Other industry topics

NIC Exam vs State Exam(Practical Exam)

When talking to individuals about state board exams and state board kits there are two questions that we get asked quite frequently. It doesn’t matter if we are on one of our social media pages, in a live training, or in our email. One of these two questions will be asked. What are the two questions you might ask?
They are:
1.) What is NIC?
2.) Is my state NIC?

Since we get asked these two questions all the time I figured I would use our new blog as an opportunity to bring some clarification to our followers.
NIC is an acronym for National Interstate Council of State Boards of Cosmetology. Simply put NIC has been entrusted with the task of deciding what the industry standard of learning and demonstration should be. They decide what skills a student needs to be able to professionally demonstrate in order to become licensed.

It is important to know that it is optional for state’s to use this testing system and for that reason some states opt to use their own privately developed exams. When this is the case you are subject to what your state’s professional standards are.

Which states are NIC? Well I will list them for you:

Alabama, Arizona, California, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin,and Wyoming.

If your state was not listed above, your state has a private exam and does not follow the NIC testing guidelines. So what does this mean exactly? It means your exam is laid out a little differently. It’s important to remember no matter what testing system your state uses, it will still be according to current industry standards and should not be too difficult that you can’t wrap your head around.
A manicure is a manicure whether it’s for an NIC exam or a private state exam. A Uniform layer haircut is a uniform layered cut no matter what testing system is being used. So don’t allow the testing systems to freak you out. YOU CAN DO THIS!!

If all else fails you can always find you state’s rules for their state board exam, the state board exam kit requirements, and much more by visiting your state’s website or the website of the testing company used by your state.

See you on the next blog post,

-Prof. Singleton

Related posts

One Thought to “NIC Exam vs State Exam(Practical Exam)”

  1. I think this is a real great blog. Really thank you! Really Great. Sofia Leonidas Herrera

Leave a Comment