Comment

Comment by Audra Lofton on September 25, 2008 at 3:08pm

The Georgia Chapter ASLA is holding review sessions in November. For information contact Professor David Spooner at spoonerd@uga.edu or by phone 706-542-0063. Also he's a really good resource in answering questions and providing recommendations. I'll show him this discussion group to see if he can help.

Comment by Jay Everett on September 14, 2008 at 9:21pm

There is a lot of information out there on how to pass the LARE, and most of them say the same things. For what it is worth, here is what worked for me:

1. Get a study group together and commit to helping each other pass. My study group met once a week for 1-2 hours. We met for several months before taking the multiple choice and graphics sections. We took every practice exam and vignette we could get our hands on. We checked our answers together and the whole group discussed every question that was missed.
2. Take the multiple choice sections first, they are cheaper, easier and will build your confidence.
3. For the design portion, once again in your study group, go through the various practice vignettes (you have to get your hands on some that come with solutions) and begin to put together a "solutions toolbox" of design standards example: parking circulation patterns that will pass.
4. If they ask for two different solutions on the same site give them two drastically different concepts. clue: your circulation should be fundamentally different. Example: A loop versus a Spine circulation pattern. Rearrange as many site elements as possible. Even if one solution is clearly the better one, do another one, it may suck as a design but just make it workable, and avoid critical fails.
5. If you don't get to do a lot of manual grading by hand at your job then practice, practice, practice. You need to get quick at this and know how to rearrange the slope formula off the top of your head. (or at least memorize it's 3 forms and write them at the top of your scratch paper.)
6. Stay positive, manage the clock, and be prepared to go back home and study some more if you don't pass.
7. If you fail a graphics section more than once then it is probably worth your extra effort to pay for a redline review. You will probably have to travel, and you will not get to take any notes but you will get to see a marked up version of your actual test.
8. The most important piece of advice is to remember that this is not a test of your creativity but a test of your knowledge of the LARE manual . This is the very opposite of the mindset we usually have. Normally you want to be outside of the box, in LARE world you want to be comfortably inside the box with a buffer of the required distance between you and all sides (touching the box is a critical fail).

It took me two tries on both graphics portions before I passed.

I do think that the test has many flaws, but you can overcome them. Stay focused and find at least one other person to take the journey with you, help each other and share in each other's successes.

Comment by Eric Gilbey on September 13, 2008 at 8:26am

I'm instructing a review session currently being planned for the Ohio Chapter ASLA later this Fall (Nov 2008) in Columbus, Ohio, and at the Central States ASLA Conference 2009 (May 2009) in Omaha, Nebraska. Likely will be helping with Maryland (Feb 2009) and St Louis about that same time...will keep you all posted. Check back if you have questions.

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