TN General Contractor common mistakes
TN General Contractor · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Treating Tennessee licensing as one flat dollar threshold - the candidate answers 'licensed at $25,000' and then fails every item that turns on the separate limited/home-improvement tier ($3,000–$24,999) or on the consequence of contracting without a license (statutory bar to suing for the contract price, plus criminal exposure).
The $25,000 figure is the most repeated number in prep material, so it becomes a mental shortcut; the tiered structure and the civil-penalty consequence are learned as trivia rather than as one linked rule set.
What to do instead
Build a single 'threshold ladder' card ($3,000 / $25,000) with two columns per tier: what license is required, and what happens if you do the work without it. Rehearse it by answering 'which license and what penalty' for five dollar amounts, including one just under and one just over a boundary.
Calculating the mechanics' lien deadline from the wrong event - running the clock from contract signing, from substantial completion of the whole project, or from the date of the last invoice sent - instead of from the last day labor or materials were furnished to the project.
Invoice dates and contract dates are the dates the candidate handles daily, so the mind substitutes a familiar date for the legally operative one.
What to do instead
Write out the lien timeline by hand from 'last furnishing' forward, naming each act (file the lien, serve the owner, then enforce by suit) and its trigger event. Before answering, underline in the stem which triggering event is described.
Selecting the 'extra work' answer on change-order items without checking whether written notice was given inside the contractual time window, and without distinguishing a formal change order from a constructive change.
Candidates read change-order questions as questions about fairness ('the owner got the benefit') rather than about procedure, so they skip the notice clause that makes the claim valid or dead.
What to do instead
Adopt a fixed two-question drill for every changes/claims item: (1) was timely written notice given or waived? (2) is this a directed change, a constructive change, or a cardinal change? Answer only after both are resolved.
Calculating total float and free float interchangeably, or identifying the critical path by counting activities or by the largest dollar value rather than by summing durations along the path with the least total float.
Float definitions sound nearly identical in prose, and under time pressure the candidate grabs whatever path 'looks long' instead of doing the forward/backward pass arithmetic.
What to do instead
On scratch paper, do the forward pass and backward pass numerically for every node before reading the answer choices, and state the definition of each float type in one line first. Practice until total float and free float differ in at least one worked example.
Answering trenching items with the 4-foot general-industry fall or the 5-foot ladder rule and concluding a protective system is optional at shallow depth - and placing spoil piles or equipment right at the excavation edge.
Multiple OSHA numeric thresholds (4 ft, 5 ft, 6 ft) get blended into one 'about five feet' memory, so the candidate applies the right-sounding number to the wrong hazard.
What to do instead
Make a numeric threshold table with one row per hazard (falls, trenches, ladders, scaffolding) and one column per number, then drill it by being given the number and naming the hazard - not the reverse.
Choosing 'add water at the jobsite to restore slump' or 'accept the load because it is within tolerance' on concrete placement items, rather than requiring an approved admixture, remixing, or rejecting the load.
Adding water is the field habit candidates have seen or performed, so the familiar practice overrides the water-cement ratio principle that governs strength.
What to do instead
Memorize the single causal chain water-cement ratio up, strength down, and answer from the chain rather than from field habit. Also fix the acceptance tests in memory: slump, cylinder specimens, and air content each have an assigned actor and timing.
Placing the vapor retarder on the wrong side of the assembly, or treating housewrap as a vapor barrier, when answering envelope and roof-assembly items.
The candidate reasons from 'keep water out' instead of from climate and dew-point direction, so the retarder and the weather barrier get collapsed into one product.
What to do instead
Draw the wall and roof section with the warm side labelled for heating-dominated and cooling-dominated conditions, and place retarder, air barrier, and weather barrier as three distinct layers on the drawing. Answer envelope items only after redrawing the section.
Treating substantial completion and final completion as synonyms - releasing retainage, starting the warranty clock, and assessing liquidated damages from the same date.
In everyday speech both mean 'done', and the candidate does not run a separate mental thread for what each milestone legally triggers.
What to do instead
Keep a milestone-to-consequence list (retainage release, warranty start, liquidated damages cutoff, surety consent requirements, statute of limitations start) and answer each item by naming the milestone first, then its consequence.
Reading contract and licence-law questions as fairness questions ('the subcontractor did the work, so it should be paid') instead of as rule-application questions about notice, privity, and statutory conditions.
The exam is drawn from practice where equitable instincts are usually right, so the candidate answers from outcome preference rather than from the governing clause or statute.
What to do instead
For every narrative item, write in the margin which rule is being tested before looking at the options, and eliminate any option whose only support is 'that seems fair'. Practice by writing the governing rule for ten stems without seeing the choices.
Confusing profit with cash position on financial-management items - treating a profitable job as solvent, ignoring retainage receivable and over/under billings, and computing working capital or current ratio with long-term debt included.
Income-statement thinking dominates because it is the familiar language of small contracting, while job-cost and balance-sheet mechanics are learned late and weakly.
What to do instead
Work five problems that give a profitable income statement and a failing cash forecast, and reconcile the two line by line (retainage, over/under billing, mobilization). Fix the ratio definitions to a written reference card before computing anything.