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Regulatory Amendments Affecting the Licensing Examinations and Testing Accommodations in the Profession of Architecture

Regulatory Amendments approved and effective May 16, 2023

The New York State Board of Regents approved emergency regulatory amendments in architecture that are effective May 16, 2023. These regulatory amendments conform New York State’s architect licensure examination requirements with national standards set by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) by amending the examination content requirements and retention of credit provisions for the Architect Registration Examination (ARE). These regulatory amendments will also permit English as a second language (ESL) testing accommodations. For a detailed view of the regulatory amendments, see the Regents’ website at: https://www.regents.nysed.gov/sites/regents/files/523ppca2.pdf.

Below is a summary of the regulatory changes:

  • The content of the architect licensing examination has been changed to consist of:
    • Practice Management
    • Project Management
    • Programming and Analysis
    • Project Planning and Design
    • Project Development and Documentation
    • Construction and Evaluation
       
  • New York State’s five-year retention of credit provision (or the “rolling clock”) has been replaced with a new score validity policy that allows for ARE divisions that are successfully passed to remain valid throughout the entire delivery of the examination version under which it was taken, as well as the next examination version. For example, a candidate testing in the current ARE 5.0 will receive credit for divisions passed under the previous ARE 4.0; while a licensure candidate testing in ARE 5.0 will retain credit for that version and the future ARE 6.0 version, and so on. 

    Please Note: Due to the nature of the new score validity policy, which is not time-bound but version-bound, extensions to the retention of credit period will no longer be offered. The passed divisions will expire after two versions of the examination.
     
  • Accommodations for ESL testing is now permitted, and in accordance with NCARB standards such accommodations include:
     
    • Providing ESL candidates with 20% additional time on the examination; and
    • Allowing the use of a bilingual dictionary during the examination