One week ago today, I took the LEED for Green Associates and LEED AP Homes exam. About 15 seconds after I ended the exam, the computer screen changed and gave me my results. As the title of this post suggests, I passed! I have not been able to write about it yet (or anything, for that matter) because my brain has been MUSH. If you look at my December 6th post about studying, you might understand why. I have not studied like that since some time in the previous century.
In studying, I must have taken 15 practice exams (that’s 1500 multiple choice questions). While that helped prepare me, by the time I got to the actual exam, I found it difficult to stay focused. I was getting a little tired of the material and format! (The second hardest part was my thirst: they would not even let me bring a water bottle into the testing area!)
The LEED for Green Associates exam I found to be pretty easy. I only market about 8 questions to go back and review because I was unsure of the answers. They asked a lot of questions about the Montreal Protocol, which regulates refrigerant management around CFCs, HCFCs, and HFCs. You neeeded to know about each refrigerant’s ozone-depleting potential and global warming potentials, as well as the required phase-out periods and allowable exceptions. I finished the exam 45 minutes early, so I took a break while the computer clock still ticked. I was feeling pretty good.
Then I got to the LEED for Homes exam. Some questions were super easy. They try to trick you about how many points a project can get based on how many LEED Accredited Professionals were involved in the project. That answer is one point, no matter what. Other questions, however, were nearly impossible– like those that concerned LEED for Neighborhood Development, a different rating system for which I did not study. On those questions, I took my best guess. I ended up marking 24 questions to back and review, much more than the previous exam. I was a little worried, because I did not know how many needed to be answered correctly for a passing score.
The interesting part was that I scored the exact same on both portions of the exam — 188 out of 200. That’s 94%, but I am not sure how the questions are weighted, because a passing score is 170 points (85%). So what do I get now? I get to be a LEED AP Homes, or an official “LEED Accredited Professional.” I get to maintain this credential by completing and reporting 30 hours of continuing education over the next two years. Nationwide, there are 332 other people who have the LEED AP Homes credential; I am one of only five in Minnesota (all located in Minneapolis). That’s pretty cool.