The New Mexico Contractor License Exams

Every candidate must be pre-approved before scheduling. Once eligible, you have six months to test, or you must reapply with the division. You then book with PSI online or at (855) 807-3994. The exam fee stays valid for one year from when PSI receives it, and passing scores are valid for one year from the exam date. The Business and Law exam and the trade exam must both be passed within one year of each other.

PSI's fee table lists $68.88 for Business and Law and for most single trade exams, $134.53 for GB-2, $107.63 for ER-1, and $269.06 for each of the combination exams, GB-98 (two parts) and EE-98 (three parts). Retaking one part costs $134.53 for GB-98 and $89.69 for EE-98. GF candidates also take a GF Core exam at no charge.

PSI lists Business and Law as required of all new candidates who do not take an approved course instead. It has 50 questions, a 130-minute limit, and a passing mark of 75 percent, or 38 points. It is open book. Here is how the questions break down:

Three references are allowed in the room: the NASCLA Contractors Guide to Business, Law and Project Management, Basic 14th Edition; the New Mexico Construction Industries Licensing Act, NMSA Chapter 60, Article 13; and the New Mexico Contractor's License Requirement, 14.6.3 NMAC. The bulletin still cites 2006 printings of the two New Mexico texts. The contractor licensing rule was replaced effective March 10, 2022, so read the current version on the State Records Center site and be aware that questions may have been written from the older text.

The current rule is worth knowing well for the licensing questions: the $10,000 bond, the 30-day notice when a licensee loses its qualifier or changes address, the 30 percent common-ownership limit on qualifying more than one entity, and automatic cancellation of a sole proprietor's license on death.

The GB-98 General Building exam comes in two parts, and Part 1 is the GB-2 Residential exam. If you fail one part, you retake only that part.

GB-2 has 80 questions in 225 minutes and requires 75 percent, 60 points. Its items: General Code, Plan Reading and Estimating 14; Carpentry 12; Associated Trades 12; Roofing 10; Sitework, Footings and Foundations 9; Concrete and Concrete Reinforcement 9; OSHA Safety 8; Masonry 6. References include New Mexico Administrative Code Title 14, the 2021 New Mexico Residential Building Code (14.7.3 NMAC), the 2021 IRC and 2021 IECC.

GB-98 Part 2 has 100 questions in 310 minutes and needs 75 points. General Code, Plan Reading and Estimating dominates at 27 items, followed by Concrete at 15 and Sitework, Masonry, Metals and Associated Trades at 10 each; Carpentry, Roofing and OSHA Safety carry 6 each. Its references include Title 14, the 2021 New Mexico Commercial Building Code (14.7.2 NMAC), the 2021 IBC and the PCA's Design and Control of Concrete Mixtures.

New Mexico's exams are open book, but the rules on your copies are strict. References must be bound. You may highlight, underline and index them before the exam, yet any reference containing writing will not be admitted, so do not add margin notes. Only permanent tabs are allowed; Post-it notes must come off before you start. Writing in a book during the exam gets it confiscated and reported, and loose or attached extra papers are removed.

PSI's tiebreak rule applies here too: a code, law or regulation outranks other references, and a New Mexico requirement outranks a national one. For code questions, answers follow only the code edition listed. A silent, non-printing, non-programmable calculator is permitted.

PSI tests in Albuquerque, Farmington, Las Cruces, Roswell and Santa Fe, plus Durango, Colorado, and Amarillo, El Paso, Lubbock and Midland, Texas; other PSI centers are available through an out-of-state request form. Arrive 30 minutes early with one valid photo ID whose name matches your registration. A tutorial of up to 15 minutes is not timed, and you can change answers until time runs out.

Your score appears on screen immediately, and a failing report includes a diagnostic by area. You may not take the same exam more than twice in 30 days; after two failures in that window, you wait 30 days from the first attempt. Under 14.5.5 NMAC, a candidate who fails Business and Law or the GB-2, GB-98, EE-98 or MM-98 exam may request a review for $25. Cheating voids the exam and any resulting license and bars you from CID exams for a year.

On GB-98 Part 2, more than a quarter of the questions are code, plan reading and estimating, so fluency with the IBC and the New Mexico amendments pays off more than anything else. For Business and Law, the licensing and contract items reward knowing where things are in the Act and rule. ContractorPrepHQ's New Mexico practice includes a diagnostic, topic drills with explanations and timed exams with a readiness score, at a one-time price with lifetime access and a 30-day money-back guarantee.