Texas Journeyman Electrician Exam: Format, Pass Rate, and How to Pass

Most people who sit the Texas journeyman exam fail it. That isn't a scare line. It's TDLR's own numbers. In fiscal 2024, 8,490 people took the journeyman exam and about 28 percent passed. The year before, it was under 30 percent. When TDLR started reporting the two parts separately in fiscal 2025, about 24 percent passed the code part and about 21 percent passed calculations.

So if you're studying for this exam, you're not being paranoid. You're being realistic. The good news is that the people who fail mostly fail for the same few reasons, and every one of them can be trained out of you before test day.

I've been in the trade since 1996 and licensed as a journeyman since 1999. Here's what this exam actually is, and how to pass it the first time.

The exam is two separate tests

This is the most important thing to understand walking in. The Texas journeyman exam is two separately scored parts, and you have to pass both.

A few facts that matter:

• The code is the 2026 NEC. Texas switched on September 1, 2026. If you're studying from a 2023 book or a 2023 prep course, some of your answers are now wrong. The biggest move: dwelling load calculations left Article 220 and now live in Article 120.
• Fee is $78 for both parts. Fail one part and you retake only that part.
• Leftover time doesn't carry over. Finish the code part early and those minutes are gone. Spend them re-checking flagged questions.
• Every conductor is copper unless the question says aluminum.
• There's no Texas law section. Both parts are all NEC.
• You don't know which questions are unscored. Treat all of them like they count.

Why the calculations part fails so many people

Look at the right column again. Four minutes a question sounds generous. It isn't the clock that gets people on calculations. It's the margin. You can miss about seven. That's it.

Seven misses go fast when the mistakes are small ones you know better than:

• Forgetting the 125 percent for a continuous load
• Dropping the 1.732 on a three-phase problem
• Using the wrong temperature column in Table 310.16
• Applying the ambient correction but not the adjustment for more than three current-carrying conductors (or the other way around)
• Sizing a motor branch circuit off the nameplate instead of the table full-load current in Article 430

Notice none of those are "I didn't know the material." They're "I rushed and skipped a step." The cure is doing enough timed problems that writing every step becomes automatic, and checking your units before you pick an answer.

Why the code part fails people: the clock

On the knowledge part you get about two minutes a question, and the book is open. That sounds like an advantage. It's actually the trap.

Open book is exactly why the exam is timed so tight. The people who write it know you can look things up, so they give you barely enough time to do it. If you have to hunt the index for every answer, you run out of clock with questions still blank.

The fix is to know the addresses, not the rules. You don't need to memorize what 210.8 says. You need to know that GFCI for dwellings lives at 210.8(A) so your hand goes straight there. Here's where the knowledge questions come from, per the PSI outline:

Thirty of the 56 scored questions come from the top three rows. If your tabs and your reflexes are fast there, you've already banked most of a pass.

What to bring (and what gets your book turned away)

The exam is open book, but PSI is strict about the book itself:

• Your own 2026 NEC, soft-bound. Spiral-bound, ring-bound and loose-leaf copies aren't allowed in the room.
• Mark it up ahead of time. Highlights, underlines and your own notes are fine if they're done before you walk in. You can't write in or mark the book during the exam.
• Publisher tabs only. Permanent index tabs made or sold by the NEC's publisher are allowed. Homemade, DIY or third-party tabs are not.
• No NEC Handbook, and no extra paper, loose or taped in. PSI gives you an electronic notepad.
• A silent, non-programmable calculator.

Show up with a book that breaks these rules and you'll have to test without it, pull the homemade tabs out on the spot, or forfeit your fee and come back another day. Don't find out at the door.

Since the tabs have to be the publisher's set, the tab names are already picked for you. Your job is to practice with those tabs until your hand goes straight to Article 210 or Table 310.16 without looking. The highlighter is how you make the book yours: before exam day, mark the tables and exceptions you use most.

A study plan that works

Here's the plan I'd give an apprentice who's six weeks out.

Weeks 1 and 2: get the map in your head. Spend 20 minutes a day just finding things. Pick a topic, go straight to it, check yourself. No reading, just navigating. You're training your hands.

Weeks 3 and 4: calculations every day. Ten problems a day, timed, every step written out. Ampacity with correction and adjustment, continuous loads, three-phase service and feeder current, motor circuits, transformer sizing, conduit and box fill. Keep a list of every mistake and why you made it. That list is your real study guide.

Weeks 5 and 6: full timed exams. Sit a full 59-question code test in 130 minutes and a full 26-question calc test in 110 minutes, with the book and a calculator and nothing else. Grade it, then go back through every miss and find where you went wrong. Repeat.

The week of the exam: no new material. Light review, your mistake list, good sleep.

Test-day habits

• Do the easy questions first. Flag anything that's going to take a long lookup and come back to it.
• Remember you can miss 16 on code and 7 on calculations. A question that's already eaten five minutes is one of your misses. Move on.
• Read every question twice. Watch for "not," "minimum," "maximum," and "except."
• On calculations, write every step and check the units before you answer.

If you've already failed once

You're in good company. Most people in this state have. Your PSI score report shows your percentage in each category but not which questions you missed, so start there: your two weakest categories are your next two weeks of study. And you only retake the part you failed.

Practice it the way it's tested

Want to see where you stand right now? Take the free 10-question code and math check. It's timed like the real thing and shows your score at the end.

When you're ready for the full prep, the Texas Journeyman Electrician study pack is written for the 2026 NEC and this exact format: both parts, two full timed practice exams built to the PSI outline, and a calculations chapter covering motors, transformers and three-phase, all written and checked by a licensed journeyman.

Also see: Texas electrician licensing overview and the free Box Fill sample chapter.

Sources: TDLR electrician exam statistics, fiscal years 2023 to 2025; PSI candidate information bulletin for TDLR electrician examinations. Exam rules change. Confirm the current format and fees with TDLR and PSI before you schedule.