Taking the LEED Green Associate 2009 or V4?

It depends how much of that month you can devote to studying, I'd say. You're already pretty aware of the "basic concepts" they claim the GA exam is about, but in reality, it's about basic LEED concepts and information, not basic sustainable design concepts.

I am taking the v2009 AP exam this spring even though I know more about v4 at this point, mainly because it's convenient for me. I think it makes sense to know both rating systems, but if you were to take the v4 exam, you'd have a leg up on those who know v2009 and haven't practiced v4 yet. You also wouldn't have to memorize two sets of numbers! I'd say it's a toss-up. :-)

Maybe you have the ideal combination: GA exam under v2009 and AP exam under v4. The GA exam isn't going to change nearly as much as the AP exams, I wouldn't think.

The Green Associate exam focuses on basic green building concepts and ideas. The specialty exams test your knowledge of the rating systems.

Michael, that is only true in theory. In practice, the Green Associate exam requires fairly extensive knowledge of LEED rating systems: definitions, referenced standards, and even how to use LEED Online. That is hardly what I would call basic green building concepts and ideas.

I'd have to agree, Paula. I forced our GA candidates in house to study the first page of each LEED credit in BD+C so they would have an understanding of the credit, the points available, intent and requirement. I also recommended they read the benefits section, understand the scorecard and points available in each category. They all cried foul about this extra work but everyone who took the GA exam came back and said the RG work they did helped them pass the exam.

You need 1 to 2 weeks typically to prepare for the LEED Green Associate Exam, and some people have done it by spending 10 hours in total.

I think my reply was taken out of context, and was likely too brief to be honest.

The changes to the GA exam will not be very dramatic, due to the fact that the GA exam tests basic green building knowledge (which includes basic credit library knowledge,and basic LEED knowledge). If any calculations changed between versions, it should not have much bearing, because the GA exam does not get that deep.

Read through the credit summaries and know the credits exist, and what rating system they belong in, but you arent going to need to know how to do the calculations and detailed implementation aspects of each credit.