Question on Coordination
Hey NCARB!
When studying for the PjM and PcM exams I learned so much about how important Quality Assurance and Project Coordination is! Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like you did, so let's see how you handle this "case study".
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CASE STUDY 1: Let's imagine a testing candidate pays dues and testing fees, uses your lovely scheduling system to schedule an exam, receives a confirmation email that the exam has been arranged, and then a few days before the exam receives a SECOND confirmation email, assuring the candidate that the exam will indeed take place, and to please remember to wear a mask and follow the social distancing protocols. It even includes a form that the test candidate must click to confirm that they will follow the regulations, how fun!
Now lets imagine that the testing candidate studies diligently for the exam, rearranges their personal and work life to make time for aforementioned studying, drives to the test center, and is met with a dark building, with a lovely "closed" sign out front. The candidate then hangs out in the parking lot with a half-dozen other frustrated testing candidates who also showed up as scheduled, and waits for someone arrive to proctor the test. In the meantime, they call the customer service line, where they receive a lovely message that the service center is closed and to please call back on Monday. After waiting around for 45min, the candidate drives back home having wasted half a day, not to mention the preparation and effort on the front end
Given the above scenario, what responsibilities does the testing center and licensing agency have to the testing candidate? What QA/QC protocols might the testing center and licensing agency implement to avoid such scenarios in the future. (Analyze/Evaluate Question)
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Hey Kacper,
I would like to apologize for the issue with your exam and test center. And we agree with you, this is 100% unacceptable. We have reached out to Prometric to investigate your situation so protocols can be established to avoid this in the future.
In the meantime, I have forwarded your information to NCARB Customer Service, and they should be reaching out to you.
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Nick-
No luck, the exam has been reset, but now I need an authorization code. I called you guys, received the authorization code, and it doesn't work. Called again, and you need to reset some other thing in my record.
But on the plus side, I did get an email from you guys yesterday reminding me to renew my record, so good job on that.
Look, I understand that you are not in charge at NCARB, I get that it's not your fault personally, and I don't mean to be rude to you, but please try and sympathize here- Your organization has been given the tremendous responsibility of regulating and administering a wide variety of issues in my profession. I have graduated from a bachelor's program, then a master's program. I've spent countless hours studying/working in architecture in various capacities. And yet, I cannot put the word "architect" on a business card without your permission.
I understand that the Coronavirus has caused a number of unexpected changes in the ARE process. But this forum is littered with people just like myself who are asking for very basic services that NCARB seems to be unable to provide. In my case, you've made a very basic mistake, one that should never have happened had your systems worked as they should. But ok, mistakes happen, it's understandable.
But look at the follow-up- I have called NCARB literally every single day this week. Each time someone assured me that the problem would be solved. Yet it wasn't. Each day I call back with another issue, talk to someone else, and find yet another mountain standing in the way of the very simple task of rescheduling an exam. I have zero confidence that anyone will do what they promise without me calling back the next day to verify that it has been done. You seem to have multiple layers of people who pass things along from one department to the next with no one person being empowered enough to solve the issue. If I lose my credit card (which would be my fault, not the company's, unlike in this situation) I can call the bank and my card will be cancelled and a new one sent out priority mail within ten minutes. If there's a snowstorm and my flight is cancelled, the airline re-books me on the next available flight automatically. I don't even need to call or email anyone. It's just done before I even noticed the first one was cancelled. But allowing your customers to be able to reschedule an exam is such a seemingly difficult task that no one at your organization is capable of doing it. Instead it's now 5 days later, and the earliest it might possibly be done according to your representatives is by Tuesday, over a week after the original issue. And honestly, given your track-record I have my doubts.
Present to your supervisor/manager/whoever has any efficacy:
Having people manually reset exam data is a huge bottleneck. Having the person who actually does that be someone other than the customer service representative is absolutely insane. Empower your employees to serve your customers. You have an automatic system to send an email to remind my to pay my dues. Figure out an automatic system to solve this issue, which even a cursory look on this forum is rather common.
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Hi Kacper,
There is no authorization code required to schedule an exam. I'm not sure who gave you this code, but that is incorrect. I checked this morning, and you are able to schedule an exam without needing a code. This message occurs when the Prometric system is not properly reading your authorization to test. Everything is cleared at this point so you're good to go.
Regarding manually resetting exam data, this is not the norm at NCARB or Prometric. The system between Prometric and NCARB is automated under normal circumstances. It was not designed to handle a pandemic.
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