OSHA 10 is not an exam, and that changes what to revise
A CSCS test is a fifty question paper with a real pass mark set by CITB. OSHA 10 is nothing like that. It is a minimum of ten instructional hours delivered by an OSHA-authorized Outreach trainer, with a student course completion card at the end.
OSHA publishes no question bank, no paper size and no pass mark, because there is no national paper to pass. Anybody quoting you an official OSHA 10 pass mark is quoting a number OSHA never set.
So what are people revising for? The module quizzes their online provider bolts onto the ten hours, which differ from provider to provider. That makes the honest thing to revise the subject, tagged by OSHA's own required topics, which is what this does. The thirty questions and the 70% here are ours and the common provider convention, and the page says so rather than dressing them up as federal.
The curriculum is fixed, and falls gets triple weighting
OSHA's Construction Industry Procedures set the ten hours out precisely. Six hours are required:
- Introduction to OSHA, one hour. Rights, employer responsibilities, how to file a complaint.
- OSHA Focus Four Hazards, four hours: Falls, Electrocution, Struck-By, Caught-In or Between.
- Personal Protective Equipment, thirty minutes.
- Health Hazards in Construction, thirty minutes. Noise, hazard communication, silica or any other construction health hazard.
Then two elective hours from a list of fifteen topics, with at least two presented and none shorter than thirty minutes, and two optional hours on anything else relevant.
Inside the Focus Four, the split is not even. Falls must get a minimum of one hour and thirty minutes, and the other three get thirty minutes each. OSHA gives its own reason: most construction fatalities are caused by fall hazards. This question bank is weighted the same way, because a bank split evenly across the four would be weighted against the thing that actually kills people.
Two rules about what does not count, and both surprise people
Training done to comply with an OSHA standard cannot be counted. So the fall protection training your employer already owes you under 1926.503, or the scaffold training under 1926.454, does not shorten the ten hours. Outreach is an orientation programme, not a container for training that was already required.
CPR and first aid cannot be counted either. They are named as ineligible, because the topics have to deal with hazard recognition or prevention rather than what to do afterwards.
The numbers people mix up, in one place
Nearly every recall error on this material is one of a small set of numbers that sit close together and do different jobs:
- 6 feet triggers fall protection in construction. It is 4 feet in general industry and 10 feet on a scaffold.
- 5,000 pounds is the anchorage. 1,800 pounds is the maximum force on the body in a harness. They are not the same rating and they are not interchangeable.
- 5 feet is when an excavation needs a protective system. 4 feet is when it needs a ladder within 25 feet of lateral travel, and when the atmosphere may need testing.
- 8 hours to report a fatality. 24 hours for an in-patient hospitalization, an amputation or the loss of an eye.
- 50 micrograms per cubic metre is the silica PEL. 25 is the action level, which is where duties begin rather than where compliance is achieved.
- 90 dBA is the construction noise limit for eight hours. The 85 people quote is the general industry hearing conservation trigger.
Why the repeat rate is printed on the page
Every free practice test has a question bank and almost none of them tell you how big it is. That matters more than the score, because two papers drawn from a small bank share most of their questions: sit thirty questions twice out of a bank of sixty and the second paper is about fifteen questions you have just answered. You score beautifully and learn nothing, because you are remembering answers rather than knowing the subject.
This bank holds ninety six questions, so two papers of thirty share roughly nine. The tool reports that figure itself and warns when a bank is too thin, which is arithmetic rather than a promise: paper size squared divided by bank size.
No practice test can give you the card
It cannot give you the card. Only an OSHA-authorized Outreach trainer can, and only after the full ten hours, so nothing here is a shortcut to one. It also does not cover the eleven elective topics not included, which are real and are chosen by whoever runs your course: concrete and masonry, confined spaces, cranes and hoists, ergonomics, fire protection, materials handling, motor vehicles, powered industrial vehicles, safety and health programs, steel erection, and welding and cutting.
And it is federal only. Several states run their own OSHA-approved plans with additional or stricter requirements, and some states mandate the card for specific work while OSHA does not. Check what your state and your project specification actually require, because the federal floor is not always the answer on the ground.
Common questions
Is there an official OSHA 10 exam?
No. OSHA 10 is not an exam, it is a minimum of ten instructional hours with a course completion card at the end. It is the thing most sites get wrong. OSHA publishes no question bank, no paper size and no pass mark, because there is no national paper to sit. What people actually revise for is the module quiz their chosen online provider sets, and those differ from provider to provider.
What is the OSHA 10 pass mark then?
OSHA does not set one. Most online providers require around 70% on their own module quizzes, which is why this practice paper uses 21 out of 30. That figure is ours and the provider convention, not a federal requirement, and any site telling you the official pass mark is 70% is telling you something OSHA never published.
What topics does the OSHA 10 Construction course have to cover?
Six required hours: Introduction to OSHA for one hour, the Focus Four hazards for four hours, Personal Protective Equipment for thirty minutes and Health Hazards in Construction for thirty minutes. Then two elective hours from a list of fifteen topics with at least two presented, and two optional hours. Falls alone must get an hour and thirty minutes of the Focus Four time, because falls cause most construction fatalities.
What are the Construction Focus Four?
Falls, Electrocution, Struck-By, and Caught-In or Between. They are the four hazard groups behind most construction deaths, which is why OSHA gives them four of the six required hours. Falls is weighted at three times each of the others.
Does my existing fall protection training count toward the ten hours?
No. The Outreach procedures rule out training conducted to comply with an OSHA standard, so the fall protection training your employer already owes you under 29 CFR 1926.503 does not shorten the course. CPR and first aid are also specifically ineligible, however useful they are.
Does an OSHA 10 card expire?
OSHA does not put an expiry date on the student course completion card. Plenty of employers, states and project specifications require it to be refreshed anyway, commonly every three to five years, and some states require it outright for certain work. So the card itself does not lapse federally while the requirement to hold a current one may still bite.
I have lost my card. Who do I ask?
The trainer who ran your class, not OSHA. Outreach trainers must keep the class records for five years from the class end date, and that duty sits with the trainer regardless of what your employer kept. If the trainer is no longer contactable, their Authorizing Training Organization is the next step.
Are these the real OSHA questions?
There are no real questions to reproduce, because there is no exam. Every question here is written from 29 CFR, which is public domain and published free by OSHA, and every answer links to the section it came from so a wrong answer sends you to the standard rather than to a forum. The bank size and the expected repeat rate are shown on the page, which almost no free practice test does.