ARB Prescribed examination - support material hacks
Why is this examination so important?
Well basically it gives you the equivalence of your foreign architectural education in the UK and it allows you to keep studying the Part 3 towards registration.
Back in 2017 I had to sit a this British examination for the second time in London. I’m not sure how it is now (I know it changes regularly) but there was no information online back then.
So there you have some hacks to be more likely to pass the examination:
Your portfolio must be extremely organised and preferably include a content so the examiner can find things with ease. In my case I printed the content as a leaflet so they could have it with them all the time (shown on the picture of the post).
Present your support material in just one document, it doesn’t matter if it is way too thick, it makes it easier to navigate.
Print your support material three times so each examiner can have one, it saves time and your portfolio has more possibilities to be reviewed.
Probably this is the most important point, your support material must match religiously with your comparative matrix.
The books I read to cover legislation, law and planning:
- Shaping neighbourhoods for local health and global sustainability, Hugh Barton.
- The architect in practice, Chappell Dunn.
- The architect’s legal pocket book, Matthew Cousins.
- Architect’s pocket book , Charlotte Baden-Powell
You are more likely to get a positive result if you already worked in the UK or Ireland (before Brexit) so don’t rush and If you have no experience working get out and find a job.
You must include school work no matter what, in my case I put my thesis (in English) on the top of the list of projects I submitted.
Try to include a mini index for every project you submit, in my case I called it Design Journey comprising the brief, description of the site, case study, options explored, the project, planning application process, M&E project, the structure, financial management, DAC and Fire cert and some extras like pictures of physical models, e-mails, tender process, sketches, contracts etc. Important: Do not forget specify the type of ventilation in EVERY project.
Specify the criteria covered in every page.
Some of the subjects are difficult to cover like history and art, for those you can write essays and show power point slides.
If your main project is from another country always write a paragraph specifying how it would comply with UK regulations.
I also added a couple of reference letters from the practice I was working at that time and from my tutor.
Seeking help from a tutor covers a couple of criteria so do not hesitate to find one.
I hope you find this useful!