Michael Riscica is a licensed architect from Portland, Oregon, who has been advancing the profession with his blog YOUNG ARCHITECT. Michael has written extensively about the architect exam and wrote the book How to Pass the Architecture Registration exam. Recently, Michael has been bicycling across America during the summer of 2016.
I’m not an Architect; I’m a Licensed Architect.
I graduated from architecture school, completed several years of internship hours and paperwork and passed seven brutal exams. At the age of 33 years old, I obtained my architecture license, 13 years after I decided to go down this path. It was a lot of work; therefore, I refer to myself as a Licensed Architect, not just an architect. I’m a Licensed Architect.
Completing the Architect Registration Exam was definitely the most challenging part of becoming a Licensed Architect. It’s not an easy exam, and it’s not supposed to be.
This summer, while I was riding my bicycle, I was thinking back about my experience during the exam. I realized a few hard truths that I can now really appreciate about the ARE — since the whole process is now two years behind me.
Let me elaborate …
It’s a long road, but the ARE can be conquered; image via Young Architect
1. Going through this process will make you a better architect.
Completing the ARE is as much work as getting another degree. It forces you to study and learn topics about practicing architecture that you never learned in the office or at school — and then you need to be able to take a test about what you studied.
I don’t care if you ever get your license. But the truth is: Studying how to practice architecture and taking a test about it will drastically help you become a better and more informed architect.
Studying for the AREs makes you a more valuable employee.
Studying for the AREs helps you earn more money.
Studying for the AREs helps you become more confident in the office and with your career.
I can’t tell you how many times this point gets overlooked when people discuss why they’re pursuing architectural licensing — or why you should pursue it.
No one ever acknowledges that they just want to get better at the craft of practicing architecture, and taking the AREs is a great way to get there.
Going through this process is an awesome way for recent graduates with little experience to jumpstart their professional architecture careers. In some ways, studying for the AREs is a better education for practicing architecture than having many years of experience working on the same type of project.
2. The ARE doesn’t care about you.
After recently listening to someone who failed their first exam complain all about the ARE, the NCARB and everything about architectural licensing, I realized this … This was the first time in this person’s life something has told them:
NOPE. Not good enough. Try again. Do not pass Go or collect $200.
The ARE doesn’t care:
- Who you are
- If you’re male or female
- What the color of your skin is
- Where you were born
- Who your parents are
- How many kids you have
- How much money you have
- How attractive you are
- What you’ve done
- What your last name is
- Where you went to school
- What your grades were
- How important you were to the AIAS
- Where you work
- What your experience is
- How amazing your portfolio or resume is
- Who your friends are
- What kind of car you drive
- How much money is in Grandma’s trust fund
- How fast your computer is
- Or you name it …
Nope. The ARE doesn’t care.
The only thing the ARE cares about is your ability to demonstrate that you can make decisions that protect the health, safety and welfare of the public.
Architecture school, on the other hand, is very different. Many of the items I listed above do make a difference to your success in architecture school. If you had the resources, you could go to architecture school forever, as long as you keep paying them. They will keep giving you degrees and smile as they take your money. While NAAB does a great job of creating standards for our architecture schools, most architecture schools need to make money. There is nothing wrong with that, they need to keep the lights on, educate future architects and be compensated for doing it.
On the other hand, the NCARB wants your money, too, but making money isn’t the purpose of the NCARB (sidenote: the NCARB is a nonprofit organization that is heavily subsidized by hundreds of volunteer licensed architects from EVERY demographic and jurisdiction). The purpose of the NCARB is to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public by protecting the sanctity of architectural licensing.
Therefore, you can’t sweet-talk and buy your way through passing these exams, the same way you did with getting your architecture degrees. Nope. The system is very different and just doesn’t work that way.
Take one step at a time on the path to licensure; image via Young Architect.
3. It forces you to evaluate your motivations and intentions within the profession.
Not everyone who graduated from architecture school NEEDS to become a licensed architect.
Many people that graduate from architecture school have very successful careers as: owners/representatives, project managers, marketing experts, professors, interior designers, writers, filmmakers, real estate agents, construction material reps, entrepreneurs, politicians, fashion designers, graphic designers, general contractors and many more.
If your unique gift that you offer the world isn’t aligned with becoming a licensed architect, then don’t do it.
The perfect time to evaluate your professional motivations and intentions is prior to starting on the AREs. Everyone who goes through this process has a stronger conviction about showing up and doing the work.
Many people have gotten very angry with me every time I say:
“Not everyone who went to Architecture school needs to get their architecture license.”
I keep saying it because first and foremost, it’s about you … not the profession, not the AIA, not the NCARB. It’s your life. Don’t let your superiors, your company, the AIA, the NCARB or whoever else push you down this path just because it was the right thing for them.
Go down the path because you want to go down it.
… And figuring this out first is really powerful.
4. The ARE forces you to learn a lot about yourself.
A small percentage of people get through the exams in less than a year. The majority of people spend two to three years learning a lot about what their weaknesses are.
It’s just like life.
Some people are born looking like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, yet most of us aren’t. That’s OK. We’re all still beautiful people, and we learn to work with the hand we’ve been dealt.
I’m a visual learner and a slow reader. I always struggled with structures, and my creative side made it really hard to show up and read boring ARE textbooks.
Studying for the ARE is a two-to-three-year process of focusing on your weaknesses and what you don’t know. That’s the complete opposite of the architecture school experience.
Let me explain …
Architecture school allows you to discover the design process by focusing on what your strengths and talents are. If you’re a great 3D-modeler, watercolor artist, renderer or model-builder, then architecture school allows you to use that to explore architecture and the design process.
The ARE is very different.
You’re always looking for the gaps in your knowledge, focusing on what you don’t know and finding ways to fill in all those gaps. Then you take the test and start the process all over again with the next test. The glass is always half empty. You spend all your time focusing on what you’re bad at or what you don’t know for several years.
It can become psychologically taxing, but it’s also a fantastic way to learn a lot about yourself. Moving through this process and getting past these exams can be a tremendous confidence builder once you have momentum.
Studying in between full-time work can be challenging; image via Life Teen.
5. It’s really about discipline, motivation and commitment.
Will you show up over and over again, day after day, year after year? How far will you go to get this license? How bad do you want it? What does success mean to you?
Maybe you’re too busy to find an extra five to 15 hours a week to study after you’ve already worked 40 hours a week at the firm. So what makes you think you have the time to become a licensed, entrepreneurial architect, if you can’t find the time just to study?
Architecture is not a nine-to-five profession. Sure, working nine to five will pay the bills, but if you want to compete, make a lot of money or just be really good at what you do, then working from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. on improving yourself is really what it takes.
And this brings it all back to my first point about improving yourself. Going through the process of studying for the AREs is improving yourself as a practicing architect.
That’s all …
This is what I was thinking about as I rode my bicycle across America.
Sorry to get all heavy about the ARE and the profession right now. I know this kind of stuff isn’t what most people are thinking in early September.
WAIT A MINUTE!!! … That’s another hard truth about the ARE.
Bonus: No one cares about the ARE during the summer.
It’s true.
Remember when I mentioned the small group of people who finish the AREs in six months, while it takes the rest of us two to three years? Well, those people are currently studying their asses off while you’re hanging out with your friends at the beach.
It’s really hard to prepare for the AREs during the summer months. Studying for the AREs right now is a lot like taking an economics course during the summer break from architecture school. Some people do it, but most don’t.
Generally speaking, here is the calendar of the AREs:
January 1 until Memorial Day: Everyone is motivated, studying and testing.
Memorial Day until Labor Day: The only people studying are the ones very close to finishing.
Labor Day until Thanksgiving: Everyone is back — motivated, studying and testing.
Thanksgiving until the End of the Year: Only the people who are almost done are studying during the holidays.
That’s the pattern I’ve seen since I took my first exam. This year might be a little different because the NCARB announced ARE 5.0 will begin on November 1.
Hope you had a great summer!
Sincerely,
Michael Riscica AIA YoungArchitect.com
This blog post was originally published here. Top image via Life Teen