Administrative Review Policy

Starting in May 2023, Touchstone Institute will no longer be offering the Administrative Process Review (APR) service to examinees that have taken exams designed and delivered by Touchstone Institute. The APR was offered to examinees that wished to challenge the accuracy of their scores. The request through an APR is related to the administrative processes associated with exam delivery. An APR does not indicate that an examinee’s exam would be re-rated and does not permit the examinee the opportunity to re-sit the examination. The APR review of examinee results was analyzed concurrently and independently by multiple Touchstone Institute staff members to ensure accuracy.

The decision to cease offering the APR is based on the lack of evidence that the process is helpful to examinees. Touchstone Institute’s existing quality assurance process collects examinee scores and ensures exam resources and materials are accurate. The APR triggers an additional review of this already rigorous process and has not produced evidence of unreliable examinee results. Given that the APR process does not result in a change to the test results and has not demonstrated any quality assurance issues with the exam process, Touchstone Institute has decided to discontinue this service.

Touchstone Institute recognizes that examinees may experience issues within an exam administration. For this reason, our comprehensive incident reporting process will remain in place. This process is a free of charge post-exam investigation to identify and address any incidents that have impacted examinee performance and exam results. Incident reports may be filed by exam coordinators, examiners, standardized clients, support staff, or examinees. Touchstone Institute investigates all incident reports submitted by examinees and a formal response is provided to examinees within 8 weeks of their submission. We believe that this process is fair and transparent and offers examinees an appropriate opportunity to request a review of any unsatisfactory exam procedures.