Over the years, LEED has become an expected credential among building professionals. Unfortunately, many busy building professionals who want LEED credentials can’t to take off of work to attend months of classes in preparation for the exams. With LEED credential exam fees ranging from $200-$550 USD, it’s important that exam prep is both efficient and effective. Fortunately, there are several online LEED exam prep options out there for busy construction professionals, and HBW has an overview of the three best programs available.
Green Building Education Services
GBES, the #1-online LEED credential training program, offers a LEED Green Associate exam prep course and LEED AP specialty courses in all five areas for $149.99 each. GBES offers two web-based formats: Live and Anytime. Live classes are available for the LEED Green Associate and LEED AP BD + C credentials. Live classes are conducted through four weeks of live webinars. Students have 60 days of access to course recordings, forums, and thousands of practice test questions. Anytime courses are available for the Green Associate and for all specialty areas. They are based on MP3’s of pre-recorded content but have the same course materials as the live version, plus students have 120 days to access the materials and complete the course. Anytime specialty courses include 8 hours of exam prep for the Green Associate at no extra charge.
Red Vector is a web-based construction, engineering, and architecture education company that offers over 1,500 interactive online courses in construction technology. They partnered with the University of Tennessee to develop their LEED curriculum. Red Vector offers the LEED Green Associate, O+M, ID+C, and BD+C programs in basic and dual coverage options ranging in price from $349.99-$899.99. The basic program gets you training prep for the exam, and dual coverage prepays the continuing education credits you will need to maintain your credential for the duration of your career. These programs consist of 10-30 hours of interactive online coursework, but only a handful of live interactive webinars are currently available.
Green-Buildings.com offers very affordable LEED Green Associate, AP Homes, AP O+M, AP ID+C, and AP BD+C study courses plus a lot of free exam prep material. Courses range from $39.99 for practice tests alone to $129.99 for practice tests, study guides, and interactive online training. One thing Green-Building offers that the others doesn’t is the opportunity to remotely participate in GreenStep’s LEED Professional Project Experience Program, which will fulfill the GBCI eligibility requirement that applicants have work experience on a LEED project or in a sustainable field of work, or have accredited education in green building principles.