ARE 5.0 Study Tips From an Examinee

Richard has wanted to be an architect since he was a kid. He finished high school one year early to get a jump start on his architectural career at Portland Community College, which gave him a technical education. He received his Bachelor of Architecture from University of Idaho and Master’s in Urban Architecture from the University of Oregon, where the education was focused on sustainability.

I recommend reading the NCARB ARE 5.0 Handbook thoroughly and keeping it nearby while studying. The handbook also provides a comprehensive list of book study resources near the end. The ARE Review Manual is useful and comes with practice material. I also recommend reviewing contract documents. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) provides printable, sample contract docs for ARE candidates that are extremely helpful. AIA has a resources page with video study materials and sample contracts here.

“Chunking.” For about an hour each day, try reading a section of the ARE Review Manual (or other material of choice.) This can be a few pages at a time, or in-between bold titles, or between example questions in the book. Make flash cards while reading, make notes and sketches (for visual learners) in a notebook, highlight the related literature in the book, on printed contract docs, etc. Study these notes on the bus, at a cafe, during lunch at work, or wherever feasible. Repeating these steps for reasonable chunks of material allows me to strengthen important details along the way.

Stickers and highlighters are useful tools when used right; however, I find aimlessly using stickers and highlighting is not necessarily helpful, since stickers will drown in the sea of a thousand pages. The point of these tools is to identify content that needs to be studied, estimate the time it will take to go through that content, form a plan, and then start. Also, I find studying for long periods of time looking down at a book on a table creates neck and eye strain. Consider positioning the book vertically or using a computer monitor that is level with the eyes to avoid neck strain.

I found the most successful study strategy is to generate practical application of the content that I study. What’s nice about the order of the exams is they generally follow the course of a normal project. My advice would be to:

Every question likely tests your ability to understand a real-life issue and respond to it. This is complicated because it can be convoluted. While reading and using flash cards are all good ways of looking at text and pictures over and over, I find nothing beats trying to solve real life problems.

By using one-month testing intervals. For one month: read, review flash cards and sketch notes, watch supporting online videos, etc. Then dive into the practice materials provided by PPI and schedule that exam while practicing. Why one month? Because the amount of information to study is tremendous! Architectural practice experience doesn’t necessarily guarantee success in terms of the the way NCARB has constructed the exam.

I immediately go to my favorite cafe, reward myself, and then break out a notepad, because I’m not done yet. It’s important to reward our brains for hard work. Our brains will thus learn to identify an exam with a reward, which is an important life lesson.

Richard H. Wilson, M.ARCH, Assoc. AIA

Intern Architect