What Is A AGMT?

What Is a AGMT?

AGMT stands for Architectural Glass & Metal Technician, a certification for glaziers and glazing professionals who install, fabricate, and maintain architectural glass and metal systems on commercial buildings. The credential is administered by Administrative Management Systems, Inc., with program oversight from the AGMCC. It is built around two governing documents: the January 14, 2026 Candidate Handbook and the September 15, 2025 KBT Study Guide, both of which define eligibility, exam structure, and scoring for the current cycle.

Unlike a single-test credential, AGMT combines a closed-book knowledge exam with hands-on practical testing. That combination is what separates it from a simple trade quiz - candidates have to prove they know the material and can perform the work under timed conditions. If you're still deciding whether this certification fits your career goals, the companion piece on Is the AGMT Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 walks through that decision in more depth.

What an AGMT Technician Actually Does

Employers who hire AGMT-certified technicians typically work in commercial glazing, curtainwall installation, storefront and entrance system fabrication, and building envelope subcontracting. On a jobsite, this work involves reading construction documents, selecting and cutting glass and metal components, installing sealants and gaskets correctly, and catching defects before they become warranty issues. The certification signals to general contractors and glazing subcontractors that a technician can be trusted with less supervision on complex envelope work.

Because the credential is tied so closely to real field tasks, the knowledge domains and the practical test sections mirror actual job duties rather than abstract theory. For a broader look at where certified technicians land and what the credential can mean for pay and advancement, see AGMT Jobs and AGMT Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis.

The Two-Part AGMT Credential

Full AGMT certification is not earned from one exam. Candidates must pass the knowledge-based test (KBT) and all three sections of the performance-based test (PBT). Both halves are required - passing the KBT alone does not make you certified, and passing the PBT sections alone does not either.

The Knowledge-Based Test (KBT)

The KBT is a closed-book, Prometric/test-center exam consisting of 125 graded four-option multiple-choice questions, delivered in 2 hours. Additional unscored beta items may appear alongside the graded questions, so not every question on screen counts toward your score. The passing score is 92 out of 125, or 73.6%. The exam is offered in English and Spanish, and a non-scientific calculator is supplied at the test center - you don't need to bring your own.

The Performance-Based Test (PBT)

The PBT is split into three separate practical sections, each with its own time limit and passing threshold:

• Curtainwall: 3 hours 30 minutes, passing score 462/600
• Storefront/Entrance: 2 hours, passing score 321/425
• Sealing: 45 minutes, passing score 79/100

Passed practical sections are retained within the handbook's retake period, so a candidate who fails one section doesn't have to redo sections they've already passed. For a full breakdown of exactly what each score threshold means and how it's calculated, see AGMT Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.

The 7 KBT Domains

The KBT's 125 questions are distributed across seven content domains, each weighted differently. Understanding these weights is the single biggest lever for prioritizing study time, and it's covered in full detail in AGMT Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 7 Content Areas.

Eligibility Requirements

Before sitting for either test, candidates must meet documented eligibility criteria. The full requirements are outlined in AGMT Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify, but the core criteria are:

• 7,500 hours of glazing work completed within a five-year window
• OSHA 10 certification or a qualifying Canadian safety-training equivalent
• A signed candidate agreement

There's a notable exception for candidates who haven't quite reached full hours yet: those with at least 7,000 hours may test early, but they must document completion of the full experience requirement within 12 months of passing the PBT. This lets experienced apprentices move forward with testing while finishing out their final several hundred hours on the job.

Registration, Fees, and Timeline

Effective July 1, 2026, the USD fee structure for AGMT is as follows:

If a retake is needed, the KBT retake fee is $250. PBT retakes are priced by how many sections need to be redone: $550 for one section, $900 for two, or $1,000 for all three. Because passed practical sections are retained within the retake period, most candidates only pay for the specific section they need to retest. A complete cost breakdown, including how these numbers stack up against the initial investment, is available in AGMT Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.

For candidates planning around specific testing windows and application deadlines, AGMT Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling lays out the scheduling mechanics in more detail.

Scoring and Passing Requirements

Passing the KBT alone requires hitting 92 out of 125 graded questions, or 73.6%. Because beta items are unscored, candidates should expect to see questions that don't obviously fit patterns from the study guide - that's normal and shouldn't cause panic mid-exam.

The PBT thresholds are stricter in the sense that each section has its own pass/fail line and its own clock. A strong Curtainwall score doesn't offset a weak Sealing score - each of the three sections must independently clear its passing score (462/600, 321/425, and 79/100 respectively). Candidates who want a realistic sense of how demanding this combination is in practice should read How Hard Is the AGMT Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026, and those who want objective data framing should check AGMT Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows.

Renewal and Maintaining Certification

AGMT certification is valid for four years. Renewal is not automatic - it requires all of the following:

• A current KBT (retaking and passing the knowledge exam)
• 32 continuing-education hours, split into 16 hours per two-year segment of the certification term
• 4,000 work hours during the certification term, or alternatively a PBT retest if that hours threshold isn't met

The standard renewal package is priced at $600. Planning for renewal early - tracking continuing-education hours as you go rather than scrambling in year four - avoids the more expensive fallback of a full PBT retest.

Building a Study Plan Around the Domains

A generic study calendar won't help much here; what matters is sequencing your review around domain weight and practical difficulty. A simple approach: spend early weeks on the highest-weighted KBT domains - Sealants and Gaskets / Ancillary Materials (21%) and Systems (18%) - since they carry the most point value per hour studied. Move to Glass and Panels (14%) and Quality Control / Failure Prevention (16%) next, since failure-mode questions often reference material properties you'll have just reviewed. Save Tools/Equipment (9%) and Glazing Theory (11%) for shorter review sessions closer to test day, since they tend to be more definitional and less cumulative.

Run PBT practice in parallel rather than after KBT prep finishes - Sealing technique, in particular, benefits from repeated short practice sessions rather than one long cram, given its tight 45-minute window. For a structured week-by-week plan built specifically around these domain weights, see AGMT Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt, and for a fast pre-exam refresher, AGMT Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts condenses the highest-yield facts onto one page.

Practicing with realistic four-option multiple-choice questions before test day matters more than re-reading notes. You can build that exam-day comfort using timed sets on the AGMT practice test platform, which mirrors the KBT's question style and time pressure so the real Prometric session feels familiar rather than jarring.

Frequently Asked Questions