CSE April 2018 (California Supplemental)

[KJOY]

Hello,

I just failed the CSE for the 2nd time. I will not be discouraged, and honestly can't believe that I"m having a harder time with this than the LARE... If anyone out there is experiencing the same issue, please get in touch, I'd love to talk about a better plan for studying the content.....

Thanks-

[Timothy Devlin]

I recently failed the CSE for the first time. I studied with a group for LARE 4 and found it incredibly helpful. Send me an email if you’re interested and let’s work out a plan! Timde...@gmail.com

[Jamie Chen]

I passed the exam in April.

I received LATC emails because I ended up on their newsletter list. On May 4, 2018, LATC held a meeting and distributed meeting minutes.

Here is something of relevance: 

Ms. Miller reported that of the 59 candidates who took the California Supplemental Examination (CSE) during fiscal year 2017/18 (as of October 24, 2017), 31 passed (52%). She continued that Landscape Architect Registration Examination (LARE) administration will be held from December 4-16, 2017, and noted the results from the previous administration. Mr. Truscott expressed satisfaction with the current pass rate of 52%.

It is much harder than the +/- 70% pass rate for the LARE on purpose.

I recall a lot of focus on fire safe landscaping. For that, I had studied: https://www.ocfa.org/Uploads/CommunityRiskReduction/OCFA%20Guide-C05-Fuel%20Modification.pdf  and https://www.fire.lacounty.gov/forestry-division/forestry-fuel-modification/

I do recall a lot of focus on native/restoration. Tree of Life Nursery has a good PDF catalog/guide: http://californianativeplants.com/plants/plantcatalogdownload/

However, it really did help that I was interested in native plants very prior to testing as well as the contrasting conventional plant choices available in the nursery trade. Las Pilitas Nursery also has guides for different plant choices per usage: http://www.laspilitas.com/groups/native-plants.html 

It might be very tedious, but you could try cross referencing the Sunset Western Garden Book's guides for plants for specific uses with Village Nursery's online catalog: https://www.villagenurseries.com/plant-library/ and their lists of plants for specific uses. 

And frankly, I found I didn't need to recall more than Tree of Heaven and Arundo donax BAD for the invasive/weed species concerns. 

I think overall that Calkin's 'Sustainable Sites Handbook' for the LARE very well covers the LID practices and erosion control. I remember quite a lot was concerned with erosion control in concert with drought tolerance and fire safe landscaping practices. It was holistic. 

LaGro for the project planning aspects they reiterated from LARE. 

For specific California agencies of note, this website has a pretty good run down: http://www.cselandscapearchitect.com/category/regulatory-agencies  The study guide he wants you to buy is not updated, and I think you ought to just go through all his blog posts and articles and screenshot/PDF convert them as you go. The topics match up. 

And then CEQA and knowing what goes into an EIR should cover agency procedures. 

Past that, ADA and parking requirments from my copy of 'Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards' worked as well. But it was mostly ramps and more ramps, as I recall.

I noticed that they focused on the 2015 version of MWELO and in order to understand implementation of MWELO, I had to know about WUCOLs. (And for me, personally, I just loved succulents and adapted California natives anyway, so going for a WUCOLs Low for all plants on a palette was just the done thing.) The easiest strategy was to bust out Very Low or Lows for plants in general, every single project, hydrozone, and then calculate the MWELOs. Very rarely, if the site was very large, would you end up not being in compliance. 

For general irrigation related to MWELO, I used the guides from Rainbird: http://www.rainbird.com/landscape/resources/DesignGuides.htm and Hunter: https://www.hunterindustries.com/resource_guide/tech-and-education-guides

Both had sales reps who regularly visited the firm I was working at and they also were happy to set up lunch-and-learns regarding irrigation and especially specific MWELO compliance with their products. I used the notes I took from those sessions as well. 

I don't think there are truly California specific project management/contract issues. If you passed Section 1, then use whatever you needed for that to refresh; ASLA Code of Ethics, Hinze's Construction Contracts (but really only to know about change orders, punch lists, mechanic's liens, who answers to whom, and the order disbursing payments) 

Good luck!

[Nate Rose]

Thanks for the run down! MUCH appreciated!

[Greg Gill]

Thx for posting Jamie! I am licensed in NY and about to take my CA Supplemental. Trying to brush up on the things I haven't used in awhile.