Section C and E Scores are up….good luck!

[Hagen Hammons]

cool deal. Yes, keep me posted. Thanks!

 

my email: hagen.hammons@hotmail.com

[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.

[Jonathan Smith, RLA]

I had to take section E three times before I passed.  So, you all are in good company.  I’d scratch the red line review and opt for Ray Freeman’s classes.  I’m not sure how much you are able to learn from red lines anyway.  Though I still failed C twice and E three times after I took his classes, he provides you with a methodology and a way to approach the tests that is invaluable.  Plus…his classes are in San Fran at the beautiful Point Bonita YMCA!

 

 

[Dotty Daly]

Landscape architecture is a large field and not everyone has a job where they perform landscape architectural type work and so they may need additional classes and support. I think you are being a little harsh.

[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!

[Mike Schwebel]

“You” LA’s?  From your tone of voice while writing it sounds like you are pointing down at “us”.  While you have some good comments in your paragraph, the incendiary tone you take is not very constructive.

[Mike Schwebel]

Hahaha, thanks, but please don’t compare me to MauiBob 🙂  It’s just so frustrating because I (and most people out there) am not made of money, and to have to pay almost $400 to just take the exam (let along get a score verification / red line review) in my opinion is overwhelmingly too expensive.  AND, I realize I’m one of the lucky ones because I live only 40 minutes from the testing site.  CLARB is prohibitively non equitable in both the sporadic location of test centers – but also the availability of test dates.  For example, I have a mandatory training on the June 2011 test date for “E,” so it looks like I will possibly have to wait an entire year because the exam is only offered 2 days a year – – – which other professional exam in the world does that/ has such a dearth of testing times?? (I recently wrote the Ex. Dir of CLARB about this).  And, end rant 🙂

[Dotty Daly]

You have to look at it as an investment into your future. Spend money/time on this end for a better outcome on the other end. If you made it through 4 of them at one shot and only have to pay an extra $400 you are doing better than most! I failed A and C the first time, passed the second for both and failed E twice. I did the redline for C and it was very helpful. Confirmed what I thought I did wrong and I learned that adjacent meant right on top of. I passed B and D the first time luckily! I walked out of E after an hour the first time I took it because I just didnt know how to start. I have taken a bunch of those classes we were just made fun of for because I am not in the LA field proper and I didnt learn it or havent used it in a long time or since grad school…keep your fingers crossed it will be worth it in the long run, reflect on the new information/techniques you may have learned and I say, do the redline to see if you were just doing something wrong that you can fix and to see what they are looking at/for.

 

I think the test date restrictions is because of costs, they would have to raise the cost to have it on more days….

[jennifer Bloch]

Ordinarily I wouldn’t give such a blunt + ignorant comment the time of day mauiBob; but

these redlines hardly seem ‘frivolous’. If not for the redline review in Elizabeth Renton’s case, she wouldn’t have discovered that she actually passed.

Congratulations Elizabeth. 

 

 

[mauiBob]

Make that one grading plan in 12 years and counting!..

Yeah, that’s one measly grading plan as in Uno. Comprende amigo? Why only one? Because, if you look at my previous places of employment, which are comprised mostly of large scale design firms. They tend to favor the large conceptual, design development and Master site planning. The Civil engineer department did most, if not all of the grading plans. Prove to me otherwise. I would say about 90% or more of the grading plans of most projects are completed by the Civils. I’ve never seen an LA do the horizontal and vertical road alignments of any project. I got a headache from it going thru the construction class in school and it turns out I don’t even use it now.

It took 9 and half months from the time I applied to when I was offered the position. Typical government application waiting period and lets not discuss the intense telephone interviews. And not a person, but 4 people gave me high marks. The rest is history! Better to be lucky than good, huh? You should be more impressed with the fact that I passed section E on my first try, since I had no workshop financial investments, read a book and only “1” actual completed grading plan! I can’t remember how many Benjamin Franklins I slipped inside an envelope and passed under the table, but it sure helped me obtain a passing grade!

[mauiBob]

If you heard me say these comments, then you would know I have a friendly voice. My “opinions” are brutally honest and I refuse to look at situations through rosy colored glasses and dance around the subject matter!

[mauiBob]

How come you didn’t congratulate me too? As for Miss Renton’s case, I doubt that happened. Maybe she passed the first time and the process took extra time to correct itself. I thought those “frivolous” redline reviews only showed your mistakes without further explanation. If the redline reviews would cease for two years with nobody forking over their hard earned money, they would re-evaluate the program. On the third year, they would abandon it, increase the exam section fees by $50 each and just simply give you info on the mistakes you made. Like I said, it is “market” driven for all you folks willing to pay for it. And worse, you are screwing it up for the people who don’t want to pay for the added service.

Its a huge waste of money in my humble opinion! Instead, you could invest in the stock market! Then again, if your employer (like mine did), were to pay for the first exam sitting…then I guess you could open your wallet for the redline review.

[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 still think you are missing the point that not all landscape architects have a traditional job where most of the information in the exams is practiced. It shouldnt hold you back from expanding your knowledge of the profession. I think a bigger point is knowing when you are ready to learn all of the information and to really buckle down to study. Anyway, its great you passed all at the same time, especially grading, but some people are better in seeing in 3-D and doing math. Some of us take longer to make our minds think that way. Anyway, I am done responding.

[jennifer Bloch]

Elizabeth Renton clearly states that she paid for the score verification process after having the redline review.

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