Resolution

I just realized that it was a year ago this month that I said I was going to take the Architectural Registration Exam "this year." And that was a year after I'd started scrambling to get one test taken before the format changed. So now it's been two years since I decided I'd really better just take the thing and be done with it.

So. I am going to do it. I finished filling out the application, got it notorized, wrote the check for the application fee and attached a photo of myself (why on earth do they need a photo of me??) I have a shelf full of study materials here, so now all I need to do is stick the application in the mail and decide what order to take the exams.

ARE study materials

There are 7 parts in the new format, and each one (except Schematic Design) has a multiple choice section and a graphic section (where you solve design programs with a really clunky drafting program designed specifically for the tests). I'm pretty comfortable with the subject matter of 4 of the 7 tests, but I'm a little worried about the ones that cover structural and mechanical systems. It's just been a bit too long since I learned about them in school, and unlike most of the other content it's not stuff I use every day. So I'm torn right now whether to take those ones first and get them out of the way, or save them for last. I'm reading through the study materials now, and after I do that I'll decide.

If I don't post updates on this regularly, leave me comments telling me to get my butt in gear!!



***Updated to add my tentative testing order***

1. Schematic Design (graphic only, kind of a warm-up)
2. Structural Systems
3. Building Systems (mechanical and electrical)
4. Building Design and Construction Systems (more general than the previous two, but the material overlaps)
5. Construction Documents and Services*
6. Programming Planning and Practice*
7. Site Planning and Design*

*I may change the order of 5, 6 & 7, but I plan to take those three in quick succession. The content of all three is very closely related and the prevailing wisdom seems to be to study for all three at once and take them close together. These are the 3 that I scored in the high 80% on practice tests without even reviewing any study materials first, so I figure I'll save them for last. (If you fail an exam, you have to wait 6 months before you can retake it, thus the strategy of taking the ones I'm least confident with first)

Handwriting Font

Here's something kind of random I stumbled upon today. A website that lets you create a font based on your handwriting. You download and print a template and write each upper- and lower- case letter in its assigned spot, along with numbers and symbols, scan it, upload it, and the utility creates a font you can download. You have to be careful that you write each letter with the bottom at the same height, or when you type your text will be all up and down hill. But it's pretty cool. I now have a font that really does look very much like my handwriting. Check it out:




http://www.yourfonts.com

100 Pushups

Jeff and I started an experiment this week.  We found a website www.hundredpushups.com that has a set of charts for 5 sets of pushups 3 days a week.  You test yourself to see how many pushups you can do in a row, then pick a column in the chart for week one based on the result of that test.  Then each Monday, Wednesday and Friday you do the prescribed number of pushups, with the prescribed breaks between sets, and after two weeks you test yourself again. Based on that number you move on to the appropriate column of the chart for weeks 3 and 4. The idea is that after 6 weeks you'll be able to do 100 pushups without stopping.  Of course, 6 weeks is the minimum, they do have a disclaimer that you may have to repeat some weeks, but the idea is that even if it takes 7 or 8 or 9 weeks, if you do them the way they say, you'll eventually be able to do 100 in a row.  

For my initial test last Saturday, I did 19 pushups.  Three days this past week, I've done 5 sets of pushups for a total of 40 on Monday, 42 Wednesday, and 46 yesterday.  You max out for the last set each day, so you're always getting a good workout.  Jeff could already do about 25 pushups, so he started on week 3, and he did 78 pushups Monday and 89 pushups this morning! (in 5 sets-- the ones he was supposed to do for Friday-- but still, it's significantly more than he could do even on Monday.)

We're pretty excited, even if we don't get to the goal of 100 in a row (I'm betting Jeff will) it's still cool to be able to do a lot of pushups, and the program is a good motivator.

I'll post an update when we take our progress tests next weekend :D

Slippers

Jeff got me some very nice slippers for Christmas.  The color matched the robe he got me perfectly.  Unfortunately, they were too small, and when we took them back the larger size just didn't feel quite right.  

Sooo-o-o-o..... 

I got these instead:

Aren't they a hoot?  I love 'em!