We’ve spent a lot of time building our practice exams and we really think they will help learners to understand the layout and organization of the National Electrical Code. So let’s talk about our methodology in building them so you understand how they’re meant to be used.
Different Code Editions
The first thing you’ll probably notice about our exams is that you have access to, literally, all of them. Each exam is organized and crafted from a specific year of code. Currently we have 2017, 2020, and 2023 exams available to take either timed, or not timed. If you are not strong with code yet we recommend taking the non-timed version of whatever code your area is on currently. For instance, at the time of this writing, Austin, TX is on the 2023 NEC so if you’re in Austin and taking your TX Journeyman Licensing Exam before the next edition of the NEC releases; practicing the 2023 version is the best choice. If, however, you’re in a state that is currently testing using the 2017 NEC, that is the version of the book you need to be familiar with – so study that instead.
As soon as the 2026 code is written and given to the public, we will go through and recreate all of these exams with the new code in mind; and, every code cycle thereafter…
Different License Types
Many different states have different license-types. We’ve built exams on the most popular license types, namely the Residential Wireman, Journeyman, and Master. Be sure to select whichever license you will be testing for next and practice for that specific exam. Each license type has multiple year editions of the NEC, so also select the year your licensing board will be testing for by the time you test. It would be tragic to study the 2017 NEC, only to find out your city will be testing you on the 2023.
Timed vs Non-Timed
All of our exams, except the CODE CANNON, come with both timed and non-timed versions. When you click to open an exam navigate to the “Lesson Content” tab (see image below). This will allow you to click on either the “Timed” or “Untimed” version of the exam. Both exams are the same questions, just one has a timer. Timed exams do not give answer justifications, as it is really a simulated exam so you don’t find out the answers until the end. Untimed exams give answer justifications the entire time to help you study.
We recommend practicing with the non-timed version a few times to get comfortable with studying code. Once you’ve gotten a few under your belt, taking a timed version will help you practice for exam day. Both the Residential Wireman exam and Journeyman Exam are 4 hours, 100 questions. The Master is 5 hours, 100 questions as it is more difficult than the other two exams.
The CODE CANNON
The CODE CANNON is 300 questions, untimed. There’s no point in giving a time limit on it because that would be a 12 hour exam. We’ve just made the CODE CANNON to be a practicing resource that has questions from all of our exams. In fact, the code cannon is the Residential Wireman, Journeyman, and Master exams all combined into one exam that has no time limit. This allows users to study the entire NEC rather than just focusing on a license-type. There are answer justifications for every question so you can use this as a resource to study, since there is no time limit on the exam.
Answer Justifications
Each question on an untimed exam comes with answer justifications so you can see what the correct answers are. This will range from simple code citations which point you to where the answer can be found in the NEC, to actual calculations or excerpts as explanations. We’ve built this with a handful of people over time so mistakes may happen. If you notice any issues with citations, calculations, or entirely incorrect answers please let us know and we’ll get them resolved immediately.
Printable Versions
Each exam comes with a printable PDF version of the exam. Not everyone wants to practice on a screen, so we’ve put all of the exams together in a print-friendly document with an answer sheet so you can print and take these with you anywhere you go.
To find these printable pdf’s navigate to the “Materials” tab on the exam’s course page (see image below). There is an exam without answers, and an answer key which can be printed as many times as you’d like.
Marking Questions
On timed exams we have a “mark” feature. This is not on the untimed exams, however. We want everyone to be able to navigate through the entire simulated test without having to answer sequentially. Most states allow for “marking” a question and skipping it so you can come back later. We created a grid of question numbers and a “mark” button which allows you to skip a question and come back to it. This will mark the question number as yellow for review. Some people use “mark” as a way to identify a potential time-waster question, or a question they think they can easily find but want to just come back to it before submitting the exam. You can mark as many questions as you’d like and navigate to any question number you’d like. This is similar to how many states’ actual exams function.
Test-Taking Methodology
As for the methodology behind testing, we recommend a widely-used testing strategy to get through exams. Whether it is an SAT, practice exam, or actual state licensing exam, time is of the essence. This means that spending too much time on one question affords you less time on others. For this reason we recommend a 3-pass method of skimming the exam. This requires going from the beginning to the end of the exam three times, each time focusing on answering only the things you can get 100% correct in a certain amount of time; which may seem counter-intuitive but actually saves an incredible amount of time. If you don’t want to read, here’s a video I made explaining this. If you do want to read, scroll down for the written version of pretty much the same thing.
Here’s the idea:
- First time through the exam – quickly progress through each question and only answer the ones you know for sure you can answer 100% correct, very quickly. This may result in you only getting 4 questions answered, but you’re only spending about 5-10 seconds reading a question before passing to the next one. During this phase “mark” each of the questions that you know will be crazy time-wasters. If there are only say…5 of these…and you’ve marked them all, you already know that these are the ones you’ll save until the very end to attempt. The other benefit this has is by the end of your first pass you’ve seen the entire exam, so now you know what to expect. [Be cautious not to spend more than 10 seconds per question because at 100 questions that’s already 1,000 seconds or a little over 16 minutes]
- After making it to the end, start over at the beginning. Since you’ve already marked the hardest questions we’re going to skip them entirely and only focus on things we can 100% get correct. The second pass will be the serious pass, where you dive into each question. A 4-hour exam with 100 questions gives you roughly 2 minutes per question to answer. Bring up the timer on your phone and time yourself to see how long 2 minutes actually is. That’s actually quite a long time to answer a question, if you’ve studied the book and know where things are generally located. This is why we skip the hard time-waster questions – they’re worth the same points as any other question so even if you get all of them wrong it’s only 5 points off. Say you ended up running out of time and got the 5 hardest questions wrong but answered everything else – you’d still pass the test. If, instead, you spent 15 minutes per question answering 5 really hard questions, you just burned an hour and 15 minutes, and you still have the rest of the test to do. So not only will you be rushed, but you probably will get more wrong because of the anxiety of seeing how much time is going down and how far you still are from finishing. So just answer each of the easy-to-find questions. If you can find it in 2 minutes, do it right then and there. You’ll be surprised that really you’ll only take 30 seconds to a minute on a lot of these since many are word for word from the book. Keep doing this until you get to the end a second time. By now you should have 75% of the test done and still, hopefully, an hour left on the clock. The benefit is, we know everything we’ve answered up until now is right, or we’ve skipped it. We only need to score a 75%, so it means we need 75 questions right. If we get that, we passed, so the rest of the test doesn’t matter…unless you’re a nerd (like me) and want to challenge yourself for a top score.
- This is when we do a third pass and really spend time on the last questions we’ve marked as the hardest. Hopefully there won’t be 25 of these to go through, but if there are it’s ok. Spend 2-3 minutes on each one and only answer the ones you know you’ll get 100% correct. Unmark them as you go so the remaining marked questions you really have no clue about. You can spend all the time in the world on these and run out of time without answering them (bad idea), or you can take an educated guess (better idea). Often a question has two answers which are just crazy, one answer that is possibly right, and the last which is correct. By reducing your guessing down to the two most probable you’re allowing yourself higher odds of getting them right. Either way, always answer every question on the test. Don’t leave anything empty because that will give you the worst score possible. Just answer everything, even if it’s a wild guess. Then, time’s up. The test is over. Take a deep breath, click to check your score. Remind yourself this was just a practice and you can do it again – and I recommend you do. Several times.
That was a lot to read so here’s a recap:
- First pass: read every question and only answer the ones you know are 100% correct. Spend no more than 10 seconds per question. Mark questions that are the hardest and take the most time to solve.
- Second pass: Answer what you can get 100% correct, not spending any more than 2 min per question. Don’t worry about marked questions.
- Thrid pass: Answer what you can get 100% correct from the marked questions. Attempt the easier ones, and save the most difficult for last. Answer those if you have time. If you don’t have time, guess.
