Section C and E

Rating: 0 after 1 vote

I was wondering how everyone felt about taking the most recent C and E sections? It was my first time, and I have to say pretty overwhelming! Good luck to all and here's to passing exams!

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Timothy L. on December 9, 2008 at 4:12pm: I took Section E for time number two today- Holy Crap!!!!!
Hope you and others did well Paul. For me I found it exponentially more difficult than the test administered last June. I went in feeling confident and prepared and came out feeling horrible and unprepared. Nothing in my studies or professional experience prepared me for several items intertwined in today's test. I feel like all my preparion work was a complete waste of time (and of course money). Took the ol Red Line Review and thought it was helpful, (after I shelled out the obligitory and disgracefull $140.00)....NOT!!!!!

Supposedly the passing rate for Section E is around 30%, I'll wager today's test will be well below that.

Clarb Sucks!
(Hey that might make a snappy tee shirt!); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Paul on December 9, 2008 at 5:32pm: Timothy, I totally agree about some much time wasted on studying things that were not tested. I even went to the UGA review session and the grading review portion of the weekend was not helpful when comparing it to what we went through today! I talked to several people today who were there for their second and third times as well.

I like the t-shirt idea!!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Leslie S. Costa on June 12, 2010 at 5:35am: I'd definitely buy that t-shirt! I took sections C and E this past week as well. Section C I felt like I did pretty well and calmly took the test. Section E I felt a bit overwhelmed and was frantic erasing down to last minute but did finish all the problems. Too many 3' contours! Did the access road got right up to the proposed building pad in one of those problems? I also think they should have put the bridge elevation in the problem statement. I had a hard time finding it for some reason and it made me waste alot of time. I wonder how much they actually take off for messy lines etc.. does anyone know if they scale or weigh in any problems everyone has an issue with? I had a hard time with the parking lot with the detention area in the center for some reason the grades really tripped me up.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sullor on December 9, 2008 at 5:44pm: I'll be back in June. I think I selected the wrong option for the first vignette in section C and then switched it ...twice... so ended with the wrong one as well. I switched it back to 'B' with twenty minutes to go in the exam and then two minutes before time, I noticed that I was way over the tree line and into the steep slope area. The silly vignette didn't give you the contours to scale on the actual drawing area though. SOOO annoying. They are really trying hard to make us fail and take all our money.
Section E was my first time, and I was so confused by the first vignette. It seemed like they were trying to mix C and E together and it was hard to fit the elements into the project site without going into the 100 foot wetland buffer. Also to draw all the contours at 100 scale. My pencil line was probably 2' thick at that scale. The other vignettes also were hard because of all the information that you had to work out in your stressed out head. I've never graded an infiltration basin before either. Why do I want to be a landscape architect again? At this point I have to defeat it.

I'm wondering what option others selected for vignette 1 of section C?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Marko on December 10, 2008 at 9:13am: Agree with comments on first Vignette sections C. I choose B because it meant less trees removed and better pedestrian circ. But where were the trees and contour lines on the answer sheet?? I sat there staring at it and tried to make reason out of this and its either 1) they screwed up and forgot to plc them there or 2) just another way for them to screw us!

Stay tuned!

m; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Leslie S. Costa on June 12, 2010 at 5:42am: I think I selected A for that first vignette because it "seemed" to work out. I feel like I got it correct but you never know do you! Can you refresh my memory? Is that the one with the bldg. and service parking, drop off area, and parking area? I'm trying to remember all the problems now and write them down and I'm having a hard time recalling all of them. Maybe I am blocking it out of my memory! On Section E with the first vignette (it sounds like the one you are talking about) I put the office building on the left hand side with the truck loading area in back and parking in the front with the road access going around the right side of the building. Less noise pollution to the residence? It's going to be a long 10 weeks of wating to see how these all turned out. I realized later on E that I didn't even put arrows down the slopes with the grading percentages. Is that a must?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jason Steidel on December 9, 2008 at 6:21pm: I just completed C & E for the second time also.

Overall- I would say that I actually felt much better about my performance on both than I did after the June 2008 exam.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dennis on December 9, 2008 at 6:29pm: I took both section C and E this week. Many of us taking Section C yesterday were a bit confused by the first problem. It seemed like it would make sense that they at least indicate the topo / existing vegetation so that we could more accurately locate the building and parking per the examples. I chose plan B. When I started the grading portion at first I felt overwhelmed but once I settled in I got more confident that I knew what I was doing. The first problem was a challenge. Nothing worse than trying to do a grading plan at 100 scale when the area that you can place the facilities is the size of a postage stamp. As and aside.....in the State of Michigan (Great Lakes Regional Testing Center) we had the most incompetent proctor. Yesterday our exam didn't start until 45 minutes after it was supposed to begin. Today he was late again and we started an hour passed the scheduled time. I can't even explain what an idiot this guy was. Thank god he doesn't grade the exams.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Paul on December 9, 2008 at 6:37pm: Dennis, I felt exactly the same way regarding working at 100 scale and in such a small area once you factor in the wetland buffer the trees and whatever the other no build zone was. RIDICULOUS! All my study material was no where near the information we needed to be reviewing for today's test. There also seemed to be so much stress put on memorizing the reference manual, when I didn't feel like it was even an issue, considering some of the plans on C were at 100 scale....I think we all were able to make the 15' and 25' setback! It seemed over emphasized and not applied as much as I thought.

Now we just have to wait 10 weeks before we know anything!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lori Molitor on December 10, 2008 at 9:44am: I took both tests this week and I wanted to give up half way through Section E. I felt pretty good about C, but I agree with your comments on the reference manual. I opened it once and just to double check something.

I did not study as much for Section E as for C. What I did study didn't show up on the test. Oh, well. It was my first time. I found the google discussion group on Friday before the test and downloaded those files, but didn't have time to review them.
http://groups.google.com/group/lare-exam; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kristen on December 10, 2008 at 12:29pm: For Section E--did the earthform retention basin that was 200'x150' (or something like that) have to be a minimum of 6 INCHES or 6 FEET deep?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Leslie S. Costa on June 12, 2010 at 5:51am: I honestly can't remember but I do remember one had to have 6" deep swales and I really don't even know how you actually do that properly. Hope I somehow got it right?!; ▶ Reply to This