study aids

Here’s a list of the resources I used to help me study. Scroll down for a complete of other resources people have suggested to me. Also, please check out the comments to see people’s reviews of study resources and leave your own opinions.

In The LEED – Put together by a guy named Pat who also used it as a way to help himself study. The website is great for getting simple credit explanations and looking at people comments. He also has an e-book for sale, which I did not purchase and can not vouch for. I have seen a range of reviews on it – from the testimonials from his own site to the rants of forum users (“to be charitable, is poorly organized, poorly written, and, even so far as standards/codes/etc. go, lousy reading”). I, personally, can not say…

Real Life LEED – This is a blog with some good tips for calculations (which is mainly what I used it for). The author also posts some recent news items relating to LEED as well. Not a ton of content pertaining to studying, but a good overall LEED reference blog.

ARE Forum – FANTASTIC resource to prepare yourself psychologically. It helped me to read everyone’s comments, especially the ‘brain dumps’ from people just returning form the test. There are two particular users who see a lot of traffic – Dax and Manincellv. They have both posted their notes and study charts for everyone to share. I’ve uploaded them to my Box.net account so that you don’t have to search the forums. Word of warning, though – as with all free resources (including my blog) – be ware of mistakes. I found a couple in Maincellv’s chart, and people report them all the time in the forums. Still, it is fantastic when people share.

LEED Visual – This is a different approach which I find refreshing and works for me because I am more of a visual person. This site tries to associate images with different credits.

Thompson Prometric Practice Test – This is the stupid ‘do-you-know-how-to-use-a-computer’ test that TP gives you before the exam. Do it at home instead and use the first ten minutes at the exam for Brain Dump.

Green Building Education Services (also known as GEP – green exam prep) – This was the only resource I paid for (aside from the reference manual of course…) and I found their questions to be quite good. They give you 4 or 5 different pools of questions to test yourself from. The only drawback is that you can’t review the questions like you can in the real exam. But, taking a computer test helps a lot. Plus they were really nice when I asked them to extend my access period to the tests. I would aim for a 70 to 80% on all the sections in every test pool in order to feel confident about the real exam. But many people have passed the real one with lower GEP scores than that. Check out the forums for extensive discussions.

Colorado Chapter Study Guide – I acquired one of these from a friend and it freaked me out. If you can answer the sample questions in this, then you’re golden. The sample test is basically 80 of the hardest possible questions you will find on the exam; there are especially some whoppers on synergies.

Here’s some other original study resources that I found after the fact, but are great (and fun) additions to the list:

Study Stack – Which has a whole bunch of games you can play, like hangman, wordsearch, crosswords puzzles, unscramble. As far as I can tell, it was submitted by Obrien & Co., which seems to offer study packages as well (although I’ve never tried them and can’t vouch for it). The Study Stack games are a bit silly and light on content, but if you need a bit of a break without totally decommissioning your brain from LEED they can be fun.

David from Cadsulting – David got in contact with me via the AREforum and sent me his version of the Dire Straights song ‘Industrial Disease’, which is posted in the AREforum thread entitled ‘LEED song parody, 75% humor certified‘. He has another post under username ‘cadsulting’ with a different song under ‘LEED Song – Parody 1.2 – Fnu with Fundamental Commissioning’. Word has it he is working on a third (Agronyms: : The  Green Spangled Banner. “Oh say can you LEED…”) Haha! I love it! Making up songs is just one of the fun ways you can get creative with your studying techniques, depending on how it is that you learn best.

Lori Brown’s Site – Just found this one on another thread in the AREforum. Looks like someone’s personal study schedule, which is helpful in mapping out your own and figuring out how much time to allow for studying. A lot of people worry when they see other people’s 3-month-long study schedules. But it is also possible to cram.

Nelda (found on AREforum) – A very nice person named Nelda seems to have shared her illustrations for each credit at the ftp link when you click on her name. the username is ‘wrt/ftp’ and the password is rfa123#. We have some very creative studiers out there.

LEED Excel – This resource was just passed on from a reader (thank you Matt). Once you’ve done the extensive and a little intimidating registeration process, they give you the opportunity to take a 20-question sample quiz to see if you want to buy their test packages. I took the sample quiz and found it similar in quality of question to GEP, which everyone loves. I noticed they also have LEED NC Canada tests.