Fundamentals, Terminology, and Governing Concepts
Build the vocabulary first
This domain tests whether you can use the profession's words precisely, because most missed items here are vocabulary traps rather than hard facts. Separate these pairs cold: hazard (a source of harm) vs risk (the combination of likelihood and severity of that harm); compliance (meeting a legally binding requirement) vs conformance (meeting a specification, standard, or internal requirement you may have chosen to adopt); policy (why and what) vs process (the sequence of activities) vs procedure (the documented, step-level how); inspection (examining an activity, product, or condition against criteria) vs audit (a systematic, independent, documented evaluation of a management system); correction (fix the item) vs corrective action (fix the system that produced it).
Know the hierarchy of authority: statute or regulation → adopted consensus standard → regulator guidance → organizational policy and procedure. Each level is more specific and easier to change than the one above it, and an internal procedure may be stricter than the regulation but never looser. Learn the modifier convention: shall and must are mandatory, should is a strong recommendation, may is permissive, and guidance explaining how to comply does not itself create a new legal duty.
Traps that show up
- Treating a consensus standard as law when it was never incorporated by reference.
- Assuming a certification body's mark is the same as an accredited accreditation.
- Answering with the most protective control when the question asks for the required control.
- Confusing an employee's right to refuse imminently dangerous work with a right to refuse any disliked task.
Rule of thumb
When a question cites a document, ask: who issued it, is it binding on this organization, and does it say shall or should? Your answer follows the binding text, not the best practice you would prefer.