CSCS Test Pass Mark: What Score Do You Need?
To pass the CITB Health, Safety & Environment (HS&E) test, you need at least 45 correct answers out of 50 — that's 90%. This applies to the Operatives test and the Managers & Professionals test alike. (Source: CITB — Operatives test.)
There's no rounding or partial credit
45/50 means exactly that — 44 correct isn't close enough, and there's no separate pass mark for individual topics like PPE or manual handling. It's one combined score across all 50 questions.
Why the pass mark is so high
A 90% pass mark is high compared with most multiple-choice tests, and that's deliberate — the test exists to confirm you understand the health and safety basics that keep people from getting seriously hurt or killed on a construction site. It's designed so that guessing or half-remembering the material isn't enough to scrape a pass.
What that means for how you revise
With only five questions of margin for error across the entire test, revising "most" of the topics isn't a safe strategy — a couple of weak areas (a topic you've never worked in, or terminology you don't recognise) can be enough to fail on their own. Broad, even coverage across every topic matters more than being an expert in two or three.
Check where you'd actually land
The most direct way to find out if you'd currently meet the 90% mark is to sit a realistic 50-question test under the same conditions and see your score against it. Our free mock test shows your result against the official 45/50 pass mark automatically, plus a topic-by-topic breakdown of where you're strong and where you're not.