Tips and Tricks for Working Through Tricky Questions

[Elyse Goulet]

Hi all,

I'm about to take my first LARE exam next weekend, and I'm REALLY struggling with my practice exams.  I feel like I have memorized all the material but am not able to translate that to answering questions.   I've failed every practice exam I've taken (and might be getting worse). 

Anyways, we all know these tests are designed to be hard.  Does anyone have any general tips for mastering the art of taking the test?  I've tried answering questions intuitively and gotten answers wrong because they aren't "exactly as listed in the CLARB-approved texts."  Then I've tried answering strictly to the "textbook" answer and still not getting better results. 

For reference, I'm taking Inventory, Analysis, & Project Analysis next weekend and then Planning & Design a week after that.  I've taken the CLARB practice tests prior to any studying to see what the questions will be like, and then pretty exclusively used the LAREPrep study guides to learn the material.  

For me, the LAREPrep practice test questions are very difficult and confusing.  Are they generally close to the actual content of the LARE exams?  Have people found them to be more or less difficult than the actual exams? 

Thanks y'all and good luck to everyone taking the April exams!

[Douglas Short]

Sorry to warn you that the test is even more difficult than their practice exam.  Perhaps it's the added anxiety of doing it for real, but I feel that while their practice exam is similar, the real thing is more difficult.  Wording is trickier, you have the random "experimental" questions that can really throw you, and then the pressure of the exam being real.

Try the LAREPrep tests, they are typically a little easier and might get you in the CLARB mindset.  They are especially useful because the test answers have excellent explanations for the answers and often say which textbook the question/answer it came from.

Finally, SoCal ASLA has had Sarah Gronquist lecturing about the exams.  They are done for this season, but are archived on the SoCal ASLA site.  See the webinar section:  https://socal-asla.org/professional/#licensure

Good luck!

[Sarah Gronquist]

Thanks for the mention. I also want to point people to a 2 hr webinar that ASLA has recently posted featuring Tom Nieman's 'High Level Testing' tips and tricks. If you are an ASLA member, this is a free resource and I'm glad to see it available. 

https://learn.asla.org/products/high-level-testing-application-of-knowledge-vs-knowledge-recall

[Ethan Wissler]

in contrast to what was said above, I find the LAREPrep exams to be comparable to the real exam. If you're passing LAREPrep exams with room to spare, you're likely in good shape for the real thing. In fact, I actually found CLARBs exam 4  practice test easier (frankly, scary easy) than the LAREPrep exams. That said, you may simply not be adequately prepared for these exams. Its not uncommon to spend roughly 6 weeks and nearly 100 hours preparing for each test. Attempting to take multiple exams at once, assuming you are working full-time now, is strongly discouraged.  

[Elyse Goulet]

Thanks Sarah!  I actually listened to this webinar the other day and also recommend it. 

[Anthony Dye]

i find that about half of the questions i'm missing on practice tests are because of comprehension/tricky wording rather than a knowledge gap on my part.

this lecture sounds useful, but i'm not an asla member and have already spend too much $$ on study materials to justify joining up right now  -- can anyone recommend a similar resource?

[DL]

I find the actual test more difficult or at least time consuming then the Clarb practice test and LAREPrep practice tests. There are more fact based questions on the practice tests and the actual test consists of more "high level" questions like noted above.