Architecture Registration Exams Story: Holly Harris

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:

Holly Harris, AIA, ASHE, LEED AP BD+C

Holly is a licensed Architect in the state of Illinois. Before starting her AREs, she obtained the LEED AP BD+C accreditation. She took her exams on the ARE 4.0 and 5.0 path which meant she only needed to take 5 total exams across both versions. From her first pass to her last pass, it took her nearly 3 years to complete all the exams, but it took her almost 5 years after college graduation to finish her AXP hours.

She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is a Healthcare Architect and Planner at SmithGroup in their Chicago, IL, office.

“Finish the exams as fast as you can. Life only gets busier as you progress through your career.”

Holly 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).

Before I took Site Planning & Design, I studied for and passed both the LEED GA and LEED AP BD+C exams. I think many of the sustainability design concepts that I learned through LEED transferred over into this exam.

July 25, 2017	In person	SITE (4.0)	Pass
October 17, 2017	In person	PPD (4.0)	Pass
December 29, 2017	In person	CDS (4.0)	Pass
March 2, 2018	In Person	PPD (5.0)	Pass
May 16, 2018	In Person	PDD (5.0)	Fail

The PDD failed attempt was two days before my 26^th birthday, so I was bummed. It was an awakening of a weak point in my career development too. I had only been working on master planning up until this time in my firm, so I realized: 1) I was lacking real world experience in construction documents, and 2) the study materials and tactics I had been using thus far where not enough to fill the knowledge gap. My primary study source was Black Spectacles, including the videos. My firm paid for the membership, and it had worked as my prime study material on previous exams so I was confident it would work again. But I was wrong. This failure really discouraged me, and it took me over a year to schedule my exam retake.

The image below is the PDD failed score report I received:

June 17, 2019

In person

PDD (5.0)

Fail

After waiting over a year, adding more study hours and additional study resources this failure hurt even more. I had still not completed a full construction documentation set with my firm, but I was not quite sure what other study materials I needed to use to help me reach the “Performance Levels” that I still was deficient on. I did not want to buy any other study materials; I still had access to Black Spectacles, I was using Brightwood/Ballast books provided by our office, and I was evening using ARE 4.0 material (like Jenny’s Notes) that were free online. But these weren’t cutting it.  

I am a very good test taker, so I knew it wasn’t testing anxiety. My next approach was to open all the 30-pound technical textbooks I still had from college. After this second failure, I studied detailing, building systems… everything. I flipped through every page in those textbooks looking for diagrams that were similar to what I saw on the exam.  

The image below is the PDD failed score report I received:

February 7, 2020

In person

PDD (5.0)

PASS!

It did take me a little longer than I wanted to schedule this retake. I attended two weddings after the last failed attempt and had to travel out of town for both the bachelorette parties and weddings. Plus, I traveled over the holidays with my partner of the time, so studying was often interrupted.

But I was committed to getting my license in 2020! I was still behind on required AXP hours for construction documents and administration, but I had been pressuring my firm hard to give me those opportunities. Luckily, I scheduled this exam AND passed before the whole world shut down for COVID-19 just a month and a half later. It did take me two more months after finishing my ARE’s to complete my AXP hours, but I finally received my Illinois Architect’s License in April of 2020.

I often get asked “why do I need to get licensed?”. Why did you decide that you wanted to be a licensed Architect?

Graduating college was never the final “check box” to being able to practice architecture; I wanted to be a capital “A” Architect. I felt like if I never became licensed, then all those late hours, stress, and missed social events I endured in college would have been for nothing. I would never be able to call myself an Architect if I was not licensed. I also believed that becoming licensed would give me the most flexibility in my career. Since my firm supported licensure, there was no financial limitation to me pursuing something that I knew would benefit my career in the long term.

Often people don’t know where to start, do you have any advice for those looking to start their exams -or- how did you start?

I didn’t wait too long after I graduated college to start my NCARB path because I knew it would be better to complete that milestone before I planned to start a family. I went to a presentation during my licensure experience where a presenter said “You will never be less busy than you are at this very moment. It only gets busier as you mature into your life and career”. That moment set off a light bulb in my head, “If I want to get licensed, I need to push through it as quickly as I can.”

So, my advice is to stop putting it off and don’t be afraid of failure. There are so many online resources now. Find a buddy in your firm, reach out to your college peers, or connect with a recently licensed architect on LinkedIn. There is no reason to go through this process alone with the network of Architects that are available.

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

I’d like to preface this with that what worked for me may not work for you. Everyone should have their own study tactics that cater to their testing style and memory retention patterns. For example, I loved watching videos and listening to lectures while I took public transit to work. I did read a fair amount but reading for long amounts of time ended up with my sleeping face plastered into the textbook. So, I knew I couldn’t just read study materials while lying in bed or on the couch. I also knew I was not capable of studying in groups because I would always get distracted by talking to people. I benefitted from making my own cheat sheets of vocabulary and diagrams that I would just read repeatedly until I had them memorized. Searching for concepts on YouTube was successful too!

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

Always plan a reward for yourself after you take an exam so that you have something to look forward to. Even if you don’t pass, reward yourself. This process is hard, and your mind and spirit need the opportunity to rejuvenate after each test. I aways tried to plan my exams on Friday mornings, and I would not go back to work after. I would always treat myself to a nice lunch and an early start to my weekend!

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 Holly Harris for sharing your story!

Edited by

Katelyn Rossier, AIA, LSSBB