The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Accredited Professional Exam is a test administered by Prometric for the Green Building Certification Institute, a division of the U.S. Green Building Council. The exam is used to qualify individuals as LEED Accredited Professionals (LEED AP). There are several versions of the exam which correspond to the various versions of the LEED system, including LEED-NC (New Construction and Major Renovation), LEED-EB (Existing Building) and LEED-CI (Commercial Interior).
As of December 31, 2008, the LEED-EB exam has been retired and the new version of that exam became available on May 18, 2009 under the name LEED-Green Building: Operations & Maintenance. The new name is intended to remove confusion as to whether LEED-NC or LEED-EB is the standard that should cover building renovations.
As of June 30, 2009, the LEED-NC and LEED-CI exams have been retired and the new versions of those exams are scheduled to become available on September 15, 2009 under the new names LEED Building Design & Construction and LEED Interior Design & Construction.
Under the LEED 2009 credentialing program, individuals will have the option of pursuing Tier I or Tier II certification. Individuals who pass the Tier I exam will be called LEED Green Associates and those that pass the Tier II examination will be LEED-AP with speciality. Tier I will require a 2 hour exam followed by a 2 hour exam for Tier II accreditation.
Also under the new credentialling system, there are three new exams that did not previously exist. The first is the LEED Green Associate exam, which a candidate must pass prior to taking the LEED AP exam. The LEED-GA exam is a 2-hour test with 100 questions that test an individuals general understanding of green building principles and practices. The other two exams are two new LEED AP exams: LEED for Homes, which is available as of June 12, 2009, and LEED for Neighborhood Development, which will become available in 2010.
The exam is open to all individuals interested in the LEED green building rating system. A LEED AP is generally recognized as an expert in the field of sustainable design. The exam is formatted in a computerized multiple choice format with instant scoring after completion. Many study resources exist for exam candidates from the U.S. Green Building Council, USGBC chapters and other authors.
To register for the Green Associate exam, an individual must pay a $50 application fee and a $200 exam fee. To register for any one of the LEED AP with specialty exams, an individual must pay a $50 application fee and a $250 exam fee.
All LEED exams consist of 100 questions, and are scored on a scale of 125 to 200, with a score of 170 required to pass.