Architecture Registration Exams Story: Greg Coni

Welcome to the Architectural Registration Exam (ARE) experience stories series! This series is to share experiences, timelines and advice of professionals that have completed their AREs. We know it can be a daunting task to get started and overwhelming on the number of resources out there. We hope you find this information helpful in organizing how you proceed through your exams. Good Luck!

This is the experience, timeline, and advice from:

Greg Coni, AIA, CPHC

Greg attained his Bachelors of Architecture from Carnegie Mellon in 2015 along with a minor in Environmental Studies.  Upon graduation, he has worked in the Pittsburgh region and is currently a Healthcare Project Architect at GBBN Architects.  He recently finished his term as the 2022 Chair of the Young Architects Forum Chair of Pittsburgh AIA.  He is now on the board for the Down Syndrome Association of Pittsburgh and volunteers his time as a Mentor in the ACE Mentor Program of Western Pennsylvania.

He is also Passive House Certified. You can read more about his story through the certification process here.

“You need to be sure to find a mentor that fits your personality.”

Architecture school is tough and grueling… and the licensure process can be just as challenging.  Taking that first step is the hardest part though.  Find a support network that will help you through the process and lean on them to get yourself there.  Licensure is an important part of the process and a worthwhile achievement to strive for completing.  Use your resources to your advantage to get you there and don’t be afraid to ask for help, advice, or support when it is needed.

Greg took exams in the 4.0 and 5.0 versions. During this transition time there was an opportunity for young professionals to only need to pass 5 exams. If you passed three specific exams from ARE 4.0 (Construction Documents & Services, Programming, Planning, & Practice, and Site Planning and Design) then you only needed to pass two exams from ARE 5.0 (Project Development & Documentation, and Project Planning & Design).

September 02, 2016	In person	CDS (4.0)	Pass
December 21, 2017	In person	PPP (4.0)	Pass
January 18, 2018	In person	SITE (4.0)	Pass
September 25, 2019	In Person	PDD (5.0)	Pass
October 10, 2019	In Person	PPD (5.0)	Pass

Why did you decide that you wanted to be a licensed Architect?

Licensure is an important step in your architecture profession, but there can be a misconception of what licensure represents.  When I was in school, licensure was always associated with the responsibility and liability of stamping my own drawings or starting my own firm.  Neither of these were of interest to me, so neither was licensure! 

It wasn’t until I began practicing architecture that I realized how wrong I was.  My preconceived linear career path became a jumbled mess of pathway options that included licensure at many different points and sometimes didn’t even include licensure.  Licensure became a milestone in your professional career path that simply shows that you meet a minimum level of competence on how to design buildings.  Many people skip this step in their career and are incredibly adept at designing buildings, but I consider licensure to be a short cut to attaining the recognition for the knowledge you have gained at school.  Licensure helps establish that you have a defined set of skills in a shorter time frame, allowing you to gain a raise/promotion and even helping you as you look for your next position.

What type of study materials did you use? Any particular ones that you’d recommend?

Timing, materials, and mentors are all important resources when working through your AREs.  Be sure to start off early, even if you take a bit of a break after school.  The longer you wait to start this process, the harder it will be. 

Before you begin, you need to be sure to find a mentor that fits your personality.  I appreciated having a mentor with a professional drive who kept on me to make sure I was getting the right AXP experiences that I needed.  I know other people who were very self-driven and had mentors who were more hands off, everyone is different.   After you attain a mentor, you need to start studying. 

Life will always offer you an excuse not to study, so don’t let it deter you from working towards that goal.  Once you have made your schedule to study, it’s important to listen to yourself on when to take your exam.  You will never feel 100% ready for your exams, but it is important to take the time you need to study.  Your first exam will be the hardest to gauge when the right time is so it’s best to work past that gut feeling of apprehension and just schedule it.  If something comes up though, don’t be afraid to postpone the exam.  For reference, I only ever felt 70% ready for all my exams when I opted to schedule them. 

While studying, it is important to search out multiple study materials and methods because everyone is slightly different.  I didn’t like studying after work for multiple hours, so I instead squeezed my study time into the weekends with refreshers throughout the week.  I would focus on long readings, practice exams, and in-depth reviews over the weekends with quick flashcard studying on the bus and over lunch. 

My one helpful advice is to look up old study material.  I used older flashcards from ARE 3.0.  While the questions are different from what you will see on today’s exams, the content is the same.  In my opinion, the questions were harder and forced a deeper understanding of the topics.  Everyone has their own way of studying though and you just need to find what works best for you.  Just be sure to not use your schedule, life, or apprehension as an excuse not to go through the process.

Do you have any other advice for someone studying for their exams?

The most important part of the licensure process though is what you do with it after successfully attaining it.  First and foremost, celebrate that achievement!  For most people, the process can last at least 3 years, but for some, it can take over 10 years.  No matter how long, or what path you went on to get there, you got licensed and that is worth the celebration. 

At your firm, this should come with a promotion and raise.  Be sure to speak with your firm management so they know about your achievement and can celebrate your accomplishment along with you.  The next thing you should do is get involved in your local AIA.  If you haven’t already been part of your local Young Architects Forum (YAF), take time to connect with them.  YAF members are any unlicensed architects or any licensed architects up to 10 years after licensure!  Take the opportunity to help mentor fellow architects through the licensure process and to help grow programming around young, licensed architects and their next steps. 

After doing all of that, you should plan for what is next on your career path.  I was so singularly focused on getting licensed that I forgot to think about what would be next for me.    Without licensure on your mind, you will have plenty of mental space to think about what happens next for you.  You could look at working towards becoming a Project Manager, attain another certification, join leadership at your firm, change firms, or even start your own firm.  Take some time to figure out your next steps and talk with your mentor to help get you there!

We hope that this information helps you through our ARE journey, setting goals, and giving you some insight on how to get started.

Thank you again to Greg Coni for sharing your story!

Edited by

Katelyn Rossier, AIA, LSSBB