Pass Your ExAC with Confidence

The Examination for Architects in Canada (ExAC) is the national licensing exam required for intern architects to become licensed across most Canadian provinces. It tests your knowledge across 13 themes drawn from official recommended readings including CHOP, the NBC 2020, CCDC contracts, and RAIC Document 6. Passing it is one of the final steps before receiving your architectural designation.

To give yourself the best shot at passing all 4 exams, focus on the following resources: our Textbook — the organized set of notes guiding you through the various themes and topics you need to understand. Read through Building Construction Illustrated by Francis D.K. Ching. And read through key chapters of the Canadian Handbook of Practice for Architects (CHOP) 2020 edition. Be sure to understand the structure of the NBC to help you locate information quickly and efficiently.

Our product will tell you what chapters of what text to read for each theme, taking the guesswork out of studying.

The textbook is a professionally formatted, fully searchable digital textbook. After purchase, you receive instant access — study on any device, any time, with no subscription or expiry.

The textbook is cross-referenced with all ExAC recommended readings: the Canadian Handbook of Practice (CHOP), the National Building Code of Canada 2020, the full CCDC contract suite (CCDC 2, 3, 4, 5A, 5B, 14, 15, 17, 23, 30), RAIC Document 6, CHOP Appendix E, and sustainability frameworks including LEED v4 and WELL. Content is organized by ExAC theme — not by source document — so you always know what you're studying and why it's testable.

This guide is a structured synthesis of the recommended readings, not a replacement. The official texts span thousands of pages — and most candidates end up with a scattered collection of hundreds of PDFs passed around by others, spending days just trying to organize them. This textbook solves that. It distills the exam-relevant content from every source, adds context for how concepts are tested, organizes everything by theme, and gives you one place to access it all — any time, anywhere. It's designed to save you hundreds of hours while keeping you focused on what actually appears on exam day.

Yes. The textbook includes 250+ scenario-based practice questions across all 13 themes, each with a detailed explanation of the reasoning — not just the correct answer. This matters because the ExAC tests judgment and application, not memorization, and you need to be comfortable processing information fast. At roughly 90 seconds per question, the practice questions are meant to be used as timed drills that build your ability to quickly identify what's being asked and commit to an answer.

Section 4 deserves special mention: it is the hardest section precisely because multiple answers can feel correct. The key is a solid grounding in the CCDC documents, the contract administration process, and — where applicable — the OAA admissions course, combined with your work experience. When in doubt on any question, use process of elimination: remove the clearly wrong options first, then assess what remains.

This is the updated 2026 edition, fully aligned with the current ExAC objectives and examination structure as published by CACB. It incorporates the NBC 2020 and NECB updates and reflects the most recent CCDC and RAIC document versions. If you're writing the ExAC this cycle, this textbook is current.

The textbook is divided into 4 sections covering all 13 official ExAC themes: Section 1 (Design — Themes 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7), Section 2 (NBC & NECB — Theme 5), Section 3 (Final Project/Construction — Theme 8), and Section 4 (Project & Practice — Themes 9–13). Practice questions are organized by theme at the end, making it easy to test yourself on any area.

Section 2 of the ExAC is open-book — you are permitted to bring a printed copy of the NBC 2020 and NECB 2020 into the exam room. This sounds like an advantage, but time is extremely limited. If you don't know the code well enough to navigate it in seconds, having the book in front of you won't save you.

Tab everything. This is not optional — it is the single most important physical preparation you can do. Tab every major part (Parts 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9), every occupancy group, every section you've studied, and any table or article that came up repeatedly in your practice. Use a colour system if it helps. The goal is to open directly to any topic in under five seconds without scanning.

Know where things live before exam day. Tabbing alone is not enough — you need to know intuitively that spatial separation is in Section 3.2, that firestopping dimensions are in 3.1.11, that accessibility is in 3.8, and that Part 9 starts where it does. Spend time flipping through the physical code as you study, not just reading summaries. Muscle memory matters.

Pull out the index during the exam. The NBC index is one of the most underused tools on exam day. If you hit a question and can't remember where something is, go straight to the index — it will get you to the right article faster than any amount of page-flipping. Consider removing it from the binding before the exam and keeping it as a separate loose reference so it lies flat and is instantly accessible. This small move can save critical minutes.

The candidates who do best on Section 2 are not the ones who memorized every clause — they're the ones who can find any answer in 30 seconds. Build that skill during your prep, and the open-book format becomes a genuine asset.

The $200 CAD individual plan gives one person lifetime access to the full ExAC Study Textbook. After purchasing, you'll set a password using the email address from your Stripe receipt — that email and password become your login credentials. This plan supports one active session at a time. You can sign in on any device — laptop, tablet, or phone — but if you sign in on a second device while already signed in elsewhere, your oldest session will be automatically ended to keep the licence personal to you.

The $500 CAD group plan is designed for study groups, architecture cohorts, or firms with multiple ExAC candidates. It works exactly like the individual plan — one shared login (email + password) — but allows up to 5 people to be signed in at the same time. One person completes the purchase and shares the credentials with the group. If a sixth person tries to sign in while all five sessions are active, the oldest session is automatically ended to make room. At $100 per person for a group of five, this is the most cost-effective way for a team to prepare together. Access is lifetime — no expiry, no annual renewal.

Yes — with one important caveat. If you purchased individual access, only one person can be signed in at a time. If a second person signs in using the same credentials while someone else is already studying, the first session will be automatically ended. If you need multiple people to access the textbook simultaneously, the $500 group plan supports up to 5 concurrent sessions.

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