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:
Kiara Gilmore, AIA
Kiara is a licensed architect in Fayetteville, AR. She currently works as a Project Architect, Associate and the Director of Emerging Professionals at modus studio. She graduated from the University of Arkansas in 2016 and immediately began working for modus studio. After about a year of professional work she began her licensing journey. Her firm was very supportive of their employees to get licensed but she quickly realized she was the first to take the ARE 5.0 version of the exams, so all the resources and tips were outdated. When she was 2 exams away from licensure, she knew she had a plethora of updated resources and tips and tricks that would be helpful to other employees, so she created a new position at her firm so she could spearhead this effort, the Director of Emerging Professionals. She has since helped numerous employees begin their licensure process, pass exams and continues to advocate for professional development for all employees.
In addition to her work as Director of Emerging Professionals, Kiara has been working on multi-family, commercial, retail, hospitality and non-profit projects. Her favorite projects are designing places for communities because she believes that everyone is better together.
“Prove all the naysayers wrong and become an ARCHITECT that looks and acts exactly as you are!”
Exam Order
| September 25, 2017 | In person | PcM | Fail |
Joined Young Architect Bootcamp because I realized these tests are way harder than I expected and I needed study partners and accountability.
| March 14, 2018 | In person | PjM | Pass |
| May 2, 2018 | In person | PcM | Pass |
| June 20, 2018 | In person | P&A | Pass |
| July 25, 2018 | In person | CE | Pass |
Needed a mental break to enjoy the University of Arkansas football season before tackling the last two large exams.
| February 27, 2019 | In person | PPD | Fail |
| May 10, 2019 | In person | PPD | Fail |
Joined Amber Book because PPD was proving to be a monster of a test! I was very concerned about failing for the third time because of the waiting period, so I pushed this exam back multiple times. I don’t believe you’ll ever feel 100% confident walking into one of these exams and if you wait until you do, you’ll never take it! So, I had to tell myself that the worst thing that can happen is another fail, but never taking this test and never getting licensed was a worse outcome than a fail! I took it and to my surprise finally passed it!
| November 1, 2019 | In person | PPD | Pass |
Scheduled PDD immediately after PPD pass as so much of the content overlapped
| November 22, 2019 | In person | PDD | 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?
This may sound silly, but back at my high school prom, my prom date’s mom asked me where I was going to school and what I would be studying. I told her I was going to study architecture. I’ll never forget that she said to me “You’ll want to find a backup plan, you’ll never finish that hard of a program and be an architect”. Those words were stuck in my head through all the years in architecture school and made me want to prove her wrong, and everyone wrong who had a vision of who an architect is and if it didn’t look like me. It was true motivation to be able to call myself an architect.
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 would tell them to start as early as they can and not to worry so much about how much real world experience they have. These exams will test you on what is in their books, not necessarily exactly as you may practice. I would also tell people not to be scared to start because of fear of failure. These exams are hard and many people can’t get through it without at least failing one. Think of a failed test just as an expensive practice test, you’ll learn a lot from it.
What type of study materials did you use? Any particular ones that you’d recommend?
I would highly recommend the Young Architect community, especially the ARE Bootcamp. This is a structured group study program led by great coaches. You’ll find you’ll get accountability, great resources but most of all a fantastic community of other people in similar circumstances that are so eager to help each other out. I would also highly recommend Amber Book, especially for PPD + PDD. The highly visual videos helped me understand all the concepts so much easier.
Do you have any other advice for someone studying for their exams?
This is a hard process and a hard process for a reason which just makes the outcome that much sweeter. Don’t get discouraged with failure, take the lessons learned and apply it to the next one. Know that you are not alone in this process, find others who are also in their licensure journey for encouragement and accountability. Reward yourself through passes and failure, but have a final reward for when you’re done that you can look forward to! Prove all the naysayers wrong and become an ARCHITECT that looks and acts exactly as you are!
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 Kiara Gilmore for sharing your story!
Edited by
Katelyn Rossier, AIA, NCARB, LSSBB
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