Pass in San Diego

Pass in San Diego

Postby AndrewRHA » Mon Dec 16, 2019 8:44 pm

Hi Coach and fellow candidates,

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who took the time to get involved and share their materials, notes, experiences, and questions. They were tremendously helpful. As we all know this journey is a crazy one, thankfully I am moving on to the next chapter as a licensed architect. Man, that feels good to say! So many people shared their experience and I wanted to do the same because it helped me and if one more of these success stories can push someone to finish then it's worth sharing.

My ARE 4.0 path started in June 2013 and ended in October 2017. It took me 15 attempts to complete all 7 exams. Some first try passes some were multiple failures. My biggest obstacle was learning how to study and learning test-taking skills. Those skills were severely lacking because I decided to go the work-experience route. That's right I do not have an Architecture degree. After completing the ARE, the process for the CSE was 6 Months. In June 2018 I took and failed the CSE. It took some time but today 12/16/2019 I passed the CSE on the 2nd attempt. 6 1/2 years is what it took to complete the examination process. It is a long time but I am going to be an architect forever and that is what is most important.

If you've made it this far the best advice I can give is "finish what you have started".

For studying, I used Woo Green, Woo Purple, Woo Study Guide, Chen CSE Practice test, everything on the CAB reference materials, Architects handbook, AIA contracts, various ARE notes that were relevant and had several conversations with contractors, engineers, and architects on subjects that I was not familiar with. Also, remember the bases for everything we do is "life safety" all other branches grow from this trunk. I did not use any of the David material as the reviews were very bad, I just avoided them completely. The total I studied for this exam was 100 hours the first time and 120 hours the second time. If at all possible, at the end of your studying about a week before your exam, try and get 2-4 hours with a seasoned licensed architect and go over anything that is not clear or anything that needs practical context. One thing that helped a lot was him reading practice questions to me and going over the answers and breaking down the various options.

Thank you all again!!

Andrew
AndrewRHA
 
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Joined: Wed May 30, 2018 9:12 am

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