Tarot Certification Board of America TCBA In my opinion, the TCBA is a scam. My recommendation? Dont waste your time and dont waste your money. Albany, New York
In my opinion, the testing process at the Tarot Certification Board of America ( TCBA ) for certification is unreasonable and does not represent a typical testing situation in America. Most professional certification testing may be done over
a day or, at the most, five days time. For example, the bar exam for an attorney takes several hours to complete. The TCBA appears to be in the business of selling numerous numbers of separate exams, for a total cost of over $500 in examination fees.
I learned about the TCBA through a tarot reader at an online website who advertised her board position at the TCBA as part of her professional profile whilst, at the same time, competing with other tarot readers for business. When I mentioned her name during the application process, she removed herself from the testing situation so as to avoid any conflicts of interest. I was not sure what she meant, but after the fact, it became my opinion that perhaps she was not supportive of any of her competitors becoming licensed through the board, which would actually be a conflict of interest with TCBAs mission.
The testing process itself seemed very arbitrary. For the first test, I was told there are no right or wrong answers and was asked to come up with keywords to identify each of the 78 tarot cards, which I was able to do very quickly. After I submitted the keywords, the tester told me I had some of the answers wrong and I had to redo some of them. This is where I felt that the testing process did not reflect a typical testing situation in America. For one thing, a test does not allow a person to change their answers in the middle of the testing process. For another, no test requires 100% accuracy.
The number of answers I had right was more than 80%, which would have been a passing score in any other American testing situation, at least any in my experience. And, to top it off, the wrong answers were so arbitrary that they included my use of the term trophy wife to describe the Queen of Coins ( a description I continue to feel is appropriate, although somewhat humerous )
This process of emailing wrong and corrected answers back and forth took more than a days time and, at one point, I sent several emails to the TCBA explaining that I didnt have time to send the answers right away and to please be patient until I could return. The tester became emotional and refused to complete the testing, saying that I didnt take the tarot seriously, she refused to ever let me come back to test again and, not only that, she had also talked to everyone on the board and everyone on the board all agreed with her opinion again, after I had gotten at least 80% accepted answers.
After this happened, the tarot reader at an online website who advertised her board position at the TCBA as part of her professional profile stopped speaking to me at the website where we worked together. I went to a different tarot certification organization and successfully completed their testing within a day. After I posted my new credentials to my working profile, I received a message from an employee at the website where we worked that someone made a complaint about my profile. This situation had seriously repercussions at my place of work, and in my opinion, it cost me income.
In my opinion, the TCBA is a scam. My recommendation? Dont waste your time and dont waste your money.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
enthusiast of many trades
Oakland,California,
In defense of the TCBA
#2Consumer Comment
Thu, March 28, 2013
A fraud or scam indicates that the business model intentionally or recklessly deceives consumers. The Tarot Certification Board of America helps standardize tarot practice, which itself is a very different field from law. The complainant raised a comparison between the tarot certification exams and the state bar exams. The two cannot be compared and the argument that "the TCBA exam is nothing like the bar exams or other licensing tests, therefore it is a scam" is deeply flawed. The TCBA exam is nothing like the bar, or any other common professional licensing exam because tarot practice is nothing like those professions.
The complainant most likely disagrees with the approach for certifying tarot practitioners that the TCBA has adopted, and that's good-- it can be the start of robust dialogue or debate. However, to call it a scam because the complainant's opinion differs from the TCBA's approach is misguided. It's like me filing a rip-off report against the LSATs for being a scam because the questions are phrased in such a way that a higher percentage of Caucasians will do better on it than African Americans (true sociological study results; go read about it).
I've taken the certification exams and I, too, have fundamental disagreements with the testing approach. However, those are opinions on procedure. That doesn't mean the TCBA is a fraud or is set up to rip you off. It isn't. The complainant's perception of his/her exam results as requiring 100% accuracy or being 80% right is also misguided. I do think it is important that you fully understand every one of the 78 cards of the tarot deck to pass the first few levels. The argument that "it's expensive, so it's a fraud" is also flawed. Again, it is a disagreement of perception on value. The complainant does not agree that the tarot certification is valued at the exam fees. I don't think diamond rings are worth even a fraction of what other people seem to be paying for them but I'm not going to file a Ripoff Report against Tiffany's.
Analyzing the complainant's own words, there is insufficient facts or even allegations from the complainant's own mouth brought forth to deem the TCBA certification exams a "scam." There were no grounds for filing this Ripoff Report. The complainant merely disagrees with procedure and approach, and that's okay. He/she didn't like that the examiner asked for corrections, and didn't like that the examiner expected prompt replies to all requests, and didn't like one person's professionalism, who was a Board member. Not to mention, if that Board member was close to the complainant and the complainant applied for certification, of course that Board member should remove herself from the testing process. That is a clear, indisputable conflict of interest, so I'm not sure why the complainant was so bothered by that.
I am not affiliated with the TCBA, but I am certified through it as a tarot reader. I, too, have several critiques of the approach adopted. I also acknowledge that the notion of certification among tarot readers is contentious and hotly disputed. However, as I have said throughout this response, the TCBA is not a scam or fraud. It is a legitimate non-profit that seeks to bring some level of modern-day standardization to a centuries-old art form.