In spite of my two fails, I decided to keep going. I was so frustrated that I figured I couldn’t possibly get more upset about another fail. The damage to my self esteem had been done. Now, it was a matter of “I’ll get through this process by persisting! Even if I fail all of them from now on…” In a way, I was cheating myself. I was thinking I could become test savvy without studying much harder. I knew by then that the past two results were not a fluke. They were the results I deserved. I relied too much on just the study guide. I was also getting upset about how I would get so worked up about it, how I wouldn’t trust my gut when handling the vignettes, or how I was trying to rush through.
One of the big reasons why I decided to share my experience is because very few blogs or posts on arecoach.com portray the experience of those who fail. I think people just feel inclined to share their success stories, not the failures. I’m not ashamed of my path. It certainly impacted my self-esteem, and sense of worth. But in no way am I ashamed of it.
Having read the brief (and almost impersonal) success stories of those who completed this journey in 8 months or less without a single fail is what screwed me. I wanted to be one of them. The problem is: I am not one of them. No one is. We all have different lives and levels of experience that impact the course of how we prepare for the ARE. I should have let those words of encouragement from the successful stories be simply what they were: words of encouragement. I didn’t need to try to model the same accomplishments.
Still, after a second fail, I wanted to regain the confidence I had with the first two exams. So I went ahead and scheduled my next exam, SS, for mid-July. I was giving myself 4 weeks to prep for each exam up until then. This time, I gave myself 6 weeks because I had just taken on the renovations of the rental property my husband and I had just purchased and wanted to turn that around before the end of the summer, hoping that we could rent it before the school year began.
Five weeks into it had proven that my scheduling abilities were simply too unrealistic. I ended up rescheduling and pushing the exam back another 6 weeks. I was looking at the end of July now. By that point, my studying had gotten too scattered. Even though I believe I covered all the material one could cover for this exam, I just did not have a solid schedule to go by. I think having one makes a difference. I was studying when I could, many times skipping those nights I had diligently kept on schedule until then. It was not a good set up.
Four years earlier, I had attended Prof. Thaddeus seminar while pregnant with my first daughter. I remember thinking it was so worth it. Since I had kept all of the materials and notes, I decided to just use them (along with others, obviously) and not dish out another $325 for the online seminar. So for this exam, I studied Kaplan, Thaddeus seminar material and notes, Archiflash, Marty’s notes, Jenny’s notes, Buildings at Risk: Seismic and Wind, and FEMA. Different than the other exams where I was studying the bare minimum by mainly using Kaplan (and relying on others’ notes), this time around, I wasn’t fooling myself. I covered all of my bases. I don’t think one needs to cover much more than what I covered for this exam. My failure didn’t come from what I studied, but how I studied.
I went into the exam, three months after taking BDCS, feeling really nervous. I felt good about the vignette (I made sure to practice that one enough times to not shoot myself in the foot like I did with BDCS and SPD). For the multiple choice, though, I wasn’t sure. Although I felt like I had covered all the material needed, I hadn’t practiced enough questions. I didn’t take as many sample tests while timing myself as I would have liked. So I went in that day with a whole new strategy for the multiple choice (something I decided on last minute): I would skip through all of the questions that required calculations. I would mark them and deal with them last. My mistake: not even having made a selection. Big mistake.
As in previous exams, I had very little time to review questions. So, one can imagine, it was not different this time around. By the time I finished going through the multiple choice portion (without the calculations), I had 20 minutes left on the clock and around 40 questions marked, 25 of which were incomplete. Awful strategy. I tried to rush through the incomplete ones, working on calculations and skipped reviewing the completed marked ones. I was not able to work on more than 10 questions. My exam timed out and I had about 15 unanswered questions. Good Lord. What was I thinking? I knew that was a major blow. More than 10% of the exam was unanswered. My chances now were pretty slim. I had to nail the vignette for the slightest chance of passing this division. And I thought I nailed it. The vignette was straight forward and very much in line with the NCARB sample one. I finished with 15 minutes left on the clock. If I only I could have used that extra time to finish working on the multiple choice…
I left the testing center knowing I failed SS. The 10% incomplete portion of my exam haunted me for the entire following week. When the result came in, it confirmed my suspicion. I had failed SS with a level 2 in two content areas. At least I was close. If only they didn’t represent 70% of the exam combined… I knew then that if I had timed myself better and finished the entire exam, I had a strong chance of passing this division. I knew what I had to do the next time around.
However, at that time, one still needed to sit for 6 months before retaking any failed division. NCARB was about to roll out the new rule where one could retake a failed portion just six weeks after the first attempt. But I was drained. I decided to take the rest of the semester off. The rental property renovation was behind anyway. My husband and I had decided to demolish an old carport and rebuild it. So I worked on plans and permitting of this small build out. I advertised for tenants, I handled contracts. I kept my mind and soul busy. I was not sure when I would attempt another take. Or if I would attempt it at all. I just needed time.
archipath 