Just looking for some feed back as to how you guys have prepared for the id section of the ISA Cert exam? I have worked in the forest industry for years and am good with all of our native species, but looking over the Exam Tree List of 99 species makes me nervous. From what I gather they give you a few slides to look at for each of the 10 trees on the exam. How have you all prep'd for this? Any advice would be much appreciated.
ISA Cert id section advice?
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kkottemann
ArboristSite Operative
This bid of advice is not from my own personal expierience because I will be taking the test for the first time in august. But someone told me to consider the location of your test. you will probably have to id tree and shrubs of the area. so get there early and walk around. If it is close by where you live, go there and study. Take the test in the summer so there are leaves and you do not have to rely on buds and branching formations. go to a local university and see in a dendrologist can give you some time. Good luck
M.D. Vaden
vadenphotography.com
kkottemann said:
Ahhhh...Hahhhh
If I was going to proctor your test in summer, I'd pick off the leaves to be sneaky.
Actually, we had one photo per tree when I took the exam.
I had 4 terms of plant ID in college, so that was my preparation.
M.D. Vaden said:
Thanks for the feedback. I also had taken a couple dendrology courses in college, however that was 8 years ago and I've only retained the species which I work with every day. There are alot of trees on the list which I have never seen growing in our region. Do they generally pick trees which are more common to the area in which you are writing the exam?
treeman45246
ArboristSite Operative
I took the test quite a few years back, and then they just picked the species immediately around the building. Now, from what I understand, they give you a sheet with a picture of the leaf, bud, and form of the tree. This standardizes the test throughout the region and makes it easier to make the test fair summer versus winter etc. It shouldn't be too tough. Noone is trying to trip you up on the ID, and narrowing it to two choices shouldn't be too difficult. Good luck with it.
Kneejerk Bombas
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The test is multiple guess too, so it's pretty easy. Most of them are straight forward and there might be one or two tricky ones, like they have an Ash stick, and two of the choices are Green Ash and White Ash.
TSUGA
New Member
Pnw Id
Get the list of 100 from the ISA. Scratch out the natives you know. Then pick up Trees of North America, by Roger Phillips. ($30.00)+_- This has great color photos and is easy to use. The ID section is a random 10 photos of the entire tree. The rest are written into the exam to equal the percentage value of the ID domain. Study the Biology more. Good luck.
Get the list of 100 from the ISA. Scratch out the natives you know. Then pick up Trees of North America, by Roger Phillips. ($30.00)+_- This has great color photos and is easy to use. The ID section is a random 10 photos of the entire tree. The rest are written into the exam to equal the percentage value of the ID domain. Study the Biology more. Good luck.
TSUGA
New Member
Pnw Id
Get the list of 100 from the ISA. Scratch out the natives you know. Then pick up Trees of North America, by Roger Phillips. ($30.00)+_- This has great color photos and is easy to use. The ID section is a random 10 photos of the entire tree. The rest are written into the exam to equal the percentage value of the ID domain. Study the Biology more. Good luck.
Get the list of 100 from the ISA. Scratch out the natives you know. Then pick up Trees of North America, by Roger Phillips. ($30.00)+_- This has great color photos and is easy to use. The ID section is a random 10 photos of the entire tree. The rest are written into the exam to equal the percentage value of the ID domain. Study the Biology more. Good luck.
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