Almost everybody knows the statistic and gets the hierarchy wrong
Anybody sitting this can already tell you that falls are the biggest killer in construction. What they get wrong is what to do about it, and it is consistent: they reach for a harness when the answer was a different platform.
The hierarchy asks first whether the work can be avoided altogether. Assembling at ground level, using an extendable tool, designing the job differently. Then whether the fall can be prevented with a platform and guard rails, which works for everybody in the area regardless of what they clipped onto. Then collective mitigation such as nets. Personal fall arrest is near the bottom, because it depends on the person doing something and it catches a fall rather than stopping one.
There is no two metre rule
There is no minimum height in the Work at Height Regulations 2005. The definition is written around the fall rather than around a measurement: any place where somebody could fall a distance liable to cause injury, including into an opening or an excavation.
The two metre figure is a survival from regulations that were replaced, and it still turns up in site inductions. It is worth unlearning before the test, because several questions in this chapter are only difficult if you are still carrying it.
Ladders are not banned, and that is not permission
A ladder is a legitimate choice for short duration, low risk work where the assessment shows a better option is not justified. What the chapter is testing is whether you know the boundary: tied at the stiles rather than footed, one out for every four up, a user check before every use, and a different piece of equipment as soon as the task involves force, reach or duration.
Stepladders fail sideways. The forces involved in pulling a cable or drilling overhead are more than enough to do it, which is why keeping the body inside the stiles is the rule and why the answer to a task that will not allow that is a different platform.
MEWPs, and the two things that kill in them
Boom baskets catapult people out when the basket catches and releases, which is why a short restraint lanyard is normally correct rather than a long fall arrest one: the aim is to keep the person in the basket. The other killer is overhead crushing, where an operator drives up into a soffit or a beam, often because a joystick was caught against something.
Fragile surfaces are about whether it holds a person
Fragility is not a material. A rooflight painted the same colour as the roof around it, a corroded metal deck, a rotten board: all of them take somebody straight through. Physical covers work whether or not anybody remembers the briefing, which is why they beat paint marks and toolbox talks.
Revision mode exists because of this number
Two papers of K questions from a bank of N share about K squared over N. A specialist paper draws from two pools of very different sizes, so the combined figure flatters the subject slice. Both are reported above the test, and the revision mode comes back to what you keep getting wrong rather than drawing a fresh paper.
Everything runs in your browser. No account, nothing uploaded.
Common questions
Is there a two metre rule for work at height?
No. The Work at Height Regulations 2005 contain no minimum height, and it is the most persistent myth in the industry. The definition is any place where a person could fall a distance liable to cause injury, which includes falls into openings and excavations below ground level. The two metre figure came from earlier regulations and has been gone for years.
Are ladders banned?
No, and they never have been. A ladder is an acceptable choice for low risk, short duration work, typically around thirty minutes or less, where a risk assessment shows more suitable equipment is not justified. The mistake is using programme pressure as the justification, which is precisely the reasoning the assessment is meant to test.
Why does the hierarchy matter so much in this chapter?
Because it is the thing most people get backwards. They reach for a harness when the correct answer was a different working platform. The hierarchy asks first whether the work can be avoided, then whether the fall can be prevented by a platform with guard rails, then collective mitigation such as nets, and only then personal fall arrest. A harness is near the bottom, not the top.
Why does a harness need a rescue plan?
Because suspension in a harness after a fall can be life threatening within minutes. Waiting for the fire service is not a plan. A harness with no capability to recover somebody quickly is not a control, it is a delay before the same outcome.
What is the pass mark for the work at height test?
Forty five out of fifty in forty five minutes, so five wrong answers is the entire allowance. Fifteen of the fifty come from the work at height chapter and thirty five from the core operatives areas. That split matters here more than on most papers, because the hierarchy of control questions are the ones people answer from habit rather than from the regulations, and habit is what the chapter is testing.
Are these taken from the real work at height paper?
No, and nobody is offering the real ones legitimately. CITB sells its bank in GT100. These are written from free HSE guidance, mostly the work at height material together with the ladders, MEWP and scaffolding pages, and every answer links to the guidance it came from. That is also why the two metre myth is contradicted here with a source attached rather than just asserted.
Is my progress saved separately from the other mocks?
Yes. Each test keeps its own record in your browser, so this one and the operatives paper never overwrite each other, and no account is involved. The work at height pool is twenty eight questions with fifteen on each paper, so a second sitting repeats about eight of them. The result prints that specialist repeat rate on its own, because a combined figure across all fifty looks comfortable and hides the half that matters.