How I Passed All Four Sections of the LARE in Two Testing Cycles (While Working Full Time)

When I was studying for the LARE, I found a blog post by someone who passed the whole thing in under a year. I read it more times than I'd like to admit. The first time was for guidance. After that, it was for motivation on the nights I wanted to close the books and go home.

This is my version of that post. I passed all four sections of the Landscape Architect Registration Examination in two testing cycles, two sections per window. I did it while working full time at my first landscape architecture job, with almost no real-world experience in the contracts and construction administration side of the profession.

A quick note before I start: CLARB's rules don't allow me to share what was on the exam, and the questions change every window anyway. What I can share is how I prepared, what I'd do again, and what actually moved the needle.

My schedule: two sections per window

I booked one exam at the very beginning of a testing window and the second at the very end, about a week and a half later. Then I started the whole process over for the next window.

The gap between the two exams gave me a short, focused stretch to put everything into the second section once the first one was behind me.

For context, pass rates for each section usually land somewhere between the mid 50s and about 70 percent. A lot of smart people retake at least one section. Going in, I knew the odds of passing all four on the first try weren't great, and I prepared like it.

Studying around a full-time job

My days were spent at a landscape architecture firm doing CAD from morning to evening. When I left the office, I drove straight to the local library and studied until it closed at 9pm. On weekends, I was back at the library all day, both days.

The library mattered more than I expected. At home there was always something else to do. At the library there was nothing to do but study, and the closing time gave every night a clear finish line.

The harder part was that I had just started my career. Section 1 and parts of Section 4 lean heavily on contracts, bidding, construction administration, and the kind of project management you usually pick up after years in practice. I had none of that. Anything a project manager would know from experience, I had to learn from reading and repetition.

I gathered everything I could find

I collected every LARE resource I could get my hands on:

• Old PDFs floating around online, some of them 10 years out of date
• Study guides other test takers had made and shared
• Online flashcard sets
• Any practice exam questions I could find, anywhere

Old material still has value. Plenty of the core content (grading, drainage, contracts, site analysis) hasn't changed much. Just check it against CLARB's current content outline for each section so you don't spend hours on topics that were dropped or tested differently years ago.

Practice exams are what got me through

If I had to point to one thing that got me licensed, it's practice questions. At the time there were very few out there. I took the ones I found over and over and over again. Every time I got one wrong, I stopped and figured out why before moving on.

That repetition trained me for how the LARE actually asks questions. On a lot of questions, two or three of the answers look correct. Your job is to pick the best one for the situation described. Reading textbooks teaches you the content. Practice questions teach you to judge between answers that all sound reasonable.

A few things I learned to watch for:

• Words like "first," "most," "best," and "primary." They change which correct-looking answer is the right one.
• Where the project is in its life cycle. The right move during design development is often wrong during construction.
• The landscape architect's actual role. Some answers describe something true that isn't your responsibility.
• Health, safety, and welfare. When in doubt, the answer that protects the public usually wins.

By the time I sat for each section, the question style felt familiar. That alone took a lot of pressure off.

Why pairing sections works

Looking back, the pairings did a lot of the work for me.

Sections 1 and 4 share a lot of ground: construction documents, specifications, bidding, and how contracts govern a project. Studying for Section 1 meant I walked into Section 4 with a big chunk of the documentation material already fresh. The grading and drainage math was the main new piece.

Sections 2 and 3 follow each other naturally. Section 2 covers site inventory, analysis, and building a program. Section 3 asks you to take that understanding and make design decisions. Studying them back to back felt like one continuous subject.

What I'd tell anyone starting now

1. Pair sections by overlap. Sections 1 and 4 together, then 2 and 3, gets you through in two windows with less total material.
2. Book the first and last days of the window. Register early so you get the dates you want. That gap between exams is valuable study time.
3. Build a routine you never have to decide on. Mine was the library after work until close. Pick a place and a schedule, then stop negotiating with yourself.
4. Start practice questions early. Don't save them for the final week. They show you what you don't know while there's still time to fix it.
5. Study your wrong answers. Keep a running list of every question you missed and why. That list becomes your best study guide.
6. Go hard on your weak spots. If you're new to the field like I was, put extra time into contracts and construction administration.
7. Use old material carefully. Cross-check it against CLARB's current outlines before you trust it.

It's worth it

I won't pretend it was easy. By the end I was completely exhausted. Full days at the office, nights at the library, weekends gone. When the last result came back as a pass, I honestly couldn't believe it. I was overjoyed.

If you're reading this at the library right before it closes, wondering if all of this is going to pay off: it will. Keep going.

One last thing. When I was studying, I would have paid almost anything for more good practice exams. There just weren't many. That's why I built LARE Ready: full-length, 100-question practice exams for every section, written to match how the real LARE asks questions. If you want to see where you stand, start with the free diagnostic on the home page. It'll point you to the section that needs the most work.

Good luck, future licensed landscape architect. You can do this.