What candidates ask about the California Contractor Law and Business Exam. Every answer is read off a CSLB page or document and says which one. Where CSLB publishes nothing, the answer says so instead of guessing.
LBExam is independent and not affiliated with the Contractors State License Board.
Usually, yes. An applicant for a contractor license passes the law and business exam and a trade exam for the classification applied for, unless a waiver of the trade exam applies. The C-61 Limited Specialty classification has no trade exam at all. The law and business paper is the same paper whichever classification you are after, which is why more people sit it than any other CSLB examination.
The waivers CSLB describes are waivers of the trade exam, not of this one. The registrar may waive the trade exam where the applicant is currently the qualifier for a license in good standing in the same classification, has been that qualifier within the past five years, or has passed both exams in that classification within the past five years. California has reciprocity arrangements with Arizona, Louisiana and Nevada, and CSLB says a contractor coming in under one of them still takes and passes the law and business exam.
Not until CSLB has accepted the application and referred it for testing. It then mails a Notice to Schedule for Examination, and from there you pay and book directly with PSI, online or by phone. Each exam is a separate fee and the two can be sat on the same day or on different days.
Eighteen months from the day the application is accepted. Miss that and the application is void, and a new one with new fees starts the clock again. Results themselves last longer: they are good for five years, so an applicant who passes one paper and fails the other only retakes the one they failed.
One study guide per exam, free. The Law and Business guide lists the sections and the share of the paper each one carries, prints three sample questions, and names the reference material the questions are written against: the contractors license law, the Labor Code, the Financial Code, the EDD employer guide, IRS Circular E, the DIR Public Works Manual and the Cal/OSHA safety orders. Almost all of that is public law, and the parts of it this site has ingested are on the sources page.
No. Its own words: there are no schools or application preparation organizations that are affiliated with or agents of CSLB. That covers this site as much as any other. What CSLB endorses is its own study guides, which are free to download, and the law they point at, which is free to read.
The study guide divides the paper into 7 sections and gives each a share of it: Business Organization and Licensing 13 percent, Business Finances 15 percent, Employment Requirements 20 percent, Insurance and Liens 12 percent, Contract Requirements and Execution 21 percent, Public Works 5 percent, Safety 14 percent. The guide adds that the percentages are approximate. Practice on this site is split the same way, so a section that is a fifth of the paper is a fifth of a run.
CSLB does not publish a number, and any site that gives you one is not reading it off CSLB. What CSLB does publish about the paper: 3.5 hours to complete it, taken on a computer, multiple choice with four options and one best answer, some questions needing arithmetic, and no penalty for guessing.
CSLB does not publish one. Not published. CSLB says the percentage needed to pass varies by exam, and a candidate may ask CSLB for it. A pass report does not show your score at all. A fail does: the overall score, the number of questions answered correctly, and a breakdown of how you did in each section of the paper.
Closed book. The study guide says no reference materials may be used during the examination. A calculator is provided for the questions that need arithmetic, and your own calculator is on the list of items you may not bring into the room. That is the whole reason this site reproduces the law rather than linking it: the reading has to happen before the day.
At a PSI test center, on a computer. PSI runs centers across California and one in Wilsonville, Oregon, open Monday to Saturday. The law and business paper travels further than the trade paper does: CSLB lists it as available in eighteen other states as well, while the trade exam is only sat in California or Oregon. There is no online option.
One valid, unexpired, government-issued photo identification, in the name the application is in. Arrive without it and it counts as a missed appointment. The banned list is long and worth reading in full before the day: phones, watches and any smart device, calculators, notes, reading material, food and drink including water, hats, sunglasses, and sweaters or sweatshirts with pockets.
Yes. CSLB publishes Spanish versions of ten of its most commonly taken exams, and the law and business paper is one of them. A candidate who asks for a translator for an exam that has a Spanish version is required to sit the Spanish version instead. For an exam with no Spanish version, a translator approved by CSLB in advance may read the paper, and the approval takes weeks, so it is asked for early.
Yes, without losing the fee, if PSI has the cancellation two days before the appointment. It has to be done through the PSI website or by speaking to somebody there. A voicemail or an email to CSLB or PSI does not cancel anything, and the fee is forfeited by not turning up, arriving after the start time, or turning up without the right identification.
Before you leave the test center. You are handed a printed report saying pass or fail. A fail carries the overall score and a section-by-section breakdown, against the same sections the study guide lists. A pass carries neither, and it is not a license: what follows is a Bond and Fee letter in the post with the issuance requirements on it.
A failed exam can be retaken after 21 calendar days, as long as the application has not passed its eighteen-month void date. There is no limit on how many attempts fit inside that window. The exam fee is paid by the applicant directly to the organization that administers the exam, at no greater than the actual cost of administering it. Rescheduling an examination costs $100, set by 16 CCR s. 811(b)(1). Rebooking is done through your PSI account, not through CSLB.
In FY 2022/23, the last year CSLB broke the figures down by examination, the law and business paper was attempted 17,737 times and 57 percent of those attempts passed. That is more attempts than any other CSLB examination by a wide margin. Across all its exams that year, first attempts passed at 71 percent and retakes at 37 percent, and the same gap holds in each of the three years before it. A retake is harder than the first go, not easier.
Not the questions. CSLB does not release test questions or answer keys to anyone. You can type a comment about a question while you are sitting the exam, before it is scored, and you can ask CSLB for an Examination Appeals Form afterwards. CSLB says an appeal is answered by post in two to four weeks.
The application for an original license in one classification is $450, and each additional classification applied for with it is $150. Once both exams are passed, the initial license fee is $200 for a sole owner and $350 for a partnership, corporation, limited liability company or joint venture, and it covers a two-year term. Those four amounts are set by board regulation. A veteran who was not dishonorably discharged pays half of that initial fee. The exam fee is separate and is paid by the applicant directly to the organization that administers the exam, at no greater than the actual cost of administering it.
149 USD plus tax, once, for as long as this site exists. There is no subscription, nothing renews and there is nothing to cancel. The free half stays free whether or not anybody pays, and questions written after you buy are included.
Yes, with terms. Complete three full timed mocks here, sit the real exam within 90 days of buying, and if you fail it, send the score report within 30 days of the exam date for a full refund. One claim per purchase. The mocks are read off your own account, so there is nothing to send for that half, and nothing here promises you will pass: it says what happens if you do not.
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