Syed07 said, “…but is there any remedy for cold feet?”
I think cold feet are a part of it… Part of the natural order. I tried to mention it in my last post. It’s just part of the whole career experience including your education, exam and everything in between. I think.
I know it was a rhetorical question, but sometimes we seem to ask it as if there is really an answer.
Check out this video. So you want to be an architect – Part 7, by Doug Patt.
Let me take a look at how my reasons for taking the exam have changed. These were my initial reasons for taking the architectural registration exam.
I want to become an architect. To me the natural order means getting licensed. The more I understand about the exam, I know it is not the measure of excellence I had expected. (I haven’t passed every exam and I didn’t say the exam is easy. I have the point of view that I will find a way to pass this exam.) I believe the exam is part of my career. Yes, I’ve had to get over the anxiety of my first exam. Yes, I’m experiencing a new anxiety studying for Building Design and Construction Sytems. I feel this is a natural part of the experience. For me, the exam does not have the intensity of my first pin up in college. Wanting to become an architect is really just a reason. Sure it’s business and peer recognition, but it comes down to me just wanting it. This reason is still relevant and relatively unchanged since starting the exam. I want to be licensed and see this as the natural order, no matter the exam characteristics. (Let me add over the course of my life, I have made career decisions towards ‘getting licensed’. The exam is the natural order.)
I wanted a raise. My employer has reacted to the economic downturn and I’m really uncertain if I can secure a raise. I use this reason to motivate me, but I’m more realistic now. I might not get a raise if I’m licensed in the next 6 months. If I do get a raise it may be some time further away than 6 months. This reason has definately changed.
I had an architectural college scholarship that required I work as a licensed architect in New York state. I haven’t called the scholarship office in a long time. Months ago, I spoke to someone who has the same requirement. They told me, they were told by the state scholarship office to not worry about the requirement. I was surprised to hear that. It is heresay and I haven’t called the office to verify. Hearing this took some pressure off, but I’m still on the hook. The state could come after me years from now to have me repay my scholarship plus interest. I figure I should get licensed. When I took the scholarship I commited myself towards licensure. I remember saying to myself, “What if something happens? What if I move? What if…” Well life has played itself out, such that I should complete licensure and honor the requirement. I use this reason as encouragement.
This is how my basic reasons for taking the architectural registration exam have changed since I started studying and testing.
According to my results letter from NCARB my reasons for failure for Schematic Design only stem from my performance in the interior layout vignette. My letter does not indicate ANY (meaning minor or major) deficiencies in the building layout vignette. That’s good. (I didn’t fail everywhere.) Everything I wrote about doing wrong in the building layout, either I didn’t do, or I didn’t do it enough for it to matter. This is good for me to know for the retake of this exam. It doesn’t mean I (or you) can make what I thought were errors. It just means what I thought were errors may not be as wrong as getting what I got right.
You got that? I probably did more right than wrong on the building layout. And what I may have done wrong, either wasn’t wrong at all or wasn’t significant enough to be considered a “minor” or “major deficiency”. Thus considered a minor or major deficiency, the vignette and as a result my exam would be a fail. As it stands my Schematic Design exam is a fail only due to one vignette, the interior layout.
Let me speak on that a little more. For example, I thought my rooms were too small in the building layout vignette. Maybe the computer scored the room areas within the acceptable threshold of the correct size. I don’t know how many of my rooms erred on the side of too small. I don’t know the scoring level of acceptance applied to too small and too large a room area or even if too small is penalized greater than too big an area. Which is what I thought, but perhaps I’m wrong. Geez. All I know is my fail letter doesn’t claim “minor” or “major” deficiencies exist on my building layout. I still recommend staying aware of my prior mistakes regarding the building layout vignette.
PPI