The supervisory questions ask something different
Most practice tests get this wrong, and it is the reason the supervisory paper catches people who sailed through the operatives one. The operatives test asks what the rule is. The supervisory test asks what you do about somebody else.
So a question here is rarely "what is the exposure action value". It is closer to "you walk past a man cutting kerbs dry and he tells you the water bottle is empty, what do you do". The answer is not a number, it is a decision, and the wrong options are the things supervisors genuinely do: have a quiet word later, fill the form in afterwards, or assume somebody senior has already noticed.
That distinction is why this bank exists separately rather than being the operatives bank written in longer sentences. A supervisory question that is really just a harder recall question is not practice for the test you are sitting.
It is the operatives test plus a chapter, not instead of it
The specialist tests are supersets. Every core question can still come up, which means the supervisory paper is roughly seven in ten core material. If you are shaky on the five core areas you will fail this on the core questions, and the supervisory ones will not be why.
Practise the operatives mock first if that is where you are, then come here. The score breakdown on this page separates supervisory out as its own line for exactly that reason: forty two with every miss in the supervisory section and forty two with the misses scattered are two different problems needing two different evenings.
K squared over N, and what it decides about a second sitting
Two papers of K questions drawn from a bank of N share about K squared over N questions. That arithmetic decides whether sitting a mock twice teaches you anything, and on a specialist test it hides a trap.
A specialist paper draws from two pools: a large core one and a smaller subject one. Add them together and the bank looks healthy, so the combined repeat figure looks fine. The subject pool on its own is thinner, so the supervisory questions come back sooner than that figure suggests.
Both numbers are shown above the test rather than the flattering one. It is the same reason the operatives mock reports its bank size out loud: a tool that recycles questions quietly and lets somebody walk into the real test at ninety six per cent has done them active harm, and reporting a comfortable average over an uncomfortable part is the same failure wearing a suit.
The revision mode is the answer to it
Rather than drawing a fresh paper and hoping, revision mode comes back to the questions you have not yet answered right twice in a row. Twice, not once, because getting a four option question right once is a one in four accident and twice in a row is one in sixteen. Get one wrong and the streak resets to zero.
Where the answers come from
Every question cites the HSE guidance it was written from and links to it. Get one wrong and you land on the paragraph rather than on a forum thread, which is the difference between memorising an answer and knowing why it is the answer. On a supervisory paper that matters more, because the thing being tested is judgement and judgement does not survive being memorised.
None of these are the real questions. CITB does not publish its live bank, it sells it in GT100 and GT200, and anyone offering you the real ones for free is either wrong or reproducing somebody else's copyright. What the test actually examines is free published guidance, so that is what these are written from, with the source attached to every answer so you can check rather than trust.
The real numbers
- 50 questions in 45 minutes, the same as every level.
- Pass at 45 out of 50, so five wrong is the whole allowance.
- 46 out of 50 for managers and professionals, if that is the one you need.
- The pass is valid two years when you apply for the card.
Everything runs in your browser. Progress for this test is kept separately from the operatives mock, on this device, with no account and nothing uploaded.
Common questions
What is the difference between the operatives test and the supervisory one?
The supervisory test is the operatives test plus a supervisory chapter. Every core question can still appear, so this is not an alternative to operatives practice, it is that practice with about fifteen questions a paper swapped for supervisory ones. The supervisory questions are a different kind of question: the operatives test asks what the rule is, the supervisory test asks what you do when somebody else is breaking it.
Which card needs the supervisory test?
The Gold Supervisor card, and certain other Blue and Gold cards depending on the qualification behind them. The Black Manager card and the academically or professionally qualified cards need the managers and professionals test instead, which is a higher pass mark again. Check what your qualification maps to before you book, because the fee and the trip are wasted on the wrong test.
What is the pass mark, and is it different for supervisors?
Forty five out of fifty in forty five minutes, the same as the operatives test, so five wrong answers is the entire allowance. The managers and professionals test is forty six of fifty, which is one fewer. On a supervisor paper thirty five of the fifty come from the core operatives chapters and only fifteen from the supervisory one, and that split catches people out: the supervisory half alone can spend the whole margin three times over, which is the half nobody revises because it feels like common sense until it is being marked.
Why do the supervisory questions repeat sooner than the rest?
Because the supervisory pool is smaller than the core pool, and the tool says so on the page rather than hiding it inside a combined figure. The whole bank here is comfortably large, which makes the overall repeat rate look fine. The supervisory section on its own is thinner, so a second attempt repeats more of the part you came for. Every site that quietly reports only the combined number is telling you the flattering half.
Are these the real supervisory questions?
No, and no free practice test anywhere has them: CITB sells its bank in GT100 and GT200 rather than publishing it. The supervisory questions here are written from free HSE guidance, mostly the risk assessment and managing for health and safety material plus the toolbox talk pages, and every answer links to the paragraph it came from. DVSA describes its own free practice test the same way, saying the questions are not used in the real test but are based on the same topics, so this is the standard rather than a compromise.
Do I have to be a supervisor already?
No. People sit it because their qualification requires it, which is often before they are formally supervising anybody. That is exactly the case this practice is for: the questions assume you know the rules and are testing whether you know what your position obliges you to do about somebody else, which is not something a labouring career teaches by itself.
How is my score broken down?
By the five core knowledge areas plus supervisory as its own line. That matters more here than on the operatives test: scoring 42 with every miss in the supervisory section is a completely different problem from scoring 42 with the misses spread out, and a single total cannot tell you which one you have.
Is my progress saved separately from the operatives mock?
Yes. Each test keeps its own record in your browser, so answering a core question right twice here does not retire it on the operatives mock. No account, nothing uploaded, and clearing your browsing data clears it.