GA-CAC Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass

The Actual Passing Score You Need

If you're preparing for the Georgia Conditioned Air Contractor Class II (Unrestricted) License Exam, the number that matters most is 70. PSI, which administers the exam on behalf of the Georgia Construction Industry Licensing Board, Division of Conditioned Air Contractors, sets a minimum final scaled score of 70 as the passing threshold. That's the entire target: everything else in your prep exists to get you comfortably above that line.

What trips people up is assuming "70" means answering 70% of questions correctly on a raw count. It doesn't work that way, and misunderstanding this can lead you to either underprepare or panic unnecessarily. We'll unpack the scaling mechanics later in this article, but first it helps to understand exactly what you're being scored on.

How the Exam Is Structured

The exam is computer-based, multiple-choice, and reference-permitted - meaning you're allowed to bring approved code books and manuals into the testing session rather than relying purely on memorization. It's split into two parts, each lasting 3 hours and 30 minutes, for a total testing time of 7 hours. That's a long day, and pacing matters as much as knowledge.

Because 20 of the 120 total questions are unscored beta items used by the Board to evaluate future exam content, you can't identify which questions "count" and which don't. The practical implication: treat every question with equal seriousness. Trying to guess which items are beta and rushing through them is a losing strategy - it only increases your risk of missing scored points.

For a deeper walkthrough of registration mechanics, eligibility documentation, and the $110 licensure-by-examination application fee, see our full GA-CAC Requirements guide. Understanding the administrative side before exam day helps you avoid last-minute scheduling surprises, since Board approval is required before you can even book your PSI appointment.

What Each Domain Contributes to Your Score

Your 70-point threshold isn't distributed evenly across content. The exam draws from four domains, and one of them carries dramatically more weight than the others:

Because System Design accounts for 55% of the exam, it deserves the largest share of your study hours by far - not an equal quarter split across four domains. For a full breakdown of question emphasis and subtopics within each area, our GA-CAC Exam Domains Guide goes deeper than what fits here.

Why 70 Isn't "70 Correct Answers"

The passing score is described as a "minimum final scaled score" of 70 - not a raw percentage of the 100 scored questions. Scaled scoring is common in licensing exams because it accounts for slight difficulty variation between different question sets pulled from the item bank. In practical terms, this means:

• You cannot reverse-engineer "how many questions you can miss" with precision, since the raw-to-scaled conversion isn't published question-by-question.
• Consistent performance across all four domains is safer than being excellent in one area and weak in another, since domain-level shortfalls can drag down your overall result even if your total raw count looks reasonable.
• Because 20 of your 120 questions are unscored beta items, your raw performance on the 100 scored questions is what feeds the scaled result - but you won't know in real time which 100 those are.

The safest strategy is simple: aim to comfortably exceed 70 on every practice attempt, not just scrape by. If you're unsure how difficult the real exam feels relative to practice materials, our guide on exam difficulty puts this in context, and our pass rate analysis looks at what outcomes data is actually available.

Reference Materials That Affect Your Score

Because this is a reference-permitted exam, your score is partly a function of how efficiently you can navigate your approved materials under time pressure - not just what you've memorized. For exams scheduled May 1 through December 31, 2026, the approved references are the 2024 Georgia Gas and Mechanical Codes with Georgia amendments and the 2023 NEC.

Practicing with the exact 2024 code edition and 2023 NEC well before test day, and building your own tabbing system, is one of the highest-leverage things you can do for your scaled score. Fumbling through an unfamiliar table of contents during a 3.5-hour section wastes time you need for calculation-heavy System Design questions.

Scheduling Your Prep Around the Two Parts

Given the two-part, 7-hour total exam format and the 55% weight on System Design, your study calendar should mirror that imbalance rather than treating all four domains equally.

This is one of the few places generic study methodology genuinely helps: batching your review sessions and spacing repeated exposure to Manual J calculations across multiple weeks builds the calculation fluency that a single cram session can't. For a structured, week-by-week plan built specifically around these four domains, see our complete GA-CAC Study Guide. You can also build calculation speed and reference-navigation habits using timed practice sets on our main practice test platform, which mirrors the two-part timing structure candidates actually face.

What Happens If You Fall Short

Not reaching a scaled score of 70 isn't the end of the road, but it does carry consequences worth planning around. After two failed attempts, a Board-approved review course is required before you're permitted to sit for a third exam. That's a meaningful time and cost commitment, so it's worth treating your first attempt with the seriousness it deserves rather than viewing early attempts as "practice runs."

Requirements That Come Before the Score Matters

A passing score only matters once you're actually eligible to sit for the exam. Current Class II law requires five years of full-time qualifying experience, broken into two years of commercial supervisory experience, one year as a service technician or service supervisor, and two years of installation as a lead mechanic - with at least one commercial year on systems exceeding 175,000 BTU of heating and 60,000 BTU of cooling.

Beyond experience, applicants must submit experience affidavits and references, pass a criminal background check, hold EPA Section 608 Type II and Type III certification, complete Board-approved heat-loss/gain and duct-design training, and provide identity and lawful-presence documents. Only after Board approval can you schedule your PSI appointment. Our detailed requirements breakdown and certification cost guide cover the full financial and documentation picture, including the $110 application fee.

Once licensed, maintaining your credential means renewing by November 30 of odd-numbered years, with four continuing education hours required per year - eight per renewal cycle. If you're still weighing whether this credential fits your career path, our ROI analysis and salary guide look at the broader picture, and you can test your current readiness anytime on our practice exam platform.

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