07 - NCIDQ Lowdown with Julianne Rodriguez, Founder of Creative Confidante - Part 2
“One thing that I thought about as I was taking the exam, was that it felt like I was training and running a marathon. The three exams test a wide range of content. It definitely felt like a test of endurance than anything. Both in terms of the amount of time preparing and studying for it and the length of the exam. Just like you cannot go out and run a marathon without preparing, you need to consistently and effectively prepare for the NCIDQ. Once you finish and cross the finish line, getting those five letters after your name will be so worth it.”
- Julianne Rodriguez
Overview
We're picking up where we left off, talking to Julianne Rodriguez. In this episode, we are taking a deeper dive into the NCIDQ exam. Julianne is going to answer some of the deeper questions about eligibility, offer study tips and go into more detail on resources available for taking the NCIDQ exam. This episode will help set you on the right path but first commit to listening to this episode.
But before you listen to this episode make sure you listen to Part 1 where you will get a background on what Creative Confidante is, an overview of the NCIDQ exam and hear Julianne’s experience in preparing for taking the exam.
If there are any questions that come up from listening to either of these episodes, feel free to reach out at elizabeth@milelongtrace.com. I will make sure and connect you with Julianne to help you get your questions answered. At the end of the day, both of us want you to feel supported in your career and hope to encourage you to take the NCIDQ exam. Happy studying!
Guest Summary
Julianne is a licensed Interior Designer with experience in high-end hospitality, retail, residential and workplace clients. With a science & fine arts background, she has a unique love for the intersection of the arts, culture and design and is passionate about creating environments that enrich the guest experience. Julianne earned her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Interior Architecture from the Cleveland Institute of Art and moved to Southern California upon graduation to start her design career. Her work has been featured globally in Business of Home, Dezeen, Elle Decor, Vogue China, Architectural Digest Spain, Wired and more.
She achieved both her NCIDQ certification and LEED AP ID+C accreditation and is extremely passionate about advocating for the advancement of interior design professionals through certification. In 2016, she founded Creative Confidante, an online resource that provides NCIDQ study tips & tricks, to support and encourage designers to pass their NCIDQ exams.
Show Notes
Question #1: Can you walk our listeners through when they can take the exam?
Julianne: For the IDFX you can take it right after you graduate from a CIDA or non-CIDA accredited school. You can also take it if you received an associate's degree or if you have an architecture degree. For the IDPX and the Practicum, you will need to have met the education requirements that I mentioned for the IDFX and you will also need to have work experience. For the IDPX you need to have 3,520 hours, which is approximately three years of work experience. 1,760 of those hours can come from qualified work experience, which includes internships. You will need to have a supervisor that is NCIDQ certified to have substantial oversight of your job. A direct supervisor is a design professional who has oversight of your work and of your history. A sponsor is a design professional who agrees to review a candidate’s professional progress and confirm that they have the necessary experience hours. The sponsor may or may not work with them.
Example: Say you work at a small firm and within your office there is no one who has a NCIDQ certificate or an architectural license. You could find someone within your community who meets those requirements and vouch for your work experience.
Elizabeth: That was really helpful, I think a good reminder for all of us is to go back to the NCIDQ website. They do a really great job of outlining it. I'm guessing you're also always available, right? Can people email you with questions?
Julianne: Absolutely, people email me all the time. I am always happy to help. I actually, just got a question about a different route for sponsorship and how they could find someone in their region.
Question #2: Can you outline for us when the exam is offered?
Julianne: It is offered twice a year. It's offered during the months of April and October and actually for the spring examines coming up now, you have about two weeks to get all of your applications in. Once CIDQ confirms that you're eligible then you can schedule your exam. If you want to take it in the spring get your applications in now.
Elizabeth: I wanted to mention that in your recent blog post you advise that by signing up you are committing to the exam date instead of waiting till you study and feel you are ready. By committing to a six-month period to study instead of dragging it on is a really great tip.
Julianne: It can be hard to commit to it. If you sign up, if you pay for the exam, you are going to be a lot more committed than if you're constantly thinking about it and going back and forth on it. So just commit and then go from there.
Question #3: Creative Confidante offers support for those that are considering taking in NCIDQ exam. Can you outline the resources available?
Julianne: Creative Confident is an online resource for interior designers and architects who are looking to pass the exam. It will help them pass with confidence. It offers free resource to our industry and encourages designers and architects to take this incredibly important credential. One point I like to make is that you can do so affordably and without devoting every waking minute to studying for it. It also provides solution to some of the hurdles that are often blockers for those who want to take the test: finical, time management, having enough info, or getting enough confidence.
Elizabeth: I think we all need cheerleaders or those that hold us to the flame to keep us going when we start to doubt something. It's usually when you're hitting a deadline and you're exhausted. It is nice to have somebody that's continuing to dangle that carrot in front of you. Julianne can be that kind of coach for you guys out there to help you navigate the registration process, eligibility and find a study session. I know you have been posting on your linked-in when you see a different IIDA Chapters offering study sessions. Sounds like you are creating that point of intersection, where you can intersect with your practice and the NCIDQ.
Question #4: What is a study tips do you have for our listeners?
Julianne: You just need to start. You need start the process, sign up and then get your books. I have a NCIDQ study shop on my blog. It will tell you exactly what I used to pass the test. Then sit down and study. My most recent blog post was how to create a study plan. That was honestly the most important thing I did for all three exams. A study plan is a overall plan that breaks down everything you need to study into small milestones. Then attaches it to a schedule. You will go week by week and follow exactly what you need to study. It will really help you accomplished your goals. If you think you are going to study 20 chapters in a weekend, that's not going to happen. If it does, it will probably be very miserable. Creating a plan and just doing small things at a time will make your life so much easier. Also, understanding that studying is different for everyone. It personally took me a while to figure out that I needed to take notes and make flash cards in order to study successfully and really retain the information. If I just sat down and read the NCIDQ reference manual I would hardly retain the information and would most likely fall asleep. While taking notes and making flashcards obviously took longer, it is what worked best for me and made studying effective. It is important to know what type of learner you are and how best to study to suit your needs.
Elizabeth: A lot of us are visual learners, right? Seeing it for me really helps. Hearing it doesn't resonate with me. I'm always taking notes as people are speaking because I think that helps get through to me. The repetition of multiple different ways helps too. If you're speaking it or teaching it back to somebody, is a really great way to learn something in depth. So maybe there's somebody in your community that you can pair up with to study. Then practice teaching a section back to each other. Try to figure out creative ways to embed that information into you head.
Question #5: Can you go into more detail about the exam books available?
Julianne: All three exams reference the NCIDQ Reference Manual. If you go to my website www.creativeconfidante.com. There is a NCIDQ study shop. You will see links to the reference manual. It provides a comprehensive overview including suggestion on how to run your practice. PPI offers different sample question in the practice exam books. There is one for the IDFX, the IDPX and the practicum. There are also flash cards, which are really helpful. I use them a lot. In addition to making my own flash cards, they're just really great reinforce material for your practice.
Question #6: Are there practice tests available on-line?
Julianne: CIDQ offers a practice exam for the practicum. Which is really helpful because then you'll get a really good sense of the format of the exam and what they're looking for. When I took the practicum, it was when it was the eight-hour hand drafted marathon. Six months later they changed it to digital. I would highly recommend doing the practice exam on-line if you're doing the practicum.
Elizabeth: I found the LEED practice exams were actually more stringent then the actual exam. So hopefully that's the case here as well. Doing the practice exams forces you to think through the exam questions. This helps you get used to the format, and how they are going to ask the multiple-choice questions. I think as many times as you can practice and get used to the format is good. I know that a lot of people were intimidated when the exam was switching to the digital platform. Even though many of us draft in auto cad or revit, it pushed us out of our comfort zone. So as much as you can practice how they're going to simulate a design process on-line is really good to try.
Julianne: It really helped get my confidence up. I think a lot of it is the stress before a test when you think all those negative thoughts, like I am a terrible test taker, this thing was so expensive, what if I don’t pass. You have to learn how to tune that out and focus on the question. Doing it over and over really helped me get my confidence up before the test.
Learning how to sit still for about two and 1/2 to 3 hours without looking at your phone or your email or getting up for anything. That was another thing that I definitely needed, because during the day we're always go, go, go and going to meetings or checking this or that. Simply sitting still for that long is definitely something worth practicing.
Elizabeth: That is a really good point. I remember being locked in a room for eight hours. That was a little different. Focusing for two and 1/2 hours when you are dedicated to something is important. That is a really great tip.
Questions #7: Can you make an analogy for us on a comparison between something you've seen and taking the NCIDQ?
Julianne: One thing that I thought about a lot as I was taking the exam, was that it felt like I was training and running a marathon. The three exams test a wide range of content. It definitely felt like a test of endurance than anything. Both in terms of the amount of time preparing and studying for it and the length of the exam. Just like you cannot go out and run a marathon without preparing, you need to consistently and effectively prepare for the NCIDQ. Once you finish and cross the finish line, getting those five letters after your name will be so worth it.
Closing
All you listeners out there that are getting ready to take the exam, please contact on social media when you pass so we can celebrate your accomplishments with you. It is important to come together as a community and support each other and help elevate our practice.
Stay up to date with Julianne via Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter and at www.creativeconfidante.com.
Credit
Branding & Graphic Design work by Andrea Schwoebel https://www.andreaschwoebel.com/
Content provided by Creative Confidante
Photo by Kasper Rasmussen on Unsplash