I just finished my PcM testing and the preliminary result is a pass. With the passing of CE a week ago, I will be done with 3 out of the 6 ARE 5.0 exams. What a relief. Here are some thoughts to summarize the experience.
The construction evaluation exam has more drawing approval type of questions than I expected. These are the ones that ask you to pinpoint some sort of mistake or incorrect detailing on drawings. Some of them are rather easy and basic but others may require some knowledge in the subject of project design and development (PDD). Neither the Ballast nor the Brightwood study guides covered material on these in the section of CE.
I frankly have no idea how anyone can prepare for these other than learning about PDD or even PPD and PA. Since NCARB purported that percentage correct on the questions in these exams is usually between 57% to 68%, and since there are usually fewer than 10 of these hotspot type of questions, a strategy is to maximize correct rates on all the other questions.
Other than that the contents are very similar to PjM. CE has more emphasis on different contract parties’ roles in construction than PjM. Many questions raise scenarios where a concern/dispute/inconsistency of sorts emerges and the test taker must pick out the correct party or correct actions in response. Not all of these are clearly stated in contracts but with understanding of contractual roles, one can interpolate to get the right answer.
In comparison, PcM is a distant cousin in the 3-exam group. PjM and CE’s similarities are quite apparent when PcM is thrown in the mix. The core concepts in PjM and CE are centered around architect’s role in a building project. PcM is more about running a business. When I studied for it, I felt like sitting through MBA intro classes, if those classes are like what I imagine. Understanding what architect does in a contract is helpful but the majority of the questions ask for risk and financial management of a company.
Take design delivery as an example. In PjM and CE exams, the questions often ask what architect or any other party in the contract typically does. In PjM, it asks more on why a delivery method is better for certain projects, certain goals of the client or avoiding certain risk. I found it harder to draw the connection between concepts of the delivery method and the justification in using any of them. Best advice is to reason through all the sample question answers you can get and take cues.
Overall the PjM, PcM and CE group is indeed manageable. I spent about a month reading through prep material on each subject and took all three in the fourth month, using the time in between to review.
An off topic opinion formed during my experience with the 3 tests is that these materials are just isolated from real life practice experience enough to be taught in school. They are a little dry but they could easily be a 3 credit hour college course that is built into a professional degree program’s curriculum. This integration would make everyone’s life easier. I’m seeing so many designers putting off ARE testing because of the the time conflict and this is no news. I hope one day licensure becomes better integrated into the professional degree.