I've had a lot of questions on this recently, so hopefully this will answer them.
-To get APP: join the DB :)
-To get NOV: pass both Phase I and II of the Shadow Academy
-To get ACO: submit a character history and inform your house summit after I approve. I CANNOT promote you, I can only approve/deny your histories. Summits, make your members happy by promoting them to ACO.

Oh, and starting now, all exams MUST have your DB name on it at the very least. I will take off for not having an idline, but if you don't know your own DB name, that's bad. I've had some people submit exams with strange acronyms and codes for idlines that mean absolutely nothing. Those are going in the trash from now on.