WV General Contractor common mistakes
WV General Contractor · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Treating contract time limits and notice deadlines as approximate, and missing the written notice window after a delay event (e.g., waiting until the end of the month to notify the owner of a weather delay).
Candidates study substantive construction topics and skim the contract administration provisions, so they do not internalize that most contracts condition time extensions and change-order claims on notice within a short stated period.
What to do instead
Build a one-page 'clock sheet' of every deadline type (notice of delay, notice of claim, lien filing, bid protest, substantial completion punch list) and drill scenario questions that ask 'what happens if the contractor waits?' until the consequence of late notice is automatic.
Answering schedule questions by choosing the option that shortens the project, rather than the option that reflects critical-path logic (e.g., crashing a non-critical activity and expecting the completion date to move).
Candidates without field scheduling experience reason intuitively that 'faster on any task = faster project' and do not check float before evaluating a schedule change.
What to do instead
Practice 15-20 network-diagram problems where the correct answer requires computing total float first; for each, write one sentence on why the tempting 'do it faster' answer fails.
Confusing the roles and authority of the owner, architect/engineer, and contractor on questions about who approves substitutions, who interprets the drawings, and who has stop-work authority.
The exam tests standard AIA-style role separation, but candidates who learned on the job in a design-build or small-shop setting assume the contractor informally makes those calls.
What to do instead
Make a three-column table (owner / A-E / contractor) for approvals, interpretations, inspections, and payment certification, and answer every role question by locating the action in that table before reading the options.
Computing markup and overhead as a single blended percentage applied to the direct cost, instead of separating overhead, profit, and contingency and applying them to the correct base.
Candidates memorize a 'multiply by 1.15' shortcut and never practice problems where overhead applies to direct cost but profit applies to direct plus overhead, so the base is wrong.
What to do instead
Work a set of bid problems with the calculation written out line by line (direct cost, then overhead on direct, then profit on subtotal) and check each answer by backing the percentage out of the final number.
Ignoring quantity takeoff units and waste factors, so the answer is the net measured quantity with no allowance for overlap, breakage, or standard stock lengths.
Candidates treat takeoff as pure arithmetic on the drawing dimensions and overlook that real bids add waste and round up to purchasable units.
What to do instead
For each material category (framing lumber, drywall, roofing, concrete, masonry) memorize a typical waste allowance and practice converting net quantity to order quantity, including rounding to full units.
Missing that bid documents control over verbal or assumed information, and answering bid-scope questions based on what 'usually' is included rather than what the specifications and drawings state.
Experienced candidates rely on trade custom and prior jobs instead of reading the stated scope, inclusions, and exclusions in the bid documents.
What to do instead
Drill questions that hinge on a specific specification clause or a listed exclusion; before answering, identify which document governs and treat trade custom as irrelevant unless the documents are silent.
Selecting concrete mix, curing, or reinforcement answers based on rules of thumb without matching the application (slab on grade vs. structural, freeze-thaw exposure, sulfate soils).
Candidates memorize a single 'typical' mix or cure time and do not connect the exposure condition in the question to the required air entrainment, water-cement ratio, or cover.
What to do instead
Build a matrix of exposure conditions (freeze-thaw, sulfate, chloride, interior slab) against required mix parameters and curing duration, and answer by matching the stated condition to the matrix rather than to memory of one job.
Mixing up soil and compaction terminology, such as treating optimum moisture content, maximum dry density, and Proctor test results as interchangeable, or assuming 100% compaction means zero voids.
These terms sound similar and candidates learn them as vocabulary rather than as a relationship, so they cannot reason about why density peaks at a specific moisture content.
What to do instead
Draw the compaction curve once by hand, label optimum moisture and maximum dry density, and answer related questions by locating the scenario on that curve (wet of optimum, dry of optimum, target percentage of maximum density).
Applying the wrong fall-protection or excavation threshold, such as citing a 10-foot trigger where a stricter rule applies, or treating a trench as exempt from shoring because it 'looks stable'.
Candidates memorize a single number from one standard and do not distinguish general industry thresholds from stricter state or site-specific requirements, and they underestimate cave-in risk in stable-looking soil.
What to do instead
Make a threshold card listing the trigger heights and depths for fall protection, guardrails, excavation protective systems, and access/egress, note which numbers are federal minimums versus stricter, and drill until each number is recalled with its condition.
Answering licensing and regulatory questions from general business instinct rather than West Virginia-specific rules, such as assuming a license from another state transfers or that a specialty trade needs no separate qualification.
Candidates prepare with generic contractor-business material and never verify the state's licensing structure, exemption list, and continuing-education or renewal requirements.
What to do instead
Obtain the state licensing statute and rules, extract a one-page summary of who must be licensed, exemptions, renewal and continuing-education requirements, and disciplinary grounds, and test yourself on scenarios that turn on a state-specific exemption.