If you’re thinking about getting your North Carolina general contractor license, the first question everyone asks is the same: How hard is the exam, really?
The short answer: it’s more challenging than most people expect going in, but with the right preparation, it’s much easier to set yourself up for first-time success.
The longer answer is what matters most. The NC General Contractor exam has a pass rate that hovers around ~55-65% for first-time takers. This means close to half the people who walk in fail on their first attempt at the exam. That’s not because the exam is unfair; It’s because most candidates underestimate two specific things: the open-book mechanics and the breadth of topics. The good news is that both are fixable, but neither is obvious from the NCLBGC study materials alone.
It is not uncommon for applicants to come to us after having failed the exam on their own, and most often these are candidates who have decades of construction experience. The bottom line is that this is a book-based exam, and while experience can be helpful, it is not enough. The better you can study and prepare, the better you will do. We recently had a student, retired from another industry, who had little to no experience in construction. He followed the program and study outline to the letter, purchased the recommended books, and passed his exam.
In this post, we’ll walk through what makes the exam actually hard, what the pass rate actually indicates, and the three common preparation mistakes that cost people their pass.
What the NC General Contractor exam actually tests
The NC General Contractor exam is administered by the North Carolina Licensing Board for General Contractors (NCLBGC) through PSI testing centers. For the NC Building Contractor Exam or the NC Residential Exam, you are only required to take one exam. This is the trade exam, it is inclusive of state specific Business & Law topics.
The Trade exam: This is what most people mean when they say “the contractor exam.” The content varies by classification (Building, Residential, Highway, Public Utilities, Specialty), but the Building Contractor trade exam covers:
- NC State Building Code (roughly 25% of questions)
- Estimating and project management (~20%)
- Plan reading (~10%)
- Safety, OSHA, and jobsite compliance (~15%)
- Business operations and law as applied to construction (~25%)
The exam is a partial open book. While that sounds like it should make it easier, it often has the opposite effect, which can be the single biggest source of failure for first-time takers.
Here’s why: the questions are designed assuming you’ll look up answers. The time pressure and the specificity of code references mean that if you don’t already know the books cold, including where tables are, how chapters are organized, and how to navigate the index, you’ll burn your time looking for one answer while running out of minutes for the rest.
There are a couple of big mistakes test takers make with open book and partial open book exams. First, they do not spend the time tabbing and highlighting the books they are taking into the exam center. It really is important to be familiar with the information and where to find it BEFORE you walk into the exam center. This will save you valuable time locating the answers during the exam. The second mistake is to spend too much time during the exam, looking in the books that are in the exam with you for answers that do not come out of those materials. About half of the exam comes from the books not allowed into the test. By tabbing and highlighting the books allowed in, and memorizing what is from the books not allowed in, you will avoid the trap of searching the books you have for all the answers and wasting precious time.
The actual pass rate, and what it hides
The commonly cited NC General Contractor exam pass rate is roughly in line with most state contractor exams, but it’s a deceptive number on its own.
Here’s what it doesn’t tell you:
- First-time pass rates are notably lower than the overall pass rates. Repeat takers pull the average up.
- Candidates who complete a formal prep course have substantially higher pass rates. In our classes, 90% of students who complete the full course pass on their first attempt.
- The Business & Law section trips up more experienced contractors than the Trade section does, typically because those who have been building for 20 years haven’t thought about mechanics’ liens or contract formation law since they started.
So the average pass rate hides two things: the advantages of proper preparation, and the underrated difficulty of the subject matter of the exam, where many candidates struggle. Test Takers are expecting to see a contractor exam; however, the exam is written by the Department of Insurance, and questions are geared toward risk management. Candidates who understand this test is more about risk management than field experience will do better than those who think field knowledge will get them through.
What actually makes it hard
These are the four main reasons candidates struggle with in this exam, and the order of how often they show up as reasons for failure:
1. The partial open-book format
If you can’t navigate the reference books quickly under time pressure, the exam becomes a speed test, not a knowledge test.
2. The breadth of topics
The Trade exam covers a wider range of material than most candidates prepare for. You’re expected to be comfortable with a range of topics, including residential framing, commercial structural, estimating math, plan reading symbols, OSHA safety standards, and enough state-specific business law to pass.
Most self-study candidates over-prepare for what they know and do in their day job, and tend to under-prepare for everything else. This leads to problems where a production framer gets hammered on estimating math. An estimator gets hammered on code references. A commercial super gets hammered on residential-specific questions.
3. Question wording
PSI questions use specific wording patterns, such as “according to code,” “which of the following is NOT,” and multi-step scenarios with multiple right-seeming answers. For candidates who haven’t practiced on this format, it’s easy to lose points you should be catching.
We have several approaches we teach our students to use, to tackle the questions they will see. One of the most important is to know what you are being asked. A simple example of this is the question, “What is the nominal size of a 2 x 4?” An experienced contractor will see ‘size of a 2 x 4’ and answer 1-1/2” x 3-1/2”. This is the actual size of a 2 x 4, and the number they need to know in the field. The question on the exam, however, is asking the nominal size, which is 2 x 4. Both answers are on the exam, and if you are not paying close attention to what is actually being asked you will get this one wrong.
4. The Project Management & Business Law questions
This is where experienced contractors fail more often than inexperienced ones. It covers NC-specific legal content, including mechanic’s liens, change order requirements, contract law, employee vs. contractor classification, and NC-specific safety and workers’ comp requirements. Most of this is not something you learn on the jobsite.
Three preparation mistakes that cost people their pass
Mistake 1: Studying the wrong books
The NCLBGC publishes an official reference list. If your prep materials don’t match the current list, you’re studying for the wrong exam. The books do update, and the exam tracks with them.
Another studying mistake is only focusing on the books allowed in the exam center. About 50% of the questions on the exam come from books you are not allowed to take in with you.
Mistake 2: Trying to Practice Test your way to a license
Buying and taking practice exams, trying to memorize specific questions and answers, is a huge mistake! The primary reason is that the questions on the exam are always changing. It is most important to study the root facts you need to know to answer the question. When you do this, you are studying the answer to the question, no matter how it is worded. There are too many versions of the exam, and too many possible ways for a question to be worded to simply pass the test by taking the exam, or practice exams on repeat.
Mistake 3: Not Tabbing & Highlighting
Tabbing and highlighting your books is an important part of the study process. It is important that the test takers do this themselves. When you tab and highlight your books your brain is making multiple connections with the exam content. First when you read it in the Study Guide, then when you locate it in the appropriate book, then when you highlight the information, and again when you write your tab. This increases your chances of locating the information quickly during the exam, or even committing the information to memory.
What changes your odds the most
The honest answer and what makes the biggest difference is a structured prep course with a proven system of study, instructor-led walkthroughs of the reference books, and direct exposure to the question patterns you’ll see on test day.
That’s what we do at Carolina Seminars. We’ve been running these classes in North Carolina for over 20 years, and our approach is designed to help you move through the material efficiently, specific to the NCLBGC exam, not just a generic national program.
We realized early on that contractors needed help passing this exam, that field experience alone was not enough to pass the exam. This led us to develop a straightforward, easy to understand system to prepare them for the exam. We continue to help people of all backgrounds and experience levels prepare for and pass their NC General Contractor Exam.
If you’re ready to stop guessing at the exam and start preparing for the specific format, content, and timing you’ll see at the testing center, the full guide to the NC General Contractor license, including requirements, classifications, fees, and exam prep options is here: https://carolinaseminars.com/pass-the-exam-north-carolina/