Sitonce
Country: US
Show exams for United States Hong Kong
Sign in
Practice and exam technique

Free practice questions

Compiled by the Sitonce editorial team from the PSI Candidate Information Bulletin, NASCLA's own published material and the federal standards named belowUpdated 3 min readFacts verified 4 September 2026
The short answer

Free questions are useful for meeting the format and testing your index. They are less useful as a score predictor, because most free sets do not match the published category weighting.

Worth doing. Worth understanding the limits of.

Four questions

Question 1

A concrete cylinder is tested at 7 days and reaches 2,100 psi against a specified 28-day strength of 3,000 psi. What is the correct conclusion?

  1. The mix has failed and must be rejected
  2. The result is consistent with normal strength gain and the 28-day test governs
  3. The cylinder was cured incorrectly
  4. The strength must be extrapolated linearly
Answer: B. Specified strength is at 28 days. A 7-day break well short of the 28-day figure is expected, since concrete gains strength over time. The 28-day result governs acceptance, and a 7-day break is an early indicator rather than a decision point.
Question 2

A subcontractor has not been paid and wants to preserve lien rights. What is generally the first requirement?

  1. Filing suit within one year
  2. Serving a preliminary notice within a statutory period after first furnishing
  3. Recording the lien before starting work
  4. Notifying the surety
Answer: B. Lien statutes are deadline-driven and the first deadline is usually a preliminary notice tied to when the claimant first furnished labor or materials. Missing it can extinguish the right before any lien is recorded. The exact periods vary by state, which is why the question tests the sequence rather than a number.
Question 3

Which of the following best describes a change order?

  1. A verbal instruction from the owner
  2. A written modification to the contract covering scope, price and time
  3. A request for information
  4. A supplement to the schedule of values
Answer: B. A change order is a written amendment addressing all three of scope, price and time. Verbal direction may create an obligation in some circumstances but it is not a change order, and the failure to convert directives into written change orders is a routine cause of disputes.
Question 4

Under OSHA fall protection rules for construction, at what height does the general trigger apply?

  1. 4 feet
  2. 6 feet
  3. 10 feet
  4. 15 feet
Answer: B. The general construction trigger is 6 feet above a lower level. Four feet is the general industry figure and it is the most commonly chosen wrong answer, because contractors who have worked under both sets of rules mix them up.
What free sets are bad at

Weighting. Free question banks tend to cluster around whatever is easy to write, which is usually safety numbers. The published blueprint gives Procurement and Contracting 31 of 125 questions, and almost no free set reflects that.

Use them for the index

The right way to work a free set is with the books open, tabbing where you land. Then even a badly weighted question set builds something useful.

Scoring them closed book tells you very little, since the real exam is open book.

Common questions

Are free NASCLA practice questions worth using?

Yes for format and for building your index, less so as a score predictor since most sets do not match the published weighting.

What is the OSHA construction fall protection trigger?

Six feet above a lower level. Four feet is the general industry figure and the common wrong answer.

When is concrete strength measured?

At 28 days. A 7-day break is an early indicator, not an acceptance decision.

What does a change order cover?

Scope, price and time, in writing.

How should I work free questions?

With the books open, tabbing where you land, rather than scoring them closed book.

Read next