1.3 Cut Scores, Score Reports, Provisional Feedback & Retakes

The ARE reports one thing: pass or fail. There is no percentage on a passing report, no class rank, and no curve. Understanding how that binary outcome is produced changes how you prepare and how you read a failing report.

Criterion-Referenced Scoring and the Cut Score

The ARE is criterion-referenced. Your performance is measured against a fixed standard of entry-level competence, never against the other people who tested that week. NCARB states the standard plainly: passing scores "are the same for every board of architecture and are not affected by the number of people who pass or fail," and "there is no fixed percentage of candidates who pass or fail the ARE."

Each division has its own cut score — the minimum number of points required to pass that division. Your total score is the sum of points earned on correctly answered scored items, with pretest items excluded. Score at or above the cut score and you pass.

How the Cut Score Is Set

NCARB uses the Modified Angoff method, the standard-setting approach most widely used in licensure and certification testing. A task force made up of recently licensed architects, licensing board members, architectural educators, and experienced practitioners reviews the items and real candidate performance data, estimating how a minimally competent candidate would perform. NCARB's Examination Committee and Board of Directors then adopt the standard. A separate cut score is established for each of the six divisions.

Because multiple forms of each division circulate for security, the raw number of correct answers needed varies slightly from form to form — a harder form requires fewer raw points. The competency standard itself does not move.

Scoring Mechanics You Can Exploit

• Every item is worth one point, regardless of item type.
• There is no partial credit — a check-all-that-apply item with three of four correct responses selected earns zero.
• There is no penalty for a wrong answer. A blank and an incorrect response score identically.
• Your score is based on performance across the whole division, not section by section. A weak section can be offset by strong sections.

The last two points combine into a rule with no exceptions: answer every single item. Leaving a question blank forfeits a free expected value.

Provisional Feedback and the Official Score Report

Results are not released at the test center or at the end of an online appointment. Instead:

1. Provisional feedback appears on screen immediately after you click "Yes. End Exam and Submit." It is preliminary, unofficial, and based on unvalidated results. No printout is provided, so read it before you close out.
2. All results are run through data forensics to detect performance abnormalities and validity concerns.
3. Your official score report posts to the Exams tab of your NCARB Record within 7 to 10 calendar days of your test date, and you are emailed when it is available.

Every official report is labeled pass or fail on page one and carries a verification link so a board or employer can confirm authenticity.

Reading a Failing Report

A failing report is a diagnostic instrument, and it gives you two things a passing report does not:

• A scaled score, which lets you compare your performance across administrations and across divisions on a common metric. Passing reports do not include one.
• Section-level feedback on page two showing, for each content section of that division, the percentage range the section contributes to the division score, your percent correct, and the average percent correct achieved on that section by candidates who previously passed.

That last column is the one candidates under-use. It converts "I did badly on Contracts" into "I scored 52% on Contracts where passing candidates average 74%," which tells you exactly where the 60-day wait should be spent.

Retaking a Failed Division

Two rules govern retakes, and both are NCARB-wide:

1. 60-day wait. You may retake a failed division no sooner than 60 days after the previous attempt at that same division.
2. Three attempts per 12 months. You may take the same division at most three times within any 12-month period.

Failing one division does not affect any other division, and you may sit a different division during the 60-day wait. When you fail, a new eligibility for that division is created according to your jurisdiction's rules.

Two further remedies exist if you believe a score is wrong:

• Score verification: NCARB staff re-review your performance on every question. Request it within 60 days of the administration; the fee is $100, refunded if NCARB finds the reported score or feedback was inaccurate.
• Review and challenge: conducted by your jurisdiction's board, only if that board permits reviews. You may see the questions you missed but not the correct answers or explanations. NCARB charges $300; the application and fee must reach NCARB within four months of the test date, and the review must finish within six months.

Exam Tip: Candidates routinely assume a failing report means "study everything again." It does not. Page two ranks your sections against passing candidates. Rebuild your plan around the two weakest sections and re-test at day 60 — not at day 180.