20.1 Written Examination Rules and Retake Policy

The Oregon Laws and Rules Examination is 90 questions. Examinations is 5 of those 90, and Licensing and Certification is 9. Together that is 14 items on how you sit, how you fail, and how you become a certified barber. This section is the Examinations cluster: who owns the practical, how each written exam is scored, what stays out of the Salem room, when the Health Licensing Office (HLO) can throw out a sitting, and how retakes and accommodations actually work.

Chapter 1 covered the walk-in clock and identification. This section is the rule text. The currently effective sources are Oregon Administrative Rule (OAR) 817-006-0075 (amended July 1, 2024), OAR 817-006-0100, OAR 817-006-0150, and the examination fees in OAR 817-040-0003. Do not study a third-party booklet that still talks about a 30-day wait between fails. That wait is gone.

Practical versus written — two different tests, two different owners

OAR 817-006-0075(1) is a one-sentence split: the practical examination is the examination the Board recognizes and sanctions that is administered by a school. HLO does not run a barber practical in Salem. Your school runs it. The Board of Cosmetology recognizes it. If a stem asks who administers the practical, the answer is the school, not a national vendor and not a Saturday HLO clinic.

OAR 817-006-0075(2) then defines the written examination: the Board-approved written examination consists of one or more fields of practice examinations and the Oregon laws and rules examination. For a barber applicant that means the Barbering written plus Laws and Rules. If you later add hair design, you add that field’s written — and you sit Laws again.

OAR 817-006-0075(3) is the scoring trap: each written examination will be scored individually. The passing score for each examination, including natural hair care, is 75 percent or better. There is no combined average and no courtesy rounding across tests. A 90 on barbering and a 74 on laws is a fail on laws. You retake only the failed exam. You do not blend the two scores.

Time, monitoring, and what stays in the locker

OAR 817-006-0075(4) requires candidates to adhere to the maximum time allowance for each examination, as established by the Office. HLO’s published allowance is 90 minutes per examination. Two exams is 180 minutes of seat time. Walk-in testing at HLO, 1430 Tandem Ave. NE, Suite 180, Salem, OR 97301, is Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., no appointment. Arrive late for two 90-minute sittings and you will be asked to come back another business day.

OAR 817-006-0075(5) allows electronic monitoring during written testing. Assume a camera, not an honor system.

Subsections (6) and (7) are the packing list in reverse. An applicant may not take notes or bring textbooks or notebooks into the written examination area. No electronic equipment or communication devices — personal computers, pagers, cellular telephones, or any other device the Office deems inappropriate. A smartwatch, a wireless earbud, or a phone in a jacket pocket is the same problem as a Milady on the desk.

HLO offers the barbering exam and the Oregon Laws and Rules exam in Spanish and Vietnamese. Extra time for English as a second language (ESL) is a different program from an Americans with Disabilities Act accommodation. Extra time is only for an examination not administered in the applicant’s primary language. Sitting the Spanish version when Spanish is your primary language is not an extra-time English sitting. ESL extra-time arrival rules:

• Arrive between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. for one field of practice plus Oregon Laws and Rules.
• Arrive by 9 a.m. for two fields of practice plus Oregon Laws and Rules.

A barber sitting only barbering plus laws is in the first bucket. A barber adding hair design is in the second and must be in the lobby at 9 a.m. Three fields plus laws with extra time may be split across two testing days.

Disqualification — during or after the exam

OAR 817-006-0075(8) lets HLO immediately disqualify an applicant during or after the examination for conduct that interferes with the written examination. The examination may be invalidated, and written examination fees may be forfeited. The listed conduct is not a complete list (“including, but not limited to”):

1. Directly or indirectly giving, receiving, soliciting, or attempting to give, receive, or solicit aid during the written examination process.
2. Taking items listed in (6) and (7) — notes, textbooks, notebooks, computers, pagers, phones — into the written examination area.
3. Removing or attempting to remove any examination-related information, notes, or materials from the written examination site.
4. Failing to follow directions relative to the conduct of the written examination.
5. Exhibiting behavior that impedes the normal progress of the written examination.

OAR 817-006-0075(9) is the money consequence: the applicant may be required to reapply, submit additional examination fees, and request in writing to schedule another examination if disqualified for reasons under (6), (7), and (8). A disqualification is not a free next-business-day retake. Fees already paid can be gone, and you may have to ask in writing to sit again.

Retakes — next business day, not next calendar day

OAR 817-006-0100(1): an applicant may retake a failed examination the next business day up to the 10th failed attempt. A business day is a non-holiday, regular HLO office business day during public hours. Saturday is not a business day. A state holiday is not a business day. Failing Friday does not authorize a Saturday sitting.

OAR 817-006-0100(2): after the 10th failed attempt, the Board may determine qualifications before another sitting, including but not limited to additional hours and practical operations from a school. Extra hours are not automatic and not a lifetime ban. The Board decides.

OAR 817-006-0100(3): an applicant retaking must still meet OAR 331-030-0000 (identification, application, fees). OAR 817-040-0003 (effective July 1, 2024) charges $45 for the barbering written and $45 for Oregon laws and rules, including every retake. Fail laws twice and you have paid $135 for that exam alone.

Special accommodations — ADA, not ESL extra time

OAR 817-006-0150 is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) track. Applicants who qualify under the ADA may request a special accommodation examination. Requests must be on forms provided by the Office — HLO’s Accommodation Request Form — and must contain supporting documentation completed by a licensed professional holding appropriate credentials who can certify that the disabling condition requires the requested test accommodation. Requests must be submitted 30 calendar days in advance of the preferred examination date. All special-accommodation examinations are conducted at the Office. If the Office cannot accommodate the disability there, the Office chooses a suitable alternate location.

Thirty calendar days is not “I will mention it at the walk-in window.” ESL extra time has its own 9–11 a.m. arrival rules. ADA accommodations require the HLO form, a credentialed professional’s documentation, and a 30-day lead. Do not mix the two tracks on the exam.

A Medford phone that cost $45 twice

Luis drove from Medford for a 9:15 a.m. walk-in. He passed barbering at 78 percent. During laws he left a phone in his hoodie. Monitoring flagged it. HLO disqualified him under OAR 817-006-0075(8)(b), invalidated the laws sitting, and forfeited the $45. Subsection (9) required him to reapply for that sitting, pay another $45, and request in writing to schedule again. He did not get the next-business-day courtesy that a clean fail would have given him under OAR 817-006-0100. He returned two weeks later with empty pockets, scored 81 on laws, and paid original-certificate fees. The content was not the problem. The hoodie was.