REAC Qualifying Exam study plan

Map the full regulatory hierarchy for environmental assessment in your jurisdiction, from statute down to agency guidance, and label each instrument's binding force

Build a one-page table of permitting triggers, thresholds, and categorical exclusions that you can recall from memory by week's end

Explain aloud, in under three minutes, the difference between substantive and procedural legal requirements in an assessment process

Draft five worked scenarios in which you decide whether an assessment is legally required and cite the controlling provision for each

Trace the enforcement and penalty pathway for a non-compliant submission, identifying each decision point and responsible actor

Distinguish conflicts of interest, confidentiality duties, and disclosure obligations using three constructed case vignettes

Draft a defensible position on a pressure scenario where a client asks you to soften a finding

Compare recordkeeping and retention duties across the statutes you mapped in week 1

Classify ten project descriptions by the significance criteria that would drive screening, and justify each classification

Construct a cause-effect chain linking a proposed action through a stressor to a receptor endpoint for two contrasting project types

Differentiate baseline characterization from impact prediction and state what evidence each requires

Evaluate cumulative and indirect effects for a single hypothetical project and identify the boundary assumptions you used

Match sampling design choices (stratified, systematic, targeted, probabilistic) to stated assessment questions and defend the match

Calculate required sample counts from a stated precision target and variance estimate, showing the arithmetic

Identify the dominant uncertainty in each of four impact predictions and propose a mitigation for the analysis

Explain how detection limits and non-detects constrain conclusions in an assessment context

Select appropriate field and laboratory methods for a stated analyte list and justify each selection against the data use

Construct a chain-of-custody and field documentation sequence that survives an audit, from planning through transfer

Diagnose five common sampling errors (contamination, holding time, representativeness, calibration drift, compositing misuse) and state the control for each

Interpret a calibration and continuing-check dataset and decide whether the batch is acceptable

Build a data quality objectives statement for one decision, specifying precision, bias, completeness, representativeness, and comparability targets

Compute basic quality control statistics (percent recovery, relative percent difference, relative standard deviation) from supplied numbers and judge each against criteria

Design a QA/QC sample schedule (blanks, duplicates, spikes, standards) proportionate to a stated data use

Distinguish accuracy from precision and identify which one a given QC failure implicates

Assemble a report structure that separates findings, methods, limitations, and conclusions so each is independently verifiable

Write results text that reports values with units, detection limits, and uncertainty without overstating conclusions

Convert a technical finding into a plain-language summary for a non-technical decision-maker without distorting it

Audit a sample report section against traceability criteria and list every gap found

Complete two timed full-length practice sets under exam conditions and record per-domain accuracy

Re-teach your three weakest sub-topics from memory in writing, then verify against source material

Consolidate a one-page recall sheet of thresholds, formulas, and statutory citations you must hold in memory

Rehearse the ethics decision rule and the DQO framework until you can state each in under ninety seconds