Preparing for Your NC Building Contractors Licensing Exam
As a building or residential contractor in North Carolina, you can only work on jobs with a cumulative value of $39,999.99 unlicensed, including labour and materials. So if you often or typically take on projects with a total value of $40,000 or more, you should get a licence to ensure you practice legally. Part of the licensure process involves taking an exam with a 70% minimum score requirement for you to pass.
Your interest at this point, then, would be what you need to do to meet the score. This article has what you need to know, so keep reading.
What’s the Exam Like?
As mentioned earlier, you will have to take a licensing exam as you go through the journey of becoming a licensed building or residential contractor in NC. The exam varies slightly depending on the type of contractor’s licence you are applying for.
- Building Contractor:
A total of 90 questions with the maximum allowed time being 3 hours and 20 minutes. It’s a partially open-book exam, that requires you to answer 63 questions correctly (70%) to pass.
- Residential Contractor:
Also has 90 questions in total, but the time limit is slightly longer, at 3 hours and 30 minutes. Like the building contractor’s exam, it’s also partially open-book, with the same pass score requirements.
It’s highly recommended to invest in high-quality North Carolina Contractors License education and exam-prep material from a reputable education provider like RocketCert. That will increase your chances of not just reaching the minimum score, but surpassing it by a notable margin. As if that’s not enough, such study material is designed to add great value to your career, so it’s not only focused on helping you meet the licensing requirements.
Quick Tips for Passing Your Exam
Now, jumping into the heart of the matter, let’s look at some of the tips that will help you ace your examination:
1. Get the Right Material
Your journey to success should begin with understanding the licensing requirements and sourcing the right study and exam preparation material. The North Carolina Licensing Board for General Contractors (NCLBGC) is a good starting place if you’re trying to find an accredited education provider. Their continuing education providers list is ideal whether you’re looking for an institution to provide the study material for your initial licensing or licence renewal.
Make sure to leverage articles or information about choosing the right licensing course providers to avoid making mistakes.
2. Be One With the Material
You’ve finally found the right study material, but it can only be beneficial when used correctly. Even if you’ve been working perfectly on job sites and know your stuff, that’s not everything you’ll need in the exam room. Therefore, take your study material seriously and try to understand as much as you can. That way, you will easily handle anything the exam throws at you, even those that aren’t usually expected.
Some of the topics you may want to pay close attention to are:
- North Carolina State Building Code
- Contracting Business Responsibilities
- Estimation Costs
- Ethics
- Construction
Struggling to understand the topics more intimately? Here are a couple of things you might want to try:
- Study two hours every day for approximately two months.
- Quiz yourself frequently (every two days, ideally).
- Engage tutors and peers where possible.
Your goal should be to read and understand as opposed to memorizing to pass your exams.
3. Highlight & Tab the Book Real Good
As you get more familiar with your books, you will want to highlight and tab the important sections so you can get to the information faster. Highlighting the most crucial information and segmenting your book as clearly as possible allows you to understand its arrangement quite deeply. That way, you can be sure that even if you were given a book that’s not highlighted or tabbed, you’d still navigate through effortlessly.
4. Prepare for the Exam Well in Advance
Your best shot at getting ready for the examination is to prepare for it as early as you can. That way, you won’t go into the exam without any idea of what to expect. Wondering why this is so vital? Take into consideration the amount of time it takes to get the application for your exam through. If you don’t prepare to pass your exam, you risk failing and that will delay your licensure time by a great margin.
Get exam prep materials from a top institution like RocketCert so you get an idea of what to expect in the exam. Beyond this, you should also prepare for the actual exam day by resting up enough and planning your schedule early so you get to the exam venue well ahead of time.
Get All the Info You Need and More!
Passing your NC building or residential contractor exam may seem like an impossible feat when you’re just getting started, but the more you learn about what it takes and prepare adequately, the easier it gets. It helps a lot when you interact with people who’ve been there. While their technique may not work for you, it certainly enlightens you on where to start.
If you’re trying to learn about the licensure process or get any other help around this, RocketCert is your best bet. Not only will you have experts to hold your hand, but they will always point you in the right direction where necessary. Visit rocketcert.com today to find out for yourself and lay the right foundation for success.
