How to Pass the SMSTS Exam: A Site Manager's Study Guide

If you’re moving into a site management role, you’ll soon find that most job adverts ask for one qualification: the CITB Site Management Safety Training Scheme (SMSTS). It’s the industry’s standard way of showing you can manage health and safety at management level. In a recent video, a health and safety consultant and CITB trainer who goes by Coach OG explains how he approached the course and passed the exam. This guide covers his main advice and adds what you need to know before you book.

What Is the SMSTS?

The SMSTS is a five-day health and safety course run under CITB’s Site Safety Plus scheme. It’s for people who manage work on UK construction sites, including:

• Site managers and project managers
• Contracts managers
• Business owners who run their own projects
• Clients, and supervisors who want to step up into management

The course covers building, civil engineering and general construction. If you’re responsible for people and projects on site, it applies to you. If you’re at supervisor level, the shorter SSSTS course may suit you better for now.

The SMSTS isn’t a legal requirement. Still, nearly every main contractor expects managers to hold it. As a site manager, you have duties under sections 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HASAWA): you must protect your workforce and anyone else affected by the work, including visitors and the public. The SMSTS shows employers that you understand those duties and can carry them out.

How the Course Is Structured

The course is called a five-day course, but in practice it usually works like this:

1. Days one to four — you’re taught the core syllabus
2. Half of day five — revision, depending on the training centre and tutor
3. The rest of day five — the final exam

The course is also flexible. You can do all five days in one week, attend one day a week for five weeks, or book weekend sessions. Whichever option you choose, you must attend every session. If you miss one, you can’t get the certificate.

What the SMSTS Covers

The syllabus is wide. You can expect to cover:

• Legislation — HASAWA 1974, the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015), and recent changes to acceptable working practices
• Risk assessments and method statements (RAMS)
• Working at height, including scaffolding
• Excavations and confined spaces
• Demolition
• Electricity, including underground and overhead services
• Occupational health management
• Behavioural safety, including how your leadership affects how safely people work on site

Coach OG also expects newer legislation such as the Building Safety Act 2022 to feature more in future versions of the course.

The SMSTS Exam Format

At the end of the course you sit a mandatory written exam:

• 25 questions
• 30 minutes
• 80% pass mark (so at least 20 correct answers)

The exam isn’t the whole picture. Your final result also includes your tutor’s review of how you took part during the week and the case study work you complete. So taking an active part over the five days directly affects your result.

If you want to see what the questions look like before you start, go through our SMSTS mock test with 25 questions and answers.

Coach OG’s “One Day” Approach

The video’s headline says it was passed “in one day”, and it’s important to read that correctly. You can’t skip four days of the course. Coach OG means he was ready for the exam from the very first day because of how he studied:

“It’s not a one-day course, but you can pass the course in one day.”

His method is simple and works well.

Keep a separate notebook for the tutor’s questions

From the first session, use a separate notebook just for the questions the tutor asks the group and the points they keep coming back to. Tutors won’t tell you what’s on the exam, because that would be cheating. But a good tutor will keep stressing the knowledge that matters most.

“The tutor will keep telling you, will ask one question, lay emphasis on that question — write that down.”

For example, when the tutor covers confined spaces or electricity and asks the room questions, write those questions down. By the end of the week, that notebook is your revision guide, built from what an experienced trainer decided you most need to know.

Stay focused and keep your camera on

On remote courses, tutors often ask you to keep your camera on so they can see you’re engaged. If you’re distracted or only half listening, you’ll miss the points the tutor stresses most, and your participation mark will suffer too.

Practical Study Tips for the Week

Beyond the notebook, Coach OG recommends:

• Make plenty of notes during every session
• Ask questions. It helps you remember the material and counts towards your participation mark
• Find your learning style. Some people are ready on day one; others only feel confident by day four. Both are fine
• Do your homework. Read the course materials each evening, whether they’re printed books or online modules
• Rest properly. You’ll take in more if you’re not tired
• Stay calm. You can afford to get five questions wrong, and nothing in the exam should surprise you if you’ve followed the week

He also points out that construction is a practical industry, and passing the exam is only the start:

“It’s not just passing the exam that matters. What is more important is you knowing what you’re going to learn.”

In other words, the goal is to come out able to run a safer site, not just to hold a certificate.

After You Pass: Certificate, Validity and Refreshers

When you pass, you’ll get a Site Safety Plus certificate, usually within a few weeks. Many centres now send it by email instead of posting a paper copy. There is no SMSTS card. It’s completely separate from your CSCS card. Managers usually work towards the black Manager CSCS card, which has its own qualification requirements, so look at our guide to CSCS card types to check which card you need.

The certificate is valid for five years. Plan your refresher course a couple of months before it expires so you don’t have to rush. The SMSTS refresher is much shorter than the full course. It keeps you up to date on changes to legislation and good practice. If your certificate expires before you refresh it, you’ll usually have to do the full five-day course again, which is costly and avoidable.

How CSCS Mastery Fits Into This

Coach OG’s approach comes down to two things: listen carefully on the course, and test yourself on what matters. The SiteSafetyPlus app helps with the second. It has over 900 SSSTS and SMSTS practice questions, each with a detailed explanation so you understand why an answer is right, as well as full mock tests timed like the real 30-minute exam.

The app also includes practical tools you’ll use as a site manager: an F10 notification helper for CDM 2015, a risk-matrix tool for RAMS, a permit-to-work builder and a RIDDOR reporting guide. Visit our site safety page to start practising before your course, during the week and in the run-up to your refresher.