Building Codes and Standards (BC) Exam

The Certified Building Official is responsible to perform for the following tasks -

• Development, administration, interpretation, application, and enforcement of the codes adopted by their jurisdiction.
• Manage their department's budget and the certification and training of inspection staff
• Understanding of laws and regulations pertaining to human resources
• Thorough knowledge of customer service
• Develop and maintain effective relationships with all client groups
• Ability to effectively communicate with contractors, homeowners, subordinates, superiors, news media, elected officials, and civic organizations.

Proctored Remote Online Testing (PRONTO) is available 24/7, 365 days a year, in any secure location such as your home or office.

Computer-based Testing is administered frequently at over 350 sites across the nation and outside the U.S. You can locate the testing availability and locations once your purchase the exam. Exams are good for one year from the time of purchase.

A license is a permit to work in a particular occupation, issued as a result of state or local legislation.

While many jurisdictions do require an ICC certification for licensing, we recommend that you contact your local jurisdiction or municipality directly to determine the steps required to obtain a license.

As a Certified Building Official (CBO), you will be responsible for -

• Development and implementation of programs that provide for the review and inspections of all occupancies including, fire and life safety, interior finish, occupancy type, height and area limitations, construction type, and general fire safety, in accordance with Codes and Standards adopted by their respective jurisdictions.
• Responsible to develop and implement programs for plan review, permitting and enforcement to ensure compliance with adopted Codes and Standards.

Note for National Certification & National Contractor Exams:

Any copyrighted, bound book may be used at a test site.** Exam questions will only come from the listed approved references, and exam appeals may only be based on the listed approved references.

Search for the exam you plan to take in the Exam Catalog to get a list of approved references to bring to your exam.

**Please Note: Some exams are excluded from this rule and either require specific references or are closed-book examinations.

Identification:

have the same legal first name and last name that matches your exam record

not be expired

have a signature

The Building Codes and Standards (BC) module is one of the 3 exams developed for candidates who wish to pursue a career as a Certified Building Official (CBO). Now, to obtain the CBO, you will be required to also qualify the Legal module (MG) exam and the Management module (MM) exam.

Arrive at the exam site at least 30 minutes before the examination is scheduled to begin. Remember, it is your responsibility to already be familiar with the regulations governing Code Council examinations.

If you arrive more than 15 minutes late for your appointment, you may be refused admission and exam fees will be forfeited.

Results for examinations taken online or at a testing site are available immediately after completion of the examination.

A scaled score transforms a raw test score (the number of test questions answered correctly) into other measurement units, called a scale score. However, please know that a scale score is not the number of questions answered correctly, nor the percentage of questions answered correctly.

Test questions are in four-option, multiple-choice format, with one answer on each question scored as correct.

• Exam Name: Building Codes and Standards 
• Exam ID: BC
• State National / All
• Type: National Certification
• Code: 2018
• Total Questions: 80 Questions
• Exam Duration: 2 hours
• Exam Type: Open Book
• Passing Score: 75 and above
• Exam Conducted: Proctored Online Testing 

If we simply reported the total number of questions answered correctly (the raw score), there would be a different passing score for each form of the test (because of those differences in difficulty). This would be confusing to candidates. So, we convert these raw scores to a constant scale such that, say, the designated 75 continues as the minimum score required to pass regardless of the form administered, knowing the number of correct answers needed to pass varies from form to form and from year to year.

Generally speaking, a contractor/trade exam requires a score of 70 to pass whereas certification exams require a 75. We strongly recommend you read below for more detailed information on passing scores:

Certification Exam Scores

• A passing score is the score set by the ICC and/or/with the Exam Development Committee (EDC) as the minimum score needed to pass the exam. This score is technically called a scale score and is set as 75 for the National Certification exams.

Contractor/Trades Exam Scores

• Most Contractor/Trades examinations require a candidate to answer at least 70 percent of their questions correctly in order to pass the exam. The Master Electrician examination requires 75 percent of the questions to be answered correctly to pass. It is important that you carefully read the relevant bulletin or contact the licensing agency for information regarding their minimum passing requirement.

For all exams, if you achieve a passing score, you will be notified with the word “PASS.” No numerical score is provided to passing candidates. Your score report will include a Code Council ID number which participating jurisdictions can use to verify your passing status here.

The Building Codes and Standards (BC) Exam covers the following topics - 

• Architectural Plan Review  - 31%
• Structural Plan Review - 13%
• Building Systems Plan Review - 19%
• Field Inspection - 37%

If you're taking a Certification exam:

• You will have six exam attempts within a six-month period.
• You are responsible for paying the exam fee at every attempt.
• Once you have attempted an exam six times, you must wait six months from the first attempt to register again.

If you're taking a Contractor exam:

• You must wait ten days between each time you test before you will be allowed to test again, unless indicated otherwise by the applicable licensing board.
• You may test as many times as needed until you pass the exam unless indicated otherwise by licensing board requirements.
• You are responsible for paying the exam fee at every attempt.

The Code Council reserves the right to revoke or withhold any examination scores if, in its sole opinion, there is adequate reason to question their validity. Reasons are:

• Giving or receiving assistance with answers during testing
• Using unauthorized materials during testing
• Failing to abide by the rules presented or directions from the proctor(s)
• Attempting to, or removing examination materials or questions from the testing center.

ICC Exams are designed to test minimal competency on the subject matter. Simply being able to locate information in a reference is not sufficient to demonstrate this competency, and time constraints are set in consideration of this fact.

There is not enough time on any exam to look up every question on an exam.

Reference materials are allowed and encouraged to supplement knowledge of a subject. We recommend becoming very familiar with all reference material in order to minimize time searching for answers.