Residential Plans Examiner (R3)

The Residential Plans Examiner (R3) exam covers the following topics - 

• DOMAIN 1 - Administrative 5%
• DOMAIN 2 - Architectural and Life Safety - 25%
• DOMAIN 3 - Structural - 25%
• DOMAIN 4 - Energy Efficiency - 5%
• DOMAIN 5 - Mechanical - 10%
• DOMAIN 6 - Plumbing - 10%

The exam for a Residential Plans Examiner has been built to review plans and construction documents for one-and-two family dwellings. Together with their accessory structures for compliance with the local codes and standards as adopted by their jurisdiction. Some of the important roles and responsibilities include -

• Understand the evidence of the plan review is documented indicating deficiencies that must be corrected, or that the plan is available to be issued.
• Identify whether plan changes need to be made
• Also, the residential plans examiner verifies that the submitted documentation is complete
• Illustrates the work proposed, prior to permitting issuance.

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:

You must have your government-issued photo identification ready to show the proctor (e.g. driver’s license, passport).

The identification must:

• have the same legal first name and last name that matches your exam record
• not be expired
• have a signature

• Type: National Certification
• Code: 2018
• Total Questions: 60
• Exam Duration: 2 hours
• Exam Type: Open Books
• Passing Score: 75 and above
• Exam Type: Online Proctored Exam
• Exam Price:  $219 USD

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.