Passed all exams in 5 months - how I studied
Hi NCARB community, after graduating from school in summer 2022, I started studying for the AREs in mid-September 2022 and finished my last exam in March 2023. I am sharing my study process and hope this could be helpful to anyone preparing for the exams.
Study time:
I only studied on weekdays and took break on weekends. On weekdays I studied an average 2 hours a day.
I almost never studied at home because there are too many distractions and I was just too tired after work. I either came to office early or stayed a bit late to study. I also used lunch time to watch Amber Book videos.
Background:
I have done some internship before I stared my full-time job and worked primarily on DD and CD. I am quite familiar with construction and assembly details, which helped me a lot in studying and saved me a lot of time.
Study Materials:
These are materials I used for each division:
PjM & PcM:
Ballast Study Guide and Practice Problems (the practice problems are a lot harder than the actual exam)
Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice must-read chapters
Amber Book videos & flashcards & mock exam
NCARB mock exam
Some people also recommend reading AIA Contracts and listening to Schiff Hardin Lectures on contracts, but I don’t have enough patience… I think Amber Book covers the concepts enough.
CE & PA:
Ballast Study Guide and Practice Problems
Amber Book videos & flashcards & mock exam
NCARB mock exam
PPD & PDD:
Amber Book videos & flashcards & mock exam
NCARB mock exam
My exam schedule:
I started studying in mid-September
11/5 – PcM
12/9 – PjM
12/22 – CE
1/18 – PA
3/6 – PPD
3/27 – PDD
My mock exam results (for reference):
PcM Ballast mock exam – 45%
PcM NCARB mock exam – 65%
PcM Amber mock exam – 76%
PjM Ballast mock exam – 53%
PjM NCARB mock exam – 61%
PjM Amber mock exam – 73%
CE Ballast mock exam – 61%
CE NCARB mock exam – 78%
CE Amber mock exam – 78%
PA Ballast mock exam – 58%
PA NCARB mock exam – 66%
PA Amber mock exam – 72%
PPD NCARB mock exam – 80%
PPD Amber mock exam – 65%
PDD NCARB mock exam – 69%
PDD Amber mock exam – 73%
General tips:
I think Amber Book is a fantastic study resource, but its video requires full attention. I do not recommend watching the video while multi-tasking. It’s best to watch it once and own the concept than to go back and rewatch. I didn’t take notes while watching, because I made sure I understood the concepts.
Don’t worry too much about memorizing terminology/numbers, just get yourself familiar with them. As long as you can recognize the correct answer in the multiple-choice questions then it’s sufficient!
I recommend scheduling your exams in advance so it sets a deadline and motivation to study. I always had two exams scheduled in future and I rescheduled them to earlier when I felt I was ready. Rescheduling is free so take advantage of it!
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Way to go, Violet! You should be so proud of yourself. I’m so impressed by recent graduates getting these AREs done. I don’t entirely regret waiting (more than a decade) to do mine, but if you can possibly stomach it, being licensed will greatly benefit your career, and the studying process itself can be beneficial (and even fun), too. A big part of why I postponed these exams was that I was intimidated by the process. I’m so glad to see people share what worked for them here — it helped me when I finally took the exams myself, and it demystifies the process for people curious about starting.
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Thank you so much Christine! I really believe an architect is not defined by their licensure status but by their experience. I feel lucky to get the exams out of the way soon out of school before work and projects get busy. I personally really enjoyed studying for these exams, thanks to Amber Book the learning process was fun. And I felt having a holistic understanding of the discipline after these exams, which is super helpful for work!
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Hi Valerie,
Yes I was enrolled in Amber Book. I think the AHPP content helps, I would recommend reading those to strengthen understanding of PcM concepts.
Here are the must read chapters:
Chapter 1 all sections
Chapter 3.1 & 3.4
Chapter 5 all sections
Chapter 7 all sections
Chapter 9.1 - 9.5
Chapter 10.1 - 10.3, 10.5
Chapter 13
Chapter 16
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Congratulations violet! Completing the ARE is a HUGE accomplishment, and especially in such a short amount of time - very impressive. You should be proud of yourself!
vpierre, in addition to the chapters Violet has recommended, check out the Wiley/AHPP Study Guides for a breakdown of relevant sections that relate to each division. NCARB specifies AHPP as a primary resource for PcM, PjM, and CE, but it also has a great amount of content for PA, PPD, and PDD. Whenever I would come across a concept on any division that I was unfamiliar with, there was a good chance I could find it in the index of AHPP and be able to get a general understanding of it before diving deeper into other study materials.
Happy studying!
Kiara Galicinao, AIA, NCARB
Black Spectacles
ARE Community
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