So I titled my post about the beta-testing of the ARE practice program “The Most Advanced 64-BIT Drafting Program“. That was a bit of a snarky, jerk comment.

I am so thrilled that it is finally going 64-bit. I have heard too many horror stories from friends who took the AREs after I did. They had to go to work and use the old 32-bit machine connected to some random plotter. Or go to a friend’s house. Or dig up their old half-broke machine from college and pray it kept working until they got the final letter in the mail. Everyone with fancy new machines were getting screwed and tripped up on what should be a non-issue (imagine the odds that a future architect’s only machine is a shiny Mac running OS X 10.7 or newer?).

As anyone who has taken the AREs on a computer knows, the program you need to do the vignettes is a strange beast. Both overly simple and oddly cumbersome at the same time. It can be easily described in one word: frustrating. And I understand why the program is unique and simple. No one should have an advantage because the program is created by Autodesk, Nemectchek, Trimble or some other software company. It needs to be neutral, like IFC. Knowledge of other software helps (especially object based software like the BIM programs we love), but really doing the vignettes is partly about learning the logic of this strange program. And in fact the hubris from being an expert in other software can actually hurt you. It wasn’t until I stupidly failed two of the vignettes on my second exam that I realized I needed to take this little program seriously. To pass the tests I needed to understand the logic of the seemingly dumb software. So I learned the vignette program inside and out; I figured out how to read the questions properly and translate that to the quirkiness of the given tools. And I crushed all the remaining vignettes, breezing through them on future tests (the retake was humorously easy by the time my 6-month window was up).

Yes, but…

That said. The program should be harder. And way more complex. More people should fail because they misunderstand how to use the software. And the vignettes should be BIM based. Why? Because if you are going to be an architect in the 21st century and can’t handle simple 3D modeling or a BIM program, you don’t deserve to be licensed. That simple. It’s just the entrance fee now.

Because guess what? Your EVERYTHING has already changed.

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