DC General Contractor study plan

Map the DC business-and-law domain into its major clusters (licensing and registration, contract formation and remedies, lien and trust-fund law, employment and wage rules, insurance and bonding, consumer protection) and assign a study weight to each based on the 50% domain share

Read the DC contractor licensing statute and regulations end to end and build a one-page matrix of license classifications, qualifying-agent rules, and renewal and reinstatement conditions

Define every acronym and agency abbreviation you meet (DCRA/DLCP, OCP, DOES, DISB, DCAB, WCA) in a running glossary so later reading is fast

Set up a spaced-repetition deck of 60 terms drawn from week 1 reading and commit to a daily 15-minute review slot

Trace the full life of a construction contract in DC from solicitation and bid through execution, change orders, substantial completion, and final payment, noting the statutory hooks at each stage

Distinguish the DC mechanics lien and trust-fund statutes from general contract remedies, and write out the notice and deadline sequence a subcontractor must follow to preserve a claim

Compare the standard AIA-style delivery models (design-bid-build, design-build, CM at risk) against DC-specific public procurement rules and list where they diverge

Solve 25 scenario questions on contract formation, breach, and damages, and log the reasoning error behind each miss

Build a compliance checklist covering DC wage and hour obligations, workers' compensation insurance, unemployment registration, and payroll reporting for a firm with employees

Explain the difference between general liability, builders risk, and surety bonds, and identify which DC projects require payment and performance bonds and at what threshold

Summarize DC consumer protection and home improvement rules, including contract disclosure and cancellation rights, in plain language a field supervisor could apply

Draft ten original practice questions on the week's material and answer them cold the next day

Complete two timed 50-question mixed sets weighted 50/50 across domains and record per-cluster accuracy

Re-teach every business-and-law cluster scoring below 70% by rewriting its rules from memory, then correcting against source

Begin the trade-knowledge domain by outlining the structural, materials, and sitework clusters and ranking them by your current confidence

Identify the three weakest clusters overall and schedule them into weeks 5 through 7

Work through concrete, soils, and foundations content: mix design basics, reinforcement placement, formwork, bearing capacity, and dewatering, converting each into a field-application note

Interpret construction drawings and specifications for a sample project and extract the governing dimensions, notes, and referenced standards

Apply the major building code chapters on occupancy, egress, fire separation, and accessibility to three short plan-review scenarios

Practice 30 calculation items (concrete volume, rebar quantity, slope, load) under time pressure and check every unit conversion

Cover structural systems and lateral-force concepts: steel, wood, masonry, and concrete framing behavior, connections, and load paths, and sketch the load path for a simple two-story building

Master MEP coordination topics: electrical load and service sizing, plumbing fixture and drainage basics, HVAC sizing and ductwork, and the coordination conflicts that drive change orders

Apply safety and OSHA-aligned requirements, including fall protection, excavation, scaffolding, and hazard communication, to five site scenarios

Review scheduling and cost control: critical path, float, earned value, and change-order cost impact, and solve eight scheduling and cost problems

Run three full-length timed simulations under exam conditions and record timing per question to build a pacing rule

Review every missed item from the simulations and classify each as knowledge gap, misread, or calculation slip, then quantify the split

Drill the business-and-law clusters that still lag, focusing on statute-based deadlines you must recall cold

Rebuild your weakest trade-knowledge cluster from scratch using the question explanations as a map to source material

Review only your error log and weakest clusters; do not open new material after day four

Re-memorize the deadline and threshold tables (lien notices, bond thresholds, license renewal, wage reporting) until recall is automatic

Take one final timed simulation and confirm scores are stable and pacing holds

Assemble the exam-day logistics plan: identification, confirmation documents, arrival time, calculator and reference rules, and a rest schedule