So you’ve spent countless hours studying for your latest ARE 5.0 exam and just found out you FAILED. Now what?
You’re probably frustrated, discouraged, tired, at your wits end, ready to give up. Right?
Take a second and breathe. Failing an exam is not such a big deal. In fact, most people fail at least one exam on their journey toward licensure. You are not alone.
Sure, you put the time in studying, and paid the testing fee. But that’s it. The testing police aren’t coming for you… this is not going to stop you from achieving your goal of getting licensed.
Just think of this failed exam as an expensive practice test. And then stop thinking about it all together. Take the feedback you received from your failing score report, and move on.
You have two courses of action you can follow next. One is to immediately start studying for your re-take. The other is to immediately start studying for the next exam on the list.
Yup, you read that correctly. Either way, you’re picking yourself up and getting back on the study wagon. Do not let one fail slow you down.
And just think how lucky you are…today you only have to wait 60 days to retake your exam…rather than the 6 months it used to be back in the day!
The best thing you can do is get another test scheduled. Keep the momentum going and the motivation up. Once you have another test date creeping closer you’ll have no choice but to dive right in again.
Whether you want to re-test or start studying for the next exam is totally up to you.
If you read our post on the best order to take the exams, you know that you may have studied information for several exams at once in order to cover overlapping content. (For example, studying for Project Planning & Design and Project Development & Documentation together.) So, if you took the first one and failed, you can just review the materials again and take the next one while you wait for the 60 day re-take period to pass.
Don’t forget in your initial frustration that you can pass. And you WILL pass. Get yourself back in the winning mindset. The only way you will truly lose is by giving up.
