Texas journeyman exam · 2026 NEC
How to study for the Texas journeyman exam
Study for the Texas journeyman exam in about ten weeks: learn how the 2026 code book is laid out, mark it the way PSI allows, learn the calculations first, then practise finding sections and full portions against the real clock. The exam is open book, so the skill it tests is speed in your own book: 59 Knowledge questions in 130 minutes and 26 Calculations questions in 110 minutes.
A ten-week schedule
An hour on most days fits this schedule; if you have less time, stretch each block rather than skipping one.
Weeks 1–2: the layout of the book
Learn the book’s skeleton before its details: the general chapters first, then the chapters for special occupancies, special equipment and special conditions, then communications, and the tables at the back. Know what each chapter is for without opening it.
Learn the index. Most lookups on the day start there, and knowing which word the index files a topic under is half the speed.
Learn Article 100. In the 2026 edition most definitions live there, so a question that turns on a defined word starts in Article 100.
Weeks 2–3: marking the book
Tabs must be permanent tabs made or supplied by the code book’s publisher; homemade tabs are not allowed.
Highlighting, underlining and notes are allowed if they were made before the exam; nothing may be marked during it.
Fit the publisher’s tabs early and use the book every day so the tabs and your highlights become a map you trust. Highlight the words that tell you a rule applies, not whole paragraphs.
Weeks 3–6: calculations first
The Calculations portion is 26 questions with the most time per question, and every calculation family uses the same few lookups. Learning them early means you practise lookups and arithmetic together for the rest of the schedule.
Work one family at a time — box fill, conduit fill, voltage drop, motor circuits, services, three-phase — and write each method on one card in your own words.
Weeks 6–8: finding sections against the clock
A Knowledge question gives you a little over two minutes. Drill short timed rounds: read a job described in plain words, find where the rule lives, check it, move on.
Keep a list of every lookup that took you too long; that list is your study for the next day.
Weeks 9–10: full timed portions
Sit full practice portions with the real clock: 130 minutes for the Knowledge portion and 110 minutes for Calculations. Time left over from the first portion does not carry into the second.
After each one, sort your misses: did you not find the section, find the wrong one, or slip in the arithmetic? Each needs a different fix.
The last week
Stop learning new material. Re-run your slow-lookup list, do one timed portion of each kind, and check your book against PSI’s rules: soft-bound, publisher tabs only, marks made before the day — and the 2026 edition the questions are based on.
A calculator is allowed if it is silent, battery-powered, non-programmable, with no paper tape and no alphabet keyboard.
How AI Electrician Tutor fits in
The app trains these same skills on a phone, and every round is played with your own code book open.
The Daily 15
Fifteen questions a day, picked from what you miss and brought back until you stop missing them. It is free, with or without a pass.
The Path
A map of the book chapter by chapter. It shows which part is open, which is next and what each is waiting on, so the next thing to study is always the one on the map.
Calculation tickets and the timed practice exam
Job tickets walk each calculation the way the exam asks, stopping where you open your own book for the figure. The timed practice exam follows the two Texas portions and their clocks.