AICP study plan

Sequence the major eras of US planning (City Beautiful, zoning and Euclid, urban renewal, Model Cities, growth management, New Urbanism) on a dated timeline with the key figure or case attached to each.

Explain the legal foundations of planning practice, including police power, state zoning enabling acts, due process and equal protection, and regulatory takings doctrine.

Distinguish the comprehensive plan from zoning, subdivision regulation, and capital improvement programming by listing what each does and does not control.

Solve practice problems using core demographic and economic methods such as cohort-survival projections, shift-share analysis, and economic base multipliers.

Map the intergovernmental framework - federal, state, regional, and local roles - for land use, transportation, housing, and environmental regulation.

Order the steps of the planning process and name the specific product produced at each step, from scoping through adoption and monitoring.

Draft a goal–objective–policy–implementation matrix for a hypothetical jurisdiction so that every goal has at least one measurable objective and one action.

Compare comprehensive, area, corridor, functional, and strategic plans, and select the right type for three different scenarios with written justification.

Evaluate how visioning, scenario planning, and alternative analysis shape the options that reach decision makers.

Identify the statutory adoption steps, including hearings, consistency requirements, and plan amendments.

Match facilitation and outreach techniques - charrette, open house, focus group, Delphi, advisory committee, online engagement - to stated purposes, budgets, and audiences.

Write a plain-language executive summary of a technical planning memo at a readability level a general audience can follow.

Design a stakeholder power–interest matrix for a redevelopment scenario and derive a tailored contact strategy for each quadrant.

Practice active listening, framing, and conflict de-escalation by scripting responses to three hostile-public-comment scenarios.

Explain how visual communication tools (maps, renderings, dashboards, cross-sections) support or undermine public understanding.

Compare regulatory implementation tools - conventional zoning, form-based codes, overlay districts, planned unit developments, subdivision regulations - and select one for each of six stated development problems.

Trace a capital improvement program from plan goal to scored, scheduled, and funded project.

Explain the mechanics and appropriate use of fiscal impact analysis, tax increment financing, impact fees, exactions, and development agreements.

Diagnose common implementation failures (unfunded mandates, inconsistent codes, absent monitoring) and propose corrective measures.

Distinguish the roles of elected officials, appointed boards, and staff in adopting and administering implementation tools.

Build a comparison grid covering at least eight areas of practice - housing and community development, economic development, transportation, environmental and natural resources, urban design, historic preservation, health, and hazard mitigation - listing the characteristic tools, funding sources, and data sets of each.

Apply the AICP Code's aspirational principles and rules of practice to twelve ethics scenarios and name the specific provision implicated in each.

Describe the sequence an ethics complaint follows under the Code's enforcement provisions, from filing through review and appeal.

Recite the planner's obligations regarding honesty in applications and reports, conflicts of interest, confidential information, and public disclosure.

Select the appropriate analytic method - regression, shift-share, cohort-survival, location quotient, land suitability analysis, network analysis - for a stated policy question and justify the choice.

Critique a published planning study by identifying its sampling approach, sources of bias, and threats to internal and external validity.

Design a survey instrument and sampling plan for a neighborhood needs assessment, including mode, sample size logic, and nonresponse mitigation.

Compare line-item, program, performance, zero-based, and capital budgeting and outline the stages of the annual operating budget cycle.

Describe the personnel, procurement, records, and contracting responsibilities a planning office carries under administrative management.

Distinguish leadership from management and match leadership approaches to three workplace or political scenarios.

Construct an influence strategy for a controversial plan by identifying champions, likely opponents, coalition partners, and a framing narrative.

Apply interest-based negotiation to a simulated development agreement and document the trade-offs offered to each side.

Re-solve every question missed in weeks 1 through 6 and restate the underlying rule in your own words.

Complete two full-length timed practice examinations under test-day conditions and record scores by domain.

Rebuild flashcards for every domain scoring below 70% and drill them until recall is automatic.

Recite from memory the exam's domain weights and the three or four anchor frameworks for each domain.

Finalize test-day logistics, including appointment time, identification requirements, and a time-allocation strategy for flagged items.