OSHA 10 Construction common mistakes
OSHA 10 Construction · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
On reporting questions, the candidate answers the 8-hour fatality notification deadline for an in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye.
All four reporting triggers appear in the same paragraph of the training material, so candidates memorize the numbers as one lump and recall whichever figure they saw first.
What to do instead
Build a two-row flashcard that forces the split: death = 8 hours, and every other event (in-patient hospitalization for treatment, amputation, loss of an eye) = 24 hours, both reported orally to OSHA by the employer, not the worker. Recite 'one shift for death, one day for the rest' before each practice set.
The candidate answers a construction-site scenario with numbers pulled from 29 CFR 1910 (for example a 4-foot fall-protection trigger or 3,000-lb anchorage) instead of the 1926 construction figures.
OSHA 10 general-industry content and construction content are studied back to back, and many candidates use general-industry study guides because they are more widely available.
What to do instead
Before answering any numeric question, check whether the question text mentions a construction activity (scaffold, trench, steel erection, crane, site). If it does, answer from Part 1926 only, and discard any distractor whose number comes from 1910. Keep a single sheet listing construction-only values: 6-ft fall trigger, 5,000 lb per employee anchorage, 5-ft excavation protection.
The candidate treats 'competent person' and 'qualified person' as interchangeable and picks either one whenever a question names a role.
Both terms sound like a senior employee, and the definitions are given in the same lesson as the inspection and authority-to-stop-work content.
What to do instead
Memorize a one-line discriminator: a competent person identifies existing and predictable hazards and has authority to take prompt corrective action (falls, scaffolds, excavations, PPE); a qualified person has a recognized degree, certificate, or professional standing and solves technical design problems (protective-system design, soil classification by an engineer). If the question is about spotting and fixing a hazard, choose competent person; if it is about designing a system, choose qualified person.
The candidate applies a 6-foot fall-protection trigger to every fall scenario, including scaffolds, steel erection, and hoist areas, and marks the scaffold answer wrong.
The 6-foot number is repeated so often in the fall-protection lesson that it becomes the automatic reflex, and the exceptions are usually taught as a short aside.
What to do instead
Learn the trigger as a short list rather than one number: unprotected edges and holes on construction sites at 6 ft, scaffolds at 10 ft, and steel erection at 15 ft, with the specific activity in the question deciding which applies. Before selecting an answer, underline the structure named in the stem (scaffold, steel beam, floor edge) and recall its own threshold.
The candidate labels a trench-wall collapse, an unguarded rotating auger that pulls in a sleeve, or a worker pinched between a swinging counterweight and a wall as 'struck-by'.
Every one of the Focus Four categories involves an impact or injury, and the four headings are taught together, so the boundaries blur under exam pressure.
What to do instead
Apply a two-question test to each scenario: is the worker hit by a moving or falling object or force travelling toward them (struck-by), or is the worker crushed, squeezed, or drawn in between objects or inside a collapse (caught-in/between)? Remember that cave-ins are always caught-in/between and that flying, falling, swinging, and rolling objects are always struck-by.
The candidate memorizes '10 feet' as the single clearance from overhead power lines and applies it no matter what voltage or equipment the question describes.
The 10-foot figure is the landmark value shown for low-voltage lines and for cranes near lines up to 50 kV, and the full voltage-dependent table is rarely reproduced in study summaries.
What to do instead
Study the clearance as a rising scale keyed to voltage (10 ft up to 50 kV, 15 ft to 200 kV, 20 ft to 350 kV, 25 ft to 500 kV, 35 ft to 750 kV, 45 ft to 1,000 kV) and note which piece of equipment is involved. In the exam, first locate the voltage stated in the stem; if no voltage is given and equipment is operating near a low-voltage line, 10 ft is the floor, not the universal answer.
The candidate accepts a guardrail, a pipe, or a stair rail as an anchorage and picks an answer that omits both the 5,000-lb-per-employee strength requirement and the free-fall and deceleration limits.
In practice workers tie off to whatever is nearby, and the strength and distance numbers are buried in a long list of personal fall arrest system requirements.
What to do instead
Anchor every anchorage question on three checkpoints: 5,000 lb per employee attached (or designed and installed under supervision of a qualified person as part of a complete system), no free fall greater than 6 ft, and maximum deceleration distance of 3.5 ft with arresting force held to 1,800 lb. Reject any answer that names a convenient structure without addressing strength.
The candidate swaps the excavation numbers, saying a protective system is required at 4 feet and that a ladder is needed at 5 feet.
The 4-foot and 5-foot figures come from different paragraphs of the same excavation lesson, and both are quoted in trenching fatality discussions.
What to do instead
Separate the two concepts. Protection from cave-ins (sloping, shoring, shielding) is triggered at 5 ft and may be waived below 5 ft only after a competent person finds no indication of a potential cave-in; a means of egress such as a ladder is required at 4 ft and must be within 25 ft of lateral travel. Add the two placement rules to the same card: spoil and equipment at least 2 ft back from the edge, and atmospheric testing where a hazardous atmosphere could exist.
The candidate answers that the employee generally pays for their hard hat, work gloves, earplugs, or respirator, or picks 'the employer pays for everything' without recognizing the safety-toe footwear and prescription eyewear exceptions.
The PPE lesson is remembered as a list of equipment to wear, and purchasing responsibility appears only as a short clause that is easy to skip.
What to do instead
Learn the rule as 'employer pays for required PPE, with narrow exceptions': non-specialty safety-toe footwear and non-specialty prescription safety eyewear may be left to the employee, and ordinary clothing and items worn for comfort are not covered. Specialty footwear and prescription eyewear that must be used off the job site are employer-paid.
The candidate reduces Hazard Communication to 'read the label' and misses that the program also requires safety data sheets, a written program, and training, or claims safety data sheets must be kept 30 years.
Labels and pictograms are the most visual part of the lesson, so they anchor the memory, while the 30-year figure is borrowed from employee exposure records.
What to do instead
Memorize HazCom as a four-part package: labels with the required elements and pictograms, safety data sheets available to workers in their work area, a written hazard communication program, and training on the hazards and precautions. Keep the 30-year retention rule attached to exposure records only, and note that there are nine GHS pictograms.