This blog post is part of my One Minute ARE 5.0 Study Material reviews. Architecture professionals are busy people, and I wanted to neatly package each product review so that they could be read in a minute or less. Disagree with my assessment, have a product you want me to review, or have additional questions? Leave a comment below!
Now, without further ado:
Designer Hacks ARE 5.0 Course Review
Can Designer Hacks ARE 5.0 Courses help you pass the ARE 5.0 Practice Management (PcM) exam? Let’s break it down.
Question Content
Content for these practice exams comes from the AHPP, the AIA contracts, and professional codes of conduct. Grading for the quizzes also shows you how you performed relative to the NCARB content categories for the exam.
Difficulty of Questions
If you can’t do well on these very straightforward questions, you will definitely struggle in the exam. So if you just started studying, I would highly recommend getting these to test your knowledge of basic concepts.
Ease of Use
These practice exams come in a digital format that is easy to use in both desktop and mobile format. There are 3 exam formats, which allow you to study based on how much time you have available. Grading is automatic when you finish, but question answers may not be very detailed. The course maintains a record of your exam results over time so you can check your progress.
Price Point
For One Exam Section: $39. For All 6 Exams: $195
Compared To similar Materials
Hyperfine Architecture PCM/PJM Study Questions: These questions cover 2 exams instead of one, and are cheaper than the cost of a single exam section with Designer Hacks. Hyperfine question complexity is higher and provides greater detail and resources for their answer sections. However, this is only available as a PDF package, with no timing or grading integrated into the format.
WEARE Practice Exams: Much closer to the exam in terms of complexity, and cheaper at both the individual exam and all-in-one bundle levels. Allows for grading and has 2 full practice exams. and 1 case study.
CONCLUSION
If you are just starting to study for this exam, I would recommend this resource to help you reinforce the concepts you are just beginning to learn. It’s very good for on-the-go studying, and allows you to check your progress over time.
RMSM Studio 