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Cheat sheet: the Project and site management exam
A printable cheat sheet for the Project and site management exam: act, regulation and standard, reading drawings, calls for tenders, estimating calculations, the critical path and the sustainable development principles.
PDF, 7 pages · Updated October 7, 2026 · Re-check before December 1, 2026
In this guide
- Legal framework: which text for which question
- Drawings, specifications, addenda and shop drawings
- Bidding, contract types, guarantees and estimating calculations
- Critical path, directing the trades and the sustainable site
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The Project and site management exam (3 hours, 60% to pass) asks for two concrete skills: reading a project’s documents in the right order of priority, and building a price step by step. This cheat sheet is built around those two skills rather than around all five modules.
Drawings, specifications, addenda: what overrides what
Module 2 treats document reading as a question of hierarchy. Each document answers a different question: dimensions come from the drawings, product quality from the specifications, price and payment from the contract, lot boundaries from the survey. The guide draws simple rules of conduct from that:
- The written dimension governs. You never measure a drawing with a ruler to place an order.
- If two drawings contradict each other, you ask the designers to decide in writing before building.
- An addendum issued before closing goes to every bidder, and the latest one prevails for the item it touches.
- A shop drawing reviewed "no exceptions" is fabricated; "reviewed as corrected" is fabricated with the corrections; "revise and resubmit" is corrected and sent back, with no fabrication.
- An equivalent product goes to the professional before any order is placed.
This reading connects to module 1, where the guide separates act, regulation and standard, and reminds you which text answers which question (for example, the Construction Code for building, the Safety Code for the construction industry for protecting workers). To know which code applies, also read our article on the building code for the RBQ exam.
Building a price, step by step
Module 3 is the most computational. The guide presents estimating as a sequence of steps not to be mixed: quantity takeoff, order quantity (net quantity multiplied by a waste rate, applied once), labour, materials, equipment, overhead, then profit last. It illustrates the order with small examples:
| Situation | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 10% overhead on $8,000 of labour and $4,000 of materials | $12,000 × 10% | $1,200 |
| Direct cost of $20,000, 10% overhead, then 10% profit | $22,000, then $22,000 + $2,200 | $24,200 |
| 10% profit on the selling price | Cost ÷ 0.90 | A factor of about 1.11, not 1.10 |
The last case is an exam classic: a profit expressed as a percentage of the selling price is not calculated like a percentage of cost. The guide treats the 10% holdback and the 2/10, net 30 discount the same way.
A look inside
- The types of tenders and contracts (stipulated price, unit price, cost plus, construction management), with who carries the overrun risk.
- The four guarantees not to confuse: bid, performance and payment, licence, residential warranty plan.
- The critical path, float, and what a delay does or does not change.
- The 16 sustainable development principles in four families, and the 3R order (reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, dispose last).
Who it is for, and what it does not cover
It is for the candidate who wants to review the calculations and the logic of the documents right before the exam. It contains no statute text and no extract from an RBQ document, it does not replace reading Chapter I of the Construction Code provided at the exam, and it does not deal with the particulars of an execution trade.
Last checked: October 7, 2026. Next review planned: December 1, 2026. To put these calculations into practice, also see our construction bid template, then the Project and site management exam page.