New in Tempr's BCIN Courses: Practise the Skill the Exam Actually Tests

If you've written a BCIN exam, or you're getting ready to, you already know the format: open book, about three hours, roughly 70 questions. Do the math and that's about 2.5 minutes per question. In an open-book exam, the real bottleneck isn't knowing the Code exists. It's finding the right provision fast enough to actually think about the question.

That's the skill Tempr's BCIN exam-prep courses are now built around. We've rebuilt the practice experience across all eight courses (Structural, House, Small Buildings, HVAC - House, Plumbing, On-site Sewage Systems, Legal/Process, and Designer Legal/Process) to train speed and accuracy in the Code, not just familiarity with the material. And since the BCIN exams moved to the 2024 Ontario Building Code as of March 30, 2026, every drill has been checked against that edition.

Here's what's new, and why it matters for how you study.

Find It, Don't Just Know It

Most people study by reading. But the exam doesn't ask "do you understand snow load calculations." It asks you to locate a specific value under time pressure. That's why every module now includes "Find it in the Code" drills: you look up a value and enter where you found it, like "Table 4.1.6.2.-A." Both parts are graded, and we accept the normal ways people actually write references, whether that's "Table 4.1.8.9.", "4.1.8.9", or "T 4.1.8.9".

This mirrors what happens in the exam room. You're not being tested on memorization. You're being tested on navigation.

To keep the practice honest, each drill pulls from a fresh, randomized question pool every time you attempt it. Across the eight courses there are well over a thousand lookup questions, so repeat attempts give you new lookups instead of ones you've already memorized the answer to. That's a meaningful shift for anyone using spaced repetition as a study strategy: you're rebuilding the search skill each time, not just recalling a flashcard.

Build Your Own Map, With Just Enough Help

Learning to navigate a document as dense as the Building Code takes structure. Our new "Where to look" hints name the Part and Subsection and describe how the relevant table is laid out, but they never hand you the answer. The idea is simple: you build your own mental map of the Code's structure, which is exactly what you need on exam day when there's no hint button.

If you get stuck on the reasoning rather than the location, Professor AI, our course tutor, can help. It searches and reads the 2024 Building Code Compendium directly. Hit "Walk me through it" on any step and it reviews the problem and your answers, points you to the right part of the Code, checks your arithmetic, and asks you to try again before it ever gives you the answer. It's built to support the skill, not shortcut it.

Train Your Speed, Not Just Your Accuracy

Knowing the answer isn't enough if it takes you five minutes to find it. Our new "Time me" feature keeps each question hidden until you open it, then runs the clock until you answer correctly. Aim for under a minute per lookup. The course tracks your best average on your device, so you can watch that number come down over time, session by session.

For calculations, "Work it yourself" lets you hide each step's result until you've entered your own, with Code values like Rd and Ro tucked behind a "look it up" prompt instead of sitting in front of you. And when you're ready for a full run-through, each course's new "Work It Out" page lists every calculation and drill in the order it was taught, so you can rehearse start to finish before exam day.

Built on a Rechecked 2024 Code

None of this works if the underlying content is wrong. While building these drills, we checked the drill answers, and the lessons they draw on, against the 2024 Building Code Compendium and corrected 49 lesson errors across the eight courses, including a house snow load example that had used the Part 4 method instead of Article 9.4.2.2. Where later amendments may affect things like fees or certain Division C inspection periods, we left those out of the drills until the current wording is confirmed.

Ready to Practise the Real Skill?

These tools won't guarantee a pass or a higher score. What they will do is give you focused, honest practice at the exact skill open-book exams reward: finding the right provision, fast, under real time pressure. If you're already enrolled, everything is live in your course right now. If you haven't started yet, head to course.tempr.ca and get to work.