ARE 5.0 Whiteboard - STILL HAS ISSUES 4 DAYS BEFORE ROLL OUT!
Dear NCARB,
I have tried to 'practice' with your whiteboard through the demo exam several times.
The whiteboard is not at all a professional tool and it also does not even function correctly.
Mind you, that there are 4 days before you roll-out the whiteboard (2 business days) as the only medium that exam takers can attempt to take notes on - this is unjust, unprofessional, and discriminatory to several test takers.
Aside from the many posts by other test takers, professionals, and community members noting all of the flaws in the execution and roll-out of this 'whiteboard', your basic functions - like the eraser function (which has already been commented on through other posts) - still are severely lagging and not functioning.
And no, this does not have to do with my computer or internet connection or browser as I am able to work remotely from home in the profession with no issues. This is a problem with your whiteboard software.
How is this at all acceptable? Considering that most PCs at testing centers are worse than the one that I am currently using for the demo exam, I am completely appalled that this is being forced on to test takers.
In the 5.0 exams, the software has failed me several times while testing (currently 3 out of 3 times) from minor glitches to major resets - and this is all before the 'new' 5.0 exam with whiteboard issues.
Please listen to your community (ie, the people paying for the exam and reason why NCARB should exist any way):
(A) Iron out all of the issues outlined by the community members and postpone the launch date of the whiteboard requirement
-or-
(B) Get rid of the whiteboard requirement and allow test takers to take exams with scratch paper or choose between the two.
-or-
(C) Come up with a better solution
Please set a better standard for NCARB - you are failing yourselves as a professional organization, and you are failing the people you serve.
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NCARB has NEVER been on the cutting edge of technology. They don't care. People have been complaining about the same testing issues for 4 years and they have done absolutely nothing to address the very KNOWN issues with NCARB's software. https://youngarchitect.com/ncarbsurvey2020/
NCARB can not even administer their exam inside a Prometric testing centers with their test taking equipment, good luck with remote proctoring.
Complain to your state boards and your AIA Leaders. NCARB isn't listening or ever has been.
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When the Travel/Meetings budget exceeds the Exam Delivery budget it's not hard to see where the priorities of the NCARB Board Members and Executives are, and I'll give you a hint...it's not the people who are paying for 97% of their income.
https://www.ncarb.org/data-resources/annual-report
Pages 37-41
I am pretty sure the remote proctoring falls under their "Reducing Exam Costs" initiative in FY20, see under Strategic Opportunities.
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The answer is to stop paying for seats. Stop testing. Until they fix it. Two months of no income they might take a look at what they're doing.
The thing is,nobody cares if we get licensed or not. Your state board isn't sitting around trying to figure out how to get more people into the profession. The $75 or so one pays for a license isn't going to be missed. They have no quota.
NCARB collects those ridiculous salaries even if no one gets licensed.
Do you know what NCARB made off of re-takes last year? $11M. You think they have incentive to make the test passable?
The answer is stop testing. The courts have some power and I am working that, but that's one state. Boycott testing would send the only message they'll listen to.
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No, I don't know what that is.
I thin it's time to write to the board and request their answers, explaining how the tests are "equal" when absolutely nothing about the two-setups is, be written with the digital whiteboard and screenshotted, no paper or pencil.
They're a bunch of "I got mine" white males (for the most part) so we can assume they care as much as the satff, but what the heck, no tests to take...
I bet not one single one of them has used this "tool." Not a one.
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