I have been wanting to share my experience with the Architecture Registration Exams (AREs) for some time. My wanderings around the various internet groups dedicated to this subject, before, during and after I completed the exams in March of 2024 have left me feeling as though there was no information online that directly related to my experience. I also wanted to talk some about the licensure process overall, including the AXP.

For context I graduated summa cum laude in May of 2021 from Virginia Tech with my B. Arch. This was a 5 year program, and during the summers I worked at a small firm in my hometown of Lancaster, OH and as a leader of the architecture program for the NSLC summer camp in Chicago. During college I also worked towards a minor in Building Construction, which I was not able to complete due to the pandemic. All of that to say, I was successful in college, and gained a lot of experience even before graduating. I think this played a significant role in how my AXP/ARE process unfolded. While I know this was a privileged position to be in, I also know there are others out there like me for whom hearing my experience may prove valuable.

I began the AXP as soon as I started working at my first firm, around 2019, I followed the guidelines for hours closely, having no colleagues participating, and an advisor that had never experienced the process before. Because of this, for the first couple of years I did not complete many hours. After graduating, I stayed at that firm full time for about a year, and then moved on to my second firm where, over the course of a little less than 2 years I completed the remaining hours. Working at smaller firms (+/- 5 people) really allowed me to have a hand in every phase of the design and construction process, and varying construction typologies. By the time I was at the second firm I had significant responsibilities during all phases of design. This learning on the job is something I don’t think many students are offered, and I was lucky to have mentors that guided and pushed me to keep learning and to keep getting better. Additionally, because of my background in construction management (through the BC minor) I felt that I was able to more fully understand job sites, and communicate with contractors of all trades, which facilitated learning.

While I was working I was also completing small projects for friends and family in the residential design world. While these hours did not count toward the AXP I gained valuable communication and time management skills, and I think that all firms should allow and even encourage this kind of off-hours investigation into projects types they are passionate about.

For a couple of years I was under the mistaken impression that you needed to complete the AXP categories before you could take those exams, so although I began completing categories of hours, I did not begin taking the exams until February of 2023.

The image shows my dates taken and passed for all the exam divisions. Here is where I think my experience differed from that of many, but I think is still worthwhile to discuss in the hopes of calming the fears of people who may be like me.

I passed all 6 exam divisions on the first try. And you’ll see, I took the final three exam divisions across a period of just 5 days.

Depending on where you get your stats, the chances of this happening range from 2%-6%. I say this not to brag but to point out that I think this stat is artificially low for a couple of reasons. First, I think not enough people who could do really well on the exams even try to take them, usually for personal reasons or because licensure is not really required in the modern architectural landscape (more on that another time!). Second, I believe the marketplace of test-prep for the ARE over-emphasizes the difficulty of these exams in some instances and psychs people out, making them think its harder than it really is.

Now, I understand that this may seem callused, and don’t get me wrong I understand there are many students out there for whom test taking is an extremely difficult, anxiety-ridden process, and I respect that. I have always been a great test-taker. I’m weird. I enjoy standardized testing, and getting in the heads of the people that write the exams to try to understand how they construct questions and answers. I believe that many tests of this nature depend just as much as learning the material as they do understanding how to take tests, and PRACTICE IS KEY.

Studying is important, of course, particularly for the “booky” things like contract law and project management terminology, but studying cannot replace real-world experience in a field like architecture. I think this is the fatal flaw of the current ARE marketplace, and the profession as a whole - we are not, on average, providing enough hands-on experience for our “greenest” members before they take these exams that are supposed to prove them competent architects. I was lucky to have had the experiences I did, and because of those experiences I really didn’t do much studying. I watched the famous contract law lectures, because contracts bore me to tears. I read portions of the AHPP to understand things that were confusing to me. I made some flashcards for the CE exam. However, I spent a grand total of 140 hours of studying on my own between all 6 exams. that’s an average of only 23 hours per exam.

40 hours of that 140 were spent doing the thing I listed above, along with watching Bryn Young’s YouTube videos immediately before each exams. The remaining 100 hours were spent completing the first 75% of Amberbook. This is the single best test prep material out there, for refreshing yourself on concepts you should have learned in school, but that you haven’t been able to use at work yet. I had the creator, Micheal Ermann, as a professor in my second year at Virginia Tech, and I can attest, he is an incredibly smart, but totally understandable and relatable teacher of architectural concepts. As an architect himself, he understands how our brains work, and the material supports that. (Plus Virginia Tech students get a great discount!). The only reason I only completed the first 3/4 of the course is that by the time I started I only had my last three tests to go. I used it for one month before I took the final three exams over the course of five days. This is Ermann’s recommended process (to lump them together) and I wholeheartedly agree.

I may add more detail to this post later to provide links and add additional things I learned through the test prep process, but it feels good to see something out there that isn’t just doom and gloom about the AREs. :)