Friday Beer and Blog
If I've been bad about adding new stuff, it's because I've been doing my exams. It's all good.Here's the year in review:
March: Materials and Methods
April? May? ConDocs
August X: Lateral
August X plus one week: General
December: Mechanical Electrical
January: Pre-Design
Doing BT in March, BD in April? May? Then one left and it's off to the Oral I go. Oh yes, my hours....
I'm getting some vibes on the grapevine that signing up for exams is unavailable for May June and July. But you can for August?! An IAC member says, "Prometric has an obligation to NCARB to provide availabilities as outlined on the attached complaint form (also at http://ncarb.org/are/scheduling_verification.pdf). "
I studied for Lateral for 2 weeks and General for 2 weeks, and having passed them both miraculously, plus having passed Mechanical Electrical made me very, very lax for Pre-Design. Actually, the study schedule has gone asymptotically downhill after studiously studying for the first exam. That is, it approaches zero as much as procrastinatically possible but never quite gets there.
Pre-Design: piece of cake if you have done the rest of the multiple choice exams. I would say that it's sort of a "do you remember anything from the other exams" exam. Leave it to the end, unless you've already done it.
Heard some really great stories about taking exams in far-off places. One aimed to do Pre-Design before a 3 week holiday in Hawaii. Ended up too busy with work, so rescheduled to do it after a week on holiday there. Another booked, with intent, both LF and GF in Calgary (no spots in Metrotown before Christmas). Passed both, despite (?) hanging out with a bunch of Fort McMurrey oil workers the night before at the hotel bar. The intern took the Thaddeus course too...
I've been pretty behind on everything AIBC-related, except for paying my dues. They do a peculiar song and dance and laud you to no end if you pay before February 1st and (this is important) bring in your invoice.
I've sort of invited myself to the PD (Professional Development) Board meeting Monday. Sort of an idea that I had that interns could somehow have input in our PD, seeing that we take these mandatory courses. This is though a one-off; I'm at the limits of my free lunch quota at the AIBC.
Two Council meetings since I last posted in November. The December meeting had something related to interns, right up front on the agenda. Essentially a communication that there is a movement on the part of the big provinces to revamp the IAP nationwide. No decisions yet. The minutes aren't posted yet, but they are usually here.
The January one had no problem with quorum: we had the CoV DoP Brent Toderian initiate a dialogue regarding EcoDensity. There is nothing quite so enlightening as a smart bunch of architects question and respond to what he presented.
Then there was a group of guest MAIBCs representing The Really Big Firms of BC. A lot of firms in BC have 1 or 2 people in them. They have more. The cover different jurisdictions, and have go through all sorts of hoops regarding acceptable names in and submitting LUs to different jurisdictions. And questions of project attribution when A Big Firm takes up the work of A Little Firm. Stuff to look forward to.
The Intern Architect Committee ... hm what to relate to you. As the only girl now I am by default the one to organize the ARE Prep Seminars. Sorry, it's not done yet, but we are getting there. The kick-off is on Feb.22nd with Anthony and Baldwin introducing the mere idea of doing the exams. After that we'll have them every other Monday night, and we'll aim to have an intern there who's done the exam being presented so there's some current stuff that's useful.
Between Council and the IAC, there will soon be some sort of an evening session where the AIBC, MAIBCs, and Interns will be invited, so that we can find out why there's such a great swath of interns who aren't getting through the IAP in a, eh-hem, timely manner. So stay tuned for those messages from the AIBC.
What else. Oh yes, last time I went to Cambridge College I took pictures of what the place looks like. As you know - whether you've found it or not - it is wewwy wewwy well hidden. One day, very very soon, I will get a page going that will hopefully be on the AIBC website, Intern pages, that will be useful in particular for those taking their very first exam on a 8:30 Saturday morning slot. Until then, the text-version:
HOW TO GET TO CAMBRIDGE COLLEGE
From the Skytrain level, essentially aim for Sears.
- this entails going straight until the first court. Turn right at Ingledews.
- then go straight until the next court. Turn left at Scoah. If you look on the left side, Cambridge College is a floor above the shop "Lotus Point". You want to get there.
- go straight. To the left of Sears is a service core with elevator and fire stairs. Take the fire stairs up one level.
- get out the door, walk in the same direction, aim for the Coke machine and turn left. Continue and you are essentially there.
This is my method. I have been told it is a girl method as it involves the names of stores. Note there are various ways and it is better to have one rather than none. The Metrotown website doesn't own up to Cambridge being there at all; the Cambridge website doesn't have a map. Note that if you look at a map info kiosk at the mall, you need to find "Office Galleria" which is on the top-left hand corner of the map. It looks like an island off some exotic, colourful coast that is the mainland of Metrotown, vaguely and mysteriously connected.
Another tip while I'm at it. I like to get there about a half-hour before and just sit in the hallway, a bit down from the coke machine. I find I get all buzzed up from all the pumped up music and flashy lights in Metrotown. I need some down time to get myself "in the mood", so I just sit out there and go through a few Archiflash cards, and mentally prepare.
As always, on anything I write do you have input? do you have questions? E-mail me!
posted by Lisa @ 4:57 PM
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