Samantha Raburn is a newly licensed architect at Stantec Architecture in Plano, Texas. Her blog, The Aspiring Architect, recounts her journey to become qualified and acts as an insightful guide to all those following a similar path into the profession.
The Architect Registration Exam — the three most daunting words every aspiring architect has to deal with. After taking my fifth of the seven of these required tests, I feel like I can give my opinion on them. But let me also follow that with this: Everyone that has taken these exams will have a different opinion — that they are easy, hard, stupid or useful — and each will have their own interpretation of the process. What I’m writing today is just my views and opinions on the exams as a recent college graduate. For ease of reading, I broke it down into a question and answer/opinion format.
Q: Is it better to test right out of school or after you’ve gained a few years of experience?
A: One of the most common phrases I heard after graduation from people at work was “take the ARE and get it over with as soon as possible!” There are a few reasons why people said that: First, the longer you work, the more responsibility you have at work (less time to study); second, the older you get, the more obligations you will have with family and kids (less time to study); and third, the longer you are out of school, the more likely you are to forget what you learned (having to study more). All of these are very valid reasons as to why you should take the exams as soon as possible. I took their advice and started testing as soon as I became eligible. My opinion: The longer you wait, the harder it will be to find the will to or the time to study, so just suck it up and get it done.
Q: But wouldn’t it be easier to take the tests after I have experience and learned more from working in an office?
A: I considered this and just accepted the fact that I may have to study a little harder and longer than those with experience. HOWEVER, I have learned while testing concurrently with others in my office that having experience before testing is not always a benefit. There are many subjects and questions covered on the ARE that have answers that are not realistic or practical in the real world. I like to call those “NCARB answers.” The way you learn to do things in your office or firm may not be how NCARB says you should do them — so be aware. There will be many times during your studies that you will have to memorize something just for the test and then forget it when you go back to work.
Q: Is there a good or bad order to take them in?
A: There’s not necessarily a good or bad order to take them in, but there is definitely some content overlap between tests. If I had to group them by content, I would put them together like this:
Group A: Site Planning and Design, Construction Documents and Services, and Programming, Planning, and Practice
Group B: Building Design and Construction Systems, Structural Systems, and Building Systems
Group C: Schematic Design
Actually, if I had to suggest an order — that would be it. My order was slightly different because of the timing of a seminar for the Structural Systems test, but after taking five of the seven, the order above seems like a good order. Group A exams are all good to get your feet wet, and they share a TON of the same content. Building Design and Construction Systems is great preparation for Structural Systems, and both of those are good prep for Building Systems. And I like putting Schematic Design last, so that when you are absolutely sick of reading and cannot study anymore, you get a breather by only having to practice the vignettes for SD.
There are plenty of books out there to help you study for the ARE, but even more information is now available online; via Architect in Person
Q: How and what have you studied?
A: I learned early on that it was important to set a schedule for myself and to stick to it. Working eight-hour days and then having to come home and study is awful. At the beginning of this year, I looked at the calendar and decided to give myself about four weeks to study per test, then take the test, and then recover for a week (aka do anything but study). A few things have come up during the year that may have added a week here or there, but for the most part, I’ve stuck to my schedule.
I also make a calendar for each specific test, and on each day I write what I’m supposed to read, watch or practice. The first week I might read Kaplan, the next week Ballast, the third week other study guides and practice tests and the last week is review and practicing the vignette. The good thing about studying for ARE 4.0 right now is that you have an endless amount of resources online for it. There are tons of blogs, websites, study guides, videos and more just waiting for you to find them.
Q: For people just starting to test, is it worth converting over into the new ARE 5.0?
A: I would be a bit hesitant before I considered taking the path that allows you to take some tests on ARE 4.0 and some on 5.0. If you look at NCARB’s statistics, the first year after a huge revision to the exam is always going to have low pass rates. That’s totally understandable — it’s a new exam, a new format, and much less study material is floating around. I would take advantage of how much information is out there on ARE 4.0 before going through the learning curve of ARE 5.0.
Q: So how bad is the test … really …
A: I’ll be honest. Studying for these tests is no fun. The last thing you want to do after graduating from five-plus years of school is to start studying for exams less than a year later. It’s even harder to make studying a habit every night (or morning) after a full day of work. My advice is this: Once you commit, stick to it. I told myself in January that the next nine months would be tough, but after those nine months, I would NEVER have to study again! As for the tests themselves, they get less and less frightening with each one you take. I’ve found some to be harder than others, but that is different for each person.
To me, Building Systems, my fifth exam, was the hardest I’ve taken so far. I wouldn’t say any of them have been easy, but some are definitely less scary than others. And if you walk out feeling like you failed, that’s OK. I’ve been there, and somehow I still passed. I try to study as hard as possible during each four-week period so that when I take each exam, pass or fail, I know that I gave it all I had.
The goal: a licensed architect stamp; via Architect Exam Prep
I would love to share more about the ARE (and probably will in future posts), but that would make for a long read. So what do you think about the ARE? Have you found it easy or grueling? Do you have any questions about taking the exams? I’d love to hear from you! Comment below or send me a message on my contact page.
This article first appeared on The Aspiring Architect. Top image via Happiness Is Power.