Architecture Registration Exams Story: Samantha Markham

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:

Samantha Markham, AIA, NCARB

Samantha Markham graduated from Louisiana Tech with her Master of Architecture in May 2014. She began studying for the ARE’s in January 2015 and completed them by December that year to become licensed in January 2016. She is currently a Senior Associate and Project Manager for Stantec, working on K – 12 and Higher Education projects across Texas. Sam leads Stantec’s Buildings Summer Intern Program, a program she helped develop to provide students a well-rounded, unique internship experience connected across the US and Canada.

Sam is highly involved externally as well, leading the ACE Mentor Program of Plano/Frisco which mentors high school juniors and seniors interested in the buildings industries. She previously served as the AIA Dallas Women in Architecture Chair, Architecture Matters Chair, Director of Education, and Chapter Director for the Texas Society of Architects. During 2020-2021, Sam served as the TxA Education Outreach Committee Chair, helping create and lead the first TxA Student Design Challenge – a statewide design competition to showcase middle and high school students work culminating at the Annual TxA Conference in the fall.

In 2016, she was named the AIA Dallas Young Architect of the Year and in 2019 she was honored by being 1 of only 5 nationally recognized ACE-ENR Mentor of the Year. Most recently, Sam was named to ENR’s Texas and Louisiana 2021 Top Young Professionals. She currently stays connected with her alma mater, Louisiana Tech, by serving on their Architecture Advisory Group and also serves on the AIA National Young Architects Forum and on TxA’s Board of Directors as the Young Architect Representative for Texas. Sam loves spending time with her family and is a proud mom of a sweet toddler and three dogs.

“Getting the first one out of the way, whether pass or fail, made me feel so much better going into the next one.”

Fun fact – I studied with my husband (also an architect). We took them all together, at the exact same time. We each failed one exam once, but different exams (he failed BDCS). So, we each had to retake one exam.

February 2, 2015	In Person	CDS (4.0)	Pass
March 28, 2015	In Person	PPP (4.0)	Pass
May 8, 2015	In Person	SS (4.0)	Pass
June 26, 2015	In Person	BDCS (4.0)	Pass
August 17, 2015	In Person	BS (4.0)	Fail
September 28, 2015	In Person	SD (4.0)	Pass
October 31, 2015	In Person	BS (4.0)	Pass
November 25, 2015	In Person	SITE (4.0)	Pass

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?

Starting the exams is extremely intimidating, but I feel like it’s intimidating no matter where you are in your career or how much you’ve studied. It’s something that is new and has a lot of pressure associated with it. So, no matter what your circumstances, it’s going to feel like a daunting task just because you don’t really know what to expect until you take one. So just take one!

Getting the first one out of the way, whether pass or fail, made me feel so much better going into the next one just because I at least had a better idea of what to expect out of the process, the format, and the questions. So, it’s a bit like jumping into the deep end, but sometimes you just have to do it!

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

Since my husband and I were studying together, we’d come home from work, fix dinner together and then study for about 2 hours each night. We’d study hard Monday through Thursday nights, then take Friday night off as a mental break (VERY good idea) and then study 4-8 hours more over the weekend. It was pretty draining to have to come home from work just to turn around and study, but we made a schedule so we always knew that it would only be for a limited time and then we’d reward ourself with a break.

For example, most of our exams we followed a 4-week schedule of studying like I mentioned above, cram a full weekend before taking the exam on the 5^th week, then we’d take a break until we got our results in (which on 4.0 was about 1-2 weeks of a wait/break). Having those mental breathers scheduled in was extremely beneficial for us to keep pushing forward and always knowing we’d have a break coming up soon to look forward to.

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

Do it! It’s so worth it, and once you pass them all and are licensed – you NEVER have to do it again 😊

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 Samantha Markham for sharing your story!

Edited by

Katelyn Rossier, AIA, NCARB, LSSBB