The A.R.E. Exams saved my life!
(Like the song “Last night a DJ saved my life“)
By Saundra Little
Licensed 2002
I was very reluctant to write my story for Archstories because I knew I would have to revisit my circumstances during my exam test-taking timeframe. My story of passing my licensing exams is a story of Faith in the middle of adversity.
My resume and credentials do not show the pain behind the scenes in April 2001 when I started my A.R.E. exams. I was in the middle of a horrible divorce and studying for my architectural license at the same time. Studying was my way of focusing on something other than all the troubles surrounded my family at the time. My goal was to focus on anything but my current situation and work towards a better life for my daughter after all of this was over.
I started taking some A.R.E. study courses in 1999 and 2000 while working from a small African American owned firm, E.B.H. Design, Inc, located in downtown Detroit. I attended various local study classes and one weekend-long course at the University of Michigan with late and famous Mr. Norman Dorf, who was a former NCARB test writer. Mr. Dorf’s classes had guaranteed a high percentage pass rate to all customers enrolled in his courses, and he called me a year after his class to verify this very fact. I also had some incredibly old but highly informative Ballast study guides that my first employer, Mr. Emmett Hagood Jr., gave to me for my studies as well.
I began my A.R.E. journey by looking over all my old exam workshop materials and looking at my notes, pondering what each instructor said, thinking, “which exam should be the first exam to tackle?” My first exam was Construction Documents and Services on April 9, 2001. With my new position as Job Captain at Gharfari Associates, I felt comfortable with this subject matter. My second exam was Building Design Materials and Methods; it was on June 4 for 2001, and also a subject I felt extremely comfortable tackling.
I passed my first two exams with flying colors, giving me the confidence I could be successful with this architectural license exam thing. My success gave me confidence because the next thing I did was to take the summer off traveling and enjoying my family; after all, I had to get my mind off the divorce. I attended our annual family reunion, which is always the last weekend in June.
In August, I took a Girl’s Trip to Toronto, Canada, for the annual Caribana Music Festival, a perfect getaway to my problems at hand. Again, I had to get my mind off everything in my personal life. I had a fantastic trip with my friends at a beautiful small boutique hotel in downtown. It was a great Girl’s Trip involving cast members of the Showtime series “Soul Food” and basketball player, Shaquille O’Neal, at a party on the rooftop deck of our beautiful hotel overlooking a magnificent view of the city. I will skip the toxic divorce drama after my trip and get back to my A.R.E. journey.
August came around quickly, and the summer was coming to an end, so I jumped back in the saddle. I scheduled my next exam for September 12, 2001. I was not comfortable with the subject matter on this exam, Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing Systems. But one thing that did help me with this M.E.P. exam was my new position at Ghafari at a mid-size architecture and engineering firm in which I had my coworkers as resources and support for my studying and reviews. All I had to do was walk down a couple of aisles to their desks and schedule coffee breaks with my coworkers to pick their brains. I felt like I had a world of information at my fingertips. Talking to everyone about mechanical systems, structural design and project specifications gave me all the resources that I needed.
My study routine was always the same, reading my study guides, reviewing flashcards, and support materials. The final requirement to myself was passing any practice exams with an 80% or above before I felt confident enough to schedule the exam. Another part of my studying routine was always taking two days off work, the day before my test, and the day of my test so that I could get mentally ready for my tests. Plus, my firm offered 12 paid days off for architectural licensing exam candidates.
On September 11, 2001, at 8:45 a.m. on a bright Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.
This turn of events completely took me out of my whole successful test-taking routine. I had to rush back to my daughter’s school, where I had just dropped her off at 8:10 a.m., pick her up and get her to safety because the whole United States of American was in a state of fear and shock. This was a major terrorist attack on American soil, a first in my lifetime.
After calming down a little later, I called the Prometric testing center to see if my exam was still on for the next day. The person on the phone assured me that “yes, the testing center is open tomorrow, and your test is still on as scheduled.” There was also a little added stress to my crazy day, arguing with my soon to be ex-husband about where to take my daughter for caregiving for the remainder of the school day so I could continue to prep for my exam. Luckily my parents stepped in to the rescue.
I tried to gather myself and crack open my books with all the breaking news of the day. From an architectural viewpoint, I could not stop questioning, “how did those towers fall” or get my mind off of all those people in New York and D.C. that died that day. However, I had to keep my mind focused on the test that I had scheduled for the next day. I do not know how I did it, but I passed the M.E.P. exam in the middle of all this uncertainty and unrest of day that is remembered as 9/11.
Next, I studied for the two Structural exams, General and Lateral forces, together and I took them back to back on November 27 and 28. It took two weeks before I knew if I passed an exam or not, all test results back in 2001-02 were only received by US Postal service “snail mail”. I would grab each envelope from the mailbox with nervous anxiety each time, but I passed both Structural exams.
In December of 2001, I moved back in with my parents, after the end of my failed 7-year marriage, from the Northwest side of Detroit to Annapolis Park, one of the first black suburbs of Metro Detroit in Westland, Michigan. This allowed me more time to study because my retired father was able to stay at home with my sleeping 5-year-old daughter in the evenings while I studied at Starbucks. From January to April, I took my remaining three exams feeling at peace and safe back in my childhood home. With a lot of prayers and support from my family, the Lord allowed me to pass all my exams in 1 year. My life goal of becoming a Licensed Architect by the age of 30 was complete.
They say, whatever does not break, you will make you stronger. The only things that got me through a divorce were my family, my focus on my A.R.E. tests, and concentrating on making it to the other side to a better life for my daughter and me as a single Mom. My resilience, courage, and creativity made a difference in 2001-02 and the future of what is now a successful architectural career. It is during times like 9/11 and the current time of COVID-19 that architects are needed more than ever! So, please continue your studying journey and pass those exams.
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Images:
Girl Blowing bubbles from Photobucket