coteca.co.uk > Blog > What Happens if You Fail the SMSTS Course
The Site Management Safety Training Scheme (SMSTS) is a 5-days training course that mainly concerns site managers (or persons who aspire towards that position) and imparts to them the health, safety, and environmental knowledge they will need to possess in construction sites. The course is not only about participating but also about meeting a set of assessments, instructor evaluation, and understanding a final examination. Because it is structured and certifies your competence in safety, management, and site, the consequences of not passing can be heavy. We are going to examine the consequences of not passing the SMSTS course, the policy for retaking the SMSTS course (also known as the SMSTS retake policy), and the situation where a candidate fails the SMSTS exam twice.
When someone says that they have failed the SMSTS course, he/she means that the person does not fulfill all the required evaluations to obtain the SMSTS certificate. This can occur for many reasons: the failure to pass the instructor’s evaluation, not undertaking all the main assessments and failing the final exam.
The number of questions in the exam is 25. The examination consists of 18 multiple-choice questions (each carries one mark) and 7 short written questions (each carries two marks) from the various health and safety topics like working at height, vehicles, and pedestrians, manual handling, asbestos, dust, noise, and vibration. An overall score of 81% (26 out of 32 marks) is required to pass the exam. If your score falls between 72% to 78% (meaning you got 23, 24, or 25 out of 32), and you have completed the core activities and trainer review, then you can take the exam again without having to redo the course. This is known as the SMSTS retake policy.
The SMSTS retake policy is laid out in the CITB scheme regulations (Appendix G), along with the practices. You can choose to take the retake exam the same day or during the last day of another SMSTS course within 90 days of the first exam. The participant is not obliged to repeat the full course when resitting.
A training provider has the right to charge a resit fee (more so if it’s not on the same day). In conclusion, if your initial score was below 69%, you will need to take the whole SMSTS course again to be eligible for the certificate.
Failing the SMSTS course due to SMSTS exam failure (but qualifying for a retake), the first consequence will be rescheduling a retake under the above rules mentioned. Many training centers will even allow the re-sit to happen on the same day as the test, thus keeping the inconvenience to a minimum. Being successful in the resit will earn you the SMSTS certificate. If, however, you are not successful in the resit, you will lose the advantage of the retake exam and will have to retake the 5 days course before being allowed to sit the exam again.
In brief, failure in one exam can be treated with one resit. However, two failures require the participant to retake the complete course for each one.
If you fail SMSTS course, you will face practical consequences. Without the certificate, you are not acknowledged under CITB’s Site Safety Plus norms to be a site manager under many contractual or regulatory requirements. Besides, your being a CSCS manager (which is sometimes required for getting on site) card holder that is dependent on the site safety training may turn out to be a disadvantage due to failing the examination.
In addition, failing results in extra costs: tuition fees, exam re-takes, time spent in re-taking, work interruption or project allocation might all be added to the bill. It also hinders your professional advancement because until you acquire a valid certification, some management roles will not be opened to you.
Sometimes, if your certificate has lapsed (the validity duration is 5 years) and you are unable to take the refresher course, you must also take the full course again.
In case you are in the unfortunate situation of having failed the SMSTS course, your first action should be to check how near your score was to the passing threshold (i.e., did you fall into the resit window). To find out the topics you had problems with, ask the provider for your exam breakdown. If the resit is permitted, prepare very well for it with the help of mock exams and by studying the key focus areas.
Careful planning is important for a retake (if permitted). Try mock exams, target the main study areas (working at height, manual handling, etc.), and go through the GE700 and the XA6 workbook again.
It is better to say that if you obtain a low score (below 69%) or you failed the resit, the only way is to retake the whole course. Use this time for learning to your advantage by concentrating on your weak areas. If your certification has expired and you did not take the SMSTS refresher course, you must also enroll in the full 5 days SMSTS Course. It is wise to check the precise policies of your provider, since different providers may implement various factors such as timing, cost and scheduling of the resits differently. Always let them know in writing if you are planning to retake the exam.
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