What to do the week before the NASCLA exam

Seven days out: confirm the appointment

• Check the date, time and address of your PSI test center.
• Make sure the name on your registration matches your ID. You need one current, government-issued ID with your name, signature and photo, such as a driver's license or passport. Temporary IDs are not accepted.
• Know the cancel rule. PSI must receive a cancellation at least 2 days before the exam for you to keep the fee. A voicemail or email does not count. After that, a no-show, late arrival or missing ID costs you the fee.

Six days out: one last timed set

Sit a mixed timed set in your tabbed books at the exam's pace. Use the checkpoints below. Then review every miss and label it: did not know it, could not find it, or misread it. The labels tell you how to spend the next four days.

Five days out: make your books legal

The bulletin's rules on references:

• Highlighting, underlining and indexing are allowed.
• No writing in the books.
• No extra papers, loose or attached.
• Permanent tabs only. Post-it notes must come out before the exam starts.

Go through every book. Pull every sticky note and loose page, and check inside the covers. If anything you have done is in doubt, such as handwritten labels on permanent tabs, ask PSI now, not at check-in. The reference books guide has the full list and editions.

Four days out: the calculator

The bulletin allows only a non-programmable calculator that is silent and battery-operated, with no paper tape printing and no alphabet keyboard. A basic or simple scientific calculator is the safe choice. Use the exact calculator you will bring for the rest of the week, and fit a fresh battery now, not the morning of.

Three days out: the fast points

Review what needs no book: markup and margin, retainage, unit conversion, crew hours, float, overtime. Work a handful of each by hand. These are your first-pass points on the day. Then spend the rest of the session on the heaviest subject area where your six-day set lost the most.

Two days out: pack

• Put the books in a box or crate you can carry in one trip, with the two biggest areas' books on top. Procurement and Contracting (31 questions) and General Requirements (25) are almost half the exam.
• Plan the route and the time to get there. Plan to arrive 30 minutes early for sign-in; late arrivals may not be admitted.
• Plan your clothes. Phones, smart watches, bags and notes go into storage, and the bulletin also keeps coats and outerwear such as open sweaters, cardigans, vests and jackets out of the room. Wear a plain shirt you can sit in comfortably for five and a half hours.

The day before: stop studying

Light review at most. Eat normally, lay out your ID, calculator and books, and sleep. Five and a half hours of reading and lookups is long, and rest helps more than one more chapter.

Exam morning

1. Eat, and plan for the restroom. You may leave the room only with the proctor's permission, and the clock keeps running.
2. Arrive 30 minutes early.
3. The tutorial of up to 15 minutes does not count against your 330 minutes. Use it to settle in and get used to the screen.

Your pacing plan

You will see 125 questions (115 scored, 10 unscored pretest) in 330 minutes. At 2.4 minutes a question you finish the first pass with a reserve:

Check: 125 x 2.4 = 300, and 330 - 300 = 30 minutes left for flagged questions. Check the middle row: 100 x 2.4 = 240.

• First pass: answer what you know and what you can work out. Flag any lookup that will take more than about three minutes.
• Second pass: work the flags, easiest lookup first.
• Last minutes: leave nothing blank. You can change any answer while time remains.

The screen shows one question at a time with the minutes remaining. A Comments link lets you leave a note on a question. PSI reviews comments but does not reply, and the bulletin says it is the only review of exam content available.

After you finish

If you pass, your result goes to NASCLA's National Examination Database (NED). The bulletin asks you to allow 48 hours for it to be entered. You need a NED account to buy transcripts and send them to state agencies. If it does not go your way, read what to do next.

A warm-up for the week

Take the free 10-question check on day six or seven as a short, explained warm-up. It needs no signup. If you still have weeks rather than days, four timed 115-question practice exams on the 330-minute clock are in the course: see the plans.

Sources

• PSI Candidate Information Bulletin 1458, scheduling, cancellation, identification, security, examination and after-passing sections, updated 7 Jul 2026. Retrieved 5 Nov 2026.

FAQ

Can I cancel the NASCLA exam the day before?

Not without losing the fee. PSI must receive the cancellation at least 2 days before the exam date.

Is the tutorial part of the 330 minutes?

No. The bulletin says up to 15 minutes of tutorial time does not count against your exam time.

Can I take a break during the NASCLA exam?

You may leave only to use the restroom, with the proctor's permission, and you get no extra time.