LARE common mistakes
LARE · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Begins laying out the plan in pencil before writing a program table that lists every required element, its net area or count, and its required adjacencies - then discovers mid-layout that circulation and service space push the total over the site's capacity.
Studio training rewards visual composition and fast sketching; under exam time pressure the impulse is to start drawing the 'answer' before the arithmetic is done, so the candidate never has a reference to test the layout against.
What to do instead
Before any layout, spend 5–8 minutes building a program table (element / quantity / net area / adjacency / access need), total it, add a realistic circulation and structure allowance, and compare to the net usable site area from the constraints map. Keep the table visible and check off each row against the final plan before stopping.
Places program elements wherever they fit graphically, ignoring the site analysis overlay - steep slopes, drainage swales, solar exposure, prevailing winter wind, existing specimen trees, and the location of the only street access.
Candidates treat inventory and analysis as a preliminary sketch exercise rather than a constraint set, so the drawing looks resolved but violates a physical limit that the item is actually testing.
What to do instead
Produce a dedicated constraints diagram first: buildable vs. no-build zones, slope bands, flow arrows, tree protection radii, sun angles, and access points. Then site each program element only within a zone that satisfies its stated need, and annotate the plan with the constraint you satisfied for each major element.
Draws the pedestrian route without checking it segment by segment for running slope, cross slope, clear width, turning space, and level landings at doors and ramps.
Accessibility is treated as a post-design code review rather than a design generator, and slope numbers are hard to read off a plan without deliberate measurement.
What to do instead
Trace the accessible route with a colored pencil and label each segment with its slope and width against the allowable maximum; mark each grade break as a landing and verify its length. If a segment fails, adjust contours or reroute before moving on.
Uses submittal, sample, mockup, substitution request, and shop drawing as if they were interchangeable, or assigns approval of a contractor's means and methods to the landscape architect.
Candidates learn these as vocabulary words from a list rather than as a sequence of events with different authors, purposes, and approval authority, so the distinctions collapse under exam wording.
What to do instead
Build a one-page matrix: document type / who prepares it / who reviews it / what question it answers / when it occurs in the schedule. Add a separate line for means and methods and for site observation, and note who owns each.
Reads only the drawings in a contract document question and ignores the agreement, general conditions, supplementary conditions, and specifications - missing order-of-precedence conflicts and the 'by others' or 'or equal' scoping language.
Drawings are the familiar artifact, so attention defaults there; the legal and administrative hierarchy of the documents is studied late and thinly.
What to do instead
Memorize the order of precedence and the responsibility triangle (owner–landscape architect–contractor) cold. Practice by reading a specification section and extracting only its Submittals, Quality Assurance, and Execution articles, then stating in one sentence what the contractor must deliver and when.
Selects and details materials by product name, brand familiarity, or appearance rather than by performance properties, standard reference, and the assembly around them.
Study habits favor memorizing product names and photos because they feel concrete, while the tested content is about why a material works in a given condition.
What to do instead
For each material family, learn it as an assembly: substrate, attachment, movement accommodation, drainage/ventilation, finish, and one governing standard plus one typical failure mode and its repair. Answer practice items by naming the property being tested before naming the product.
Reproduces a paving or wall section from habit - a default base thickness and edge condition - without checking load, soil drainage class, frost depth, compaction, and edge restraint requirements for the specific condition described.
Detail recall is memorized as a picture instead of a set of performance requirements, so the candidate cannot adjust the section when the prompt changes the soil, load, or climate.
What to do instead
Write out standard sections as a layered list with the reason for each layer and the variable that changes it (load, soil, frost, slope). When a question changes one variable, name the layer that must change before choosing an answer.
Converts between slope ratio and percent incorrectly - reading 2:1 as 2%, or treating a 4:1 slope as 4% - and then carries the bad number into spot elevations and pipe inverts.
Both notations appear in the same prompts, and the candidate converts in their head without writing the arithmetic, so the error propagates silently through every later calculation.
What to do instead
Write a small conversion table at the start (1:1 = 100%, 2:1 = 50%, 3:1 = 33%, 4:1 = 25%, 2% = 1:50) and express every slope as both rise/run and percent before using it. Sanity-check with the rule that rise equals run multiplied by the decimal percent.
Draws contours that contradict the spot elevations already placed, creating flat pockets and reverse-slope areas that pond water on the finished surface.
Contours and spot elevations are produced at different moments and never reconciled, and the candidate does not mentally route water across the finished surface before declaring the grading plan complete.
What to do instead
Fix finished floor and pavement spot elevations first, then interpolate contours between them rather than drawing contours freehand. Before finishing, trace a flow path from every low point to a swale, inlet, or off-site discharge, and eliminate any enclosed depression that has no overflow route.
Sizes stormwater storage or runoff volume with mismatched units - multiplying rainfall depth in inches by area in square feet and treating the result as cubic feet, or confusing square feet with acres in the rational method - and omits freeboard or an emergency overflow.
Unit conversions are done mentally and quickly, and the candidate stops as soon as a plausible-looking number appears instead of verifying its dimensions.
What to do instead
Carry units through every step and cancel them explicitly (depth in inches ÷ 12 to feet, then × area in square feet = cubic feet). Then check the result against the design storm, add freeboard and an overflow elevation, and confirm the storage volume is achievable within the area shown on the plan.