North Carolina Contractor Exam Study Guide

Two things decide how your exam day goes: the reference binder you carry into the room, and whether you already know what each exam actually tests. Every North Carolina contractor exam is open book. PSI’s own bulletin sets the rules for what counts as a reference, and those rules decide what reaches your desk.

What belongs in the room

PSI, the vendor that runs the exams, draws a hard line around what a “reference” is before you open a book. Not everything gets copied and carried in. Its Candidate Information Bulletin puts it this way: “Only those references that pertain to the building codes are able to be copied, printed and spiral bound or hole punched and placed in a 3-ring binder. If you are downloading from the Internet, you may bring this reference material into the testing center with you as long as it is bound.”

A half-built binder does not get a pass. The same bulletin is direct about it: “NO partial references will be allowed/acceptable as Reference material for testing.” Bound means bound — spiral bound or hole-punched into a 3-ring binder, nothing loose riding along with it.

Tabs, indexing, and what gets confiscated

You may prepare your references before the session, not just carry them in. PSI’s bulletin states: “Reference materials may be highlighted, underlined, and/or indexed prior to the examination session. References may be tabbed/indexed with permanent tabs only. Reference books may not have removable tabs.” Acceptable tabs are permanent — permanent plastic tabs, or Redi-Tag self-stick permanent adhesive index tabs. Post-it index flags and Post-it flags are the two named in the bulletin as unacceptable, because they lift off.

Writing in the references is a separate rule, and the bulletin does not soften it. A highlighted, tabbed binder is expected. Notes added in the margins during the exam are not. A candidate “caught writing in the references during the examination will have the references confiscated and will be reported to the department.” That consequence attaches to the exam session itself, not to how the binder was built beforehand.

One tool needs no building at all. The same bulletin: “Candidates may use a silent, non-printing, non-programmable calculator in the examination center. Candidates will also be provided with a magnifying glass upon request.”

What each exam actually tests

Question counts and time run by classification, never as one flat number. Business and Law — the exam every qualifier sits, regardless of trade — is 40 questions in 90 minutes. Building Contractor is 90 questions in 200 minutes. Residential Contractor is 90 questions in 210 minutes. Every one of them is scored at 70% to pass, and that mark does not move with the classification. PSI’s bulletin carries the full table.

Business and Law’s own content outline names where those 40 questions come from: Licensing, 21; Liens and Bonds, 8; One Call, 5; Erosion and Sedimentation Control, 3; Subcontractor’s Pay Requirements, 3. Licensing alone is more than half the exam.

The Erosion and Sedimentation Control questions are not incidental. G.S. 87-10(b) sets the exam requirement to include “knowledge of requirements of the Sedimentation Pollution Control Act of 1973, Article 4 of Chapter 113A of the General Statutes, and the rules adopted pursuant to that Article.” The content outline’s Erosion and Sedimentation Control questions sit under that same subject heading.

A small run of extra questions won’t count against you either way. PSI’s bulletin: “In addition to the number of questions per examination, a small number of five to ten ‘experimental’ questions may be administered to candidates during the examinations. These questions will not be scored, and the time taken to answer them will not count against examination time.”

One asymmetry in the reference rules is worth knowing before buying anything. The bulletin: “Except for Code books, you can base your answers on later editions of references as they become available. For Code questions, the examinations will be based only on the edition of the Code book that is listed.” A newer non-Code reference is fine. A newer Code book is not, unless it is the listed edition.

The fee sits under a statutory cap

PSI’s bulletin states the examination fee as “EXAMINATION FEE $ 79” — a figure the vendor sets, separate from any application fee owed to the Board. G.S. 87-10(a1) caps what that fee can be at “an examination fee not to exceed one hundred dollars”, so $79 is the currently published charge sitting under that ceiling, not the ceiling itself. Check the current bulletin before budgeting, since the vendor’s own figure is the one that moves.

Retakes, and what a failed attempt actually tells you

The retake rule is unusually permissive. PSI’s bulletin: “Candidates may retake an examination as many times as they choose in a 12-month period so long as all information included in the license application remains valid.” No waiting period between attempts appears in the bulletin — seat availability is PSI’s scheduling, not a rule the Board imposes.

A failed attempt still hands over information. “If you do not pass, you will receive a diagnostic report indicating your strengths and weaknesses by examination type with the score report.” That diagnostic report is what separates a second attempt from a blind repeat of the first.

Where the exam sits in the process

None of this can be scheduled early. The Board’s own FAQ describes the order plainly: “In order to get prequalified to take the North Carolina examinations, you must first complete the new license application. Once everything is in order on the application, an eligibility letter will be emailed to you with the necessary information to schedule the examination with PSI.” The application comes first. The eligibility letter is what unlocks the exam — not the other way around.

Which trade exam applies follows the classification you’re testing for, and the exam is one step inside the licensing process, alongside the rest of the full eligibility requirements. For reciprocity routes, the NASCLA exam and waiver states, see how the exams are run in full.