Every Nevada contractor license applicant faces two exams, and one of them is the same for every trade: the CMS, Nevada's business-and-law exam, given by PSI for the Nevada State Contractors Board (NSCB). It is open book with a single manual, 60 scored questions in two hours, and it is offered in English and Spanish. This guide covers who takes it, what is on it, what it costs and how to prepare, using only what the NSCB and PSI's current bulletins publish.
The NSCB requires each applicant to pass a general business and law exam, which it calls the CMS, plus a trade exam specific to the classification applied for. The Board's application and its December 9, 2025 news release spell CMS out as the Construction Management Survey; PSI's bulletin titles the same test the Contractor Management Survey Examination. It is one exam, and it does not change with your trade: a B, B-2, C-2 or C-21 applicant sits the same CMS.
The requirement attaches to the person qualifying the license. The NSCB application lets a company name a management qualifier — who, in the application's words, must pass the construction management examination — and a trade qualifier, who meets the experience and trade-exam requirement; one person can also fill both roles. The waivers the application describes — licensure by endorsement from a state on the Board's State Equivalency Chart, or a NASCLA Accredited General Building Exam for B and B-2 — are waivers of the trade exam, and the application states that a Business and Law (CMS) exam will be required. If you believe an earlier Nevada license exempts you, ask the Board: it reserves the right to require any exam of any applicant.
PSI's bulletin sets the CMS at 60 scored items in 120 minutes, plus 3 unscored items with 6 more minutes, and a minimum passing score of 45 — 75 percent correct. It is open book, and the only reference allowed in the room is PSI's Construction Business and Law Manual for Nevada, sold through the PSI online store. Bring your own copies of the allowed books. You may highlight, underline and index them before the exam and use permanent tabs, but you may not write in them, sticky notes must come out, and loose papers are confiscated. A silent, non-printing, non-programmable calculator is allowed. An on-screen tutorial of up to 15 minutes before the exam does not count against your time.
The content outline is short and specific: Financial Management 12, Licensing 10, Estimating and Bidding 7, Contracts 6, Tax Laws 5, Labor Laws 5, Environmental and Safety 5, Risk Management 4, Lien Law 3, and Project Management 3. Financial management and licensing together are 22 of the 60 scored items — more than a third — and both are areas where the answer is usually a number or a rule you can find in the manual if it is well indexed.
The CMS is on the list of exams PSI offers in Spanish, both in the NSCB's December 9, 2025 news release and in PSI's current bulletin. To switch a listed exam from English to Spanish, PSI's bulletin says to call PSI at (855) 205-5827 or email examschedule@psionline.com. Check your trade exam separately: of the classifications LICENA covers, B-2 and C-2 are on the Spanish list, the full B is not, and for C-21 only the C-21b Air Conditioning subclassification is.
You cannot book an exam until the Board has your application and has verified the experience. It then issues an Examination Eligibility form with a Candidate ID — the application packet says it is mailed to the business's mailing address, not the qualifier's home — and you register with PSI online at test-takers.psiexams.com/nvcon or by phone. PSI charges $95 for one examination portion and $140 for two when the second one is the CMS (two trade exams are $95 each); registration fees are not refundable or transferable and expire with your eligibility. Cancel or reschedule at least two days before the appointment, arrive 30 minutes early, and bring one valid, unexpired government photo ID whose name matches your registration — otherwise the fee is forfeited.
Tests run on computer at PSI centers in Las Vegas, Reno and Elko, and PSI's Nevada exams can also be taken at PSI sites in other states. Your score is given when you finish; a failing report shows strengths and weaknesses by area. After a failure you wait two weeks before retaking that portion. NAC 624.600 allows three attempts and requires the qualifier to pass within six months after the application is filed; a third failure voids the application, and you may apply again with a new application and fee 30 days or more after the last exam.
You reach the CMS only after the application is in: the NSCB verifies the qualifier's experience — at least four full years in the classification within the last fifteen — and then issues the Examination Eligibility form that lets you book with PSI. The rest of the path — the financial statement, the monetary limit, the bond and the $600 license fee under NAC 624.130 — is walked through in our trade guides: B General Building, B-2 Residential, C-2 Electrical and C-21 Refrigeration & AC.
The Board is plain about preparation: it does not recommend or endorse any licensing school, it offers no practice exams of its own, and it points candidates to the reference list in each content outline. For the CMS, the listed reference is the manual itself, so the work is making it fast to use: index it by the ten outline areas before exam day, and practice the arithmetic that financial-management and estimating questions need with the same silent calculator you will bring.
LICENA's Nevada CMS practice bank is 500 questions in five blocks that follow PSI's ten subject areas, written from the Nevada statutes, with every answer explained in English, Spanish and Russian and a free sample with no sign-up.
Ready to practice for the CMS? The Nevada CMS practice bank on LICENA: 500 questions that follow PSI's ten subject areas, with a written explanation on every answer, in English, Spanish and Russian. The sample is free — no sign-up.
Try the free practice test → Nevada B-2 license guide