Architecture Registration Exams Story: Marissa Getty

Welcome to the ARE experience stories series! This series is to share experiences, timelines and advice of professionals that have completed their architectural registration exams (ARE). 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:

 

Marissa Getty, AIA

Marissa is currently a Project Architect at IKM Inc, in Pittsburgh. She graduated in 2017 from Penn State University with a Bachelor of Architecture program. She has almost six years of experiences and has been active in the healthcare design. She had no prior experience working in healthcare but has found a passion for it over the last six years. She has enjoyed working on design for hospitals, outpatient facilities, MOB, and so on. She enjoys seeing the positive impact design can have on a person who may be experiencing a tough time in their lives due to a health issue.

Outside of project work, she has taken on a student engagement role within the firm which includes everything from hosting curious high school students, job shadowing, providing project tours to collegiate professional organizations, and organizing efforts for career fairs and outreach.

When approached about sharing her ARE story, she was excited to share her story and some lessons she learned along the way. A goal with mentoring others taking their AREs, is ending the negative stigma behind failing an exam.

Looking back, I realized my colleagues and bosses didn’t thank any less of me then or now because I struggled at first to pass the exams. There are many stories of other Architects that didn’t pass all the exams in one shot. Failed tests are okay, and it doesn’t make you any less of an Architect when you are licensed.

Here is my story:

Marissa took all exams in the 5.0 version even though at the time the 4.0 version of the exams were still available for part of her testing timeline.

Graduated May 2017 but took the summer off before I started studying.

January 2018	In person	PA	Pass
June 2018	In person	PPD	Fail
October 2018	In person	PcM	Fail

I took a pause from testing because I needed a mental break and felt like I needed to gain more experience hours.

August 2019	In person	PcM	Pass
September 2019	In person	PjM	Pass
February 2020	In person	CE	Pass

Locked out of the testing center from March to June 2020 but decided to wait until I was a bit more comfortable to test in person because the online test platform was still so new.

December 2020

In person

PPD

Pass

I took a bit of a break to focus on house-hunting and moving.

May 2021

Virtual

PDD

Pass

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

I made a schedule based on time dedicated to studying a week instead of setting milestones, like a certain number of chapters completed. I found this was more successful for me because it allowed me to focus more on concepts, I struggled to grasp without feeling like I was falling behind on my schedule. I also found smaller, more frequent study sessions worked better for me than weekend-long binges like some of my colleagues. I would dedicate 1 – 2 hours/night for 3 weekdays and 4 hours/day on either Saturday or Sunday; this gave me some flexibility to have a day to relax during the week and still find time to socialize with friends on the weekend.

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

I would recommend recognizing what type of studier you are and what kind of mentor is a good match for what you need. Colleagues of mine would schedule their exams weeks or even months in advance and use that as motivation to study. They noticed they could put off a test indefinitely unless it felt like a make or break it moment. Oftentimes, those same test takers preferred more hands-off mentors, who would only step in with advice when asked. That style of test taking didn’t suit me as a more anxious individual, so I felt more comfortable scheduling my test only once I felt ready and gave myself a week or two to review before my test. I also selected a mentor who was comfortable meeting with me over lunch every other week ahead of my test to review concepts. 

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 Marissa Getty for sharing your story!

Edited by

Katelyn Rossier, AIA, LSSBB