United States
Hong KongWhy people fail an open-book exam
They run out of time. The causes are untabbed books, not knowing which book answers which category, no first-pass strategy, and underestimating the business and law content.
Almost nobody fails this exam because they did not know the trade. They fail because they could not find the answer in time.
One: the books were not tabbed properly
Or were tabbed too coarsely. A tab that lands you in a chapter is not much better than no tab, because you still have pages to scan.
Tabs need to reach provisions, not sections. That is a lot of tabs, and building them is the work.
Two: not knowing which book to open
With two dozen references, choosing the wrong one costs a minute before you have looked at anything.
A candidate who knows that a fall protection question means the OSHA standards and a retainage question means the business and law guide has already saved the time that decides the paper.
Working strictly in order means spending three minutes on question four while eighty questions you could answer instantly sit ahead of you. A first pass on everything you know, then the lookups, is the single highest-value habit for this exam.
Four: underestimating business and law
Procurement and Contracting Requirements is 31 of the 115 scored questions. General Requirements, which is largely OSHA, is another 25.
That is 56 questions - nearly half the paper - in bidding, contracts, bonds, liens, estimating, employment law and safety regulation. Most candidates arrive strong on trade craft and thin on exactly this.
What none of these are
A knowledge problem. Every one is a preparation problem, and every one is fixable in a few weeks by someone who knows it is there.
Common questions
Why do people fail the NASCLA exam?
They run out of time, usually from untabbed books, not knowing which book answers which category, working in strict order, or being thin on business and law.
Is it a knowledge problem?
Rarely. Most failures are candidates who knew the answers and could not locate them in time.
What is the highest-value habit?
A first pass on everything answerable without a book, then the lookups with known time remaining.
Which content is most underestimated?
Procurement and Contracting Requirements at 31 questions and General Requirements at 25 - 56 of 115 between them.
How fine should tabs be?
Fine enough to reach a provision rather than a chapter, which means a lot of them.