ARE Live: PcM Mock Exam

I do use it sparingly as well.

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In the same way. I hardly ever have used the White board. It’s a bit like glorified paint. So, easy to lose time answering by trying to draw a diagram or even text.

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I do this,too! Highlighting important information and striking incorrect answers help a lot.

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Having not taken the exam yet, are we forced to use the white board or is scratch paper usage allowed for those of us who think best by physically writing things down?

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I thought the billable hours did not include the profit margins? Can you explain more?

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@jasonp I was wondering that too, the whiteboard seems cumbersome

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The white board is your only option. No pens or scratch paper are allowed.

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Good question! You will not be able to use scratch paper during the exam.

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Do you have any tips for memorizing (or being really familiar) the different formulas that could be used on the exam to answer questions when they come up? like the utilization rate or net multiplier

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Thanks! I guess I’d better start practicing using that tool when taking these practice tests then. I’ve been using scratch paper here at home.

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How did you know to include the supplementary fee (fee for supplementary services) in the calculation? I would assume the project team wouldn’t touch that amount unless it was explicitly said to. There wasn’t any nod that there would be any supplementary services (yet) on the project, and therefore I thought we were trying to calculate the amount of hours on the base project design

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The ARE 5 Guideline includes a list of resource books to study from from each exam. Does Black Spectacles have recommended section of those books to focus on for each exam?

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Taking the test at a Testing center they will ‘confiscate’ your cell phone and make you turn it completely off, keys, everything on you including pens. You will not get them back until you are done.

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So … is this correct in terms of what billable rate and multiplier are?
billable rate $100/hr
multiplier of 4 = $25/hr employee pay
25% profit = $25/hr
overhead = $50/hr

I do lots of the practice problems, like the quiz question Black Spectacles has on the community website. It used to have questions posted weekly. Lots of variety.

The term “average hours” of 250 tripped me up on the other hours worked question.

Does NCARB consider the higher billable rate as a profitability consideration when answering these types of questions? Or is it mostly utilization rates?

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Good question! Our practice exam explanations do cite specific sections relevant to the question and answer. As you work through the questions, we’d recommend making your own list of sections to study based on the references for the questions you get incorrect.

Hi @James.Elliott - the supplemental services are part of the architect’s fee, so we need to allocate hours towards that service just like we did for basic services. This supplemental service could be architectural interior design, for example, which would be spent over the duration of the project and could be performed in-house.

yes that’s the general idea!