Resolution

I just realized that it was a year ago this month that I said I was going to take the Architectural Registration Exam "this year." And that was a year after I'd started scrambling to get one test taken before the format changed. So now it's been two years since I decided I'd really better just take the thing and be done with it.

So. I am going to do it. I finished filling out the application, got it notorized, wrote the check for the application fee and attached a photo of myself (why on earth do they need a photo of me??) I have a shelf full of study materials here, so now all I need to do is stick the application in the mail and decide what order to take the exams.

ARE study materials

There are 7 parts in the new format, and each one (except Schematic Design) has a multiple choice section and a graphic section (where you solve design programs with a really clunky drafting program designed specifically for the tests). I'm pretty comfortable with the subject matter of 4 of the 7 tests, but I'm a little worried about the ones that cover structural and mechanical systems. It's just been a bit too long since I learned about them in school, and unlike most of the other content it's not stuff I use every day. So I'm torn right now whether to take those ones first and get them out of the way, or save them for last. I'm reading through the study materials now, and after I do that I'll decide.

If I don't post updates on this regularly, leave me comments telling me to get my butt in gear!!



***Updated to add my tentative testing order***

1. Schematic Design (graphic only, kind of a warm-up)
2. Structural Systems
3. Building Systems (mechanical and electrical)
4. Building Design and Construction Systems (more general than the previous two, but the material overlaps)
5. Construction Documents and Services*
6. Programming Planning and Practice*
7. Site Planning and Design*

*I may change the order of 5, 6 & 7, but I plan to take those three in quick succession. The content of all three is very closely related and the prevailing wisdom seems to be to study for all three at once and take them close together. These are the 3 that I scored in the high 80% on practice tests without even reviewing any study materials first, so I figure I'll save them for last. (If you fail an exam, you have to wait 6 months before you can retake it, thus the strategy of taking the ones I'm least confident with first)