Nondestructive testing of civil engineering is a multi-disciplinary course involving structure, vibration, data analysis, communication and so on. Traditional course of civil engineering nondestructive testing is partial and outdated with indoctrinating teaching by means of "multimedia + blackboard writing". Its assessment system gives excessive stress on theory and insufficient attention to practice, which leads to students’lack of learning motivation. On the whole, the traditional way of teaching this course achieves unsatisfactory effects including weak effect on the development of comprehensive quality. This paper adopts the reform mode based on academic competitions by putting in more efforts to culture practical ability and giving final assessment with students' competitive results. This method proves to be effective and can set a solid foundation for the development of high-quality practical talents in universities.