What: Recently Registered; ARE Prep Discussion
When: Tuesday, May 21, 2013, 5:30PM – 7:00PM
Where: The Elbow Room, 605 N Pennsylvania St, Indianapolis, IN 46204
Planning to get registered? Get your questions answered and meet some study partners.
Recently registered? Share your experience and knowledge.
Want an excuse to drink beer on a Tuesday? Excellent, Tuesday is Pint Night at the Elbow Room.
Come join our discussion of the ARE, studying, and getting registered.
Joining us will be two recent registered architects:
Tracey Parfitt, AIA, with StructurePoint
Stewart Whitcomb, AIA with Guidon
Both will be prepared to answer questions and share some tips. Should be a very worthwhile discussion. Hope to see you there!
(in the meantime if you’re looking for some general info on the ARE, check out Bob Borson’s (Life of an Architect) post, here.
YAF / Indy 
A few reminders. Schedule your test if you’re really serious about taking one. You won’t start studying unless you know you have a deadline. Bring a snack and an extra layer of clothing to the test center. Some days the center was freezing cold, some days it was comfortable. The ARE gives you a mandatory 15 minute break between the multiple choice and graphic sections. You cannot skip this break. Get up, have a snack, stretch, go for a walk. Do something that breaks the monotony of the test center environment. Plan an hour after your test time to just relax, treat yourself, etc. Do not rush back to work – you will not enjoy it.
I hope everyone gleaned some great information from the discussion earlier this week. I thought I would leave some links as a reminder for those who are going to start studying.
NCARB “Taking the ARE” – http://ncarb.org/en/ARE/Taking-the-ARE.aspx
(official study guides, practice tests, and practice vignettes)
ARE Forum – areforum.org
(great resource – best location to really understand the graphics portions)
Sbyrktct’s ARE Help – http://arehelp.webs.com/
(detailed descriptions of each study section)
ARE Coach – http://arecoach.com/coachforum/
(vocal and well informed member/user of ARE Forum – created their own repository due to the fact that the ARE Forum website frequently crashes or goes offline)
Lecture from Andres Duany (9 parts toal) – http://youtu.be/rwd4Lq0Xvgc
(great for studying the concepts of urban design and new urbanism – In my personal opinion every architect and city planner should consider this entire lecture to be mandatory.)
Study Materials – Check your current firm or check on the ARE Forum to buy used materials from other young architects
I personally used 2009 Kaplan Study Guides and practice exams for all sections except Structures. I had the flash cards for each section, but I only used them to study for PPP. For each exam I read through the complete Study Guide twice. Once for general understanding, and a second time for true comprehension.
For Structures I bought the 2012 Kaplan Study guide. It is commonly known that the 2009/2010 version of the Kaplan Structures book has errors and wrong answers in the practice tests.
Posted by Billy Van Elk | May 23, 2013, 7:25 pm