Architecture Registration Exams Story: Colin Fishbaugh

Welcome to the Architectural Registration Exam (ARE) experience stories series! This series is to share experiences, timelines and advice of professionals that have completed their AREs. We know it can be a daunting task to get started and overwhelming on the number of resources out there. We hope you find this information helpful in organizing how you proceed through your exams. Good Luck!

This is the experience, timeline, and advice from:

Hi! My name is Colin Fishbaugh and I am a licensed Architect! (Feels so good to FINALLY say). I went to Kent State University where I received a Master of Architecture, Master of Urban Design, and Bachelor’s of Science in Architecture. In 2014 I moved to Cleveland and worked for a few local firms where I mainly focused on Single and Multi-Family Residential architecture. During this time, I learned I am not necessarily a great “pure designer” but I excel at understanding the details and components of how a building comes together.

I love learning about unique ways of detailing building components and am much more fascinated with how things work rather than how it looks. This led me to explore a career with the US Coast Guard where I work as almost a building science detective to figure out why a building system is failing and how we can fix it. It’s a path which isn’t talked about much in design school and any time I can promote this side of architecture, I do. Detailing makes or breaks the design and we need more detail dorks out there!

Outside of my professional work, I am a husband, a licensed drone pilot, and an amateur pizza chef!

“ Sharing experiences is the easiest way to break down the barrier of starting the exams.”

I procrastinated the longest of any of my friends to take the tests. I always had a reason for why I didn’t want to take them, whether it be lack of funds, time, or just a busy schedule. At the end of 2020, during the COVID-19 Pandemic, I ran out of excuses because I had time (since we were all working from home), I had the money to purchase study materials (thanks stimulus checks!) and there wasn’t a whole lot to do since there was no vaccine developed yet to allow safer public interactions.

When NCARB announced virtual examinations, I knew I had no excuses left and I had to start studying…I found a study program called Architect Exam Prep which held virtual Zoom Classes and walked you through the testing mindset and how to approach the way NCARB tests and it honestly is what got me through testing. The classes also allowed all of us in the program to talk to one another and see how other people were studying and what worked for them, which I couldn’t get at the time since we were working from home. I spent 2 months studying nonstop for the PcM and took it in 2021.

I took these first 3 exams virtually when they first began offering it since there were mask mandates during the COVID-19 Pandemic. My testing anxiety was already high and I knew if I threw the possibility of getting COVID-19 into the mix it would have made it worse. I had software issues on each of the three exams and each exam crashed at least once during each test! It helped me learn to deal with the adversity and move onto the next question.

I took a huge break after the initial first three passes and I honestly don’t recommend doing this long of a break! It became so easy to keep pushing off the exams and live life.

I passed each test on the first try which I know is extremely rare and will probably frustrate anyone who reads this! I did not expect to pass them on the first try and when I kept passing, I had this growing fear in my mind of when will the first fail come? It kind of motivated me to keep pushing and learning how to attack each exam to set myself up the best I could for success!

I teared up at my chair when I got the final pass and I was so relieved to be done!

I often get asked “why do I need to get licensed?”. Why did you decide that you wanted to be a licensed Architect?

I am going to be an outlier here and say I got licensed not because it was a childhood dream or that I aspire to be a principal someday. I wanted to get licensed to close the chapter on my educational journey and to stop having to explain why I am not an Architect despite going to school for Architecture. I knew if I did not get licensed, I would always regret not finishing what I started in college when obtaining my degrees.

I don’t want to be a principal of a firm or even be the one stamping my own drawings. I don’t even really want the letters “RA” at the end of my email signature (although it is fun to say I am an Architect!). I just really wanted to finish what I started, which is to feel that sense of accomplishment for the 15+ years of work which went into this moment from when I first went to Architecture School.

Often people don’t know where to start, do you have any advice for those looking to start their exams -or- how did you start?

NCARB is making it easier and easier to start studying for these exams. They lay out the groundwork in their 5.0 ARE Guidelines about what materials you need to study and even released official online practice exams to replicate the real exams. They want you to take and pass the exams so they try to make it easy to get started!

I would also try to find people in your field who are also studying for the exams and talk to each other about what works and what doesn’t work. Sharing experiences is the easiest way to break down the barrier of starting the exams.

I looked at the materials and it was recommended to me to study for the exams in (2) groups of three because the 3 exams had commonalities. PcM, PjM, and CE all have a heavy concentration of AIA Contract Documents, managing disputes between “the three parties” (Owner, Architect, Contractor), and ultimately have nothing to do with the design of an actual project.

Then I lumped PA, PPD, and PDD together since these were all about creating the actual contract documents but at different phases of design. The study materials and content were all similar but just looked through a different lens. If you go through the exams in this order, they will all build off one another and inform your knowledge for the next test.

What type of study materials did you use? Any particular ones that you’d recommend?

I mainly used the study program Architect Exam Prep. It is an all-encompassing platform where they created study guides broken out into study modules to replicate the testing modules for each exam, flashcards for each module, online tests for each module, case studies, and then online coaching for how to approach your mindset for the tests. They designed everything to work together and to even sometimes frustrate you while studying so you can learn how to deal with adversity during the test.

The classes taught me to look for certain keywords in the tests to pull the necessary information out of the question so I could answer what NCARB was looking for! I wouldn’t say it taught me every single thing I needed to know for the test (no collection of programs will) but it taught me how to take each test and to make the best judgment calls I could have given the provided information.

I also used NCARB’s online tests as a study tool and really studied how they worded each question to figure out their “tricks”. Go through each test multiple times and resist the urge to just memorize the answers. Memorize how the question is setup and use these setups to develop muscle memory for the test. I know I had several questions on each test which were almost identical to the practice exam questions just with slightly different information! Also learn how to use the digital whiteboard and look through ALL the reference sections in each exam so you know what will be provided for you to reference so you’re not wasting time on the exam.

How did you fit study time into your schedule? Was there anything in particular that worked well for you?

Architect Exam Prep has 6-week study plans which lay out day by day what you need to tackle to cover everything before the exam. They also have audio versions of their study guides so I would listen to them on my daily commutes. (I swear they are not paying me to say any of this!) 

I would spend at least an additional hour most weekday nights to going through anything I didn’t get to for each day. I would wake up on the weekends and do a practice exam on Saturdays and Sundays and would dedicate my Fridays as a rest day! Getting the studying out early on the weekends left the rest of the days to do what I needed to do outside of studying. 6 weeks per test is aggressive but absolutely doable.

Do you have any other advice for someone studying for their exams?

My two biggest pieces of advice are to shut out any personal bias you have and to learn HOW to take these tests. Personal bias means letting your work experience dictate the way you answer the questions. NCARB writes these questions based on the book answers for what an Architect should do and that’s not always the real-world solution. Understanding this and letting go of that bias helps you see the question clearer.

Learning how to take these tests is critical too. Understanding your being tested on how you manage time during the test was a game changer for me. I started each test by trying to answer 20 questions in 20 minutes and I would skip any question which took too long to answer. This allowed me to set a great pace for the exam and leave time for those questions that need more time. Remember these questions all are worth only 1 point no matter how long they take so using time wisely is key!

We hope that this information helps you through your ARE journey, setting goals, and giving you some insight on how to get started.

Thank you again to Colin Fishbaugh for sharing your story!

Edited by

Katelyn Rossier, AIA, NCARB, CSI, LSSBB