ARE price increase (and NCARB service)

An intern in my office just informed me that any ARE exams booked after October 2nd now cost $210 instead of $170. If you booked and paid for a test before that date, even if it takes placed after October 2nd, you will not be charged extra. If you book and pay for the test after October 2nd, it's the $210 per test. Just something to keep in mind as you're booking your exams, or procrastinating booking your exams.

Several interns in my office have mentioned having problems getting their paperwork in place with NCARB. One of the interns described to me a frustrating process of sending in his forms over and over and being sent round in circles: being told he owed no money by one customer rep, then another says he still owed some money a few weeks later; having to send in his forms more than once, then being told that they lost one of his forms of the three required (when all three were sent in the same email), being told that the testing company would mail him something soon, then the company says that they no longer mail anything but rather you have to call and get an electronic confirmation number...and so on. It took him nine months to get his authorization to test from both NCARB and Thomson Prometric (the company that administers the ARE).

I mention this not to bash on NCARB, per se, but to remind you that if you're going to file with NCARB, don't procrastinate. You may lose some valuable testing time while they're still working out the bugs in their customer service, so don't make it worse by putting off opening your record. It may annoy you that you're having to keep yourself super-organized in order to make up for others' shortcomings, but as an architect you probably have lots of experience doing that anyway.