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Tennessee BC-C Industrial Contractor Practice Exam

What This Practice Exam Covers

The Tennessee BC-C Industrial Contractor licensing exam has 72 questions. You have 210 minutes to finish. Passing requires a score of 73% — that's 53 correct answers.

The practice exam here gives you two options.

Free practice exam: 10 questions per attempt, pulled from a limited question pool. You can retake it as many times as you want. It's the right first move — use it to get a feel for the format and how questions are worded before committing to more.

Full practice exam (paid): 72 questions, 210-minute time limit — same format as the real thing. Questions are drawn from a pool of 619+ practice items, so each attempt gives you a different set. No duplicate exams. Coverage matches the exact topic breakdown the official test provider specifies.

Start with the free exam. If you're consistently missing questions or unsure of the topic mix, the full exam is worth it.

What You'll Be Tested On

The exam covers nine topic areas. Here's what each one actually demands.

Sitework, Footings, and Foundation — 5 items
These questions cover soil classification, geotechnical investigation reports, and how to read them. Expect questions on OSHA-required protective systems for excavations: sloping, benching, shoring, and trench boxes. You need to know maximum slope angles for different soil types. Soil compaction comes up too — Proctor test methodology, target density percentages, and how a nuclear density gauge is used on the job.

Concrete and Concrete Reinforcement — 18 items
This is the heaviest topic on the exam. You need to understand concrete mix design and proportioning — water-cement ratios, aggregate sizing, air-entrainment requirements for freeze-thaw exposure. Know the supplementary cementitious materials: fly ash (Types C and F), slag cement, and silica fume, and what each does to concrete properties. Admixtures — accelerators, retarders, plasticizers — are fair game. Reinforcing bar identification, cover requirements, lap splice lengths, and placement tolerances are all tested. ACI 318-11 is the controlling reference. Know Table 4.4.1 and 4.4.2 for cover requirements, and Section 7.7.1 for concrete protection by exposure class.

Masonry — 6 items
Know your mortar types under ASTM C270 — Types M, S, N, O, K — including proportions and which type goes where. Wall system types matter: solid, hollow, cavity, composite, veneer, and reinforced. Structural design references TMS 402/ACI 530. Questions may ask about allowable stress vs. strength design. Grout placement and consolidation, joint reinforcement spacing, and anchor/tie requirements also appear. The ACI 530/530.1-11 references are active in this question bank, particularly Chapters 2, 3, and 8.

Carpentry — 4 items
Wood framing systems (platform, balloon, post-and-beam), floor framing components, and wall framing layout are tested. Engineered wood products are important: know the differences between LVL, OSB, I-joists, and glulam, and understand plywood grading. Roof framing basics — common, hip, valley, and jack rafters — also appear here. Four items means you can't afford to drop all of them.

Metals — 13 items
Second-heaviest topic. The SJI designation system is critical: K-Series, LH-Series, DLH-Series, CJ-Series, and Joist Girders. Know what each series is used for and how they differ in span and load capacity. Steel deck types — composite floor, roof, form, cellular, acoustic — and their fastening methods (welding, mechanical fasteners, shear studs) are tested. OSHA Subpart R governs steel erection safety. Erection bridging requirements — when to install, how many employees can be on an unbraced joist, lap length for horizontal bridging — come directly from the SJI Erection Manual. Jobsite storage and receiving procedures are tested as well.

Roofing — 4 items
Terminology is the foundation: span, run, rise, slope, pitch, unit run, unit rise. Know roof styles — gable, hip, shed, gambrel, mansard, Dutch hip. Rafter layout calculations using the Pythagorean theorem or unit-length method are tested. Roof covering installation requirements for asphalt shingles, wood shakes, tile, and metal roofing appear here, along with underlayment rules and fastening schedules.

Associated Trades — 4 items
These questions pull from plumbing DWV systems, electrical circuits and wiring, HVAC system types, insulation R-values and vapor retarders, and gypsum board installation including IBC flame spread requirements. No single sub-trade dominates — spread your prep across all of them.

OSHA Safety — 5 items
Fall protection thresholds, scaffold load capacity and access rules, confined space entry and permit requirements, PPE employer obligations, and electrical hazard control. Know the specific OSHA 29 CFR 1926 sections — particularly §1926.501(b)(1) for fall protection, §1926.451(a)(1) for scaffolding capacity, and §1926.502(b)(3) for guardrail specifications.

General Code, Plan Reading, and Estimating — 13 items
Tied for second-heaviest. IBC occupancy classification, fire-resistance ratings, types of construction, and means of egress calculations are all tested. Occupant load from IBC Table 1004.5, travel distance from Table 1017.2. Estimating questions require actual math: material quantities, rounding rules, waste factors. Plan reading tests your ability to extract dimensions and details from drawings.

Worked Sample Questions

Question 1 — Concrete and Concrete Reinforcement

You need to order concrete for a continuous footing. Using the printed ordering rule, the net calculated volume is 5.10 cubic yards. How much should you order?

• A. 4.75 cu yd
• B. 5.25 cu yd
• C. 5 cu yd
• D. 5.5 cu yd

Correct Answer: B — 5.25 cu yd

The ordering rule requires rounding UP to the next quarter yard. 5.10 falls between 5.00 and 5.25, so you order 5.25. Never round down on a concrete order — you'll run short. Round up to the nearest quarter-yard increment, always.

Source: Carpentry and Building Construction — Ch. 10, Estimating Footings, Foundation Walls and Concrete Block

Question 2 — Metals

You're framing steel-framed exterior walls. After raising and bracing the walls, you're attaching plywood sheathing. In what orientation should the sheathing be installed relative to the stud framing?

• A. Diagonally at a 45-degree angle to the studs
• B. With the long dimension parallel to the stud framing
• C. With the long dimension perpendicular to the studs
• D. Orientation does not matter as long as it covers the full wall height

Correct Answer: B — Long dimension parallel to the stud framing

On steel-framed walls, sheathing runs with the long dimension parallel to the studs, covering the full height from bottom track to top track. This is different from wood framing practice, where sheathing typically runs perpendicular. The full-height coverage is what provides the racking resistance.

Source: Carpentry and Building Construction, Section 29.3, Page 852

Question 3 — General Code, Plan Reading, and Estimating

A 2,400 sq ft wall requires two coats of paint. Coverage is 350 sq ft per gallon. How many gallons do you need?

• A. 14
• B. 20
• C. 12
• D. 16

Correct Answer: A — 14 gallons

Two coats on 2,400 sq ft = 4,800 sq ft total. Divide by 350 sq ft/gallon: 4,800 ÷ 350 = 13.7 gallons. Round up to 14. On estimating questions, always round up — you can't buy 0.7 of a gallon, and running short costs more than the extra gallon.

How to Read Your Score

Passing is 73%. On a 72-question exam, that's 53 correct.

Your first practice score is a diagnostic, not a verdict. If you score 60–65%, that tells you which topics are costing you — not that you're going to fail. Use the topic-by-topic breakdown after each attempt to find the gaps.

Scoring near 73% on practice should make you cautious, not confident. The real exam doesn't let you flag and revisit easily, and time pressure changes how you think. Most people who pass comfortably are scoring 80%+ on practice consistently — not just once.

Focus your review on Concrete (18 items) and General Code/Estimating (13 items) first. Those two topics together account for more than 40% of the exam. A weak performance there is hard to offset. Metals (13 items) is the third priority.

Retake the full practice exam after each focused study session. A pool of 619+ questions means you'll see new material each time.

Where Candidates Lose Points

Rounding errors on estimating. Concrete, paint, shingles, rebar — all have specific rounding rules. The exam tests whether you know to round up, and to what increment. Missing this costs you straightforward points.

Wrong code table. IBC has multiple tables for occupant load, travel distance, fire-resistance ratings, and construction types. Pulling from Table 1017.2 when the question wants Table 1004.5 gives you a wrong answer that feels right.

Steel joist series confusion. The Metals topic asks you to distinguish K-, LH-, DLH-, and CJ-Series joists and Joist Girders by application and capacity. Candidates who treat them as interchangeable drop multiple questions on a 13-item topic.

OSHA numbers without context. Knowing that fall protection is required at 6 feet isn't enough — the exam distinguishes requirements under §1926.501(b)(1) for general construction from steel erection specifics under Subpart R.

Skipping the figure. Several questions reference a figure or plan. Candidates who work the numbers without reading what the figure actually shows get the wrong answer even with correct math.

Concrete mix design shortcuts. ACI 318-11 cover requirements vary by exposure class and member type. Memorizing one number and applying it everywhere is a reliable way to miss questions in the exam's heaviest topic area.

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