Open-Book Strategy and the Approved Reference Library

Open-Book Strategy and the Approved Reference Library

Quick Answer: Every Texas ACR contractor examination is open book. You bring your own references from a fixed approved list, pre-highlighted and tabbed with permanent index tabs only. That changes what studying means: with roughly 1.9 minutes per item on a Class A exam, you are being graded on how fast you can find an answer, not on how much you memorized.

Open Book Is Not Easy Book

An open-book format removes the recall failure mode and replaces it with a timing failure mode. Every one of the 120 scored items on a Class A exam is answerable from books sitting on the desk in front of you. Candidates still fail — because they burn nine minutes hunting a gas-pipe sizing table and then run out of clock with fifteen items untouched.

So invert your study plan. Instead of "learn the code," practice "locate the code." A candidate who can turn to the duct-construction requirements in twenty seconds is worth more points than one who half-remembers them and then reads the whole chapter to be sure.

Two instructions printed in the Candidate Information Bulletin shape every lookup you will make:

• "Do not consider code exceptions unless the test question specifically directs you to consider them." Read the base rule, answer the base rule, stop. Chasing exceptions is the most common way candidates lose time on code items.
• "Except for Code books, you can base your answers on later editions of references as they become available. For Code questions, the examinations will be based only on the edition of the Code book that is listed." Non-code references are edition-forgiving. Code books are not.

The Approved Reference Library

You are responsible for bringing your own copies. Everything below may be bought from the publisher or a bookstore, or downloaded and spiral-bound or three-hole-punched into a binder.

Note the last three rows. Manual J, Manual S and Manual D are approved for the Environmental Air Class A and Class B examinations only. A Commercial Refrigeration candidate who spends study money and tab time on the ACCA manuals has prepared with books they will not be permitted to open — and, worse, has probably shortchanged Modern Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, which is the technical spine of that exam. The Certified Technician outline even points candidates to one specific page of it: the pressure/temperature chart on page 1309 of the 22nd edition.

The September 1, 2026 Edition Cliff

The exams are currently written against the 2021 UMC, IMC and IFGC. Texas adopted those same 2021 editions in 16 TAC §75.110, effective September 1, 2024, so the exam and the field are in sync today.

Printed in red on the cover of the current bulletin: effective September 1, 2026, the examinations will be referenced to the 2024 International Fuel Gas Code, the 2024 International Mechanical Code and the 2024 Uniform Mechanical Code.

Because code answers are graded only against the listed edition, your appointment date — not the date you bought the book — decides what you carry:

If your one-year eligibility window straddles that date, decide early. Sitting in August with 2021 books and re-testing in October means buying a second set of three code books. Either finish before the cliff or plan your first attempt after it. Non-code references are unaffected: a later printing of Modern Refrigeration and Air Conditioning or the ADI Duct Size Calculator is explicitly acceptable.

Tabbing Rules That Get Candidates Turned Away

The distinction is simple: a tab must be a permanent part of the book. Adhesive flags peel off, so they are treated as removable notes rather than as indexing.

Arrive with non-compliant references and PSI gives you three unattractive choices: test without that reference, strip the offending tabs yourself on the spot, or forfeit the exam fee and rebook another day at your own expense. Violations discovered during the session are reported to TDLR and can cost you your score, your code books, and expose you to civil or criminal penalties.

Two more constraints shape strategy. Calculators must be non-programmable — silent, battery-operated, no paper-tape printing, no alphabetic keyboard — so nothing can be stored in memory beforehand. And electronic notepads are provided while paper of your own is banned, meaning every scratch calculation happens on screen with a mouse, which is slower than a pencil. Set your books up so that fewer calculations are needed in the first place.

A Realistic Time Budget

On a Class A exam that is $230 \div 120 \approx 1.9$ minutes per question. Under two minutes is nowhere near enough time to look up 120 answers — but it is plenty if most items never touch a book. That trade-off is the entire strategy.

Three-Pass Triage

Pass 1 — knowledge only (45 to 60 seconds per item). Work front to back. If you know it, answer it. If it needs a book, record your best guess anyway, flag it, and move on. Never leave a flagged item blank: wrong answers carry no penalty, and an unanswered item is a guaranteed zero if the clock beats you.

Pass 2 — the lookups (2 to 4 minutes each). Work only the flagged items, and work them in book order rather than question order. Do every IMC item, then every IFGC item, then every Texas rules item. Opening one book once and answering six questions from it is far faster than opening three books six separate times.

Pass 3 — the leftovers. Whatever is still unresolved gets the remaining minutes, hardest last.

The arithmetic is encouraging. On a Class A exam, if Pass 1 disposes of 75 items in 55 minutes, you have 175 minutes left for 45 lookups — roughly 3.9 minutes each. Enforce a hard 90-second rule inside Pass 2: if you have not found the table by then, keep your flagged guess and move on. You can always come back.

Worked Example: Tabbing a Code Book by Subject Area

Do not copy the publisher's chapter titles onto your tabs. Label each tab with the exam's vocabulary — the subject-area name from the content outline — so a question's wording points straight at a tab.

Twelve tabs, one book, and every one of them names a subject area you will be scored on. Repeat the exercise for the IFGC — Ch. 4 Gas Piping Installations and its §402.4 sizing tables serve Piping, Ch. 5 Chimneys and Vents serves Venting, Ch. 6 Specific Appliances serves Equipment Requirements — and for the UMC, whose parallel structure makes a second set of tabs quick to place: Ch. 4 Ventilation Air, Ch. 5 Exhaust Systems, Ch. 6 Duct Systems, Ch. 7 Combustion Air, Ch. 8 Chimneys and Vents, Ch. 11 Refrigeration.

Finally, tab your two Texas documents. Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1302 and 16 TAC Chapter 75 supply 6 guaranteed items on either Class A exam, and short rules such as §75.40 (contractor insurance minimums) and §75.110 (applicable code editions) are findable in seconds — if, and only if, a permanent tab is already sitting on them.