Some study guidance I have gathered from previous posts (All Sections)

[Diana de Gonzalez]

Section 1

Construction Contracts (Hinze)

LAREPREP practice exams: worth the expense.

PPI practice exams: still helpful here, but delve into the Sections A AND B.

Also helpful: AIA Document B101 (free online), A201 2007 General Conditions of the Contract for Construction (free online), Project Management for Design Professionals (Ramroth)

Study topics:

1. As many mentioned before, be clear about different responsibilities of owner, LA and contractor. AIA form would help to clarify.

2. Important concepts such as addendum, changes order, field orders, value engineering, substantial completion...

3. Know how landscape architect coordinate with other design team members - how to organize design meeting, how to share information, standards of communication such as meeting minutes or memo, etc.. how LA coordinate in different phases: SD, DD, CD, CA... Relate this to your office work might be helpful

4. Concepts about pricing, how it would be calculated and the contingency. when pricing exercise in different phases. Project budget

5. How contractor gets paid and the some other related knowledge

6. How to start and close out projects - what activities for these? how/who to initiate?

7. LA's scope of work and responsibilities; relationship with client and know what's conflict of interest/ illegal activities.. 

8. CA related questions are very important- know what LA would do to submittals, how to approve or deny. Relation to contractor

9. Know the concept of specification and different types

10. General conditions vs specific condition

Section 2

Site Analysis (LaGro)

LAREPREP practice exams: really good resource here.

PPI practice exams: good vocabulary in these still, but again you'll want to dabble in Sections A and B (old LARE format A - E).

[Someone] felt extremely confident coming out of this exam using the above resources.

Section 3

Time Savers Standards (Harris and Dines): section on soils

PPI practice exams: again, these are out-dated, but plenty of good vocabulary you need to be familiar with in the old Sections C and D.

ASLA example questions: great resource!  You will see questions like them on the exam.

Shake and Bake practice exam: good vocabulary in this resource, but there is fishy phrasing and most of it doesn't follow the real exam format.

[Someone] felt good about this exam. Some of the concepts from Section 2 are mingled in, so the knowledge starts to compound (in case you're planning on taking them in order).

Study topics:

Rise/Run formula

calculate fertilization rates for vegetation

geometric formulas for perimeter and area of circles, triangles, rectangles

how to convert sf to cubic yards

lighting design principles, spacial design principles, sound control principles, basic earthwork analysis, irrigation

Placing a wind break on a site

Place parking and a building on site

Privacy screens in parking lots 

Reasons for lighting voltages

Green Design Principals

Transit Orientated Development  

Select the Section Elevation that corresponds with the plan view drawing

Section 4

Site Engineering (Strom et al): This book is highly technical and none of it can be easily committed to memory without a lot of practice.

Time Savers Standards (Harris and Dines): this resource is immense. A good text to have if you have nothing else.

PPI practice exams: little bit from all five of the old sections. If you're taking the exams in order, you'll benefit from the recommended PPI equivalents in a SMALL way.

ASLA example questions: expert resource, only complaint is not a lot of material.

Shake and Bake practice exam: not recommended. There were some problems on cut and fill you can read about in Site Engineering that were helpful. The majority of this one may do more harm than good. Use discretion.

[Someone] felt good about this exam but out of all of them, this one covered the most technical material and was by no means "easy." [Someone's] biggest annoyance with this exam was the way certain construction documentation plans were referred to by names/titles have never heard of. There may be a good resource out there to help you with that.

Study Topics:

Understand Roof Garden Section

There are a few illustrative graphic sections/perspective drawings with drag and drop terms for callouts

Drag and Drop proposed contours for a Crown road with a curb and sidewalk with all water draining into the road. (See Section 4 practice exam #22. 3-4 questions like this.)

Understand graphic illustrations of existing contours and proposed contours. Drag and drop style questions and hot spot style which option has more fill/cut? (3-5 like this) 

Understand how to covert square feet to cubic feet and cubic yards.

Drag and drop style questions to either build a berm or a swale. (See Section 4 practice exam #24)

Drag and drop proposed contours on a graphic plan showing existing contours to create an earthen damn, or which contours will create greater cut/fill. (See Section 4 practice exam #28. 3-5 questions like this.)

There were a few questions related to fasteners. Understand wood to wood connections and wood to other material connections.

Showed a perspective of a deck drawing an asked which board was the ledger board? (Hot Spot)

There were 4-6 actual grading problems. The problems were more so like the post session handout. (Understand how to interpolate, grade spots, RIM Elevations, Invert elevations)

Understand that pipes have a certain amount of cover and minimum slopes (test provides this info) (See Section 4 Practice Exam problems and Section 4 Post Session Handout for examples)

There were a few graphic dimensioning type questions. (Drag and drop a dimension)

There was a control joint question for a sidewalk. (Drag and drop joints on the walk)

There was a design based question about where to place a building based on coordinates. (See Section 4 post session handout page 4)

Understand ADA ramps and maximum slopes. (See Section 4 handout page 44)

The show and illustration of a construction detail and ask which statement below is most accurate. IE: Footer is wrong, no reinforcement, the detail is correct etc… (maybe 5 questions like this)

Understand how contours work. (See Section 4 handouts pages 15-18)

Some surveying type methods questions. (See Section 4 handouts pages 19-21)

There were some section 1 type of questions: RFQ, Bidding questions, etc…

Understand technical specifications (Section 4 practice exam #48)

There were a couple planting design questions

There was a question similar to Section 4 practice exam #43

[Carolyn P]

Great info, thanks for sharing!

The most recent exam I took was Section 3 in April 2017 and here is what I saw:

• Types of Lighting..moon, silhouette, up-lighting
• Bike Route/Trail Signage - trail crossings (Diagrams from MUTCD Chapter 9b.01 good reference)
• Pedestrian Accessibility - Do not cross major areas of vehicle traffic, main goal in pedestrian planning
• Types of Pedestrian Bridges
• Concept Plan
• Design Process
• Inventory and Analysis
• Sections and Elevations
• Functional Use Diagrams
• Square feet to Cubic Yards
• Understand Topo and Watershed
• Cut and fill - basic calculation
• Types of cut and fill calculations - average end method, contour, grid
• Smart Growth
• TOD
• Environmental Site Design
• Tree Placement in Streetscape
• Ramp - slope, length, landing
• Basic Irrigation
• Soil Triangle
• Rain garden
• Dog parks
  

What I didnt see:

• Materials
• Green Roofs
• Playground
• Sports facilities
• HC and ADA dimensions, other than ramps
• BMP

[Jessica Soleyn]

I'm confused. It is March 2017, you could not have taken the test in April 2017. You must have meant 2016?? 

Anyways thanks for the info!

[lna...@elanpd.com]

This is very helpful. Thanks so much for pulling it together!

When you say Section 4 handouts and Section 4 Post Session Hand outs where is that material from?

[Diana de Gonzalez]

I have a copy of the Post Session Handouts, which I gave to the admin of this group along with all my other non-copywrite material. I assume someone else has a copy of the other material, presumably the OP of that information.

[ADMIN]

The post session handouts that Diana is referring to are part of the Section 4 materials thread (here: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/lare-exam/3RjiwLAgyq0) The link to the download is in my very first post

[lna...@elanpd.com]

Found them. Thanks so much!!

[Kellie]

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