Poka ne

[Admin]

alrighty, here's the straight dope on my preparation for passing the CSE. (i don't pretend to be an expert, however i felt confident going into the exam and coming out).

#1. i signed up for the boardway seminar (4 sessions one) two months before the exam and didn't study beforehand.

#2. the boardway seminar was okay. i don't think it's necessary to take it to pass HOWEVER, it help kick me in the ass to get all my material together to study so for that it was worth it. the boardway package has a bunch of questions at the end. me and another study partner (who i met at the boarday seminar) split up the questions and over the course of a couple of weeks, we answered all of the questions. we had to do a lot of research to answer them (125 questions book, practice act, handbook of professional practice) as they weren't easy. then we practiced them in the boardway seminar.

#3. forget the study group idea. it's too many people. get a hold of the boardway book (if you don't take the seminar) and find one other person to split the questions up and then go through and answer all the questions. once you have all the answers, find a couple other people to hold mock panels with each other. IMPORTANT NOTE: this is not a study session, you need to already have learned the material on your own to make the mock panels work.

#4 boardway stresses answering in the third person, like "the architect this" or "the architect that", in my opinion bad idea. i thought it was a great idea until i took the exam.

#5 forget anything william amor does or says. i attended his seminar and bought the tapes. useless.

#6 didn't take chylinski so no comment there.

#7 MOST IMPORTANTLY. create project scenarios and practice answering questions orally until you're blue in the face, then answer more. you have to learn the info on your own before you can do the mock panel with a couple of people. i would recommend spending two to three solid weeks beforehand just doing mock panels 3 times a week with a couple of other people. so learn the material three weeks before and then practice mock panel, practice mock panel, and practice mock panel again.