Search Results for 'sections'

[Douglas M. Rooney]

For those that forget their 11×17 sheet, there is another way to deal with the vellum issue, assuming that you are working on a white or light colored surface( I recommend that everyone bring some sort of board to draft on because the tables at some test centers are not good surfaces to draw on). You can “think outside the book” by taping down only the sheet you are working on and fold all other sheets up above the sheet you are working on. I took both graphic sections this way and it worked beautifully and it is easier to tape down a single sheet that deal with the entire book below your drawing. It also helps you avoid transferring line work to sheet below if you are pressing too hard.

[Takkie]

I passed all sections finally! Thanks for your advises and help everyone!

[Rick Spalenka]

A lot of posts here bad mouth the LARE.  Here’s an irony.  I qualified to sit for the test, attend an LARE boot camp, paid for the test and spent 3 days out of town taking it.  I passed 3 out of 5 sections.  Pretty typical really.  Had to wait 6 months to take the other two sections which I passed.  Hallaleua.  I also qualified to take the National nursing exam, paid to take the test and past it in less than two hours.  Soon I’m injecting morphine directly into veins of patients.  Which exam should have taken longer with a low first time past rate?  BTW you can “inject morphine directly into veins of patients in the US military without a State license as long as you have completed an accredited nursing program.  I was a 2nd Lt Landscape Architect in the Army one year out of school without a State License.  What State License would you use in Germany?   As I said in an earlier post all the LA license means is that its a way for those in approval position can pass the blame for a project that is vunerable to a health, safety and welfare violation.  If you don’t have the stamp you can’t be paid to apply a required stamp.  You can call yourself Donald Duck or what ever but you have to work for opportunities to apply that stamp.  You have to market that Stamp to make it mean anything otherwise your certificate of licensure just covers a nail hole on the wall.

[Tim Brown]

Just as with lawyers and architects it was deemed necessary that landscape architects be licensed under the guise of protecting the health and welfare of the public when in actuality it was to protect the firms and jobs of those people already practicing landscape architecture, albeit unlicensed as there was no process for registration.

So the apprentice system was abolished and a lousy testing system was put in place….I’d be willing to bet there are RLA’s here who wouldn’t pass the exam if they were to take it. Basically its a system to ensure that the field is not inundated with new landscape architects every year….Just as with lawyers, plumbers, electricians, etc..

The L.A.R.E. is just a hoop that needs to be jumped through to use the title and I’m jumping like everyone else. I do not refer to myself as a landscape architect. Ever.

 But here is what I think…The exam is b.s., especially the multiple choice. There are errors of fact and grammar throughout the exams and its really disgraceful. I’m not proud to say I passed sections a,b, and d without studying. How does that test for minimum competency?

 

I think its a shame that experience and expertise are looked over and the ability to study to a test is the measure of competence.

[Jordan Lockman]

In wood fireplaces we would use well casing sections. They were almost free and worked great. Also at home in my wood fire pit I made ring with Firebrick and dry laid stone on top of that. It has worked well. Again these are wood fireplaces not gas.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

Here is the deal as I see it. This is a diverse profession folks. There are a lot of career paths within it and a lot of different ways to get to various points along that path.

Lorna is quite clear about her path – to return to work as a licensed LA in her family’s business. I know several people with LA degrees who went into business prior to doing their internships. They are all excellent at what they do, but they are not and will never be licensed as LAs. The license, or lack thereof, does not affect what they do in the least bit. It only has limitations on who they can do it for – and those are not many, if any, excluded in these parts.

It is no different for Lorna. She most likely has all of the education and experience she needs to be highly functional in HER chosen path. The license is just something that she is so close to getting and that window closes when she goes back to work for her family. She likely does not want to face a day when she has to decide to not complete the license simply because she needs to get on with the exact same career that she’d have with the license, but for not landing an internship.

Each state determines its criteria for licensure and we have diverse needs from state to state. I frankly don’t have a problem if Vermont determined that it does not have a compelling need to license LAs nor do I have a problem with Florida adding in a bunch of wetlands protection sections should they feel a need to add additional protection.

Some people seem to have an overwhelming desire to set the standard that is just below themselves, degrade those that don’t meet it, and complain that it is unfair if the standard is set higher.

No wonder the engineer/surveyor whom I met with today commented on a pair of landscape architects who brought a project to him recently by saying “They were great to work with. At first I thought they were landscape contractors because they were not pompous a$$holes”. …. I took comfort in assuming that he would not have said that if I matched the profile.

[mauiBob]

I agree with nrschmid! In my opinion, graduating students or entry level candidates should NEVER be allowed to take the exam. Or make the exam more difficult: Take out the multiple answer test of Sections A, B & D and replace it with write-in answers. So there’s no chance, zippo, nada of getting it “luckily” correct. You either know it or not.

 

And any state, such as Idaho which doesn’t require minimum supervision time under a RLA should be banned from the profession and/or not have that license be recognized as legitimate. Definitely when it comes to reciprocity!

[Heather Smith]

I do think it is a good idea to reevaluate your time table. My husband took and passed all the tests…it is possible to pass more then one section at a time, especially the three multiple choice tests. He studied for all of them at the same time and passed all of them at once. Then he took the design and grading exam and passed one…then finished up the last one six months later.  I know some states you can take certain sections without employment…BUT make sure that there isn’t a time limit between when you start and finish the tests. I know each state is different.

I also think that working design/build some places can count towards experience.

[Ray Freeman]

For those gearing up for the LARE performance sections (C&E) in June, you might want to consider an intensive prep class. I’ll be happy to answer questions here or contact me directly at the e-mail below.

Ray

 

LARE Preparation Courses in Northern California

 

Freeman & Jewell Landscape Architecture is once again offering our popular series of preparatory courses for candidates taking the Landscape Architect Registration Examination. The courses are generally offered four times each year in Northern California, usually four to six weeks prior to the examination dates. Our classes have attracted students from 35 states, 5 Canadian Provinces, Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, and Germany.

 

All of our courses are current with the 2006 exam format, and are updated every six months. We offer a class on the multiple choice sections in January and July.

 

Class Dates:

Section E_April 8-10                           Fri-Sat-Sun 8:30-6:00 pm

Section C_April 22-24                           Fri-Sat-Sun 8:30-6:00 pm

 

We have a strict maximum of 26 students per class to allow for individual one on one desk crits during vignette work periods. I have 10 years of experience in teaching LARE reviews and have helped over 1000 students prepare for the exam. Our students pass rates are exceptional. Over the past 3 years, they have exceeded the national average by 18 percentage points and the California average by over 21 percentage points in both performance sections.

 

Instructor: Ray Freeman, ASLA, RLA in California, Massachusetts, and North Carolina and CPESC (nationwide). Over 30 years experience in private practice, plus a few odd years in the public sector. Former lecturer at Harvard, UC Berkeley, UC Davis Extension, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

 

The classes cover exam formats, tips and tricks, and feature programmed instruction focusing on developing the skills needed to solve every known type of technical task required on these sections of the LARE. The format of the classes are lecture, question and answer, and studio-like work sessions with desk crits and review of each exercise or vignette done in class. In addition to a study guide, students will receive at least 21 problems in the C review and 25 in the E review, of which about 10 will be worked in class.

 

To obtain a current copy of our brochure and registration form, please e-mail Rayfreeman3@comcast.net.

 

Location: Marin Headlands (15 minutes north of San Francisco). The setting is unmatched. Unfortunately, we won’t give you much time to enjoy the view. Inexpensive bunkhouse style accommodations at the facility are available, and there is a very reasonably priced shuttle service from SFO airport.

 

Cost: $450 per course.

[mauiBob]

Yes! Pass it all the first time with your employer’s money rather than your own! Be like me and the 2% or less that passed them all on one shot. It was pure luck and flipped a coin on answering some of the questions! It’s NEVER good to fail a section and that means you are now paying for it.

Let me be blunt once again: I really think the main reason why many fail is because you are NOT ready professionally or lack the knowledge. You think that your University classes prepared you on the subjects. Give it some time and learn while you are doing the plans and details at work!! I worked 9 years before finally taking the exam! Sections A, B and C were a breeze since I had already been doing that type of work on a regular basis! Almost laughable. I think I fell asleep during portions of section C. Okay, just kidding, but you get the point. What’s with the microwave mentality our society has for instant results? Come on folks…give it time and you will learn it and call it on-the-job training!

[Dotty Daly]

I hate to say, if you passed them all the first time you could sound like MaiuBob below. Its good for the ego to fail one of the sections. Keeps you humble. Good luck in June!

[mauiBob]

You LAs crack me up with your obsessions to pass the test! That is your first downfall. I didn’t take this exam until my 9th year in the profession and passed all sections on first try. Why? Because I didn’t place any self imposed pressure on myself and go through all the money inducing LARE workshops and fancy preparations. The job you’ve been doing in the office on regular basis should be your guidebook and study materials! Although, I must admit I had to read the ‘Site Engineering for LA’ book again a week before taking Grading & Drainage exam, since I had only done one grading plan in 9 years!

When the Civil Engineers send you the grading plan of a project, study it! It’s better than any ridiculous workshop advice! If you LAs would stop paying for these frivolous, redline review sessions, they may in fact start to give you info on the mistakes you made on the actual exam. They make you pay for it, because there’s a “market” for it.

[Peter Briggs]

We have a fair number. Private and public facilities (i.e. our new convention center in Anchorage). They have also heated street sections and intersection crossings. There are some issues… but that’s probably another topic stream.

[Jeff Klein]

Did you use the redline review in June?  Did you find it helpful?  Please read the quote below from the CLARB website.

“Starting with reviews for the December 2009 Graphic Administration, more comments (about positive and weak performance on the exam sections) will be provided than for previous reviews.  (Seventy percent of exam candidates surveyed by CLARB said they were dissatisfied with the number of comments provided during the Redline Review and asked for more feedback, including positive feedback.)”

[Matthew Stubbs]

That may have been the case but the proctor said it was in her instructions that were given to her by CLARB.  She said she had given this exam before and that this was new to her as well.  I fortunately use a digital kitchen timer when I take the test and was allowed to use that.  Others just had go off of the 2 extremely small clocks that they put in the front and the back of the room.  I have taken both graphic sections numerous times and this was the first instance of this.  Had I not passed Section E this last time in December I would have raised a big fuss about it.  However I did pass it so I am all done with that stupid exam, hopefully others that were more affected by it than I was will do something to bring it to the attention of CLARB.  The proctor did say that she noted that there were several complaints about it and that she would make that known to CLARB for whatever that is worth.  Does CLARB admister the Exam in your State or is it done by your licensing board?  That also could be the reason for the difference.