Study guide
The complete syllabus, taught chapter by chapter.
Single-user licence. You may print this file and write on it. You may not redistribute, resell or post it. © Sitonce 2026.
Study guide, 2026 edition.
Copyright © 2026 Sitonce. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by the single-user licence above.
Preface
The complete syllabus for the NASCLA Accredited Examination for Commercial General Building Contractors. Read all 12 chapters and you have been taught every one of the 51 subtopics the examiner tests.
The next chapter, The exam at a glance, is what makes the rest of this book useful. It says how many questions each topic carries, and the study plan on the page after converts those weights into hours. Two topics carry 56 of 115 marks between them; the lightest carries 3. Time spent should follow that, not the order the chapters happen to be printed in.
Once you have read a chapter, drill on it. 576 practice questions live on the Sitonce website (sitonce.com). They adapt to what you keep getting wrong, keep a notebook of your own mistakes, and explain each miss against the option you actually chose. That adaptation is where the website earns its place; a paper file cannot do it.
When you have worked through the chapters and the practice questions, sit the five mock papers that ship alongside this book. Each carries its answer key at the back of the same file. Sit them the way you will sit the real one - a mock done in pieces over three evenings measures your notes, not your recall.
The exam at a glance
Everything about the exam itself: what it is, how it runs, what it costs, and how it is scored. Read this before you plan your revision.
| Authority | National Association of State Contractors Licensing Agencies (NASCLA) |
|---|---|
| Delivered by | PSI Services |
| Format | Multiple choice, OPEN BOOK. Candidates may bring the approved reference list into the testing room. At a PSI test centre |
| Language | English |
| Questions | 115 |
| Time | 330 minutes (360 minute appointment) |
| Sittings | On demand. Apply through the NASCLA National Examination Database, then book any open PSI slot. Up to three attempts inside the one-year approval window |
| Fee | USD 130 to PSI, plus a USD 65 NASCLA application fee (retake USD 130) |
| Results | Pass or fail on screen at the end of the session, with a score report before you leave the centre |
| Validity | The result is held in the NASCLA National Examination Database and may be sent to any participating state licensing agency |
| Eligibility | None. Nothing has to be completed before you sit the examination.
|
70% is the published pass mark.
The pass mark is 81 correct out of 115 scored questions, which PSI publishes. Any pass-rate figure quoted for this exam is an estimate - neither NASCLA nor PSI publishes one.
The paper is drawn to fixed weights per topic. This is the arithmetic behind the study plan on the next page:
| Ch. | Topic | Marks | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Procurement and Contracting Requirements | 31 | 27% |
| 2 | General Requirements | 25 | 22% |
| 3 | Site Construction | 15 | 13% |
| 4 | Concrete | 6 | 5% |
| 5 | Metals | 6 | 5% |
| 6 | Mechanical and Plumbing Systems | 6 | 5% |
| 7 | Wood | 5 | 4% |
| 8 | Thermal and Moisture Protection | 5 | 4% |
| 9 | Finishes | 5 | 4% |
| 10 | Masonry | 4 | 3% |
| 11 | Doors, Windows and Glazing | 4 | 3% |
| 12 | Electrical Systems | 3 | 3% |
| Total | 115 | 100% |
Study plan
The commonest wrong strategy is to spend equal time on every chapter. The paper is not weighted equally; the plan should not be either. The share column below is what matters; the hours column applies a 40-hour reference total for scale.
| Ch. | Chapter | Weight | of 40 h |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Procurement and Contracting Requirements | 27% | 11 h |
| 2 | General Requirements | 22% | 9 h |
| 3 | Site Construction | 13% | 5 h |
| 4 | Concrete | 5% | 2 h |
| 5 | Metals | 5% | 2 h |
| 6 | Mechanical and Plumbing Systems | 5% | 2 h |
| 7 | Wood | 4% | 2 h |
| 8 | Thermal and Moisture Protection | 4% | 2 h |
| 9 | Finishes | 4% | 2 h |
| 10 | Masonry | 3% | 1 h |
| 11 | Doors, Windows and Glazing | 3% | 1 h |
| 12 | Electrical Systems | 3% | 1 h |
| Total | 100% | 40 h |
Whatever total time you decide on for this paper, allocate this share of it to each chapter. Pick the total from your own baseline: how many marks you dropped the first time you attempted a mock, and how many hours a week you can give it.
Chapter 1
27% of the paper, or 31 of the 115 scored items - the heaviest category on the exam. Contracts, money, bonds, payment and the law of running a construction business. Candidates who prepare for this exam as a trade test and skim this chapter lose more marks here than anywhere else.
By the end of this chapter you will be able to explain:
The contract is not one document. It is a set, and the set is defined inside the agreement itself. The agreement, the conditions of the contract, the drawings, the specifications, addenda issued before execution, and modifications issued after it.
Order of precedence decides which document wins when two of them disagree, and a well-drafted contract states that order rather than leaving it to argument.
The usual hierarchy runs: modifications, then the agreement, then addenda in reverse order of issue, then supplementary conditions, then general conditions, then specifications, then drawings. Later beats earlier, and the negotiated beats the standard.
Addenda are issued before bids are opened and become part of the contract. Change orders are issued after award. Confusing the two is a reliable exam trap because both modify the documents.
Between the drawings and the specifications, the specifications usually govern on materials and quality; the drawings govern on quantity and location. Where the contract is silent, that convention is what a court tends to apply.
Figured dimensions govern over scaled ones. Never scale a drawing to resolve a conflict when a written dimension exists, and a note on the drawing beats the drawing it sits on.
Anything shown on one and not the other is still required where the documents say they are complementary - which they almost always do. "It wasn't on my drawing" is not a defence when the specification called for it.
NASCLA Commercial GB: the whole syllabus taught, the questions that test it, 5 timed mocks, and all 6 PDFs to print.