2010 ARE Preparation Seminars

The Intern Architect Committee will be holding a series of free ARE preparation seminars over the coming weeks and months to help interns prepare for the exams. The seminars will be held approximately every two weeks, and will generally run from 6:00pm to 7:00pm at the AIBC Architecture Centre in Vancouver. Dates below are still subject to change. Please check back regularly to confirm that the seminar schedule is accurate.

These seminars are designed to provide strategies and other tips for each exam, and are not intended to cover specific exam content. It would be helpful to have some familiarity with the exam materials and some experience with the graphic practice program prior to attending the respective seminars, except of course for the introductory seminar.

Introduction to the AREs Wed Mar 10
Programming Planning and Practice Mon Mar 15
Site Planning and Design Mon Mar 22
Schematic Design Wed Apr 07 **
Building Design and Construction Systems Mon Apr 19**
Structural Systems Mon May 17
Building Systems Mon May 31
Construction Documents and Services Mon Jun 14

** Please note these two sessions have swapped dates.

Potential ARE Building Systems Seminar

There is a possibility of bringing in a presenter to give a two-day seminar for the Building Systems exam, in a similar style to the recent Structures Seminar given by David Thaddeus. This seminar will be presented by Gustavo Mibelli, and from all appearances seems to be helpful to some of the interns in the Building Systems forums. We are looking at scheduling this seminar in the spring, if there is enough initial interest. Please let us know if you have any interest in taking a course such as this. Thanks!

ARE 4.0 Exam Seminar Presenters

The Intern Architect Committee would like to invite interns who have written (and passed) some of the ARE 4.0 exams to serve as volunteer presenters for this year's exam preparation seminars. The 30 to 45-minute seminars are designed to provide topical exam-taking advice to interns who are about to write each exam, and thus will focus more on strategy than on specific content. Please contact us if you are interested in volunteering for any of these positions. Thanks!

Oral Review Preparation Workshop

The Intern Architect Committee will be hosting an Oral Review Preparation Workshop on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm at the AIBC. All interns are welcome to attend. The Oral Review session will be held on February 18th and 19th, 2009. The application form is available to download from the AIBC website. The Oral Review is open to those Intern Architects who have: ·completed and logged at least 2800 hours (preferably completed all of the required hours); and ·completed the required AIBC courses.

BC Building Code Courses

BCIT offers a number of architecturally related course which may be of interest and benefit to interns. Contact Roisin O'Neill, Registration Coordinator at the AIBC, to find out if the BCIT course(s) you are interested can substitute for any of the required AIBC courses at roneill@aibc.bc.ca Note that BLDG 1830 can substitute for both the AIBC's BC Building Code I and Building Code II courses.

Here is a sampling of some of the courses offered at BCIT:

BC Building Code: Multi-unit and Small Buildings
Monday nights 6:45 to 9:45, January 12 to March 30 (12 weeks), $450.
http://www.bcit.ca/study/courses/bldg1825

BLDG 1835 –Part 3 Advanced (prerequisite: BLDG 1830)
Thursday nights 6:45 to 9:45, January 22 to February 26 (6weeks), $250.
http://www.bcit.ca/study/courses/bldg1835

BLDG 1830 – BC Building Code: Part 3
Monday nights 6:45-9:45, January 12 to March 30 (12 weeks)
@ the Burnaby Campus
http://www.bcit.ca/study/courses/bldg1830

BLDG 1830 introduces participants to building code requirements related to Part 3 of the 2006 B.C. Building Code. It provides students with basic skills and a general working knowledge of the Code to analyze Part 3 buildings. Students must bring B.C. Building Code to the first class.

One can expect about 2 hours of studying outside of the seminars to complete the weekly take home assignment.

The course fee for BLDG 1830 is $450. Since the course is directly related to your internship (it can replace the two full day courses BC Building Code I & II at the AIBC) and to your training as valued member of your office team, be sure to ask your firm if they will cover this professional expense.

If your firm will not pay for your professional training you will still find BLDG 1830 is similar in cost to the two full day courses otherwise required by the AIBC.

You can find a more complete listing of upcoming architecturally related course at www.bcit.ca/

Solid Footing for General Structures Seminar

by Jeff LeMay IA.AIBC

The recent ARE General Structures workshop featuring David Thaddeus, AIA, NCARB, provided an excellent overview of structural concepts and solid preparation for the ARE General Structures exam. The 3-day workshop hosted by the AIBC in Vancouver November 7th -9th was attended by 27 intern architects from B.C., Washington, and as far away as California.

David Thaddeus’s amicable and engaging communication style made the three full days in seminar not only bearable but often enjoyable.

David’s extensive collection of 2D models made for the overhead projector clearly depicted the transformations that occur in structures under various loading conditions. His use of colour coding for different types of forces in his digital presentation was consistent throughout the seminar and made note taking and review easy. David never hesitated to pause for questions and confirm we were all on track eliminating our anxiety over being left behind.

David’s presentation was a thoughtful balance of structural concepts, equations and example questions from the exam. The concepts presented formed a useful review of the structures courses taken in school, but David presented them in a way that made them accessible for interns with or without a structures-heavy education. These concepts were underscored by a slide show including images of innovative design solutions and arresting structural failures.

The equations David presented served to consistently and cogently underscore the concepts. Eemphasis was placed one those most often featured in the exam. David successfully straddled the line between the 3.1 and 4.0 exams, ensuring a useful seminar for interns on both exam tracks. Significant time was allotted for practice questions. David also offered useful time saving strategies such as eliminating impossible answers from multiple choice questions and thereby avoiding unnecessary math operations.

This engaging and useful seminar is a recommended event not only to interns studying for General Structures but also to those who wish to enhance their structural knowledge for use in practice.

Testimony from Abdel Amin IA.AIBC:

"The things I found useful were the techniques Thaddeus presented to save time and eliminate needing to calculate every math question. He offered an exam taking plan of attack which I thought eliminated the need to ‘think’ during the exam and tempt misinterpretations. He made it simple and quick so you weren’t prone to confuse terms, especially when the equations were involved. I also felt that he explained the concepts more clearly where the Kaplan Study Guide was unnecessarily math heavy and light on explanations. He explained the theories better and we were better equipped to do the exam because of that. There isn’t too many calculations in that exam compared to the theory so if you don’t have the theory down, you may have trouble with the majority of the questions.

Also, the 2D structural models that he had were very useful. You can see clear as daylight what happens when forces act on the systems that are under consideration. I need to see it to believe it. You can talk for hours but if I can’t see it/ visualize it I won’t believe it and it becomes much harder for me to even remember it for the exam. I don’t think I am alone in thinking like this.

If I were to do all this again, I would schedule the Thaddeus course to be 2 weeks before my exam. I feel you need to do some studying before to get the most out of the course but leave yourself enough time to be able to read and review new concepts that you weren’t aware of after the course. I ran out of that time and had to wing it as much as I could as it was eating into my review time. I scheduled the exam for the Friday after the course so I ran out of time to thoroughly review the additional readings that he recommended.

The money for the course is well worth it. For the amount of time that you are there, a total of almost 30 hrs I think, it works out to be around $10/hr. Less than half of what you would spend on a tutor or another course which isn’t catered to passing the ARE specifically."

The Intern Architect Committee will be arranging for Prof. Thaddeus’ return for 2009. Stay tuned for further details.

Intern Professional Development Courses

The AIBC Professional Development Department has posted the 2009 Course Schedule. To register for your 4 mandatory courses and 2 elective courses go to http://aibc.ca/member_resources/professional_dev/pdf/2009%20PD%20Course%20Schedule.pdf. Note that you can substitute BC Building Code I & II for more in depth equivalent at BCIT noted below.

Jan 15 Management of the Project
Jan 29 Ethics, Act & Bylaws
Mar 06 Law & the Architect
Mar 13 BC Building Code I
Apr 17 Building Envelope Principles
May 21 BC Building Code II
May 29 Construction Administration
Jun 19 Ethics, the Architect’s Act & Bylaws
Sep 11 Building Envelope Principles
Sep 24 Ethics, Act & Bylaws
Oct 16 Management of the Project
Oct 22 BC Building Code I
Oct 30 BC Building Code II

Nov 13 Law & the Architect

Nov 19 Blueprint for Business
Nov 20 Construction Administration
Nov 26 Building Envelope Principles
Dec 4 Ethics, Act & Bylaws

BLDG 1830 – BC Building Code: Part 3 (accepted in lieu of AIBC Building Code I and II)
Introduction to building code requirements related to Part 3 of the 2006 B.C. Building Code. Provides students with basic skills and a general working knowledge of the code to analyze Part 3 buildings. Students must bring B.C. Building Code to the first class. This comprehensive course can be taken in lieu of the two required full day courses at the AIBC: BC Building Code I and BC Building Code II.

Monday nights 6:45-9:45, January 12 to March 30 (12 weeks)
http://www.bcit.ca/study/courses/bldg1830

BLDG 1825 –BC Building Code: Multi-unit and Small Buildings
Monday nights 6:45 to 9:45, January 12 to March 30 (12 weeks), $450.
http://www.bcit.ca/study/courses/bldg1825

BLDG 1835 – Part 3 Advanced (prerequisite: BLDG 1830)
Thursday nights 6:45 to 9:45, January 22 to February 26 (6weeks), $250.
http://www.bcit.ca/study/courses/bldg1835


BLDG 1830, Introduction to BC Building Code Part 3, at BCIT can replace the two mandatory AIBC courses covering the same topic. The topic of BLDG 1830 is Part 3 of the BC Building Code and deals with Fire Protection, Occupant Safety and Accessibility for large buildings.

Participants are expected to bring their own copy of the BC Building Code. Classes run once a week in the evenings for 12 weeks at the Burnaby campus of BCIT. One can expect about 2 hours of studying outside of the course as a minimum to take it all in. This fall BLDG 1830 will run on Monday nights from 6:45 to 9:45 from January 12 through March 30 (12 weeks). The course fee is $450.

Since the course is directly related to your internship (it can replace the two full day courses BC Building Code I & II at the AIBC) and to your training as valued member of your office team, ask your firm if they will cover the course fee.

If your firm will not pay for your professional training you will still find that BLDG 1830 is similar in cost to the two full day courses otherwise required by the AIBC. Go to http://www.bcit.ca/ for a complete list of architecturally related course for next term.

Upcoming Courses

• Jan 15 Management of the Project
• Jan 29 Ethics, Act & Bylaws
• Mar 06 Law & the Architect
• Mar 13 BC Building Code I
• Apr 17 Building Envelope Principles
• May 21 BC Building Code II
• May 29 Construction Administration
• Jun 19 Ethics, the Architect’s Act & Bylaws
• Sep 11 Building Envelope Principles
• Sep 24 Ethics, Act & Bylaws
• Oct 16 Management of the Project
• Oct 22 BC Building Code I
• Oct 30 BC Building Code II
• Nov 13 Law & the Architect
• Nov 19 Blueprint for Business
• Nov 20 Construction Administration
• Nov 26 Building Envelope Principles
• Dec 4 Ethics, Act & Bylaws
  

To register go to http://www.aibc.ca/member_resources/professional_dev/index.html and download the registration form.