If you've spent any time in architecture school or on Reddit's r/architecture communities, you've heard of the ARE. American architecture interns have a clear, well-documented path to licensure and, crucially, an entire industry of study resources built around it. Canadian interns have the ExAC. The gap between how well-served these two groups are has been wide for a long time.
This article compares both exams factually: what they cover, how they're structured, and what the preparation landscape looks like for each. If you're a Canadian intern wondering how your exam stacks up, or an American-trained architect exploring Canadian licensure, this is the breakdown.
What each exam is
The ARE: Architect Registration Examination
The ARE is administered by NCARB (the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards) and is the primary path to architectural licensure in the United States. It has six divisions, each testing a distinct area of architectural practice. Candidates must also complete the Architectural Experience Program (AXP), formerly called the IDP, before they're eligible to sit.
A defining feature of the ARE is its scheduling flexibility. Unlike many professional licensing exams, the ARE is available year-round at Prometric testing centres. Candidates can write divisions in any order and take them as their schedule allows.
The ExAC: Examination for Architects in Canada
The ExAC (Examination for Architects in Canada) is administered by the Canadian Architectural Licensing Authorities (CALA), a collaboration among the provincial regulatory bodies. It is written once per year over two days. There is no rolling window; you write all four sections in a single annual cycle, or you wait another year.
Eligibility requires completion of the Canadian Experience Record (CER) and approval through your provincial association: the OAA in Ontario, AIBC in BC, AAA in Alberta, and so on. The internship pathway and its documentation requirements vary slightly by province.
Structure: six divisions vs four sections
The ARE is divided into six divisions. Each is a separate exam:
- Practice Management (PcM): business structures, financial management, HR, ethics, and legal responsibilities of a firm
- Project Management (PjM): contracts, project delivery methods, schedules, and consultant coordination
- Programming & Analysis (PA): site analysis, environmental factors, programming, and code research
- Project Planning & Design (PPD): building systems integration, structural concepts, environmental controls, and schematic design
- Project Development & Documentation (PDD): construction documentation, detailing, material selection, and specifications
- Construction & Evaluation (CE): bidding, construction administration, closeout, and post-occupancy evaluation
The ExAC is structured around four sections written over two days:
- Section 1: Design & Programming: programming, site analysis, engineering systems, cost management, schematic design, and design development
- Section 2: National Building Code: open-book application of the NBC 2020; occupancy classification, fire protection, accessibility, and structural requirements
- Section 3: Final Project & Construction: construction documents, specifications, building science, and site administration
- Section 4: Project & Practice Management: CCDC contracts, delivery methods, fees, professional liability, and the RAIC Code of Ethics
Format and question types
The ARE uses a mix of question formats: multiple choice, check-all-that-apply, hotspot (click a location on a drawing), drag-and-drop matching, and case studies that bundle several questions around a shared set of documents. Time limits vary by division, typically ranging from two to four hours.
The ExAC uses multiple-choice questions exclusively (four options, one correct answer) across all four sections. Each question is allocated roughly 90 seconds. Section 2 is the only open-book section; candidates bring a tabbed copy of the National Building Code 2020 into the exam room. Sections 1, 3, and 4 are entirely closed book.
The 90-second-per-question constraint of the ExAC shapes how you need to prepare in a way that multiple-choice exams often don't. See our article on what each ExAC section covers for a deeper breakdown of what's tested and how.
Content: US codes vs Canadian codes
This is where the two exams diverge most sharply, and it's the reason ARE study materials can't fully substitute for ExAC prep.
The ARE is built around US-specific references: the International Building Code (IBC), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Accessibility Guidelines, ASHRAE standards, and AIA contract documents. These codes and contracts are thoroughly embedded in ARE question logic: knowing the IBC deeply is table stakes.
The ExAC is built around Canadian-specific references: the National Building Code of Canada 2020 (NBC 2020), the suite of CCDC standard contract documents, the RAIC Document 6 (the standard client-architect agreement), and provincial regulatory frameworks. The ExAC does not test IBC or AIA documents. A candidate who prepared exclusively using ARE materials would have significant gaps on Section 2 and Section 4.
The US has Amber Book and Black Spectacles. Canadians have had very little.
Here's the honest comparison that most articles skip: the American architecture licensure ecosystem is exceptional, and the Canadian one has not been.
In the US, the ARE prep market has produced genuinely excellent resources. Amber Book, built by Amber Khanna, is a comprehensive, intelligently organized study system that covers all six ARE divisions with depth and clarity. It's practical, it's well-designed, and it has helped a large number of architects pass their exams. Black Spectacles offers video courses, practice tests, flashcards, and structured study plans across all ARE divisions: a full learning platform built specifically around how the exam works. Both are genuinely high-quality products.
Beyond those two, American interns have access to a deep bench of community guides, YouTube walkthroughs, subreddit study groups, and supplementary tools, all oriented around the ARE. The volume and quality of ARE preparation content is remarkable.
Canadian interns writing the ExAC have historically had almost none of that. The ExAC has no equivalent of Amber Book. There has been no equivalent of Black Spectacles. For years, ExAC candidates pieced together study plans from CALA's published objectives, scattered forum threads, and colleagues who had already written. That's a hard way to prep for a high-stakes one-chance-per-year exam.
What Issued for Interns is doing about it
We built Issued for Interns because we wrote the ExAC and found the resource gap firsthand. What Amber Book does for the ARE: a comprehensive, practical, exam-focused study system built by people who passed, is exactly what Canadian interns deserve for the ExAC.
The Issued for Interns ExAC Study Guide covers all 13 ExAC themes across all four sections. It goes deep on the NBC 2020, the full CCDC contract suite, RAIC Document 6, and the project management content that Section 4 tests. It includes scenario-based practice questions written at the 90-second-per-question pacing of the actual exam, but the goal was never volume for its own sake.
Architecture is not a basic multiple choice test. You are not memorizing answers just to forget everything by Tuesday. You are preparing to take professional responsibility for buildings that people live in, work in, and depend on. The exam exists because that responsibility is serious, and the preparation should treat it that way. We wrote fewer questions than we could have and spent the time instead making each one genuinely difficult in the right way: scenario-driven, code-grounded, and designed to build real judgment rather than pattern recognition. A candidate who works through our questions carefully will understand why each answer is correct, not just which letter to pick.
Free resources on this site: the ExAC sections breakdown, the NBC tabbing guide, the CCDC cheat sheet, and the 12-week study schedule These are the start of what we think ExAC prep should look like for every Canadian intern.
Which exam should you prepare for?
If you are pursuing Canadian architectural licensure, you need the ExAC. The ARE is not a substitute. NCARB certification (which the ARE enables) is a separate credential that facilitates reciprocal licensure across US states. Some Canadian architects pursue both, but they are different exams with different eligibility pathways and different bodies of knowledge.
If you trained in the US and are exploring Canadian practice, or if you hold NCARB certification and are seeking Canadian licensure, contact your provincial association directly. The ExAC is still required in most provinces regardless of prior US licensure.
If you are a Canadian intern wondering whether ARE prep materials are worth using as a supplement. Yes, for the conceptual overlap on building systems, structural principles, and project management fundamentals. No, for anything code-specific or contract-specific. Use ExAC-specific resources for those.