Candidate FAQs

The 2000 word limit for your Evaluation of Experience does not include your CV, which should preface your Evaluation of Experience document. Full details of Evaluation of Experience submission requirements are given in the Guide to Candidates.

The word limit for your Experienced Based Analysis does not include Bibliography or References and these should be submitted as a separate document.

Please note that any bracketed references are included in the total word counts for the Evaluation of Experience and the Experience Based Analysis if they are included in the main body of the text.

APEAS (Architects’ Professional Examination Authority in Scotland Ltd.) is a private company established to set and conduct the Part 3 Examination in Professional Practice and Management in Architecture. A Board of Directors, who set policy and objectives, oversee the running of APEAS. The APEAS Chief Executive Officer, runs the company on a day to day basis.

Contact information for the CEO can be found in the Contact page of the website.

All candidates intending to sit the Part 3 Examination would normally have qualifications that satisfy the ARB/RIBA Parts 1 & 2 criteria. However, it is possible to sit the Part 3 Examination before having passed the Part 1 and/or Part 2 criteria. It should be emphasised that a candidate will not be able to register as a UK architect with ARB unless they have satisfied the requirements shown in paragraph 3 below.

In addition, candidates will be required to demonstrate the breadth, depth and quality of their professional experience. The minimum formal requirement is that a candidate must have obtained at least 2 years of recognised, logged and signed professional experience, of which at least 12 months experience should have been undertaken in the 2 years immediately prior to submitting his/her documentary submission to APEAS

To summarise, the requirements to register with ARB as a UK architect are as follows:

• ARB/RIBA Part 1 pass
• ARB/RIBA Part 2 pass
• ARB/RIBA Part 3 pass
• a minimum of 24 months of authenticated and validated professional experience and training (as laid down in the RIBA Professional Experience and Development Record (PEDR))

It is important to note that from June 2011 ARB and RIBA significantly changed the professional experience eligibility criteria in recognition of the globalisation of the architectural profession. Full details are provided in Chapter 3 of the Guide for Candidates. You are strongly recommended to read Chapter 3 at your earliest opportunity.

Please contact APEAS CEO, to discuss your situation.

The RIBA Professional Experience and Development Record (PEDR) is specifically designed to provide practice examiners with a clear and consistent record of your experience, which allows the examiners to evaluate your experience effectively. For this reason, practice examiners prefer that you use this method to record your experience. Any other recording method runs the risk of failing to provide information in a form that allows consistent and effective evaluation by the examiners and may prove ineffective in persuading examiners of the quality, range or depth of your experience.

For further information on the Professional Experience and Development Record please see www.pedr.co.uk. For full details of how to maintain your professional record please see the Guide for Candidates (Chapter 3)

All candidates sitting the Experience component (including resits) should ensure that as a part of their 24 months of experience they submit a minimum of 12 months of experience within the previous two years.

Yes, you may be able to use the RIBA Certificate of Professional Experience. To be eligible to use the RIBA Certificate you must satisfy the following conditions:

• have the permission of your PSA to use the Certificate of Professional Experience route
• have a minimum of six years’ experience which must meet the ARB/RIBA professional experience eligibility criteria
• be working at a sufficient level to take responsibility for small jobs or of acting as a team leader in charge of a number of assistants involved in either a large project or a range of smaller projects

You can find more details regarding the RIBA Certificate of Professional Experience in the Guide for Candidates or on the PEDR website (www.pedr.co.uk).

You should register online with APEAS to sit the Part 3 examination. For further information on how to do so, please see our registration page

All candidates intending to sit the Part 3 Examination must also register with a Professional Studies Advisor (PSA) from one of the five Scottish Schools of Architecture (University of Edinburgh, University of Strathclyde, University of Dundee, Robert Gordon University and Glasgow School of Art) and would normally have qualifications that satisfy the ARB/RIBA Parts 1 & 2 criteria. However, it is possible to sit the Part 3 Examination before having passed the Part 1 and/or Part 2 criteria. It should be emphasised that a candidate will not be able to register as a UK architect with ARB unless they have satisfied their requirements.

For further information on fees and how to pay, please go to our Fees page

No. You do not need to re-register once you have registered with APEAS but you will have to pay the resit or deferment fee.

Please ensure that you amend your online registration, eg if you have moved house, employment

If you are a re-sit or deferred candidate from a previous year please contact APEAS to find out what you have to do to sit the Part 3 Examination.

You will find key dates in our Important Dates section

APEAS uses the current version of the ARB/RIBA Part 3 criteria for it’s Part 3 Examination. These criteria are composed of the following five main headings:

• Professionalism
• Clients, users and delivery of services
• Legal Framework and processes
• Practice and management
• Building procurement

A copy of the ARB/RIBA criteria can be found in the Candidates page

You will have to submit the following documentary submissions for your Part 3 Examination by the required date:

1. Practice Paper answers
2. Experience Based Analysis report
3. Record of Experience
4. Evaluation of Experience

For full details of each of these documentary submissions please see the Guide for Candidates

There is no naming convention stipulated for uploading, however we would suggest that candidates identify their files with either their name or their APEAS number plus the document name – abbreviated, eg

RWhitton PEDR

RWhitton EBA

RWhitton PP

RWhitton EofE

All documents should be uploaded in pdf format – please do not upload any document which is all pictures, and therefore candidates should not scan in a complete document from paper copies as pictures

There is no specific style for documents being submitted, however each document should have a front page with the candidate’s name, APEAS registration number and title of component, eg

Rachel Whitton – AP18-000 – Record of Professional Experience (or Experience Based Analysis; Practice Paper Answers; Evaluation of Experience)

You will sit the Practice Paper in your office

The Practice Paper is based on a hypothetical scenario from architectural practice in which a range of inter-related problems and issues are raised in a question paper. If you would like to see some past papers, click here

There are three components in the APEAS Part 3 Examination:

Practice Paper
Experience Based Analysis
Experience (a combination of the Record of Experience and the Evaluation of Experience)

Yes, you must sit all three components at your first sitting of the APEAS Part 3 Examination.

Yes it does.

Your documentary submissions are assessed by two practice examiners (registered architects with a minimum of seven years post registration experience) and initially graded.The final assessment on each component will be made following the oral examination:  that is, examiners can moderate their grades up or down in light of the answers you give at your oral interview.  It should be noted that grades are used for internal assessment and quality assurance purposes only and are not revealed to candidates.

Yes.

Yes – see also APEAS Resit policy

You will receive notification of whether you have passed or failed the Part 3 Examination by letter, normally within one week of the Oral Examinations.

Yes. Please first see the Special Requirements section of the website and if you with to discuss support arrangements further please contact the CEO

If you wish to discuss a refund of your fees, please contact APEAS

Please note that Registration fees are non refundable

Yes

In order to access RIAS notes, candidates will require to register with RIAS as an Associate Member which comes with RIAS bulletins and 12 free hours of CPD (as well as other events) – this is free for current APEAS candidates.

If you are working outwith Scotland, and are using regulations etc applicable to another part of the UK, you should answer the questions using these regulations and identify which regulations etc you are using.

Candidates for whom English is a second language – see attached information

Should there be any significant disruption, accident or weather event impacting you getting to your office to sit your examination, you should contact APEAS either by telephone or email immediately to advise of the particular circumstances.

If this delay has been caused by something outwith your control, we will try to accommodate you by extending the time allowed to sit the Practice Paper examination.

Please be aware that it is essential that you do your best to avoid any delay in starting the examination and that you contact APEAS immediately should any delay occur.

a) Query - Should AI form be included in word count?

a) Answer - No

b) Query - Where in the document should this be included?

b) Answer - The AI form should be inserted immediately after the cover page.

c) Query - If ChatGPT or similar has not been used for the writing of submissions, however where a topic is googled it is not really possible to avoid "Google AI overview" as it comes up automatically - should this be disclosed?

c) Answer - It would be a good idea to include Google AI overview especially if it has been used for any purpose. Please explain briefly the purpose you have used it for.