Eight ARE Candidates Receive Suspensions for Violating
Confidentiality Agreement
In April, the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) Board of Directors suspended the testing privileges of eight candidates for violating the Architect Registration Examination^® (ARE^®) Confidentiality Agreement by disclosing exam content on the internet. Five of the eight candidates also had exam scores canceled. This brings the total number of individual candidates currently serving disciplinary testing suspensions to 10.

Since January 2004, 89 individuals have received warning letters from NCARB and 19 have had testing privileges suspended due to misconduct at test centers or content disclosure on the internet.

The ARE is designed to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public by providing a psychometrically justifiable and legally defensible exam that measures the level of competence necessary to practice architecture independently. NCARB takes upholding the integrity of the ARE very seriously—for the benefit of the profession and in order to safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of the public. In order to maintain the validity of the exam, content has been removed from one division as a result of the information disclosed by candidates on the internet.  

When candidates disclose exam content, NCARB works with our test consultant, Prometric, to determine the impact on the exam. If NCARB finds that it is necessary to remove (or turn off) content, the ability to continuously deliver the ARE is seriously jeopardized. There are also significant financial ramifications that will be passed on to all candidates because of the need to replace the exposed content and retain attorneys to defend the exam's copyright and integrity.

NCARB follows strict test development standards when producing content for the ARE. Over 100 volunteers from the United States and Canada work with Prometric and NCARB Staff to develop new test content each year. Each multiple-choice question and graphic vignette goes through a two-year development and pretest process that ensures the validity of each item. This process is expensive and requires thousands of hours of volunteer, staff, and consultant time. This rigorous system has been designed and implemented to ensure that the exam is psychometrically justifiable and legally defensible.

NCARB will act as necessary to maintain the validity of the exam. This includes possibly increasing ARE test fees and the mandatory six-month waiting period between failed divisions.

When you sit for the ARE, you agree to the rules by which it is administered. These rules, clearly spelled out in the ARE Guidelines, include: test center regulations, grounds for dismissal, the Confidentiality Agreement, and the NCARB Board of Directors’ Policy and Procedures for Testing Irregularities. The full agreement can be found on page 4 of the ARE 4.0 Guidelines and page 9 of the ARE 3.1 Guidelines.The consequences of violating the rules are clearly stated in the Confidentiality Agreement that you must accept prior to taking every ARE division. The disclosure of the ARE content diminishes the reliability and defensibility of the exam and ultimately undermines the integrity of the process.

Recent action taken by the NCARB Board of Directors is as follows:

• British Columbia candidate:
  Three-year suspension of exam testing privileges and cancellation of one exam score
  (Mechanical & Electrical Systems)


• California candidate:          
  Three-year suspension of exam testing privileges and cancellation of one exam score
  (Site Planning)


• New Jersey candidate:          
  Four-year suspension of exam testing privileges and cancellation of one exam score
  (Site Planning)


• New York candidate:            
  Five-year suspension of exam testing privileges


• New York candidate:            
  Three-year suspension of exam testing privileges


• New York candidate:            
  Three-year suspension of exam testing privileges


• New York candidate:          
  One-year suspension of exam testing privileges and cancellation of two exam scores
  (Construction Documents & Services and Pre-Design)


• Ontario candidate:            
  Three-year suspension of exam testing privileges and cancellation of one exam score
  (Site Planning)

All disciplinary actions taken by the Board of Directors are final and become a part of each individuals' permanent NCARB Record.  Individual candidates may also be subject to additional disciplinary measures taken by their state board.

Questions? Read the ARE Security Factually Answered Questions or contact the ARE directorate at are@ncarb.org.

ARE Security Resources

Factually Answered Questions

ARE 4.0 Guidelines (PDF, 5.33 MB)

ARE 3.1 Guidelines (PDF, 1.6 MB)

NCARB Board of Directors’ Policy and Procedures for Testing Irregularities

New Podcast!
ARE Security
In this podcast, Director, ARE Erica Brown, AIA, discusses the difference between helping fellow candidates and disclosing exam content—and the consequences.