Potential ARE Building Systems Seminar

There is a possibility of bringing in a presenter to give a two-day seminar for the Building Systems exam, in a similar style to the recent Structures Seminar given by David Thaddeus. This seminar will be presented by Gustavo Mibelli, and from all appearances seems to be helpful to some of the interns in the Building Systems forums. We are looking at scheduling this seminar in the spring, if there is enough initial interest. Please let us know if you have any interest in taking a course such as this. Thanks!

ARE 4.0 Exam Seminar Presenters

The Intern Architect Committee would like to invite interns who have written (and passed) some of the ARE 4.0 exams to serve as volunteer presenters for this year's exam preparation seminars. The 30 to 45-minute seminars are designed to provide topical exam-taking advice to interns who are about to write each exam, and thus will focus more on strategy than on specific content. Please contact us if you are interested in volunteering for any of these positions. Thanks!

ARE Study Groups: Preparing for the AREs Outside Vancouver

ARE study resources at the AIBC library are available to all interns. However, out-of-town ARE candidates may find it difficult to attend ARE preparation seminars held in Vancouver. In some cases, these ARE seminars provide some much-needed encouragement to take an exam. For those of us who cannot attend, motivation can be the biggest challenge to studying and completing the seven divisions of the ARE.

So why not study as a group? A study group is an excellent resource for those who function well under “peer-pressure,” encouraging them to study for these exams. You will also find yourself responsible to others and not only to yourself. A regular ARE study group may start with as few as four people and grow to as many as fifteen. Members may join for just one exam or continue for all of them.

The ARE Forum, a web-based bulletin board, is a good resource when searching for interns in your area who are preparing for the same ARE division. Upon registration, you may post your call under Areforum > Miscellaneous Forums - Not a place for debate just listings > Study Groups

One example of the many ARE Forum postings is a 15-member ARE study group in Albuquerque, NM. They started with PPP, then CDS, SPD and are now preparing SS. So far, they have passed 2 and failed 1. This is how they work together:

As a group we decide on an exam to study for; then we determine how long we want to take to study 4-8 weeks depending on the exam; then we break the readings out according to the schedule; we are using the Kaplan material as our main study material with the PPI material as a second source ... Once we determine the reading, we take a week to read the material and do the quiz at the end of each lesson and then meet each week to discuss the answers to the questions, we talk about why we chose an answer and where we found it in the reading ... As we get closer to the end of the study time for that exam we begin to look at the graphic portion and work through the problems available as a group and discuss why we decided to do certain things and not to do certain things. We then take a week or two for each member of the group to take the exam before moving on to the next exam and then we start it again.

If you are working with a study group, how do you study? Please share your experiences with us. It will be helpful to other interns trying to start a study group.

Gastón Castaño IA (Victoria, BC)