In response to the expressed concerns of AIA California Associate members, AIA California’s Academy for Emerging Professionals Council of Advisors (AEP COA) met with the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) leadership November 10, 2020 to advocate on behalf of our members. For the AEP COA, the issue of paramount concern is the functionality of the product NCARB provides: The Architects Registration Exam (ARE).  With the frustrations of test malfunctions populating message boards and social media streams, AEP leadership focused on this core issue. NCARB provided a few key points that help to clarify why transition pains from ARE4.0 to ARE5.0 still persist and are further complicating the testing environment drastically altered during the pandemic.

1. TECHNOLOGY – The exam itself became cloud based with the transition to 5.0, which does present lag time challenges. NCARB and Prometric report that 5 percent  of test takers experience a technical malfunction with ARE5.0, but unofficial self-reported information suggests this number is higher.  The proposed updates coming in December aim to address this issue with an improved PDF viewer (coming after multiple years of complaints regarding lag),  and more time for the each question.  All candidates are encouraged to notify your proctor of excessive lag times, as no one should be waiting minutes for something to load.  For candidates who do not pass and did report technical challenges, the exam results will be reviewed and if the candidate is very close to passing there are instances of a change.  We urge candidates to report any issues, no matter how small to NCARB. We cannot expect meaningful change if we as candidates do not provide feedback via official channels.
2. CUSTOMER SERVICE – For those who do experience technical glitches, report them to your proctor – these are immediately reported to NCARB leadership to address. When issues do arise, NCARB customer service has a ticketing system to log concerns, so it is important to direct concerns to the customer service at org/contact.  Their response policy is a painful 30-45 days, but NCARB says test functionality concerns should be addressed in a much shorter timeframe. Ultimately, if there is not a sufficient response from customer service, the appropriate next step is to inform your state licensing board of the issue.
3. PASS RATES – NCARB has addressed scrutiny about the pass rates since the transition to 5.0, and explained the process of establishing cut scores with expert psychometricians via NCARB live event and subsequent videos provided on their YouTube channel. During this meeting, AIA CA leaders heard that the primary issues influencing the pass rates are a change to experience based knowledge for the exam questions, and minimal updates to the ARE prep materials to address that change. In recognizing the deficiency of suitable test prep material, NCARB is producing more test prep and will be sharing practice exams to offer candidates a suitable preparation experience.  Exam questions themselves come from volunteer architects (recently licensed) in each state, not NCARB.  Both AIA CA and NCARB are committed to encouraging more recently licensed architects to volunteer for this role.
4. TIMELINE – The most critical questions to NCARB were related to the accelerated timeline of proposed changes and the removal of scratch paper. By the time we met with NCARB leadership they had responded to these questions (via YouTube channel).  While some changes are challenging to accept, an important reminder to all test takers is to remain focused on the goal of making the ARE more accessible.  The AIA is committed to advocating on behalf of candidates to receive enough notification from NCARB regarding pending changes to the ARE. The rollout of current changes was lackluster, and needs improvement going forward.  NCARB, with the support of state licensing boards, does believe the ARE will be more accessible once remote proctoring becomes available on December 14, 2020.

Collectively, we know communication and the timing of correspondence related to licensure examination could and should be improved.  AIA CA leadership is advocating for our members and the architectural community, and will continue to take the concerns of all members very seriously.  As we anticipate changes proposed for December, AIA CA leaders are looking to facilitate better communication with NCARB.  Recognizing that trust has been eroded, AIA leaders want to help improve trust and communication between candidates and NCARB.  California was the first AIA component to meet with NCARB about these concerns, but many of the other state components will have similar meetings; together, we are all genuinely dedicated to making the ARE more accessible and equitable for aspiring architects.

For those who want to become more involved, here are some helpful links:

Volunteer with NCARB:
https://www.ncarb.org/get-involved/volunteer-committees

Volunteer with CAB on CSE development (Licensed) :
Reach out to Lily at Lily.Dong@dca.ca.gov

 AIA National (Archiprep development) :
archiprep@aia.org