I passed the ARE just 6 months out of school... here's what actually helped me...
I wanted to share this because I remember how overwhelming the ARE felt when I first started. I'm 2 years out of school now, and managed to finish all 6 divisions in about 6 monhs after graduation. I'm not claiming to be an expert, I just want to help anyone who's in the middle of it and feeling stuck.
Heres what sources actually worked for me. For my study schedule, see below:
Amber Book
I went through the program twice over the 6 months. The visuals and the way they explain concepts made things click for me faster than textbooks ever did. It's not cheap at all, but it was the backbone of my studying. I felt like I got a lot of baseline knowledge I needed for the exams, and the nitty gritty on a lot of items, but using this source alone I failed 8 exams. I just don't think it was enough, and if you have 2-3+ years experience, I would avoid it altogether.
AREquestions.com
Super helpful for drilling weak areas. I thought their questions feel close to the real exam, if not slightly easier. The downside is that there isn't much free content and there was a lot of poor grammar and mis-spellings which was pretty annoying to read through, and paying for more adds up quickly, I think I paid $275 for everything. Still worth it for more practice problems though.
AREprep.app
Hands down best for practice problems and flashcards! A coworker mentioned this one to me, and it surprised me because it had a ton of free stuff: flashcards, mini practice exams, division breakdowns, etc. I used the free version for the first month or 2 and it kept me pretty consistent. I eventually upgraded because the full-length exams were really helpful for timing and endurance. I felt like this study site was about as close as you could get in difficulty to the actual exams. I paid the $39.99/Mo (which was honestly super fair for what I got) but honestly with I just paid for it once in full.
My routine wasn't fancy:
- 4 hours every weekday
- longer sessions on weekends (totaling to around 16 hours between Saturday and Sunday)
- Scheduled exams before I "felt ready" - and went by the motto "you cant pass the tests if you don't take them"
- Tracked weak areas weekly
- Didn't let myself take any breaks between divisions.
Do I have regrets? - absolutely, but I felt like going really hard at it for 6 months and being done entirely was WAY better than going moderate on the studying and being stressed about it for multiple years.
If you're starting out, my biggest advice is: momentum matters more than perfection. Pick a division, schedule it, and start moving. you learn faster once you are in exam mode.
If anyone has questions about what worked or how I structured my study weeks, I'm happy to help. I know how rough this process can feel when you're doing it alone.
Sidenote: NEVER DO THE ONLINE PROCTORED EXAMS!!!! They canceled 2 of mine and I lost over $500!!
Their explanations??
Time 1: They thought my camera didn't meet their requirements (I bought the camera the proctor website referred).
Time 2: They thought my smoke detector on my apartment ceiling was a camera, and I was trying to steal test questions.
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grantbailey,
Congratulations!! We're so glad we could help you along your journey to licensure! Now take time to celebrate with all the loved ones you've ignored while you completed this professional milestone!
I'm hoping you did a Test Run before those two problem sessions, if you're doing a online-proctored test it's a critical step. There's so much more that can go wrong with an online-proctored exam that we really don't recommend them now unless there are extenuating circumstances - 3h from the nearest test center, etc etc.
Either way, do contact NCARB if you haven't already - if nothing else, they do track statistics on that kind of thing and it does eventually result in policy changes. I would expect they would be interested to know both about the smoke detector issue (which is ultimately understandable from an exam-security perspective but also should be addressed directly in the online proctoring info) and that the camera you had was one PSI was specifically recommending. Info to contact NCARB for issues with online proctoring is on page 34/35 of the current ARE 5.0 Guidelines.
Best,
Ralph, the Amber Book Team -
It is always a good idea to take and pass the ARE soon after you graduate from architecture school. You still retain most of the knowledge you learned in college, and you are young and generally have fewer family or other life distractions.
Best regards,
Gang Chen
Author, Architect, LEED AP BD+CGreenExamEducation.com
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Thanks aagangchen, I would agree with you, however I feel like modern colleges fail in preparing students for the technical knowledge that the field requires, making some students feel like they are climbing a mountain of new knowledge to be learned before they can succeed at the exams
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Also, slipped my mind when writing this, but found a cool study tool here:
https://areprep.app/tools/study-schedule
I used this to create a plan for myself, selected the divisions I was working on, how many hours I wanted to study per week, and it created me a schedule.
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