Keep Your Momentum Going
By Rachel Bascombe
Licensed 2017
As early as a freshman in college, I knew my first goal after graduating was to get my license. This realization came after a conversation during my internship at Devrouax and Purnell Architects, Summer 2011. I will never forget the conversation I had with Project Manager Danny Williams. We talked about licensure versus a master’s degree and he emphasized getting licensed as the next step unless I planned to teach soon. He helped me understand the value getting licensed was toward my career goals.
After graduating college and starting my professional career at CO Architects, I went after my LEED accreditation first. Once I was successful in passing the LEED AP exam, I built up enough confidence to begin testing for my architecture license. I knew it would be a strenuous journey because to achieve your license in California you have to pass all 8 ARE 4.0 exams as well as the California Supplemental Exam. Thankfully, I was financially supported during this journey by CO Architects and had the support of my family, friends, and coworkers.
I attribute a lot of my success in passing the exams to my network of coworkers who were also involved in the licensing process. I had a few coworkers who passed less than a year from when I began studying for my exams. I relied on them and their experience to advise what exams to take first and what to focus on while studying for each exam. My conversations with recently licensed architects was the best part of my journey. I also had a study buddy at work, Esther Chao, who was only one exam ahead of me and we were each other’s accountability partner. Seeing Esther, studying and witnessing her pass the exam before I would take it, helped me gain a lot of confidence in myself. We were similar in age and work experience, so I thought if she could pass, I could as well. We would schedule our exams within the same month of each other and we agreed to take one exam per month, no matter if the results were pass or fail. Esther passed all her exams first and I followed her shortly after. I remember how great we felt to have accomplished this together. We would have talks over lunch about our next goals and what we had hoped to accomplish now as two licensed professionals.
It is important to not let failing an exam keep you from continuing to take the next exam. From my experience, people who let a failed exam slow down their momentum have a much harder time picking themselves up to retake that exam. This is why I always suggest scheduling your next exam before sitting down for the exam you’re studying for at the moment. Keeping the momentum is key, which is easier said than done.
I established momentum by passing my first two exams right out the gate. I was feeling good about my study habits which included four hours of studying after work; studying during my lunch break at work; and an average of eight hours of studying on the weekend. My method of madness was to keep my head down and rest when I was finished. By my third exam, I received my first fail and it broke me. I cried. Looking back on this moment, I was more disappointed that I didn’t get through all the exams without a single fail (as I heard another applicant was able to do) rather than focusing on the bigger picture. I knew I couldn’t let my first fail of the Site Planning & Design exam completely derail me, but instead I relied on momentum and passed the exam on the second attempt. I hope one takeaway from my story is that our licensing journey will never look exactly like another. However, if we can remain focused on the bigger picture and find the support system we need, we can all be successful.
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Images: Courtesy of author.