Architect Registration Examination (ARE) Process: Tips and Strategies – Part I

Hello Aspiring Architect,

I got the idea to write a post like this after sharing my ARE experiences with my colleagues and friends. If you are a recent Architecture graduate or have been working in the field for a while and are looking to start your ARE process, this post is for you.

I graduated from the Harvard GSD in January 2019 and started working in a large corporate firm in Boston soon after graduating. I decided to pursue getting my Architecture license right away for several reasons: I was already running on an academic schedule and mindset, so I didn’t want to lose momentum; I had heard that going through the examination process gets increasingly difficult as time goes on and other life wonders take priority; my firm was very supportive in terms of resources and incentives; I wanted to continue learning about the architectural profession in the US, with all its idiosyncrasies and complexities; and last but not least, it would legitimize my title and expertise. You probably reached this post because you have similar goals. Welcome! Let's dig in.

Passing your AREs: First Steps

I want to borrow the first piece of advice from my dear professor Pat McCafferty: Panic! But just a little bit.

Going through your AREs can be a long and onerous process, but it can also be productive and fun. There are a myriad of resources out there, books to buy, lectures to listen to, hours to be spent going over concepts that may be unfamiliar to you. But let’s take a deep breath: for better or for worse, the AREs are split in such a way that each of them is quite manageable. The hardest part is pulling the plug and getting started.

My personal action plan for tackling the exams was centered on two key goals: I wanted to use as few resources as possible (and spend as little money as possible, grad school was expensive enough) and I wanted to pace myself in such a way to keep momentum but still enjoy my newfound post-school freedom. Looking back, I would say that I was pretty successful at both since I spent $0 on extra resources (more on this later) and was able to get through all exams in just under a year while pursuing new hobbies and friendships. I can testify that with some discipline and many cups of tea, it is possible.

So first things first: set yourself a realistic goal, allow yourself to be relatively flexible within it, and surround yourself by colleagues, friends and family who will keep you accountable. You can do this.

*Tip: after you’ve gone through this guide and have gotten yourself familiarized with the process and your exam attack strategy, schedule your first exam. Just do it. Two, three months out – get it on paper, secure your spot (weekend spots run out quickly and you’ll be left waiting if you don’t plan ahead) get it synced up with your work schedule. It’s going to be hard to keep yourself accountable for studying if there is no looming deadline. Scheduling your next exam is always a little painful but it gets easier as you go on, I promise.

There are too many Resources! Where do I start?

Let’s get familiarized with the primary resources:

NCARB Website and ARE Handbook

The first thing you need to do is check the NCARB website. The ARE Guidelines and Handbook have pretty much all the information you’ll need about the bureaucratic aspects of setting up your account, how the test works, and what resources NCARB recommends. I started by reading the Handbook cover to cover (skim over the sample test parts, you’ll use these later) and go to the very bottom for the ARE 5.0 Reference Matrix. When I started, I skipped over this part and didn’t realize how useful it was until I was about 3 exams in, but thankfully this won’t happen to you! Use this to plan out your testing order. This is an important part of your overall strategy because, as you see, different tests and resources overlap, so you can use one test to build upon another. I’ll give you my recommended order below, but use it as a guideline only: each person has a different set of experiences, so everyone should cater to their specific knowledge and strengths.

ARE 5.0 Community

These forums are your lifeline. Use them extensively. Search for keywords, search “passed”, search “failed”, search “lessons learned”, search “brain dump” and “strategy”. Use them to strategize, to map out what you should study, to reduce the scope of what you do study (this is super important for the two long exams, Project Planning & Design and Project Development & Documentation). Use them to see whether investing on an extra resource is worth it for you.

Map Out Your Exam Order and Schedule

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I know people who did this in 6 months. I know others for whom it took 10 years. Everyone’s circumstances are different, but at the end of the day you want to pick something that you can stick to realistically.

Although the “one exam a month” method might seem tempting, I would carefully caution against it. As I was testing, several other colleagues in my office were too. Some of them booked exams within one week of each other or were trying to get through them in an aggressive timeline. Most of these people failed at least one exam. Since the goal here is to be as efficient with your time and money as possible, giving yourself too little time could be an expensive and frustrating mistake. This is a marathon, not a sprint.

Notwithstanding the failing risk, you’ll also get less out of the exams if you try to plow through them at the speed of light. Allow yourself to get into YouTube architectural rabbit holes and take some time to talk to your colleagues about the topics you’re learning about. This will make the process less tedious and more useful.

You do, however, want to pace yourself strategically. One of my colleagues made sure I scheduled my next exam every time I passed the previous one. Although this seemed tedious at the time, looking back I am extremely thankful for it. It kept me accountable for studying and it allowed me to use knowledge from previous tests in subsequent ones. It also kept me within my one-year, non-summer study goal (well, at least before COVID hit - but that's another story).

I planned out my test order after going through the Community boards and reading a few posts about it. I took the tests in the following order, which I highly recommend:

Practice Management 08/17/2019

Project Management 11/04/2019

Construction & Evaluation 12/09/2019

Project Development & Documentation 02/01/2020

Project Planning & Design 03/07/2020

Programming & Analysis 07/11/2020

Note that I was scheduled to take my last exam in early May but then COVID took over the world and I was rescheduled several times. Other than that, you’ll see that I scheduled between 1 to 2.5 months between exams. Some life events got in the way after the first one which meant that I had less time between PjM and CE than I would have liked, but I had told myself that I would get through 3 exams before the end of 2019. In the end this ended up working out alright because there was a fair amount of overlap between PcM/PjM and CE.

I also inadvertently gave myself very little time for PDD after the winter holidays. As a rule, I don’t study during my breaks and recommend you doing the same. Everyone needs some downtime. I had a vacation scheduled on mid-February so I booked the exam without giving it too much thought, but I was quite anxious going into that test; I’d recommend 5 weeks of study for PDD instead of 3. I also recommend taking PPD closely after it, in that order. 3-4 weeks seems to be the sweet spot, as the exams are similar but not quite the same. There are a lot of discussions on the ARE Community boards on this topic.

Lastly, I highly recommend not ending with one of the large exams, for several reasons. I know some people who did this and failed the last one, which is really hard on your morale and testing psychology. It also means you may end up putting off your last exam indefinitely, which will make you lose momentum. Ending on an easier exam meant that I had a lot of peace of mind going into it despite the fact that I was testing with a facemask in the middle of a pandemic. I was really relaxed, and it felt like finishing on my best foot. I also only studied for about 2 weeks for PA since at that point I had covered most of the material, so overall it felt like a breeze compared to the others. Don’t underestimate the power of psychology.

So that's my Getting Started guide. To recap:

1) Set a realistic time and money goal

2) Go over the primary resources

3) Spend some time drafting your test order strategy

4) Book your first exam in 2-3 months. Don't overthink it!

On the next posts I will go over testing strategies and tips on each of the exams. Until then!

#architect #ncarb #are #ArchitectRegistrationExamination