The Architectural Registration Exam (ARE). It’s the culmination of years of study, marking the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next; six grueling tests that push most young designers to their limit. The studying is strenuous, the fear of failure unbearable, and yet those of us seeking the coveted title of Architect endure the fire. Your only concern until you complete the exams is, “how do I pass them?” Answering this would be your saving grace. Let’s look at how to overcome this mountain and move to the next phase in our careers, but be warned, this isn’t a “follow these steps, and you’ll pass” kind of a thing. Ask any licensed architect, and they’ll be the first to tell you — it takes hard work. This article will give you some tools to embrace that simple fact and move forward confidently in your endeavor.

It takes persistence

We’ve already talked about pursuing a license for the right reason.  The people who make it through the ARE process want nothing more than to be licensed architects. They will not allow anything to stand in between them and their goal. They aren’t taking the exams because their coworkers want them to or because it’s what everyone else is doing. They’re doing it because it is a personal milestone that they have set out to achieve for themselves. When things get tough at work, they still go home and study. If their friends want to go out for drinks, they’re studying. Even when they fail an exam, they get right back at it.

When we pursue something for the right reasons, we’re unstoppable. It was the great author, Octavia Butler, who said that habit is persistence in practice. Those who achieve great things have developed a rigorous habit that nothing and no one can shake. It takes grit to achieve anything worthwhile. The ARE is an obstacle in the way of your goal, build the right habits, and you’ll be on your way.

Let go of the need to pass

One of the biggest hurdles for many candidates is the overwhelming need to pass the exam. All of the stress and anxiety associated with the tests comes from the pressure you’re putting on yourself to pass the first time. Whether you pass or fail, you should instead go into these moments more like this: I’ve studied and put in the work, I’m going to go in here and do my best, whatever the result is, I’ve learned, I’ve grown, and I can come back and give it another shot.

All you can do is your best, that’s the only thing in your control. If you get a question you didn’t study for, panicking will only take away from your focus for the rest of the exam. Realize that you will be an architect, it’s just a matter of when. It isn’t always going to be the timeline you lay out for yourself, but look, ten years from now you aren’t going to care that you were bummed about failing this exam. You’re going to be cultivating your career as a licensed architect and probably telling some other young professional to relax and enjoy the process.

So many designers are stressed out for months leading up to the exam because they don’t know if they are ready or if they’ve studied enough. What you really need to do is take a step back and look at how this anxiety is influencing your objective. The most important characteristic one needs to embrace to perform well for anything is focus. Stress reduces your focus and as a result, reduces your performance. Look at it like this:

Think about it. What is it that you want on test day? It’s to perform well. And to perform well, you need to stick with your study schedule (practice) and be focused during that time. When you stress out about unknowns, like ruminating on how much you’re studying or if you will or will not pass, you take away from your focus. If you look at the equation above (which is only for the sake of the point, don’t take it literally), you want to try and maximize your performance. The easiest way to do that is to reduce stress and heighten the quality of your time studying.

Stop stressing out

We’re our own worst enemy. A lot of what holds us back can be reconciled by a simple shift in our thinking and overall personal health. How does one reduce stress? When it comes to test taking, our first step should be to formulate a plan of action. A good way to go about this is first to ask those around you who have (recently) obtained their license. What strategies did they use? What study materials? What was their process? (if they’ve passed six exams they have a process). If you don’t know anyone who has recently passed the exams then go to NCARB’s website, particularly the ARE Community, or just search online, there is a ton of content on the exams out there.

Once you have a plan, relax and follow it. Trust in the process. It’s going to be a drag if you keep changing study materials, modifying your schedule, or worst of all, spend hours online looking for another way to study for the tests. Just keep calm and stick to what you have taken the time to establish; it’ll be so much more peaceful, trust me.

In addition to coming up with a plan, there are still the obvious things: make sure you’re getting enough sleep (seriously this makes a huge difference), exercising, and even meditating (which is super legit nowadays, and very effective). Taking care of yourself will reduce your anxiety, keeping you clear-headed, and performing your best. When you reduce the pressure you’ve put on yourself, you’ll be surprised how much better you’ll feel and how much more enjoyable the learning experience of the exam process will be.

You’re becoming a master

“When it comes to mastering a skill, time is the magic ingredient.”

• Robert Greene, in Mastery

When you begin to study for the ARE, you start to pay attention to things you used to miss. You now seek to understand everything you do in your day to day work (you should be at least). Each exam opens up a new world of knowledge for you. Maybe you’re studying for Practice Management and for the first time you are learning about balance sheets and how contracts are composed. You finally start to understand how the business of architecture actually works. Perhaps you’re working on Project Planning and Design (the beast), and you’re taking more of an interest in plumbing codes and HVAC configurations. It’s a whole new arena of exploration, and it’s quite exciting to incrementally gain that knowledge.

Whether we pass an exam or not, there is no denying that we gain experience in all of these things along the way. The exam gives us the title, but it’s the hard work we put into studying that provides us with the ability to earn it.

“Level-up” time

There is this polyglot named Moses Mccormick that I used to watch on youtube when I was learning Spanish (sadly I have not practiced in years). His method for language learning was something he called “leveling-up.” He would go to a diverse place like a mall or market and walk up to a random person (that he could tell was from another country) and ask them something like, “do you know what time this store closes?” The person would respond, and then Moses would say something along the lines of, “Hey, I really like your accent, would you mind if I asked you where that’s from?” and let’s say the person said Vietnam — Mccormick would stun them and start speaking Vietnamese! (By the way, Moses is a black guy and is fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, and a crazy number of other languages. It’s hilarious to see these people’s reactions).

He took the concept from video games where a character would have to gain “XP points” (experience points) to reach a more powerful level. So let’s say you needed 100 XP points to get from level one to level two, the character would have to overcome several milestones, earning points incrementally until he “leveled-up.”

Every day you learn something new at work, read a new chapter in your study guides, memorize that flash-card, you’re gaining XP points. And no matter the outcome of an exam, that time and what you’ve achieved can never be taken away from you. It’s the experience and knowledge that makes you an architect; the test is just the gatekeeper.

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So, how do you pass the ARE? Through diligence. If you stick with your plan, stay disciplined, and put your all into the process, you WILL become licensed. Let go of the need to pass right away (but still go in with optimism!) and be open to any outcome. Remember that every day you study and every day you work, you are gaining valuable experience that no one can take away from you. As you reduce your anxiety and increase your peace of mind, you are sure to see a shift in your focus and performance. Forget about what the people around you think. Do this for you and only you, and in your timing, the prize will be won.