# ARE 5.0 Architecture Exam Prep — user reviews > 24 indexed App Store user reviews of ARE 5.0 Architecture Exam Prep by Higher Learning Technologies, rated 4.00/5 from 218 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/are-50-architecture-exam-prep/id1230183845/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/are-50-architecture-exam-prep/id1230183845.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 136 · 4★ 25 · 3★ 12 · 2★ 2 · 1★ 43 ## Newest reviews (10 of 24) ### 1/5 — Pure Garbage *2019-11-03* You can’t read questions at all. Past reviews have mentioned this for sometime and the developer makes a comment regarding this but NO CHANGES. Further, compared to other sources such as designerhacks, the amount of questions are ridiculously low. PPD has 20 questions max. Don’t waste your money. ### 1/5 — Interface not working properly *2019-10-20* The user interface for the flash cards is awful. The full extents of the question is not visible therefore making this app useless. I have trying to figure out a way to increase the size of the flash card so I can see the rest of the question and the answer. The scroll function doesn’t work here and rotating the phone screen also doesn’t fix this problem. The support for this app is quite difficult to find and I just want a refund. **Developer response:** Thanks for your feedback. We are sorry for your troubles! This is a known issue with iOS 13, and we are working to resolve it. Please contact our Customer Success team at support@hltcorp.com or 319-246-5271 for more information and to discuss a refund. ### 1/5 — Cannot see all the text with new Apple ios update *2019-10-10, version 6.8.4625* I loved this app until the recent update to the Apple operating system. I’ve deleted and redownloaded the app and words are still cut off. I’ve looked at the cards on both my phone and ipad. No matter what orientation the screen, entire sentences are cut off. I emailed support and still have not received an answer. Because of this issue, this app is 100% worthless. I did have a friend with an android phone look at the app and his works fine. All the text is visible. So it seems that the issue is only with Apple products. ### 1/5 — Newest Apple Update makes this app useless!! *2019-10-03* The new Apple operating system 13+ makes the cards unreadable! The app is a nice way to pass a few mins when you are on the go and I have a yearly subscription but this developer hasn’t updated the app in over 9 months. And unless they do something, this app may become useless. 😢 ### 1/5 — Not working on ios 13 *2019-09-26* Can’t scroll the text in the card, which makes this app useless. 1 Star and delete. ### 1/5 — Misleading *2019-08-28* The main problem with preparing for ARE is misleading information. There are so many resources and most of them are misleading. This app is not exception. You can’t learn the right answer if all materials answer the question differently. You won’t see the structure and underlying concepts that are at the core all questions at ARE. Instead if you grab a study material without proper evaluation and try to discern a structure and the meaning you will be very frustrated. Do yourself a favor don’t grab WHATEVER material to prepare for your ARE. Instead go to ARE 5 Community forum and read which study materials are proven by your peers and have close proximity to the questions on actual exam. This Flashcards app is a trash. Save yourself time and effort don’t install it. ### 1/5 — Not worth the price *2019-04-04, version 6.8.4625* This app contains only about 60-80 questions for each exam. That’s no where near enough practice questions to study for an exam that has twice that amount. Not enough study material to justify $11.99 a month. Please add more content!!! ### 1/5 — Disappointed *2019-02-20* Useless content. Seems like a trap. they charged me $11 right away while it says there is a 3 days trail!!! Never buy **Developer response:** Thanks for your review! We apologize for any confusion, but our app can not charge without authorization. If you feel this happened, please reach out to us right away at feedback@hltcorp.com. Thanks! ### 1/5 — Be careful with the ‘try 3 days for free’ *2019-01-08* I touched that line when I opened the app for the first time. I thought it will give me a 3 day trial. Then it directly charged me $13+. I want a refund but seems no way to get the money back. Very back first time experience. ### 1/5 — Terribly written content *2018-06-06* Nice function of the app but the content seems to be written by an intern who barely knows proper English and sentence structure and even worse some of the answers are not correct. This app needs a serious review and edit from someone with better knowledge. Disappointing for the price and I would recommend trying other study guides before using this. **Developer response:** We are sorry to hear about your experience, Loui. We partnered with PPI2PASS for this products is a leader in test prep for the ARE. We would love to help pass along some feedback if there was a specific area you are referring to. Would you be able to send us an email with a few examples? We can be reached at feedback@hltcorp.com. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — A Waste of Time and Money *2025-08-04* Do not buy this app. Read the 1 star reviews they are all true. ### 1/5 — Doesn’t Work With Current iOS *2024-05-14* This app hasn’t been updated in years. It won’t even open on current iOS ### 1/5 — Misleading *2023-02-13* I dislike when a company acts like something is free, gets your information, then requires money to operate. Just be upfront about the fact it’s not free, and charge to download the app. Don’t wait until you have my email address to tell me the app is useless unless I want to pay a monthly fee. It’s annoying. Hard pass. ### 1/5 — Will not allow me to sign in *2022-08-04* Have and use their service on my laptop, but the app won’t allow me to sign in. Appears they feel fine to advertise their service as having an app you can use on the go, but in reality they just want your money and don’t care if you need this service they promised ### 1/5 — Crashes *2020-11-05* App doesn’t open in iOS 14. Constantly crashes. ### 1/5 — Awful *2020-03-11* Spelling errors abound. Misleading test answers. Seriously, it will ask what is indirect expense and one of the answers is literally “indirect expense” but thats not the correct answer. ### 1/5 — No Software Update *2019-12-26* App doesn’t work anymore. Company has stopped supporting it. Don’t buy. **Developer response:** We’re sorry for the difficulty, but this app has been updated to work in the latest iOS! Please give it another chance. We would be happy to discuss your concerns further. Please contact support@hltcorp.com or call 319-246-5271. ### 1/5 — No response to iOS update *2019-12-22* I had been using these flash cards in preparation for the ARE 5.0 exams. Apple pushed another update to the iOS in October 2019, which caused problems with the appearance of the text in this app. The “glitch” rendered the app useless, as the text was illegible. I contacted the app developer but my comments have apparently fallen in deaf ears. I received a corporate auto-response to my concerns, with no remedy to the issue I had no choice but to cancel my subscription and delete the app. It appears I’ll complete the six exams before the developer gets around to fixing this useless app. If the app doesn’t indicate that it’s been updated within the last year, don’t waste your time and money. **Developer response:** This app has now been updated, Tim! We apologize for the wait, and our Customer Success Team would be happy to discuss your concerns at 319-246-5271 or support@hltcorp.com. ### 1/5 — Not formatted for iPhone *2019-12-09* Beware if purchasing for iPhone, as the app still isn’t formatted for the latest iPhone OS. ### 1/5 — Does not Work *2019-12-01* Maybe I’m the minority on this, but I paid the subscription fee for a year. I have an Xs. From the start, the app did not function. The text on the cards needs scrolling to view the whole body, and there is no scroll capability. I tried changing the orientation, then I closed the app, restarted it. Then I deleted it, and re-downloaded it, re-signed in, same issues. I tried contacting the app developer, and could not easily find a way to contact customer support. In the end, had to have a lengthy chat process with iTunes to get my refund. This was experience, as of 11/19. Good luck, and I hope it works for you, though other reviews also indicate efficacy issues, so do your homework. ## Most praised reviews (4 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — College student. *2018-08-12, version 5.18.0* Great for preparing me for architecture ### 3/5 — New content? *2024-06-17* App is good but needs new or updated content and questions for each test. ### 2/5 — Similar to everyone else! Outdated app needs refresh. *2024-12-05* This app is def outdated and could use a refresh. For those FRUSTRATED about study options I found other study resources I liked and used often like the David BALLAST book. And then ARE Study Warrior was quite useful - subscription based. And then the PPI website not the app is actually solid, which is subscription based as well. Never tried black spectacle because so dang expensive. ### 2/5 — Not formatted for iOS13 *2019-12-04, version 6.8.4625* These cards worked great before, but they aren’t formatted for iOS13. Some of the text runs off the screen and there is no way to scroll. I spoke with customer service who said it would be fixed in 2 weeks. That was over 3 weeks ago. I have a test later this week so I’ll be buying study material from another company. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-24.*