The North Carolina Building Contractor exam is open book, and that fact decides how you prepare. Ninety questions in 200 minutes is about 2 minutes and 13 seconds per question. Nobody finishes that exam by knowing everything. People finish it by finding answers fast. This post teaches the system: what you can bring, how to mark it, and how to work each question. For the basic exam format, start with what to expect on the NC Building Contractor exam.
Know the allowed references cold
The bulletin allows 18 references, and you need to know the list before you build anything else. The headliners:
- NASCLA Contractor's Guide to Business, Law and Project Management, North Carolina General Contractors Edition, 10th Edition (the business and law reference; not the national 4th edition)
- NC State Building Code 2018
- ACI 530/530.1-11 or -13 (masonry) and ACI 318-11 or -14 (concrete)
- SDI Steel Deck Manual 2016, 3rd edition
- Carpentry and Building Construction (Feirer, 2010 or 2016)
- Design and Control of Concrete Mixtures, 16th edition (2016)
- Pipe and Excavation Contracting (2011) and Roofing Construction and Estimating (1995)
- The PTI Unbonded Post-Tensioning manual, 3rd edition (2003), and Modern Masonry, 8th edition (2015)
- The NC OSHA Standards for Construction (latest), the NC Administrative Code and Policies 2018, ANSI A117.1-2017, the NC Excavation Safety Guidelines (2022 or later), the Sedimentation Pollution Control Act materials, and the NCLBGC Laws and Regulations booklet
Two rules of the list matter. The SJI Technical Digest No. 9 is explicitly NOT allowed, so do not pack it. And code questions are tested from the listed editions only. If your building code is a different year than the listed 2018, the tables will not match the questions. Confirm every edition against the current bulletin before exam day.
The marking rules: permanent tabs only
The test-center rules on marking your books are strict, and they are worth memorizing because violating them is the one preparation mistake that can end your exam day:
- Permanent tabs are allowed. Adhesive Post-It style flags are banned. Buy real permanent tabs.
- Highlighting, underlining, and indexing before the exam are allowed.
- Writing in the books during the exam is prohibited.
- A silent, nonprinting, nonprogrammable calculator is allowed. Programmed or printing calculators are not.
Do your marking work at home, days before the test, not the night before. A rushed tabbing job is almost as useless as no tabs.
Build a tabbing map
A tabbing map is a one-page index of your tabs: which book, which tab label, which section. It is the single highest-value preparation activity for this exam. Here is how to build it.
For the NASCLA North Carolina 10th Edition, place a permanent tab on each major topic and highlight every number (days, dollars, percentages) in the chapter: the $40,000 licensing threshold; Limited $750,000 and Intermediate $1,500,000 project limits; working capital $17,000 / $75,000 / $150,000; the bond amounts $175,000 / $500,000 / $1,000,000; the qualifier separation rules (90 days, no new bids, 10-day notice); the lien clocks (15-day lien-agent notice, 120-day filing, 180-day enforcement); NC 811 timing (3 to 12 full working days); sales tax 4.75 percent; the CE requirement (8 hours annually). Write the chapter title on each tab, because chapter numbering can vary by printing.
For each trade reference, tab the table of contents entries, the index, and every table of spans, loads, mixes, cover requirements, or fastener schedules. The exam's concrete (13), metals (12), carpentry (7), masonry (6), and roofing (6) questions are overwhelmingly "find the table, read the row" questions. The candidate who can open to the right table in 30 seconds beats the candidate who memorized half the tables.
In the NC State Building Code, tab the occupancy chapters, the structural chapters, and the index.
Work every question the same way
On exam day, run this routine on every question:
- Read the last line first. The last line tells you what the question wants.
- Name the reference before opening a book. Licensing, financial tiers, tax, labor, liens, or discipline goes to the NASCLA guide. NC 811 timing goes to the statute tab or the excavation guidelines. Concrete cover goes to ACI 318. Masonry walls go to ACI 530. Joist spans go to the carpentry text or the code. Excavation slopes go to the excavation guidelines or the OSHA standards.
- Open to the tab, read the table or rule, answer. If you cannot name the reference from the stem, mark the question and move on. Bank the lookup questions first, then come back with fresh eyes.
Random flipping is how 200 minutes disappear. The candidates who fail open-book exams almost always fail the same way: they read the whole question, start flipping pages at random, and burn five minutes per question.
Two judgment rules
When two answers both look right, pick the one with the more specific number. The exam rewards exact figures (15 days, 120 days, $40,000, 90 days) over general principles. North Carolina's licensing scheme is built on thresholds and clocks; the test checks whether you know them.
Read "may" versus "is required" twice. North Carolina's scheme is full of deliberate negatives the exam tests directly: the Board has no per-violation civil-penalty fining authority (only cost recovery up to $5,000); no general liability insurance is required as a license condition; the funds-lien notice has no fixed calendar deadline (do not confuse it with the 120- and 180-day real-property clocks); a Notice of Contract must be filed within 30 days of the permit or the award, whichever is later. This guide flags each negative; learn them as negatives.
The final checklist
Two weeks out: confirm every reference edition against the current PSI bulletin; place permanent tabs per the map; highlight the key figures in the NASCLA margins.
One week out: work practice questions with the books open, exactly as you will on exam day; rework every miss. Try sample practice questions under the same conditions.
The night before: pack all 18 references; confirm your test center, arrival time, and ID; do not cram new material.
Exam day: arrive early; read the last line first; name the reference before opening a book; bank the lookups; mark and return to the hard ones; never leave a question blank.
This is an independent study aid, not affiliated with the North Carolina Licensing Board for General Contractors, PSI, or NASCLA. Verify allowed references and rules in the current PSI bulletin before exam day.
Try the free practice quiz
Want to see where you stand right now? Take the free 12-question North Carolina Building Contractor practice quiz. You will get your score with explanations for every answer, so you can see exactly which topics need work. Start the free quiz