SC General Contractor common mistakes
SC General Contractor · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
When a question describes a wall, roof, or foundation assembly, the candidate answers from the first plan-type that comes to mind (the floor plan) instead of identifying which document actually governs the assembly - the section, the detail, the schedule, or the written specification.
Field experience teaches plans as pictures that are read alongside other documents on the same desk. On a text-only exam the coordinating documents are not visible, so the candidate substitutes a mental image for the source that would actually control the answer.
What to do instead
Before answering any assembly or material question, write down three words in the margin: plan, section, spec. Then ask which of the three would state that dimension, fastener, or material, and answer from that layer. Practice by converting a set of real drawings into a one-page written description, then quizzing yourself on which source each fact came from.
On conflicts between drawings, specifications, addenda, and the agreement, the candidate reflexively picks 'the drawings govern' or 'the larger number wins' rather than applying the stated order of precedence.
Most candidates have never had to resolve a document conflict formally - in the field a phone call settles it. Without a memorized precedence ladder they fall back on a fairness instinct or on whichever document type they trust most.
What to do instead
Memorize a single precedence ladder and be able to recite it cold, noting where addenda and written clarifications sit relative to the base documents and where the agreement sits relative to everything. Drill ten conflict scenarios and answer each by citing the rung of the ladder, not by intuition.
On differing site conditions, extra work, or schedule impacts, the candidate chooses the answer where work proceeds and money is settled later, or where the superintendent's verbal direction is treated as authorization.
This is genuinely how small projects run, so the field answer feels correct. Exam questions instead test the contractual notice and written-authorization requirements, which are the opposite of the informal practice the candidate has lived.
What to do instead
Reframe every change question as: who must be notified, in what form, and within what period. Build a three-column card - event, notice requirement, time limit - and answer by naming the procedural step before considering the practical one. Flag any answer containing 'later,' 'verbal,' or 'as agreed on site' as suspect until the procedure is satisfied.
Pricing questions are solved by adding a percentage to cost and calling the result the margin, or by mixing units - dollars per cubic yard against dollars per square foot, or inches against feet - without converting first.
Markup and margin differ by the denominator, and field pricing is often done in shorthand where the difference is absorbed by judgment. Under exam conditions the shortcut produces an answer that appears in the option list as a distractor.
What to do instead
Write the formula before touching the calculator: selling price = cost divided by (1 minus margin) for a margin problem, cost times (1 plus markup) for a markup problem. Carry units in every line of work and cancel them explicitly. Sanity-check by asking whether the result should be larger or smaller than cost, and by roughly estimating the answer first.
Quantity takeoffs are computed as exact net dimensions with no waste, lap, or overlap allowance, or quantities are rounded at every intermediate step so the final figure drifts away from the keyed answer.
Candidates who take off quantities daily do it in a spreadsheet that carries decimals silently, so rounding discipline and waste factors are habitual rather than deliberate. Paper calculation exposes the missing step.
What to do instead
Adopt a fixed order: compute net quantity, apply the specified waste or lap allowance, convert to the purchasing unit, then round once at the end. Practice ten takeoffs by hand with the intermediate values written out, and note which items (masonry, roofing, reinforcing, siding) conventionally carry an allowance and which do not.
Critical path and float questions are answered by scanning the network for the longest-looking chain or the chain with the most activities, rather than performing a forward and backward pass.
The critical path is the longest duration path, not the busiest one, and the eye is drawn to the chain with the most boxes. Without the pass written out, float questions become guesses.
What to do instead
On every network question, do the arithmetic: forward pass for early dates, backward pass for late dates, subtract for total float, and identify zero-float activities as critical. Do this even when the answer seems obvious, and time yourself doing five networks so the mechanical routine is fast enough to use under exam pressure.
Safety questions are answered with the general principle ('keep the site safe,' 'provide protection') instead of the specific trigger - the height at which fall protection is required, the depth at which an excavation needs a protective system, or the exposure level that requires a specific control.
Candidates know the intent of the rules from toolbox talks but not the numeric thresholds, and two or three options in a safety question are usually true statements that simply do not apply at the stated dimension.
What to do instead
Build a numeric threshold sheet - height, depth, distance, exposure, duration - and memorize it as paired facts ('trigger, then control'). For each practice question, underline the number in the stem before reading the options, then eliminate every option whose control does not match that number.
Permit and inspection sequencing is treated as common sense, so the candidate cannot say who requests a given inspection, what must be visible when it occurs, or which work may proceed before which approval.
On real projects the superintendent, the office, and the inspector each handle parts of the sequence, so no single person holds the whole chain in memory. The exam asks about the chain.
What to do instead
Draw the sequence as a linear checklist from permit application through certificate of occupancy, and annotate each node with three items: who calls for it, what must be complete and exposed, and what cannot proceed until it passes. Include the points where work may not be covered or concealed before inspection.
Concrete, soils, and site work questions are answered using the fastest field practice the candidate has seen - the crew's slump, the crew's backfill lift, the crew's cure time - rather than the code-referenced or standard minimum.
Field practice is often driven by schedule and by what an inspector has historically accepted, which drifts from the published minimum. The candidate's most vivid memory is the shortcut, not the standard.
What to do instead
For each topic, write the standard requirement next to the field shortcut and note explicitly that the exam keys the standard. Anchor each number to its source family (concrete placement and curing, subgrade preparation and compaction, backfill lift thickness) so recall is tied to a document rather than to a job site.
Payment and lien questions are answered on fairness - 'the sub did the work, so the sub gets paid' - without regard to notice, filing, and deadline mechanics or to whether the project is residential or commercial.
Fairness reasoning produces a confidently wrong answer, and lien procedure is the part of contract administration most often handled entirely by an attorney or a credit department, so the candidate has never internalized it.
What to do instead
Build a statutory timeline card from the state code itself, keeping residential and commercial paths separate, and record for each step who must act, in what form, and by when. Verify every date against the official statute or the board's published reference before relying on it. On the exam, answer by locating the step in the sequence rather than by judging the equities.