Architectural Registration Exam

The Architect Registration Examination (ARE) is the professional licensure examination adopted by all 50 states of the United States, the District of Columbia, and three U.S. territories (Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) to assess candidates for their knowledge, skills, and ability to provide the various services required in the practice of architecture. The exam is also accepted by 11 provincial and territorial architectural associations for architectural registration in Canada.

The ARE is developed and maintained by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) with input from the Canadian Architectural Licensing Authorities (CALA). The computer-based exam consists of seven divisions including multiple-choice and/or graphic vignette questions administered in test centers operated by NCARB’s testing consultant Prometric.

The earliest examinations were written and scored by each individual state board. Practicing architects, educators, and specialists in other disciplines were organized to prepare and score these tests. Since each state prepared its own test specifications, test questions, and passing standard, there was little uniformity among the boards on examination, no effective reciprocity system, and no equal protection for the public across the nation.

As NCARB grew, it organized delegates from its Member Boards into working groups during its Annual Meetings to address the problems of exam uniformity. Their efforts eventually led to agreement on a syllabus of written examination subjects. Subsequently, the length of each test and the dates of administration were agreed on, and this concurrence served to achieve the goal of greater consistency in examination questions and scoring.

By the late 1950s, standardized testing had made impressive progress. The NCARB examination committees studied the latest developments and converted sections of the syllabus to a multiple-choice format by the mid-1960s and made them available to all of NCARB Member Boards.

In 1979, NCARB conducted an extensive “task analysis and validation study” that led to the development of the forerunner of today’s ARE. At that time, candidates were required to take all nine divisions over a four-day period. The exam was only offered once a year in major cities across the United States.

In the late 1980s, as the practice of architecture moved into the computer age, NCARB began to develop a computer-based exam. After a decade of research and development, the last paper-and-pencil test was issued in 1996, and the computer-based exam rolled out in 1997.

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