Passed the Construction Doc & Admin Exam - Suggestions

[jacob morris]

Hey there!

Was able to get a "most likely to pass" on Exam 4 with 4 weeks of studying. Ask me any questions! Below are the resources I used to prep and study habits! A little about me, I finished my first year post grad at a small LA office in a civil engineering company, we primarily do Code Min LS plants and master planning. Luckily had the opportunity (just timing) to learn a lot about Construction Docs & Admin through a larger sports field project our office was at 90% when I first started.

My Routine:

-Primarily worked from the LAREPrep study guide & the Design Workshop LA Construction Document Standards book. Found it very helpful and pin-pointed larger with the study guide while the Design Workshop book.

-Spent 2-4 hours studying during the week between getting to work early and taking my lunch to study. Left me with 2-3 hours after work to study at my own pace and flexibility for living life.

-Decided to not become an expert with details and technical aspect of construction as I mainly targeted the Construction Contract Documents and Process of what it takes to get to construction. From browsing this group and talking to friends that details/technical knowledge is not a huge majority of the exam.

-I dumbed down the "important" details (Walls, pavements, decks, greenroof) to allow me to just memorize the order/sequence of materials rather than knowing/memorizing how to draw them. Most of the questions I practiced were asking which detail was correct/what was missing. 

-The design workshop book was an incredible resource for learning plans, and what should be included. Along with learning the Construction Document process. The only book from the recommended resources I read.

-Used the CLARB Practice exam (took it the first time cold without studying to get a baseline of my knowledge), the Pass the Lare Exams (found them meh, were okay learning what type of questions will be asked but they were trivial), and the LAREPrep exams (thought these were worth the money because they did include study guide material and stuff not covered by their study guide + pushed retention of material that was verbatim from the study guide they have).

-Spent the days prior going over the "core" material i was tripping up on rather than stuff i was consistently getting wrong

-Never was the type to write out notes to memorize material but that study strategy was really helpful for this section so I would recommend that!

Optimistic about the time frame I had to get ready for the CD&A exam and excited about taking exams 1 & 2 this winter. Let me know if there is any questions I can answer!