Just finished the Practice Management test, however, I believe I failed miserably. I had 39 minutes to complete 40 questions left. How does one get through the questions within a minute or so trying to calculate what a firm will charge at Schematic Design? It’s not rocket science however it ate up a lot of time. How does one answer these questions so fast? Practice
Thank you,
Gary
Hi @Gfeldman so sorry to hear that. Let’s see if one of our expert architects can help answer your questions. @heatherrivera do you mind jumping in here?
@Gfeldman Thanks for reaching out!
Nice work taking the practice tests before getting into Prometric. A lot of people have difficulty with time on these exams. It takes some practice and even some trial and error. The general approach is that questions should take between two to three minutes. They are all weighted equally so if you are spending five minutes on a question, your return on investment is tanking. Guess and move on. Some people find that starting with the case studies helps. These questions tend to take more time to answer because of all the referencing required. If you attack them at the beginning of the exam, your mind will be fresher and likely to act a bit faster. Try this out before you attempt it on the actual exam because it doesn’t work for everyone.
Without looking at the specific question you are referencing, I can only conceptually comment that there are accepted ranges that exist for design phases. For example, SD is usually about 15% of your fee whereas CD’s is closer to 40%. Design Development tends to have the smallest amount of time - closer to 10%. These percentages are guidelines and change from project to project and even vary on the type of project, but they serve as a basis of understanding.
In the end, a lot comes down to practice. The more you expose yourself to these exams, the more comfortable you’ll be with not only the subject matter, but also with the way in which the questions are worded and presented. It can be frustrating, no doubt. Keep at it. There will be ebbs and flows, but it will pay off in the long run.
We’re here if you need us.
Heather Rivera, NCARB