Checking your own answers
There is no answer key in the exam room, and EGBC publishes no answers to its past papers, so you have to be your own checker. This guide lists checks that take a minute or two each and explains what they can and cannot catch. The EGBC rules it relies on are listed at the end.
The checks here are Nivaar's suggestions from general engineering practice, not EGBC rules. The worked solutions on this site are drafted by AI, checked by scripts and spot-checked by the operator, who is an engineering graduate and not a licensed professional engineer. No licensed engineer reviews them, and they may contain errors, so check them before you rely on them. This guide is independent of EGBC.
Quick checks
- Answer the question asked. Reread the question and confirm you answered every part, in the units it asks for.
- Units and dimensions. Carry units through every line. If the two sides of an equation have different dimensions, something upstream is wrong.
- Size. Ask whether the number is plausible. A floor beam that deflects two metres or a pump that needs three watts points to a slip, often a lost power of ten.
- A limiting case. Set a load to zero or let a length grow very large, and check that your formula behaves as it should.
- Substitute back. Put your answer into the original equation, or into a balance of forces, mass or energy, and check that it closes.
- Signs and directions. Compare each sign with your sketch or free-body diagram. A reaction pointing the wrong way, or heat flowing from cold to hot, shows up here.
- A second route for the key number. Estimate the answer that matters most a different way, even roughly, and compare.
What checking cannot catch
These checks catch slips: arithmetic, units, signs, a misread value. They rarely catch a method you believe is right but is not, because you check it with the same understanding that produced it. That kind of error shows up when you compare your attempt with a textbook worked example or a worked solution, after you have tried the problem yourself. The guide to using worked solutions explains how.
In the exam
- Check units as you write each line; it costs almost nothing. Save the other checks for the time you held back at the end (see time management).
- Make the answer easy to mark. State the units, mark the final answer clearly, and keep each question's working together. EGBC asks you to review your solutions for readability and organisation before you submit them.
In practice
- Build the checks into your timed practice, so by exam day they are habits.
- When you mark a practice attempt, log each mistake by type: arithmetic, units, sign, method or misreading. Repeats tell you which check to do first.
- If your answer and a worked solution disagree, do not assume either is right. Find the step where they part, then confirm the formula, units or code clause in your textbook or the standard. Every solution page on this site has a Report an error button, and confirmed errors are listed on the corrections page.
Keep exam content private
When you sit a real exam, its content is confidential, and that includes your own solutions and rough work. EGBC warns that sharing it, or trying to, may affect your application for registration. Do not send us your exam questions or answers, and do not post them anywhere.
Sources
All checked on 4 October 2026. EGBC updates these documents between sessions; the most recent version on its site always wins over this page.
- EGBC, Past Academic Exams
- EGBC, Academic Exam Regulations (revision of 21 October 2024)
- EGBC, Written Solutions Guide