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:
Melissa Cheing, AIA, LEED GA, WELL AP, NOMA
I started studying for the exams after I was offered a partnership position and the firm I previously worked for. Licensure is something I thought I wanted after a few years of being in this industry and learning how much more respect you get as someone who can call themselves an architect. Many people I worked with also assumed I was an architect, so I just needed to make it true.
After the partnership failed to happen, it took me a few months to decide I wanted to start my own firm. I am so happy I got my license because that gave me the ability to just do so.
I encourage everyone to get their license if they want to keep success by their side in this industry. There are only benefits after it.
It is not easy, but if it was, everyone would do it. It is also doable if you put your mind to it. Just picture yourself. It is worth it.
I am now Principal of MCC architecture PLLC (mcc-arch.com) in NYC. I am going to be 1 year old in June and I’m thrilled this is the decision I made and wish I’d made it sooner.
“Getting licensed will open even more career choices and will help you leverage yourself in any situation. You will be able to call yourself an Architect! You’ll be able to be a principal or partner, you could start your own business!”
Exam Order
| February 2020 | In Person | PcM | FAIL |
August 2020 started the Young Architect bootcamp 10-week program for the professional practice tests. (PcM PjM CE)
| October 2020 | In Person | PjM | PASS |
| November 2020 | In Person | PcM | PASS |
| December 2020 | In Person | C&E | PASS |
Took the rest of December to rest and enjoy the Holiday season.
Then in January went back to the grind to study for PA.
| February 2021 | In Person | P&A | PASS |
The more difficult tests were left for last, since much of the previous tests also overlap with these. PPD has the highest fail rate of them all.
| May 2021 | In Person | PPD | FAIL |
| May 2021 | In Person | PDD | PASS |
Waited the minimum necessary time to be able to retake the failed PPD test while studying more.
| July 2021 | In Person | PPD | PASS |
Advice for you!
I often get asked “why do I need to get licensed?”. Why did you decide that you wanted to be a licensed Architect?
Licensure is not for everyone. Maybe you are happy always working for someone else. Maybe you are not sure you will remain in the United States for the long run. Or maybe you are just not sure you want to stay in this career or are thinking about alternate career paths. Think switching over to the contractor side, or being a project manager in another field, I believe our skills can be applied to many other career options, and many do that.
But getting licensed will open even more career choices and will help you leverage yourself in any situation. You will be able to call yourself an Architect! You’ll be able to be a principal or partner, you could start your own business!
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?
When I decided it was time to start studying to take the exams, many years after I could’ve started, I also struggled finding the right resources to tell me what I need to do. There is a lot of secrecy around the exams it is hard to understand what to expect. There is no single resource with the correct answer to what exactly to study. There is just an excessive abundance of videos and books.
I failed (miserably) my first test trying to study about 5 hours a week for a few weeks with only one resource, and not fully understanding the difficulty of the tests and how they overlap between each other.
This was my first attempt, after studying from only one resource. I figured I’d go check out how the exam looked like and how difficult it really was. Shockingly, it kicked my butt and I quickly realized this was NOT going to be easy. I had to learn and also memorize. Something I thought I wasn’t even good at. Architecture school is all about creativity, drawing, model making. This is not!
Then COVID happened and we were stuck indoors for a couple months, I’m in NYC. These were scary times for me and I didn’t have the headspace to do much. It also took me a few months to hype myself up to get started again with a different approach.
In June I finally found Young Architects and decided to give this bootcamp a try. I understood the part of myself that would benefit from having a structured lesson to go through to get me prepared. This time I was going to be all in.
I started the YA bootcamp in August of 2020, it lasted 10 weeks. In October I started banging the pro practice tests out one by one. I was on a roll!
A few key components happened for me to succeed. First it was the structure. We had a syllabus to follow which included basically all the chapters of the Architectural Handbook for Professional Practice (lol) and many videos and other materials.
Second was accountability, there were many people in our group and we all had to speak up at our weekly meetings and say how we did with the material we needed to go through. This was key to getting my anxiety levels up enough to not seem like a failure each week by getting through as much as I could. The first couple of weeks it is very difficult to getting into the groove of reading material you don’t particularly find entertaining. Reading, like any other skill needs practice to develop. It is especially difficult for us who have been out of school for over a decade!
Third was the people I met that became my study buddies. After four years I still talk to them and we are all great friends. Licensed architect friends. 😊
Fourth, all the shared resources we could count on. We had a very open and collaborative approach to learning and teaching. We all come from different backgrounds and work experiences that combined were a very powerful tool for learning.
Fifth, I made studying my priority number one. Part of the bootcamp initiation is that you need to sit down and speak to your family and closest friends and explain you will not be available. You will need to start delegating tasks such as grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning. Studying is more important and will have to be your main goal each week. You will learn to say no to TV, movies, even friends’ birthdays if you have not completed the weekly readings. I know this sounds awful, but the greater the focus on the tests, the faster you will have the knowledge to complete them.
I’m happy to report that I started studying in August with the YA bootcamp, my first test was at the end of October and my last test happened in early July. I did fail PDD the first attempt but waited 2 months and passed it on my second try.
We hope that this information helps you through your ARE journey, setting goals, and giving you some insight on how to get started.
Thank you again to Melissa Cheing for sharing your story!
Edited by
Katelyn Rossier, AIA, NCARB, CSI, LSSBB
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