By Any Means Necessary!
By Stephanie Harris
Licensed 2013

For Stephanie Harris, getting her license was a task that she felt that anyone who wanted to be an Architect must do. However, her path through the examination process was not always straight and not always easy. She has spent all of her professional career working in Atlanta, Georgia. When she started her exams, she was at a small firm without a lot of resources. They had a few Kaplan books but no formal program for those working through their exams. Stephanie took it upon herself to figure out how to make it through.

Stephanie considers herself savvy and resourceful. She had heard that for the space planning exam, your design did not have to be pretty, you just had to meet the program requirements. She decided to take this as her first exam. She practiced with the software and used the reviewers on (the now defunct) ARE Forum to get critiques. Studying was difficult because she lived in an apartment with noisy neighbors and city life. Her regimen was to study from 2am to 6am before work when it was quiet. After three weeks, she attempted the exam and passed. This gave Stephanie a huge confidence boost. She quickly went on to take Material and Methods thinking it would be easy and learned that it was not and failed. Continue reading →

The Best New Year’s Present Of My Life:
Surviving the Architecture Registration Exams.
Garfield Peart
Licensed 2009

As I think about the Architecture Registration Exam (ARE) process, there is only one word that really comes to mind;”STRESS”; Oh and one more – “PAIN”! I got licensed in May 2009 in the state of Virginia after starting three years prior while we were living in Williamsburg for a short period of time. I took the test when it was still nine sections with the three graphics sections – Site Design, Building Construction, and Building Planning – the only ones with vignettes.

I started off strong by passing Construction Documents (CDs). As with most of the tests, CDs has so much information, 50% I had never seen before, that I am still shocked with passing it the first time. After that momentum, I feel like I could have these tests licked! I went on to fail the next two sections, Material & Methods and General Structures; studying for both consumed much of the previous 6 to 8 months. I was absolutely crushed and wondered why anyone would put themselves through all this pain for a piece of paper!! It took all of me not to go back and retake those tests before proceeding with the others – almost a year in and only passing one test! I picked myself up and somehow got the courage to continue on with my original plan. I went on to surprisingly pass the next one – Lateral Forces – along with all three graphic sections on the first tries!! By that time I was back in Atlanta and transitioning into a new firm with all the confidence in the world.
Continue reading →