculations all on the same test! But one thing I would keep in mind is that at the end of the day with this exam, it is truly about understanding the larger concepts, so you can apply them in your every day practice.

That’s why these videos were so valuable for me. It wasn’t about memorizing the details of a particular topic, it was about having a good understanding of the information, so if you had to apply it to a project (or in this case, a case study), you would know what to do.

MSM Studio ARE 5.0 PA Playlist

I hope you find these playlists helpful, I hope to be releasing the detailed list of study materials and techniques for both of these tests soon, and in the mean-time, make sure to follow my Facebook page or sign-up my mailing list to be first to find out when they are available.

I Passed Construction and Evaluation!

My challenges with the Construction & Evaluation Exam.

I got the official score report from NCARB last night, so excited to share that I passed CE this Tuesday! I was really nervous about this exam, since it had been my only fail so far, and I did NOT want to pay that $235 again. My major challenges for this test were:

  • A definite lack of clarity from NCARB’s side on the inclusion of the construction & detail sections of this exam, for examples, details, sections, etc, that they showed in the Handbook practice questions, but not in their reference lists.
  • Struggling to read these contracts all over again. When I feel like I know something already, my brain starts to shut it out, because it feels like I already know this information. But rereading and rewriting the contracts was definitely helpful for me.
  • A lack of practice questions that dealt with those construction sections that I mentioned above, but I’ll be sharing some resources I found in my normal detailed blog post that I do after every passed exam.
  • Figuring out what was or was not important in terms of contracts. Do I need to memorize all the contract times and time limits, or is that going too deep? I know there’s no such thing as over-studying for this exam, but I felt like sometimes I was focusing on the wrong things. At some point my study group found a video on deciphering welding symbols, and we were like, you never know, this might come up!
  • Worrying about any distractions and the effect it will have on my exam result. I decided to pursue my LEED Green Associate credential (which I got) as an additional certification that I can use for work. I’m already a Green Star accredited professional in Namibia and South Africa, but I felt like I needed the certification in the U.S. as well. But I was really worried that the two weeks I took off to study for the LEED Green Associate exams would make or break me for CE.
  • Do I need more experience in residential construction? A lot of the projects that I’ve worked on have been institutional, educational, healthcare, and I’ve never worked on a building that used wood structure before. I was worried that the lack of experience in this specific area would hurt me in the exam, but my study group made sure to look at examples of actual construction sets, so i was at least familiar with how things would actually look, and of course, there are the textbooks that cover those things as well.
  • What will my timeline be like if I fail? I’m currently trying to take and pass all of my exams before NCARB transitions into the new testing provider PSI. If I failed CE, would I have to further delay taking my PPD and PDD? Luckily it didn’t come to that, but it was a genuine worry that I had.
  • Do you know this famous quote from Muhammad Ali?

This is me right now. I hate studying so much! I feel like I watched summer pass me by through the window by my desk. This test takes so much out of you in terms of time and mental load, and it bothers me that I feel like I can’t be fully present for my family and friends. But I think that the end result is definitely worth it.

Overall, I would say that I’m super happy and relieved that I have this exam under my belt, and ecstatic that I am halfway through this process. I am trying to make sure that this time I intentionally celebrate my win, and properly rest before I dive into PA. Stay tuned for my detailed blog post, and I wish you guys all the best in your ARE journey’s as well. If you have any specific questions about CE, make sure to ask me in the comments, and I may be able to address them in my upcoming blog post.

I Passed PJM!

So excited to announce that I passed my project management exam just last week. This is another great step forward in my ARE journey, and thank you for following me this far. I’m still getting over my post-exam jitters. I will be sharing my detailed study list and study methods in a few days, but in the meantime, please sign up for my one page ARE 5.0 PjM Study Guide, which I will be releasing for free on August 30th, 2020.

You can pre-order it now, and it will be delivered to your inbox on the release date. Keep your eyes peeled for my detailed study materials blog post, try out some of my PjM practice questions, and happy studying!

Practice Question: Quality Management

As I continue to study for ARE 5.0 Project Management, one of the areas I struggle with the most is Quality Management, but not for the reason you might think. For me, a lot of the concepts seem so obvious that it’s difficult for me to retain. So I’ll be reading it, agreeing with everything it says, but not retaining any specifics. So I’ve been trying to work on that in ways that will stay in my memory. Videos like the one below, and other tools are great visual aids to help me retain those details.

Practice Problem: Quality Management

Which of these items are not elements of a Quality Management (QM) in Construction Procurement?

  • Effective In-House Procurement Protocol
  • Beneficial Support Resources
  • Constant Monitoring and Documentation
  • Document Access and Control

Correct Answer

Document Access and Control is an Element of Quality Management in Construction Administration.

Wrong Answers

All of these items are Elements of Quality Management in Construction Procurement:

  • Effective In-House Procurement Protocol
  • Beneficial Support Resources
  • Constant Monitoring and Documentation

For reference for this question, check out AHPP Chapter 12.4.

Let me know how you did on this question, and make sure to follow RMSM Studios on Facebook and Instagram!

Practice Question: Utilization Rates

ARE 5.0 Project Management (PjM) Practice Question on firm utilization rates.

Utilization Rates are an important part of how firms track the hours spent on direct versus indirect labor, and are considered one of the 7 Key Financial Performance Indicators for architecture firms. I created this practice problem using the concept and real ways that it might change over time. Hyperfine is a great resource for practice questions and examples on both practice and project management concepts, as part of their Financial Formulas Workbook and their ARE 5.0 Courses.

Here’s a video of them going through a set of utilization rate questions.

Practice Question: Utilization Rates

The image below shows the salaries and utilization rates for the previous year for SKY Architects.

The salaries and utilization rates for this year are expected to be exactly the same, with the following changes:

  • Baboucar will be on paid paternity leave for 3 months
  • Yandeh will only be working part-time to pursue her graduate degree in historic presentation. Her utilization rate will be cut in half.

With these changes in mind, calculate the following:

  1. Estimated annual direct labor budget
  2. Yandeh R.’s estimated annual direct labor hours

Correct Answers

Question 01

In order to calculate the estimated annual budget we first need to calculate the direct labor budget for each member of staff:

  • Samuel: $170,000 * 0.5 = $85,000
  • Jeoffrey: $60,000 * 0 = $0
  • Yandeh: $90,500 salary, utilization rate = 0.8 * 0.5 = 0.4, so Yandeh’s direct salary this year will be $90,500 * 0.4 = $36,200
  • Fatou:$90,500 * 0.9 = $81,450
  • Baboucar: $70,000 salary, but he will only be working for 9 months out of 12, so we calculate 9/12 of his salary or 75%. So $70,000 * 0.75 = $52,500. With a consistent utilization rate of 0.9, his direct salary is $52,500 * 0.9 = $47,250

If we add up all of these direct salaries, we get $249,900.

Question 02

In order to calculate Yandeh’s estimated direct labor hours, we first need to determine hours per year. The number of hours in a year is 2080. Her current utilization rate is 80% but with her new graduate program, her utilization rate is reduced to 40% for this year.

So we would calculate 2080 hours * 0.4 = 832 direct labor hours this year.

Let me know how you did on this question, and make sure to follow RMSM Studios on Facebook and Instagram! Feel free to look through my blog for additional PjM Practice Questions and Mini Quizzes. You can search by tags, or by categories. If you have any questions, or you want to tell me how you did, leave a comment on the blog or on my Facebook page.

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