Plumbing code book tabs are allowed on open-book exams only as each vendor's bulletin allows — and the bulletins disagree.
ICC's open-book rules accept tabs that cannot be removed without destroying the page; PSI's New Mexico bulletin orders temporary Post-it tabs removed; Prov's Indiana bulletin allows permanent tabs but no handwritten notes except formulas written in ink.
Some plumbing exams are closed book outright.
Below: what the published rules allow, a tabbing strategy, and where pre-made tab sets fit.
What markings are allowed in your code book
Tabs are a test-day tool only where the exam lets you bring the book at all.
ICC says most of its exams are open book, but that the open or closed status and the allowed references vary by exam — the exam catalog or candidate bulletin is where yours is stated.
Montana's master plumber exam is open book — 125 multiple-choice questions over 3 hours — and candidates bring their own tabbed code book.
Which exam your jurisdiction requires comes first, though — if you have not mapped the ladder yet, start with our guide to plumbing license requirements, then come back to prep.
Closed-book exams exist at the journeyman and master tiers, which is why the check matters.
Philadelphia's journeyman plumber exam is 75 questions, closed book, over 3 hours at $115, on the 2018 Philadelphia Plumbing Code.
Washington's journey-level and residential plumber exams are closed book too, on the 2015 Uniform Plumbing Code with Washington amendments.
New York City's master plumber written exam permits no reference materials whatsoever.
The NBOPE journeyman and master exam mixes both styles across its two parts — 50 open-book questions, then 100 closed-book sizing questions.
Where the exam is open book, each vendor writes its own marking rules:
- ICC's exam administrative rules let candidates bring bound references — an original, a three-ring binder, or stapled materials, with no photocopies of copyrighted material — with notes written in ink or highlighting, and permanently attached tabs: tabs that cannot be removed without destroying the page.
- PSI's New Mexico bulletin allows references to be highlighted, underlined and indexed before the exam — but no writing in them, and permanent tabs only. Temporary tabs such as Post-It notes must be removed before the examination begins.
- Prov's Indiana bulletin allows highlighting and permanent tabs, and handwritten notes only when they are formulas written in pen. Moveable tabs, Post-its, photocopied pages and study guides are never permitted, and nothing may be marked during the test.
- The State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating, and Fire Sprinkler Contractors — North Carolina's licensing board — publishes an exam book list that has candidates bring their own approved references: hard-bound, spiral or ring-bound originals, with highlighting and permanently attached commercial tabs only.
- Idaho's HVAC and contractor exams, delivered by PSI, allow the Contractors' Business and Law Reference Manual into the exam in a binder, pre-highlighted, with no writing during the exam — the mark-before-test-day pattern the PSI New Mexico and Prov Indiana bulletins state outright.
Vendors differ on handwritten notes — check yours
Tabbing strategy: tab for the clock, not the shelf
A tabbed book buys seconds on an exam run against the clock.
ICC's candidate bulletin is blunt about it: because of the time constraints, you will not have time to look up all of the answers, so the references have to be known well before test day.
The same bulletin notes there is no guessing penalty, so every question gets an answer.
Tab to that reality — the book finds the table, and you already know the concept.
Confirm the exam, the edition and the marking rules
Open or closed, which references, which edition — check your bulletin for all three. Montana's journeyman written exam, for example, runs 100 multiple-choice questions on the 2021 Uniform Plumbing Code as amended plus board statutes and rules, open book for 3 hours; Washington's journey-level and residential exams examine the 2015 UPC with state amendments, closed book.Tab to the outline's weights, heaviest first
If your board publishes a content outline, it shows which topics earn the most questions — Philadelphia's gives plan reading and analysis 25% of its exam and drainage and venting 15% each. The exam itself is closed book; the lesson is the weights. Put your first tabs where your own outline is densest.Tab the tables, not just the chapters
Where sizing is open book, tab the tables you will look up — the fixture-unit, trap-arm and slope tables. The NBOPE exam takes that option away for sizing: its format puts the 100 sizing questions in a closed-book part.Tab the amendments and statutes too
Montana's written exams cover the 2021 UPC as amended plus board statutes and rules — a book tabbed only to the code chapters leaves you page-hunting for the amendments and rules mid-exam. Give those pages their own tabs.Drill with the finished book, against the clock
Practice your lookups in the tabbed book until the tabs are muscle memory, and re-sit practice sets under your board's time limit, answering every question — where your bulletin says there is no guessing penalty, as ICC's does, a blank is a pure loss.Nothing new goes in on test day
Do your marking before you arrive: Prov's Indiana bulletin bars marking anything during the test, and ICC warns candidates not to write in references with the exam-room whiteboard marker.
One edition note: UPC code book tabs and IPC tabs for exam day only line up with the edition your bulletin names.
Montana examines the 2021 UPC as amended, Washington's exams the 2015 UPC with Washington amendments, and the NBOPE exam the currently adopted Uniform Plumbing Code — the edition changes by jurisdiction, and the same check applies if your bulletin names the International Plumbing Code.
Tabs are also one layer of exam prep; the exam itself — portions, vendors, pass scores and retakes — is covered in our plumbing license exam guide.
Pre-made tab sets: commercial kits and the DIY route
Commercial tab sets exist, and at least one bulletin names them outright: North Carolina's book list allows permanently attached commercial tabs only.
Elsewhere the rules describe the property that matters rather than the product: ICC's exam rules define the standard as a tab that cannot be removed without destroying the page, and that test, not the brand, is what your tabs have to pass.
The same bulletins bar specific tab-kit components.
Post-It style and other moveable tabs are barred: PSI's New Mexico bulletin has temporary tabs removed before the exam, and Prov's Indiana bulletin calls moveable tabs never permitted — it also bars photocopied pages and study guides, so a kit that adds printed summary inserts or copied pages is out there even if the tabs themselves are permanent.
If you buy, buy for the edition: match the set to the book your bulletin names — Montana's 2021 UPC as amended, Washington's 2015 UPC with amendments, or whichever currently adopted UPC your board lists.
The DIY route sidesteps the matching problem: permanent tabs you make yourself, built to your vendor's attachment rule, set at your own weak spots.
Whichever way you go, the tabs are the last mile, not the preparation — ICC's bulletin is blunt that you will not have time to look up all of the answers and must know the references well, and a tab index cannot know them for you.
When you have passed, put the tabbed-book hours to work and browse plumber jobs.
Career information, not legal or licensing advice — tab, marking and reference rules are set by each exam vendor and licensing board, and by the city or county where licensing is local; confirm the current bulletin with your board before you mark your book.
Commercial where it is named, permanent everywhere