Failing the Practice Management division of the ARE 5.0 has been humbling. Not discouraging, not defeating, but clarifying in a way that success often is not.
My first attempt fell short of the 550 passing threshold. Close enough to sting, far enough to force reflection. My second attempt is complete, but the score has not yet been released. Regardless of the outcome, the process between those two attempts made something unavoidable clear: the issue was not effort, time, or intelligence.
The issue was how I was studying, and more importantly, how I was framing the exam in my mind.
I was still approaching it like a student trying to pass a test, instead of a practicing professional validating competence.
That realization changed everything.
I earned my Master of Architecture in 2017 from Montana State University. Like many graduates, I left school strong in design thinking and problem solving, but with an incomplete understanding of how architecture firms actually function as businesses. Teaching became a parallel track early in my career. I taught Revit I, Revit II, Capstone Portfolio, and later developed a Construction Visualization course. Teaching has a way of exposing every weak spot. When students ask why something works, not just how, surface-level understanding does not survive.
My early professional years were shaped in a design-build environment while working for a general contractor, where I completed my IDP and AXP hours. That experience was demanding and often unforgiving. I worked on food and beverage, industrial, and cold storage projects where mistakes had immediate financial and contractual consequences. Models were not theoretical. They were contractual instruments. Ambiguity became risk. Gaps became change orders.
That environment forced me to understand overhead, utilization, staffing, and risk from the builder’s perspective. It also stripped away any romantic notion of business ownership. Decisions had consequences. Profitability was not abstract. That experience later gave me the confidence to start my own firm.
In December of 2018, I founded Allied BIM. For several years, I balanced consulting, teaching, and delivery work, applying what I had learned in design-build to real-world practice. In 2025, I sold the business. Artificial intelligence influenced that decision, but more importantly, I gained clarity about where I wanted to focus my career. I chose to recommit to architecture itself.
In March of 2025, I joined HKS Architects as a Firmwide Practice Technology Specialist II in the Sports & Entertainment sector, supporting large-scale stadium projects across the country. My role sits at the intersection of design, delivery, contracts, and firm operations. With that context, it became impossible to continue treating the ARE as an academic exercise.
Failing Practice Management once — and waiting on the results of the second attempt — made one thing clear. Knowledge was not the problem. Structure was.
This time, my approach is intentionally regimented and deliberately layered. I am no longer sampling content or chasing weak areas reactively. I am following a guided process built around multiple study resources, each used for what it does best.
Black Spectacles provides structure and accountability. It defines what to study, when to study it, and how to test comprehension. Practice exams are treated as diagnostic tools, not confidence boosters. Every missed question becomes a data point, not a frustration.
Amber Book helps reinforce concepts visually and systemically. It connects abstract business ideas to real-world architectural decision-making and reinforces how professional judgment shows up in practice.
The AIA Handbook of Professional Practice grounds everything in reality. It is not exam prep in the traditional sense, but it is the clearest articulation of how firms actually operate — financially, contractually, and ethically. Reading it alongside exam content reframes questions away from tricks and toward intent.
In parallel, I am also actively working through the Project Management exam content and plan to schedule that exam before my next retake of Practice Management. The overlap between the two divisions is significant, and approaching them together reinforces continuity rather than compartmentalization.
The key difference this time is discipline. I am not jumping ahead. I am not skipping fundamentals because they feel familiar. I am trusting the process and letting repetition do its work.
Financial concepts are no longer isolated formulas. Utilization rate, overhead rate, breakeven rate, and net multiplier are studied together as a single ecosystem. I am focusing on how they interact, why firms target certain benchmarks, and how small shifts create real operational consequences.
Contracts are approached the same way. I am reading AIA agreements with a risk-first mindset. The safest answer is almost always the one that protects the firm, limits exposure, and clarifies responsibility. That logic is consistent across both practice and the exam.
Practice Management is not a gatekeeper. It is a mirror. It reflects how well you understand the profession you are actively practicing.
This time, I am not studying to prove that I know architecture. I am studying to confirm that my experience, judgment, and decision-making align with professional standards.
When I sit for the next exam, I will not be walking in as someone hoping to pass. I will be walking in as a practicing professional validating the work I already do.
This is the first step in finishing all six ARE divisions deliberately and honestly. I plan to continue documenting this process — not just the wins, but the failures that make the wins possible.
Licensure does not have to be a quiet grind. For me, making it visible creates accountability, clarity, and perspective. If sharing this helps someone else recalibrate their approach, then the setbacks were worth it.
This journey is no longer about avoiding another fail.
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