Green Talk

“LEED is a voluntary, consensus-based national certification system for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings….

Based on well-founded scientific standards, LEED emphasizes state-of-the-art strategies for sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, indoor environmental quality and design innovation. LEED promotes expertise in green building through a comprehensive system offering project certification, professional accreditation, training and practical resources.”

So what is the big deal? A bunch of standards that buildings have to follow to get an illustrious certification. Doesn’t sound so hard, right? I wish I could tell you that I was just over exaggerating, but unfortunately I am not.

I thought studying for this test would not be that hard for me. I already understood most of the principles of green building having done it myself with my own home. I opted to earn certification for new commercial buildings since I find building commercial buildings fascinating. Commercial building incorporates some amazing technology and ideas that homes do not. (I know. Whatever turns you on.) Even during the class I took, nothing was that hard for me to understand. I rather enjoyed listening to a veteran architect and engineer provide insight into the certification of a building.

So, when people asked at the end of the class, what you need to know for the exam, one of the instructor held up a thick book of over 400 pages and said “know what is in this book.” My heart sunk at that moment, and I knew I was in trouble.

I hadn’t studied for anything in about 20 years. The last exam I took was the bar exam but at least I had three years of law school, an intensive preparatory class spanning several weeks, and practice exams. With this certification, all I had was a 400 plus page book with a lot of facts, calculations, and technical information.

So, I dug in and started reading, taking notes, and kept thinking how was I ever going to memorize all of these formulas, facts, and situations and apply them to the real world. I am not a builder, architect or engineer. What did I get myself into?

I knew the only way I was going to pass this exam was to take practice exams. This is how I passed the bars in three states. Some of the sources I used were as follows:

 In the leeds: This site is created by an architect, Pat Connors, who took the test. He has links on his sites for forums, condensed charts, helpful hints, and other information. I would strongly suggest a look at Pat’s site. He also sells a book on how to study for the exam. Again, if you have used Pat’s techniques, let me know. His site was a lifesaver for me since it sent me to the all of the sites listed below and condensed what I needed to know.

Green Exam Prep: They offer 4 different exams of 80 questions (320 in total) which I took almost 4 times. I liked the exams because they explained their answers or referred you to a specific section of the book.

When I took the real exam, I was prepared for how the questions would look and even some of the questions were similar but not many. The idea of taking these exams was to force me to learn the concepts, which I did.

In addition, the Green Exam Prep tests taught me to read the questions carefully since they were always trying to trick you in some way to get the wrong answer.

University of Florida LEED resources: I downloaded their free 47 page condensed version of the book and read this over and over again. In addition, the site has free flash cards and quizzes. I took all the quizzes.

Colorado Study Guide: A lot of people use this guide and it has an 80 question test associated with it. If you used this guide, let me know your thoughts. Apparently, it does a much better job in explaining the registration procedures and CIRs (Credit Interpretation Requests) than the actual book handed to me in class. Also see USGBC, registration, certification, and CIR information.

ARE Forum: This is a great forum for LEED questions. Go to enter forum, and accept the terms and conditions. Then, go to the section entitled, “ENTER LEED Topics.” I downloaded an 11 page condensed sheet of all the credits by LEED AP user, manincellv. It is am amazing condensed short version of the book. I must have read this condensed sheet several times. (Just read the forum posts associated with this sheet to see 2 small errors. They are as follows: no prerequisite in WE and the SS8 - Light Pollution, under LZ4, the max light level at the site boundary should be 0.6 fc, not .06 fc. Simply a decimal misplaced.)

I studied off and on for two months, and then spent a month intensively studying. I did not have a study group which is recommended. I burned some very late nights.

The day before the test, I scored 90% and above on the practice exams, I knew my credits backwards and forwards, learned them all in order and by name since I was told, they don’t tell you the name of the credit. (Incidentally, there are 69 credits)

The test was online and was given in a room with cubicles with other people taking a multitude of different certifications. I was so nervous when I took the test. I did not want to fail because I studied so hard AND it would cost another $400 to take the test again.

The first question threw me and I knew I was in trouble. The test was harder than I could have ever imagined. I thought I would have to just apply what I know. Wrong. Not only did they want me to apply what I know but they asked questions of the most minute details or small nuisances. Am I glad I took the Green Prep exams? Yes. I learned a lot from those tests. However, neither the Florida exam nor Green Prep exams asked the level of detail that the LEED exam did.

I had 20 out of 80 questions I was not sure about the answers. It took me almost 1 hour and 40 minutes to take the test. Normally, I would fly through the Green Prep tests in an hour. The last 20 minutes I tried to go back and review the questions. I ran out of time.

At the end of the exam, I just sat there holding back the tears because I was sure I failed. I did not study enough of the technical implementation (ie baselines submittals) and concentrated on the intent of the points and how you submit for certification of the points. None of my condensed sheets went into that detail. I could swear that they must have asked a dozen question just on the administrative end of submitting and registering for certification, which the USBGC book did a poor job of explaining.

They asked for my comments before I knew my results. I responded by saying that I thought the questions were nit picky and did not test my ability to integrate the points together to earn certification. I was angry because I studied so hard and felt like a bunch of people wrote these exams so people would fail.

 Then I pressed the button and the screen went blank as if it was tabulating. It was the longest 30 seconds of my life. Up on the screen popped my score of 182 out of 200. You need 170 to pass. I was shocked. It is a scaled score so I have no idea how I got that score. My lowest percentage was in technical ability (64%). The other 3 parts ranged into the 80% and high 70’s %

Unfortunately, you don’t get to see the mistakes you made, so you can learn by them. I did remember many questions, and went back to the book to see my mistakes. Most of what I found, I had missed.

A couple days after the test,  I was unable to focus and get anything done. I was really burnt out.

What is next for me? I would love to work on a team to learn since I don’t care what you do in life; experience is your best teacher. Believe me what they teach you in law school is only a small part of what it is like to practice. Since I am not with an architect or engineering firm this might be challenging.

I met a delightful architect who was taking the exam at the same time as me. When I told him I was a lawyer, he exclaimed, that this test must have been hard for me. As an architect, he is exposed to more of this information then I am. I can’t imagine someone who is not in the building business taking this exam. Thank goodness for my home experience.

Before you decide to bookmark this article, and come back to it later when you have time to study, the LEED standards are changing in 2009. See the article by Tristan Korthal Altes, Managing Editor of BuildingGreen, regarding the changes expected for previously and future designated LEED APs.

Other resources:

• High Performance School Design: a free online course to help you learn sustainable design. Via BuildingGreen from Mary Lea

• Other test materials on Innovations, Green Building Solutions with Simplicity: Caveat some of the test are dated 2005 and the new construction manual has been updated since then.

• Practice test by Tristan Korthals Altes, Managing Editor of BuildingGreen. See also his post about the test and comments from others about the test.

Good Luck! Let me know what sources you found helpful. Was I the only one who thought the questions were really picky?