Just got back last night after emerging from the vortex of the Prometric testing center.  The bureaucracies we manage to create to regulate things are quite extraordinary.  To become a licensed architect, it wasn't adequate to go to school for seven years (4 years undergrad + 3 grad) and work for another 5 years under multiple architects.  Nope, the state architecture licensing board (CAB) requires that you take 9 exams administered by another bureaucracy - NCARB - that facilitates testing for the state agencies.  NCARB then work with another entity Prometric who actually implements and administers the exams created by NCARB committees.  Then Prometric grades the exams and the results are sent to NCARB who sends them to CAB who then sends them to me.  This takes about 8 weeks.  Then if I am fortunate enough to pass all of them, I get to face the final stage of the gauntlet - the California Supplemental Exam (CSE).  This is an oral interview exam.  Just in case you lucked out on graduating, getting work experience, and passing 9 extensive exams, they make sure you can read a set of drawings and quickly digest them by quizzing you for 30 minutes after waiting with all the other applicants all day for your turn.  Kind of like American Idol.

Normally people don't attempt to take six exams in ten days the way I just attempted, but I wanted to go for it partly just to get it over with and partly because NCARB is changing the format of the exam next month.  Certain exams that I already passed would expire if I didn't pass certain other exams since they are now being combined.  So I figured why not just try to take all of the remaining exams and see how it goes.  Pretty crazy.  The last one of them all was the most important as it protects 2 of the 3 that I already passed.  A 5 hour exam, it was going smoothly until I got to the egress stair problem.  This requires you to connect three levels together meeting a generic code regulating widths, rise-run, etc.  It was way harder than any of the sample problems I had taken, but after wasting about 30 minutes trying to figure out a solution, it finally came to me.  Then I discovered some other problems with the design but ultimately solved them though afterward I couldn't remember if I had drawn the handrails correctly.  The nice thing is, you don't have to score 100% to pass, but it's always disconcerting when you know you had an error.  I think it'll be OK.  The only other vignette that I may have done partly was the accessibility ramp.  I won't bore you with the details.

The good news is that now I get decompress and try to apply that same focus that I had for studying to projects and purpose that are more meaningful to me.  After a two-week trip to Costa Rica coming up, I'm excited to hit the ground running with new visions and possibilities with Willow Springs.