Architecture Registration Exams Story: Wesley Churchill

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:

Wesley Churchill, AIA

Wesley works at HGA in Milwaukee as a Project Architect in the Healthcare group. He graduated from Southern Illinois University in 2015 with a Bachelor of Architecture, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee in 2017 with a Masters in Architecture. His passion in architecture is rooted in mentorship and helping others succeed.

Outside of work, Wesley is the AIA Young Architect Representative for the state of Wisconsin. He’s also a leader on the AIA Wisconsin Emerging Professionals Committee.

“The advice I give to everyone is to study the ARE first – learn about the exam process, question types, exam strategy, and how you’re most effective at studying.”

I took the first exam without knowing anything about the ARE and I was working on updating my resume and portfolio for a new job.

I started to understand the exam process in my 1-year break, which allowed me to structure my study time and content better.

November 2017	In person	PDD	Fail
November 2018	In person	PcM	Pass
April 2019	In person	PjM	Pass
July 2019	In person	CE	Pass
September 2019	In person	P&A	Pass

I studied for PPD and PDD at the same time, and took the exams 1 week apart from each other, both times I took the exams.

November 2019	In person	PPD	Fail
November 2019	In person	PDD	Fail
March 2020	In person	PPD	Pass
March 2020	In person	PDD	Pass

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

The advice I give to everyone is to study the ARE first – learn about the exam process, question types, start to identify your exam strategy, and how you’re most effective at studying.

Immersing yourself in blogs, Youtube videos, or podcasts are a great way to start getting yourself prepared. I also treated each exam like a mini college course. I would outline what I would study each week, when I would take my full-length practice exams, and then I would schedule my exam immediately after my planning session.

Another piece of advice is to prepare yourself to take 12 exams minimum. If you get it done in 6, then you exceeded your expectations, but it’s more reasonable to expect a fail for every pass.

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

I recommend following the resources that NCARB provides in the ARE Handbook. Often the questions on the exam come directly from these resources and there’s a good chance your college required you to have the same book during a course. Other resources I used where the Ballast study guides for general studying, Amberbook for videos, and Black Spectacles for full-length practice exams.

I usually started off my studying with the Ballast study guides for each exam, then diving in deeper with the other resources. If I was tired and didn’t have the energy to read a full study guide, I would watch an Amberbook video. I always took 3 full-length practice exams for each exam I studied too. You can never take too many practice questions!

How did you fit study time into your schedule? Was there anything in particular that worked well for you?

I always sat down to outline my study schedule, ahead of scheduling each exam. This helped me be more realistic when looking at the next few weeks of my personal and professional life. I also made sure to tell my close friends and family that I was starting to study for another exam. It made me accountable, and I appreciated the support each of them provided.

I found that going to a coffee shop after my workday helped me stay motivated to study. A nice cup of coffee and good food always helps! I also forced myself to go into my office on weekend mornings to study. Even if it was just for an hour or two, it was progress and better than sleeping in!

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

Don’t stop! Failing can be really debilitating, but it can also be a time for learning. Write down some key points after each failed exam; your brain is fresh and you can use those to improve upon your studying. Allow yourself to take a week off in between your exams too, passed or fail. After that week off get right back into the next exam.

Don’t forget to reward yourself too. I always celebrated each passed exam with a night out, and I also adopted my dog after a passed exam! It’s important to reward yourself for even embarking on this journey too, so work in some coffee dates of your own and find that nice bench in the park to sit at on a sunny day.

I also recommend finding out when your most productive time of the day is. Are you a morning person whose brain is firing at 8:00 am? Or do you hit your peak brain power right after lunch? I personally am a morning person so I always took my exams at 8:00 am on Monday mornings. This allowed me to take the weekend to do one last practice exam on Saturday morning, then one completely personal day on Sunday.

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 Wesley Chuchill for sharing your story!

Edited by

Katelyn Rossier, AIA, NCARB, LSSBB