ARE Fees Will Increase 1 October 2009

The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) will increase the fees for the Architect Registration Examination® (ARE®) by $40 per division effective 1 October 2009. The increase is due to recent incidents of exam content disclosure by ARE candidates. The cost to develop and replace the exposed content and handle the administrative and legal costs related to these incidents totals an estimated $1.1 million.

“The decision to raise the exam fees now—especially in the current economic climate—was not made lightly,” said Gordon E. Mills, FAIA, 2009 President. “However, NCARB’s responsibility to uphold the integrity of the ARE is our first and foremost concern.”

The ARE is designed to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public by providing a psychometrically justifiable and legally defensible process that measures the level of competence necessary to practice architecture independently. In recent months, NCARB has had to turn off substantial amounts of content after several candidates posted detailed exam answers on the internet. These candidates have had their exam scores canceled and testing privileges suspended for up to five years. To ensure the integrity of the exam, NCARB has been forced to add two full-time staff members to monitor and investigate exam disclosures and copyright violations.

Replacing exam content is expensive and time consuming because each vignette or multiple-choice item must be written, reviewed, edited, and thoroughly pretested before it is added to the exam. The process of developing content takes two years and the involvement of many volunteer professionals. The current six-month waiting period between failed divisions is in effect to ensure that a candidate does not see the same question twice. If ARE candidates continue to breach the Confidentiality Agreement they accept prior to taking each division and additional exam content is exposed, NCARB may be forced to extend the mandatory waiting period in order to prevent overexposure of content.

The cost of delivering the test has always been heavily subsidized by other NCARB programs. While the new fee structure will help offset the costs incurred as a result of exam disclosure, it still falls short of the actual cost of developing and administering the exam and monitoring its security.

The new rate of $210 per division will take effect on 1 October 2009. All divisions scheduled on or after 1 October 2009 will be at the new rate. Prior to 1 October 2009, candidates can schedule future exam appointments through 31 December 2009 at the current rate of $170 per division. For example:

For more information about the fee increase, please refer to the FAQs on our web site.

2009 Annual Meeting Recap
Four resolutions were voted on and approved during the Annual Meeting and Conference in Chicago last month. Delegates voted to apply the five-year rolling clock to ARE divisions passed prior to 1 January 2006 (including all paper-based exams passed prior to 1997). These divisions will remain valid until 1 July 2014. Also, effective 1 July 2011, exam candidates must take a division of the ARE (pass or fail) once every five years to keep their Authorization to Test (ATT) valid. Candidates whose authorizations have become invalid will need to establish new eligibilities under the then current procedures of their registration boards.

Delegates approved a resolution that will allow the phase-in of IDP 2.0 to begin on 1 July 2009. The initial phase of IDP 2.0 allows interns to complete activities in the Emerging Professionals Companion (EPC), which will count toward minimum required training units. Training units will become training hours in January 2010. Training areas will become experiences areas that were identified in the 2007 Practice Analysis of Architecture and work settings will be simplified in January 2011. More information on the IDP 2.0 experience areas will be available later this summer.

Also, portions of the NCARB Education Standard will be moved to a new document called the Education Guidelines to make it easier to update programs such as the Broadly Experienced Architect (BEA) Program and Broadly Experienced Foreign Architect (BEFA) Program and to adapt to changing National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) procedures and requirements.

Delegates also approved clarification to the definition of “responsible control” in NCARB Model Law in order to address the emergence of Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology. NCARB committees and task forces will continue to review and discuss IPD and BIM in the coming years.

The text for all four resolutions approved at the meeting can be reviewed on the NCARB web site at: http://www.ncarb.org/newsclips/2009/jun09_4.html.

Confidentiality Agreement Clarification
All candidates are required to accept a Confidentiality Agreement prior to taking any division of the ARE. All candidates continue to be bound by this agreement whether the exam administered was in ARE 3.1 or in ARE 4.0.

Final ARE 4.0 Transition Details
Prometric has completed the first phase of the conversion of candidates from ARE 3.1 to ARE 4.0. ARE 3.1 candidates who had no exam scores pending on 1 July 2009 are now eligible to start scheduling ARE 4.0 examinations.

If you had an exam score pending on 1 July 2009, you will be transitioned following the typical score reporting process. The transition to ARE 4.0 will be complete by mid-August for all ARE candidates. Once you have been transitioned, you can find your remaining equivalent division(s) needed to complete the ARE by checking the Prometric scheduling web site or by calling the ARE Help Desk at 800/896-2272.

Updates will be posted on the NCARB web site when the second phase of the transition is complete.

NOTE: You will NOT receive an updated Authorization to Test (ATT). Your current authorization number will continue to work in ARE 4.0.

Reminder: IDP Six-Month Rule
The Six-Month Rule for IDP reporting went into effect on 1 July 2009 for interns who established an NCARB Record on or after 1 July 2009. The Six-Month Rule will go into effect for all interns on 1 July 2010.

The End of IDP Paper Forms
On 1 July 2009, NCARB stopped accepting paper Form 123: Experience Verification Reports. All experience for the Intern Development Program (IDP), including Supplementary Education activities, must now be entered through the electronic Experience Verification Reporting (e-EVR) system.

We strongly encourage supervisors to approve reports electronically as it is the most efficient way to submit information to NCARB; however, there is a paper submission option within the e-EVR should a supervisor not have access to e-mail or a computer. To submit a paper form through e-EVR, an intern should select "This experience report will be printed for review, approval, and submission on paper" on the first web page of creating a new report.

NCARB Web Site
NCARB will launch its new public web site in July, which will better illustrate the steps of becoming an architect. The site will continue to evolve and improve over the next year, including a redesigned "My NCARB Record" section.

Get a sneak peek of the new site at beta.ncarb.org.

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