Florida general contractor exam FAQ

Hard enough that you should plan for it. Business and Finance alone is 120 scored questions in 6 hours 30 minutes, and you need 70% on each of the three parts. It's open book, but the clock is tight: about 3 minutes 15 seconds per question. It's not impossible — but treating it casually is how people end up retaking it. See the full breakdown of how hard the Florida GC exam is.

Yes, and this is the trap that fails people. Open-book means you can bring the references — not that the answers are easy to find. If your books aren't tabbed and you don't know them, you'll run out of time. That's the number one reason candidates fail.

Business and Finance. It's the longest (120 questions, 6.5 hours) and the most math-heavy. That's why the course spends the most time there and includes plain-English walkthroughs of every calculation type.

Four years from your first exam attempt. You don't have to take them all at once — many people pass one, then come back for the others. Once you've passed all three, your passing grades stay valid for four years from the part you passed most recently, so apply for your license inside that window. That's why I'd start with Business and Finance: it's the longest and the most math-heavy.

You register again with PTI ($135), pay the Pearson VUE fee for that part again, and retake just that part. You wait at least 21 days after the exam before you can sit that part again, and there's no limit on attempts inside your four-year window. If you want to see what you missed, you can request a review within 21 days of the exam, but you can't retest within 21 days of a scheduled review. Our refund policy is written so the prep itself isn't the part you're gambling on — the terms are on the guarantee page.

You need the books, but fewer than you might think — Florida Statutes Chapter 455 is printed inside the Contractors Manual, so you don't buy it separately. I'll show you the exact list and the correct editions, plus a guide showing exactly where to tab and highlight them yourself.

One person who recently sat for and passed this exam. Not a school chain founded in the 1980s. That means the content reflects what the test looks like now, and I update it when DBPR shifts the content weighting.