Black SpectaclesReviews of blackspectacles.com

If you are somebody who finds comfort in getting a sense of the look and feel of the exam beforehand, then it may be worth getting a subscription just to use the exams, but do not use Black Spectacles to study. BS is 5% content, 95% BS. Get Amber Book. You'll thank me later.

The teachers and professors are knowledgeable and understandable in terms of teaching.

I struggled for far too long with passing the ARE. I tried multiple other programs and my pass rate was just not as high as I felt it should have been. I switched to Black Spectacles and I was able to finally pass my last two exams and finish! Do not give up! Black Spectacles can help you too!

An excellent resource for architects, engineers, creatives, and design students.

The study guide included with the subscription advises that all you need to do is watch the videos and take the practice exams. This literally is not possible, as much of the information contained in the exam is covered only superficially or not at all in the videos, which leaves one to their own devices to bridge the gap between the provided information and the information on the exam. The practice tests are helpful but limited. You only get 3, and an option to randomize the questions (at which point you already know the answers). I found the questions to be poorly worded and confusing as well, with different terms for things than those that had been used in the videos and some pretty slippery justifications for correct answers at times. The source of the questions are also poorly referenced/cited, often referencing an entire 100+ page chapter or even a whole book as the "source" of the question. There is no option to pause the exam, which makes it difficult to practice if you have kids or other things that also might need attention. I don't care if you can't pause the exam in real life, if I want to simulate this aspect of the test I can handle not hitting an otherwise extremely useful "pause" button. That's basically it, you get some really non-specific, boring videos that are basically like someone in your office giving their general remarks about a topic covered in the exam, 3 practice tests that mimic the format of the exam, and a few flashcards that I found pretty useless. For $200 a month. I did not feel prepared for the exam and didn't feel like I really started studying until I had wasted weeks watching the videos, took the practice exam, and realized that the information in the exam was not covered in the videos. At this point all I could do was to buy the source material referenced in the practice exams, and it was on me figure out from the practice exams what I needed to know, find where it was covered in the books, then learn that before my exam (which was already scheduled at that point). I was basically doing it all on my own, which is not a good feature of test prep program. In summation, the only thing I found useful was the practice exams, and even those were not great quality. Not only were the videos worthless, they actually cost me a lot of time that could have been spent actually learning the material and caused me to schedule my exam before I was ready to take it because I trusted their marketing claims. It's worth nowhere near $200 a month, and in the final analysis I probably would have been better off using no test prep at all than to go with this. I absolutely will not be using Black Spectacles for my next exam.

I only used Black Spectacles video lectures, flash cards, and practice exams to study for all 6 sections of my ARE exams. I failed 3 exams, but passed each on the second try. I took the exams sequentially and was within a narrow margin of passing all the exams I failed. I realized toward the end that it was productive to study future exam sections. The overlap between the various exam sections needs to be better addressed. I would definitely recommend Black Spectacles to anybody studying for their ARE. However, given the cost and my own performance, I can only give it 3/5 stars.

Lectures can be boring. Practice exams are awesome.

Videos were a great overview and outline. The practice tests were indispensable. The planning and countdowns to the tests were a great motivator.