In the LEED

Now don’t get scared - I’m about to go into much detail about one sample exam question. I am doing this so you will understand what the test may ask of you and how they may (try to) “trick” you. This post may seem long, but it should be beneficial to read all the way through. Here is one kind of typical question you’ll find on the LEED AP, New Construction version 2.2 Exam:

The design team of a 28,000 sq. ft. public school hope to achieve SS Credit 6.2, Stormwater Design: Quality Control, in the LEED-NC Rating System. Incorporating which of the following green building elements into the design would aid the team in achieving this credit? (Choose three)

A. constructed wetland

B. solar hot water system

C. vegetated roof

D. infiltration basin

E. high-albedo concrete

The answer is A, C, and D.

If you didn’t know the answers, that’s ok. If you did, that’s great - but keep on reading. There are a few things to realize about the LEED AP test questions before you sit down at your computer on exam day.

1. This is a typical kind of question where it may tell you the category name, credit number and credit name (yes, they usually give you all of that info - in the questions and in answer choices), and your goal is to determine what green building elements fit into that credit based on the information provided. Other types will be the opposite - they will instead tell you the green building elements that will be incorporated into the design and you must select the appropiate credit(s) based on the information given. Percentages, requirements, prerequisites, submittal phases, codes and standards, the people responsible, and the occasional definition - they are all fair game on this test, but most questions regarding all of those things usually follow this methodology.
2. Read the questions carefully. Let me repeat - read the questions c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y, and let me stress the “fully” part.
   • A few things while looking at this particular question:
     1. At first glance, you’ll see the “28,000 sq. ft.”. A lot of credits deal with the area of a building or site, and you should know those square footages in those credits. However, after studying you would know that credit SS 6.2, Stormwater Design - Quality Control does not involve any building or area calculations, so don’t let these numbers mess with your mind.
     2. Next, we’ll look at the credit sited, again, SS 6.2, Stormwater Design - Quality Control. Back to the “read carefully part”, don’t get this confused with another credit, i.e. SS 6.1, Stormwater Design - Quantity Control. As you can see, they look pretty similar on paper, so make sure you’re reading (and remembering) the right one.
     3. Also, be careful because sometimes you’ll see a “NOT” in the question, i.e. Which of the following is not required to satisfy the credit blah blah blah. This will dramatically change what you’re looking for in your answers, so again, read carefully.
     4. Immediately, I’d do a “braindump” (either in my head or on the scratch paper provided to you at the testing facility) of everything I remembered relating to this credit:
        • treat 90% of storm water runoff
        • remove 80% of Total Suspended Solids
        • use Best Management Plan (BMP) to treat stormwater:
          • wetlands, vegetated filters, open channels, vegetated roofs, bioswales, grid pavers
        • design phase submittal
     5. Ok, now that we’ve done that, we can start answering the question.
        • A. constructed wetlands and C. vegetated roofs are obvious answers here based on what we’ve learned and memorized
        • We’re done, right? WRONG! See the “Choose three” part? We need 3 answers here, but only have two so far. A lot of questions will ask for more than 1 or 2 answers. Some may even ask for as many as 5. Luckily, on exam day after answering the last question, the computer will notify you if you haven’t answered the required number of answers for any particular question and you’ll be able to go back later. You also have the option of “marking” questions so you can go back to them later as well.
     6. So we still need one more answer. A lot of times, you’ll definitely get 2 of the 3 required answers right away, and with one more to answer, the left over answers aren’t as clear cut and can cause us problems from time to time. If this happens, I like to play the “elimination game”.
        • B. solar hot water system: this is something that doesn’t sound like it belongs with stormwater design or quality control of runoff. It sounds more suited for something relating to the energy systems. X it out for this one.
        • D. infiltration basin: this could work. It wasn’t exactly in my “braindump”, but I did think of vegetated filters, and I know filters have to do with the quality control of some sort of water runoff (or lint in my dryer). Its proably this one, but there may be a better answer.
        • E. high-albedo concrete: luckily I know the definition of this is as a light colored and high solar reflectant concrete which has nothing to do with stormwater design or quality control. So this definitely cannot be the answer.
          • In case you didn’t know the definition of a high-albedo concrete, you can just use your common word association / SAT tricks to determine what this may be. For example, the word albedo reminds me of albino, which means something that white or lacks color. A white concrete. That makes sense, especially if I didn’t want to have hot concrete, for example. So now you know this isn’t the correct answer.

As you can see, there is a lot that goes on with these questions, but I hope I’ve broken it down for you enough so that you can have an idea of what may be asked of you and how to answer these types of questions if you haven’t seen them before. Again - don’t be frightened. As you study, you’ll learn the material much faster and be able to answer the questions without even going into this much depth.

Good luck, and Cheers!

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