V4 LEED BD+C

[engineer123]

I'm taking LEED AP BD+C in a few months (hopefully i'll be ready by then) but i figured starting a forum on this exam would help others out. Post your questions and advice/feedback here! Also if you know any good study materials, please feel free to share

I'm really nervous about this exam as I heard V4 is much harder than LEED 2009. I can't seem to find any good forums out there either..

 

[John QPE]

I just finished editing and providing technical guidance to the USGBC's v4 study guide which will be published very shortly. That should get you started with your studying. Good luck!

 

[engineer123]

That's great! Where can I read it?

I'm going through the reference guide but surely I need more condensed material.

 

[jglavin PE]

I wish the official study guide was released, I'm studying for the BD+C exam coming up in about 6 weeks and bought the LEED BD+C exam guide written by Gang Chen, which is an ok book but I would have rather bought the official one.

There is so much memorization with this exam. I also haven't worked on a LEED project in a few years and have never worked on a v4 project. Hopefully that doesn't keep me from passing.

 

[John QPE]

The intent when we wrote the v4 exam was to make it very difficult to pass if you have never worked on a LEED project.

 

[jglavin PE]

That's the feeling I get. As a EE my involvement in any project is not that extensive.

 

[jglavin PE]

Passed my AP BD+C today! Was a good deal tougher than the Green assoc. exam, so... hooray, I guess? I used the reference guide and a study guide which was essentially a condensed version of the reference guide. Read through those materials and took a practice test. My score was middle-of-the-road, so I know I would not have passed had I not put in the hours I did. Probably 15-20 hours in total preparing. I have worked on 3 LEED projects under past rating systems. Next on the list is the AP O+M, next year.

 

[matt267 PE]

@jglavin congrats. That's more letters for the alphabet soup.

 

[John QPE]

Passed my AP BD+C today! Was a good deal tougher than the Green assoc. exam, so... hooray, I guess? I used the reference guide and a study guide which was essentially a condensed version of the reference guide. Read through those materials and took a practice test. My score was middle-of-the-road, so I know I would not have passed had I not put in the hours I did. Probably 15-20 hours in total preparing. I have worked on 3 LEED projects under past rating systems. Next on the list is the AP O+M, next year.

15-20 hours??? That's it??

Come on now. The reference guide is 800 pages alone.

Congratulations!!

 

[jglavin PE]

Thanks! Maybe you're right that estimate is a bit low. Spent an afternoon or two a week for 6 weeks, minus thanksgiving. It could have been more like 40 hrs

 

[thecityofjoy]

Hello guys, I plan to take my LEED GA and then my LEED AP . What books do you recommend to pass exam? Please list in order of importance . This could include books on practice exams .

 

[jglavin PE]

I'd say if you can pass the specialty exam you can pass the GA, but I also took them separately (just in case). For the GA, I used the LEED Green Associate Exam preparation guide by McCombs. This includes a practice exam in the back. Read and understand this material and you will be fine on the exam.

As mentioned in another post above, I used the official reference guide from USGBC for the AP exam, along with a study guide I found on Amazon. This turned out to be sufficient to pass the exam, but there is a good deal of memorization involved.

 

[thecityofjoy]

Hello... Someone please explain difference between LEED AP BD+C and LEED AP ID+C .

Which one is more important for an electrical engineer ? Please explain with reference to real world projects and examples and not speculation. As in what type of LEED building project they would be useful and why? 

 

[John QPE]

You need to determine which projects you will be working on predominantly and decide for yourself.

 

[jbhay]

Hello... Someone please explain difference between LEED AP BD+C and LEED AP ID+C .

Which one is more important for an electrical engineer ? Please explain with reference to real world projects and examples and not speculation. As in what type of LEED building project they would be useful and why? 

You need to understand the rating systems first and what types of projects they apply to and then think about the work you do. It's not a matter of which rating system solely, but which prerequisites and credits you would be focusing on mainly as an electrical engineer. (Light Pollution Reduction, Min. Energy Performance, Interior Lighting, etc.) 

Rating System Selection Guidance (USGBC) 

 

[mike.branson]

Maybe this LEED AP exam prep here can help.