*The Importance Of The Asterisk
If you are an ARE candidate and have taken an ARE exam then you are somewhat familiar with the grading criteria or lack there of on the exams. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of studying and testing for these exams do not worry you will be trapped in The Matrix soon enough. The only difference is that there is no blue or red pill available for you to find the truth. To think of it, NCARB has a lot in common with the blockbuster movie The Matrix. This may make a fun spoof article, but that is for another time.
For those of you who have taken an exam, you can skip this paragraph, I want to make sure that the ridiculousness of the asterisks is completely understood so that everyone can appreciate the lack of logic behind NCARB. After taking an exam NCARB usually in an untimely manner (8 weeks or so) will issue your exam results in the form of a score report. The score report will rate your performance on the identified content areas, if your exam has a multiple choice section. Now all of the exams contain at least one graphic vignette and the score report will also rate your performance for each individual vignette. We will examine the Site Planning & Design ARE 4.0 exam for clarification, which contains 65 multiple choice questions and two graphic vignettes. The exam contains the below content areas and vignettes as listed on the NCARB website:
Content Areas
Principles
Environmental Issues
Codes & Regulations
Materials & Technology
Project & Practice ManagementVignettes
Site Grading
Site Design
The content areas and vignettes are assessed on a pass, fail and completely fail scale. The grading system is noted on the score report. The 3 tier grading system that NCARB uses on their exams has been transcribed below for convenience of discussion:
Content Areas and Vignettes are reported at three levels of performance as follows:
-clearly meets the Content Area or Vignette requirements (the Content Area or Vignette is not listed below)
-fails to meet the Content Area or Vignette requirements [MODERATE DEFICIENCIES] (the Content Area or Vignette is listed below WITHOUT an asterisk)
-fails to meet the Content Area or Vignette requirements [MAJOR DEFICIENCIES] (the Content Area or Vignette is listed below WITH an asterisk)
The feedback is designed to identify general areas of weakness so that a candidate can gain additional knowledge prior to retesting.
This Content Area or Vignette listing is not indicative of your future performance.
Why have an asterisks?
Why not? It would be great if the existence of the asterisks on your score report existed as a courtesy by NCARB to let you know, “Hey buddy, you really bombed this part, better study a little harder next time.” The asterisks has a hidden meaning that is not discussed in the score report. If you take an ARE exam and fail the test, STOP, let me clarify. If you take an ARE exam and a single solitary Content Area is listed WITHOUT an asterisk, you have failed the entire exam. Logically you could presume that you were very close to passing the exam, in fact you were very close. For instance if the exam that you failed was the Site Planning & Design ARE 4.0 exam, you could easily infer that the 65 multiple choice questions are easily divided equally into the 5 content areas, which means that there is probably on average 10-15 questions in each content area. For ease of discussion let us assume that there were 10 questions in the second that you had moderate deficiencies in. Perhaps the grading scale is something like this:
Correctly answered 7-10 questions = PASS
Correctly answered 4-6 questions = Moderate Deficiencies
Correctly answered 1-3 questions = Major Deficiencies
In theory you can begin to easily see that you WERE very close to passing the exam, and that you now have doubts about the legitimacy of a few of the questions that were asked. Hell, most of the questions are suspect due to the best answer format of the exam. So you decide that you are going to pay NCARB $300.00 to appeal the results of the exam, which depending on the state you live in, will include a fee of $75.00 to the state (all they do is mail the paperwork to NCARB). After spending all of this time and money, you receive a letter from NCARB acting like you are an idiot for not knowing that the only way that you can appeal the results of an ARE exam is if an asterisks is listed. Bombshell.
Well, the account that I just gave is an experience that closely resembles my most recent experience with NCARB. After nearly 8 months, I am still working with the state to refund my $75.00. The funny thing is that the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation was also unaware that an ARE candidate can only appeal exam results with an asterisks. What sense does this make? Why allow candidates the ability to appeal exams only if they have Major Deficiencies? The $375.00 in appellate fees are usually enough to defer candidates from appealing exam results. In my case I was on a fast track to getting my license, taking all 9 exams in 6 months. I had passed all 8 exams only to fail my last one, so rather than waiting 6 months to retake the exam, I thought the money would be well spent to gain an insight into what had caused me to fail the exam.
If you are able to successfully appeal the results of an ARE exam, there is still a catch. That exam is only valid in the state that appealed the exam results! Want to practice in another state? You have to retake the exam in that state.
I hope that this article was thorough in answering all questions related to the NCARB appellate process, and there will be more articles to come that seek to uncloud the murkiness that is NCARB and the architectural licensure process. Comment below.
It has been awhile since I have attacked my favorite moving target, NCARB, partly because I have been very busy trying to beat NCARB at their own game, and also in part because I have been very busy at work. I have taken what will hopefully be my last ARE, 
So, you want to be an Architect? The process of becoming an architect has become overly complicated since the days of Peter Keating and Howard Roark, but it is not impossible, yet. I have focused the last year of my life on obtaining my professional license, and may be deemed 
Comment by Your Name — 09.11.16 @ 9:32 pm
Thank you so much for your post on the ridiculous and ludicrously expensive NCARB system. Even passing exams, I feel like somehow I am getting ripped off. Does it really take 3 months to grade a computerized test?! I just received my first fail result and was at a loss as to what I’d done wrong. It took me a while to decipher the asterix/no asterix code and I was wondering whether it was worth appealing. It seems either way is just costly and frustrating. I feel trapped by the system, but it really helps to read posts like yours that shed a bit of light and a sprinkling of humor on the shadowy, backward NCARB machine.
Comment by James — 09.11.17 @ 7:48 am
I think that there are many people that feel the same way that you and I do. The system is corrupt and I am not sure how to fix it. All we can do at this point is to remember this experience and hopefully one day one of us will be in a position with enough power to correct the process, and turn what is nothing more than a cash cow into a right of passage that we can feel proud for achieving, rather than leaving us all empty asking where the last few years went.
Pingback by ARE, NCARB, Errors, Omissions & Quiet Corrections | A Critical Architecture Blog | Critique This! — 09.11.17 @ 3:05 pm
[...] matrix, and yet another reason why NCARB needs an appellate process that works. See my article *The Importance Of The Asterisk if you think that one already exist. If you are not familiar with the process you’ll find out [...]
Comment by Ampdesign — 09.11.27 @ 10:43 pm
Yes…NCARB is the Star Chamber. As for conflicting information, I was told by the phone jockey on the other end and the supervisor of the phone jockey and yet another phone jockey, that I could not appeal the test I failed…period. I know this to be a complete lie but they stood their ground. It seems like a phone jockey with a GED is giuding my career.
Comment by Lance Oyler — 10.01.13 @ 11:30 pm
I appreaciate the time an effort you have spent researching this!
As I understand it, it is up to the state whether or not you can appeal the results on an exam. In the state of Washington, I was told by the Department of Lisencing that appeals are not allowed. End of discussion, thank you, have a good day.
Of course this answered none of my questions. I failed Building Technology twice. I had passed the other 8 sections of ARE 3.1 on the first attempt. I have the usual questions: How can I fail the Structural Layout Vignette twice, when I have done my own structural drafting for the past 10 years? How could I fail what I thought was the easiest of the nine exams twice? etc… What really troubles me is that this is the only section I took in Oregon and both times I failed. I was assured that it would make no difference which state I took the test. Now I wonder if that was true. Certainly based upon your article, it affects the appeal process (if there were one.)