1.1 Current Exam Facts

The Exam You Are Actually Taking

Maryland has no statewide general contractor licensing exam. The exam most people call the Maryland general contractor exam is really the Maryland Home Improvement Commission (MHIC) Contractor Exam, administered on the state's behalf by PSI Examination Services. If you want to perform home improvement work — remodeling, repair, alteration, or replacement on existing residences — Maryland law requires an MHIC contractor license, and passing this exam is the gateway step.

Exam Facts at a Glance

Test centers are located throughout Maryland, including Baltimore, College Park, Salisbury, Frederick, Hagerstown, Lanham, and Crofton. Exams are given daily Monday through Friday, by appointment only and confirmed in writing. You apply to PSI, which reviews and approves the exam application (including your experience documentation) before you may schedule.

One Number the Official Sources Disagree On

Budget your time carefully, because Maryland's two official sources do not match:

• The PSI Candidate Information Bulletin content outline — the document MHIC approves and links to — allots 150 minutes for the 55-item contractor portion (and 90 minutes for the 35-item salesperson portion).
• The MHIC "Taking the Exam" page states that "the exam is by computer and is two hours in length."

Neither figure changes the item count or the passing score, and no exam question turns on the discrepancy. Plan against the shorter figure so you are never surprised, and confirm the allotted time on the scheduling confirmation PSI sends you.

Retake Policy and Score Validity

Budget your timeline around the retake rules, because they trip up candidates who fail once and assume they can walk back in the next week:

• After a first failure, you must wait 30 days before retesting.
• After subsequent failures, the waiting period is 60 days between attempts.
• The $63 fee is charged for every attempt — there is no discounted retake.
• Once you pass, your passing score is valid for 2 years. If you do not submit a complete license application within those 2 years, the score expires and you must test again.

Worked example. Suppose you sit for the exam on March 1 and fail. The earliest you can retest is roughly March 31. If you fail again, you wait 60 days — about May 30 for a third attempt. Pass on May 30, and your score remains valid until roughly May 30 two years later. A candidate who passes but then spends 18 months assembling financial statements and insurance paperwork is still safely inside the window; one who procrastinates past the 2-year mark starts over.

The Salesperson Exam Is Different

MHIC also licenses salespeople — individuals who sell home improvement work for a licensed contractor but do not themselves hold the contractor license. The salesperson exam is a separate, shorter exam of 35 questions. Do not register for the wrong exam: if you intend to contract with homeowners in your own name or your company's name, you need the contractor exam, not the salesperson exam.

Content Outline — Where the Questions Come From

The official outline allocates the 55 items as follows:

The strategic takeaway is blunt: three out of every four questions test the Home Improvement Law (Maryland Code, Business Regulation Article, Title 8 and the MHIC regulations). Estimating and safety are real but minor slices. A study plan that spends half its hours on construction math is misallocated.

Exam content is based on the 5th edition of the Contractors Guide to Business, Law and Project Management (the NASCLA-style reference commonly used for state home improvement exams), together with the Maryland Home Improvement Law itself. Maryland does not require any pre-licensing course — commercial prep courses exist and are optional.

Common Traps

• Confusing the 55-question contractor exam with the 35-question salesperson exam.
• Remembering 70% but miscomputing the raw number: 70% of 55 is 38.5, and since you cannot answer half a question, you need 39 correct.
• Assuming a passing score lasts forever; it expires after 2 years.
• Assuming the retake wait is always 30 days; it stretches to 60 days after repeat failures.

Details such as fees and site lists change; verify current specifics on the Maryland Department of Labor MHIC exam page (labor.maryland.gov/license/mhic/mhicexam.shtml) before you schedule.

Pacing and Study Strategy

The arithmetic of the exam matters on test day. Planning against the shorter of the two published figures — 120 minutes for 55 questions — gives you about 2.2 minutes per question; if you are seated for the outline's full 150 minutes, that rises to about 2.7 minutes each. Law questions that hinge on a definition or a deadline should take under a minute, which banks time for the estimating questions, where you may need to work a calculation. Answer every question — there is no benefit to leaving blanks on a multiple-choice exam scored by correct count.

Structure your preparation around the outline weights. A reasonable allocation is roughly three-quarters of your study time on the Home Improvement Law and its regulations (contract requirements, the Guaranty Fund, prohibited acts, licensing rules), with the remaining quarter split among the Door-to-Door Sales Act, labor law basics, safety, and estimating. Within estimating, practice the classic calculations: area and material quantities, unit-cost extensions, and markup versus margin. Because no course is required, self-study from the 5th-edition reference book and the statute itself is a legitimate path — but be honest about whether you will actually read 41 items' worth of law without a structured course pushing you.

Finally, treat the administrative details as part of the exam: confirm your test center location (Baltimore, College Park, Salisbury, Frederick, Hagerstown, Lanham, or Crofton), your appointment date, the allotted time, and the current fee on the Department of Labor's MHIC exam page and in the current PSI bulletin before you book, since all of them are subject to change.