How to Pass the CSCS Test
What the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test involves, why its 90% pass mark needs care, and a simple plan to revise and pass it first time.
The test most people call the CSCS test is the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test. You need it before you can apply for most CSCS cards, including the green labourer card. The operatives version has 50 multiple choice questions in 45 minutes.
The pass mark is 90%
You need 45 correct answers out of 50. That leaves room for only five mistakes, so this is not a test to sit without revising. The questions are not difficult on their own, but every one counts.
What the test covers
The questions come from five core areas:
- Working environment: your legal duties, inductions, risk assessments, method statements, permits to work, reporting accidents and protecting the environment.
- Occupational health: welfare, drugs and alcohol, dust and asbestos, noise and vibration, skin care and manual handling.
- Safety: PPE, safety signs, fire, electrical safety and site vehicles.
- High risk activities: working at height, excavations, buried services and confined spaces.
- Specialist activities: lifting, demolition, hot work and other higher risk jobs you may see on site.
Since 2019 the questions about how you would behave on site are mixed in with the rest, rather than set as separate case studies.
A simple revision plan
- Learn the topics. Use CITB's own revision material or our CSCS test questions and answers, which come with explanations and a free PDF.
- Practise under test conditions. Take the free CSCS mock test: 50 questions in 45 minutes with the same 90% pass mark.
- Fix your weak spots. Your results show the topics you dropped marks on. Revise those, then try another set.
- Repeat until you pass with room to spare. Aim for 47 or more out of 50 before the real thing.
On the day
- Bring the identification your test booking asks for, and arrive in good time.
- Read each question twice. Many describe a situation on site and ask for the safest thing to do.
- If two answers look right, choose the one that stops work or reports the problem rather than carrying on.
- Use the time. 45 minutes for 50 questions is enough to check your answers at the end.
Want the test and the training in one day?
Our CSCS card course in London combines the Level 1 Award in Health and Safety in a Construction Environment with the CITB test on the same day. Pass both and you can apply for your green labourer card.