NICET SOILS LEVEL II CERTIFICATION EXAMINATION COMPLETE PRACTICE EXAM
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS | VERIFIED SOLUTIONS | UPDATED 2026/2027
COMPREHENSIVE STUDY GUIDE
Examiner/Administrator: National Institute for Certification in Engineering
Technologies
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
NICET SOILS LEVEL II CERTIFICATION EXAMINATION
2026/2027 EDITION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
COMPLETE PRACTICE EXAM
120 MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
PASSING SCORE: 70%
TESTING TIME: 150 MINUTES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Soil Classification and Identification
2. Sampling Procedures and Field Investigation
3. Moisture-Density Relationships
4. Laboratory Testing Methods
5. Aggregate and Soil Properties
6. Construction Inspection Procedures
7. Compaction Control and Verification
8. Quality Assurance and Documentation
9. Safety, Equipment, and Standards
10. Data Analysis and Reporting
NICET CERTIFICATION PROGRAM || ALIGNED WITH CURRENT SOILS TESTING AND
INSPECTION BLUEPRINTS || GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY ||
PROFESSIONAL STUDY GUIDE || 100% VERIFIED | GRADED A+ || COMPREHENSIVE
,EXAM PREPARATION || PREPARED FOR CERTIFICATION & PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT || PROFESSIONAL EXAMINATION USE
Soil Classification and Identification (Questions 1–8)
Q1. A soil sample contains 58% sand, 32% silt, and 10% clay. Laboratory testing
indicates low plasticity. Under the Unified Soil Classification System (USCS), the soil
would most likely be classified as:
A. CL
B. ML
C. SM
D. SC
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. SM
Explanation: 🔹 The soil is predominantly sandy with a significant amount of non-
plastic or low-plasticity fines. Under USCS, sands containing appreciable silt-sized
particles and exhibiting low plasticity are classified as SM (Silty Sand). CL requires
clay dominance and plasticity, ML is predominantly silt, and SC requires clayey
fines with plastic characteristics.
Q2. During visual-manual classification, a technician observes that a moist soil thread
can be rolled to approximately 1/8 inch diameter before crumbling. This observation
primarily assists in determining:
A. Specific gravity
B. Plasticity characteristics
C. Organic content
D. Relative density
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Plasticity characteristics
Explanation: 🔹 The thread-rolling procedure is a field indicator of plasticity and
consistency. Plastic soils can be rolled into thin threads before breaking. Specific
,gravity requires laboratory procedures, organic content involves separate
observations and testing, and relative density applies mainly to granular soils.
Q3. Which soil type generally exhibits the greatest susceptibility to volume change
due to moisture fluctuations?
A. Clean gravel
B. Well-graded sand
C. Highly plastic clay
D. Crushed stone
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. Highly plastic clay
Explanation: 🔹 Highly plastic clays experience significant shrink-swell behavior as
moisture content changes. Granular materials such as gravel, sand, and crushed
stone exhibit relatively small volume changes because they derive strength
primarily from particle interlock rather than water content.
Q4. A soil sample passes the No. 200 sieve at a rate exceeding 50% by weight. The
soil is classified as:
A. Coarse-grained
B. Fine-grained
C. Well-graded aggregate
D. Gap-graded material
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Fine-grained
Explanation: 🔹 Under USCS, soils with more than 50% passing the No. 200 sieve
are classified as fine-grained. Coarse-grained soils contain less than 50% passing
the No. 200 sieve. Well-graded and gap-graded describe particle-size distributions
rather than broad soil categories.
, Q5. What is the primary purpose of the Unified Soil Classification System?
A. Determine compaction equipment requirements
B. Estimate project costs
C. Categorize soils based on engineering behavior
D. Establish pavement thickness
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. Categorize soils based on engineering behavior
Explanation: 🔹 USCS groups soils according to particle-size distribution and
plasticity characteristics to predict engineering performance. While classifications
may influence equipment selection and design, those are secondary applications
rather than the primary purpose of the system.
Q6. A soil exhibits a liquid limit of 55 and a plasticity index of 30. The soil is most
likely:
A. CH
B. ML
C. SP
D. GW
Correct Answer: 🔴 A. CH
Explanation: 🔹 A liquid limit above 50 indicates high plasticity. A plasticity index
of 30 places the material above the A-line on the plasticity chart, resulting in
classification as CH (high-plasticity clay). ML, SP, and GW do not match the
observed Atterberg limits.
Q7. Which field observation most strongly suggests the presence of organic soil?
A. Angular particles
B. Dark color and organic odor
C. High sand content
D. Uniform grain size
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS | VERIFIED SOLUTIONS | UPDATED 2026/2027
COMPREHENSIVE STUDY GUIDE
Examiner/Administrator: National Institute for Certification in Engineering
Technologies
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
NICET SOILS LEVEL II CERTIFICATION EXAMINATION
2026/2027 EDITION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
COMPLETE PRACTICE EXAM
120 MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
PASSING SCORE: 70%
TESTING TIME: 150 MINUTES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Soil Classification and Identification
2. Sampling Procedures and Field Investigation
3. Moisture-Density Relationships
4. Laboratory Testing Methods
5. Aggregate and Soil Properties
6. Construction Inspection Procedures
7. Compaction Control and Verification
8. Quality Assurance and Documentation
9. Safety, Equipment, and Standards
10. Data Analysis and Reporting
NICET CERTIFICATION PROGRAM || ALIGNED WITH CURRENT SOILS TESTING AND
INSPECTION BLUEPRINTS || GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY ||
PROFESSIONAL STUDY GUIDE || 100% VERIFIED | GRADED A+ || COMPREHENSIVE
,EXAM PREPARATION || PREPARED FOR CERTIFICATION & PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT || PROFESSIONAL EXAMINATION USE
Soil Classification and Identification (Questions 1–8)
Q1. A soil sample contains 58% sand, 32% silt, and 10% clay. Laboratory testing
indicates low plasticity. Under the Unified Soil Classification System (USCS), the soil
would most likely be classified as:
A. CL
B. ML
C. SM
D. SC
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. SM
Explanation: 🔹 The soil is predominantly sandy with a significant amount of non-
plastic or low-plasticity fines. Under USCS, sands containing appreciable silt-sized
particles and exhibiting low plasticity are classified as SM (Silty Sand). CL requires
clay dominance and plasticity, ML is predominantly silt, and SC requires clayey
fines with plastic characteristics.
Q2. During visual-manual classification, a technician observes that a moist soil thread
can be rolled to approximately 1/8 inch diameter before crumbling. This observation
primarily assists in determining:
A. Specific gravity
B. Plasticity characteristics
C. Organic content
D. Relative density
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Plasticity characteristics
Explanation: 🔹 The thread-rolling procedure is a field indicator of plasticity and
consistency. Plastic soils can be rolled into thin threads before breaking. Specific
,gravity requires laboratory procedures, organic content involves separate
observations and testing, and relative density applies mainly to granular soils.
Q3. Which soil type generally exhibits the greatest susceptibility to volume change
due to moisture fluctuations?
A. Clean gravel
B. Well-graded sand
C. Highly plastic clay
D. Crushed stone
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. Highly plastic clay
Explanation: 🔹 Highly plastic clays experience significant shrink-swell behavior as
moisture content changes. Granular materials such as gravel, sand, and crushed
stone exhibit relatively small volume changes because they derive strength
primarily from particle interlock rather than water content.
Q4. A soil sample passes the No. 200 sieve at a rate exceeding 50% by weight. The
soil is classified as:
A. Coarse-grained
B. Fine-grained
C. Well-graded aggregate
D. Gap-graded material
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Fine-grained
Explanation: 🔹 Under USCS, soils with more than 50% passing the No. 200 sieve
are classified as fine-grained. Coarse-grained soils contain less than 50% passing
the No. 200 sieve. Well-graded and gap-graded describe particle-size distributions
rather than broad soil categories.
, Q5. What is the primary purpose of the Unified Soil Classification System?
A. Determine compaction equipment requirements
B. Estimate project costs
C. Categorize soils based on engineering behavior
D. Establish pavement thickness
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. Categorize soils based on engineering behavior
Explanation: 🔹 USCS groups soils according to particle-size distribution and
plasticity characteristics to predict engineering performance. While classifications
may influence equipment selection and design, those are secondary applications
rather than the primary purpose of the system.
Q6. A soil exhibits a liquid limit of 55 and a plasticity index of 30. The soil is most
likely:
A. CH
B. ML
C. SP
D. GW
Correct Answer: 🔴 A. CH
Explanation: 🔹 A liquid limit above 50 indicates high plasticity. A plasticity index
of 30 places the material above the A-line on the plasticity chart, resulting in
classification as CH (high-plasticity clay). ML, SP, and GW do not match the
observed Atterberg limits.
Q7. Which field observation most strongly suggests the presence of organic soil?
A. Angular particles
B. Dark color and organic odor
C. High sand content
D. Uniform grain size
