Tips for Studying for Your NASCLA Exam

The NASCLA Commercial General Building Contractor License (administered by the National Association of State Contractors Licensing Agencies) is the best license available for General Contractors. This is especially true if you desire to work in multiple states.

Unlike state licensing exams that are specific to one state, the NASCLA Commercial General Building Contractor Licensing Exam is accepted as a trade exam by 15 different states and one U.S. Territory. Obtaining NASCLA Certification can prevent you from having to take the extensive technical builder exams when obtaining a license in any of the accepting states:

Most states that accept the NASCLA Exam will require you to register your business with the Secretary of State so that they can tax you and submit a license application to the State Board of Contractors.

Most accepting states will also require you to pass a Business Law Exam so that you understand the laws of operating a business, specific to that particular state.

When a company with a NASCLA license finds opportunities for business in another NASCLA-accepting state, they must still apply for their contractor license for that state. NASCLA applicants are still required to meet all of the state’s license requirements, but they will never have to take the NASCLA exam again. Applicants can request copies of their test transcripts from the National Education Database at ned.nascla.org.

At Contractor Training Center, we have all the exam prep classes and materials needed to pass the NASCLA exam and the Business Law exam for all 16 of the NASCLA states as well as many states’ Business and Law exams. We also have optional Application Fulfillment Services to help you through the application process. The application process is a bit tedious, so we save our contractors time and frustration by helping ensure all application documents are correct and ready to submit for approval.

How to Study for the NASCLA exam

Applicants are only allowed to take the NASCLA exam 3 times within a one-year period after applying, so preparation is imperative. This is an open book exam and tabbing and highlighting the books is allowed and part of our curriculum. There are 21 books allowed in the testing room; our instructors have eliminated the need for 2 of the books, as they are extremely repetitive and unnecessary. This helps us lower our book bundle price, but purchasing the books is still the most expensive part of getting your NASCLA license.

It would take you a year to absorb the information found in the 21 reference manuals for the NASCLA exam. With our intensive exam prep courses, we can have you ready to take the exam in a week. We actually suggest taking the exam about 1 week after taking our NASCLA Exam Prep Course. It is not necessary to absorb all of the material in these books; the secret to passing the NASCLA exam is to be able to find the answers within the references quickly. This is where we come in. We have keyword techniques and time-saving strategies designed to make you efficient and confident while taking the exam. We also provide hundreds of NASCLA practice questions with our online practice test material to help you learn your way around the books and also plants a lot of information in your short term memory.

When you take a live class or webinar with us, we also provide you with a pre-recorded version of the class. This way, you have something to refer back to that you can watch as many times as you like. We allow you access to the material for 180 days after purchase. If you need it for a longer time period, a course access extension fee of $50 will apply.

The online content is where you will find the tabbing and highlighting instructions as well as the practice questions. We have optional services where we can send you the books already tabbed and highlighted, which will save you countless hours of preparing your books for the exam. Our tabbing and highlighting services are especially popular with busy professionals!

Pass Your Exam the First Time

At Contractor Training Center, we have an extremely high first-time pass rate for the NASCLA exam. If you do not pass on the first attempt, we will ask for your examination report from the testing center, to show us the categories of material where you struggled. We will use this information to give you supplemental instruction and let you attend another class for free. We are very good at training our contractors to pass this exam.

We know having this exam under your belt is important for your business, and we take it seriously. Check out our National NASCLA page to find out more about our prep seminar and reference materials for the National NASCLA Accredited Contractor Exam. Our goal is your ultimate success!