Roadmap to Recognition Interview: 02 Huda Patel
Our second guest in our three-episode mini-series is Huda Patel, a graduate from the University of Pune, India, who passed her Part 1 ARB Prescribed Exam in early 2019 with limited experience in the UK.
Huda studied a five-year architecture course in Pune and graduated in 2017. She then moved to the UK with her partner and, by mid-2018, she started looking into eligibility and the criteria for the prescribed exams. Like Jessie and I, Huda attended the RIBA preparatory course in Chester to gain a deeper understanding of the exam’s requirements.
Huda’s approach
As a recent graduate, Huda had a wide range of materials produced during her studies, including diagrams, sketches, precedents, and more. Although this is surely a good starting point, she understood right away that these materials had to be organised and presented to directly respond to the ARB criteria, or it wouldn’t be relevant for the exam.
Huda spent a couple of months trying to decipher the criteria of the Prescribed Exams, and then some more time selecting and organising her work to satisfy every aspect of every criterion. Indeed, during the interview we discuss how in most portfolios she has seen there are two key challenges:
1. to consider all aspects of every criterion; and
2. to make sure that the materials presented to the jury are framed within the context of the criteria.
Extract of the first criterion (GC1) showing different aspects projects need to cover for the ARB Prescribed Exam
Although we do not discuss this in detail during our interview, Huda also presented professional work and site experience evidence in her portfolio, covering projects she did in Pune. This suggests that, as long as you showcase your understanding of UK regulations and legislation, professional experiences had in other countries can potentially be used to meet some of the criteria. In the extract of the portfolio she shares with us, Huda gives three examples of how she used diagrams from the Approved Documents of the Building Regulations to show how her designs could be amended to comply with UK legislation.
Extract of Huda's portfolio showing how the UK building regulations can be applied to her project
Five key takeaways
Huda’s insights echo the ones Jessie shared with us in the first interview. In summary:
1- Start with the matrix
The comparative matrix is the backbone of the portfolio. Make sure you invest enough time to understand all aspects of every criterion.
2- Mind the gaps
Filling the comparative matrix while selecting the projects you would like to present allows you to identify the gaps in your work and can help you determine what additional materials you might need to produce. In some cases, the comparative matrix might help you discover that one of the projects you had in mind is not quite right to meet the criteria: figuring this out early on will help you spend your time wisely and productively.
3- Avoid “visual noise”
Each piece of evidence needs to serve the purpose of satisfying at least one aspect of a criterion. Be critical with what you are presenting or producing from scratch. This will save you time and make your work easier for the jury to assess. Note that the suggested page limit for the submission is 80 pages in A3 format at the time of writing.
4- Address every criterion multiple times
Huda believes in not leaving any room for doubt by covering criteria multiple times and in different ways throughout her portfolio. By doing this, she managed to satisfy 32 criteria out of 33 before the oral exam.
5- Do your research
For some criteria, the jury are looking for “knowledge” of a given subject. This means that, although you might not have had direct experience in the UK in these particular aspects of a project, it is important to research and acquire this knowledge, and most importantly, show how it can be applied to your work. For example, this can apply to subjects such as Building regulations, Planning, and Health and safety legislation.
Watch the full interview below or on our YouTube channel and please leave us a comment to let us know if you found this information useful.
Huda runs a mentorship programme for prospective candidates for the ARB Prescribed Exam. To find out more, visit her website: HOME | Huda Patel