Journeyman electrician exam
How hard the journeyman electrician exam is
Hard: in Texas, the one state that publishes the figures, 27.52% of journeyman exams taken in fiscal year 2025 were passes, according to TDLR: Electrician Exam Statistics, Fiscal Year 2025, and in fiscal 2025 only 20.56% of Calculations portions and 24.46% of NEC portions were passed. Most people who fail run out of time on code lookups or miss a step in a calculation, and both can be practiced.
The pass rates
TDLR publishes yearly exam statistics for every Texas electrician license. These are the journeyman lines, copied exactly. A pass rate here is passes divided by everyone who took the exam that year, including people retaking it, so it is not a first-attempt rate.
| Fiscal year | Exam as TDLR lists it | Passed | Took it | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Journeyman | 2,307 | 7,799 | 29.58% |
| 2024 | Journeyman | 2,365 | 8,490 | 27.86% |
| 2025 | Journeyman | 1,390 | 5,050 | 27.52% |
| 2025 | Journeyman NEC | 1,402 | 5,731 | 24.46% |
| 2025 | Journeyman Calculations | 1,301 | 6,328 | 20.56% |
Source: TDLR: Electrician Exam Statistics, Fiscal Year 2023; TDLR: Electrician Exam Statistics, Fiscal Year 2024; TDLR: Electrician Exam Statistics, Fiscal Year 2025. "Took it" is TDLR's total of passes and fails; no-shows are not counted.
What makes it hard
The clock. In Texas, NEC Knowledge gives you 130 minutes for 59 questions, about 2.2 minutes each, and Calculations 110 minutes for 26, about 4.2 minutes each. A lookup you have not practiced can take longer than that on its own.
Two portions, passed separately. You need 70 percent on each. A strong code score does not carry a weak calculations score.
Open book is not easy book. The answers are in the code, but finding the right section fast, reading its subdivisions and exceptions, and knowing which table to open is the skill being tested. Time your own lookups.
Calculations need a method. Load calculations, conductor sizing, voltage drop and motor questions each follow a fixed sequence of steps and tables; a skipped step gives one of the wrong answers on offer.
The code edition. Texas moved to the 2026 NEC on September 1, 2026. Study material written for the 2023 edition gives some wrong section numbers and some wrong values. See what changed.
Common questions
What is the pass rate for the journeyman electrician exam?
Texas is the state that publishes it. TDLR's statistics list a 27.52% pass rate for the journeyman exam in fiscal year 2025 (1,390 passed of 5,050), 27.86% in 2024 and 29.58% in 2023. For fiscal 2025 TDLR also lists 24.46% on the NEC portion and 20.56% on the Calculations portion.
How many questions are on the Texas journeyman electrician exam?
Two portions: NEC Knowledge has 59 questions (56 scored) in 130 minutes, and Calculations has 26 questions (24 scored) in 110 minutes. Each portion is passed separately at 70 percent.
Is the journeyman electrician exam open book?
In Texas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Iowa, Delaware, Alabama, Wyoming, South Dakota, Vermont, Utah and Maine, yes: you bring the code book and look things up during the exam. In California and Colorado the code is provided at the exam and you bring nothing. What you may bring, and what you may write or tab in it, depends on the state's bulletin.
Next step
See how you would do now: the free practice test scores you by subject in about an hour at the exam's pace.
Last verified November 11, 2026.