The Electrician Certification Program
The Law has passed, and has been signed into law! All in the Electrical Trade should go directly to the "Take the Test" link here!
The Electrician Certification Program The Law has passed, and has been signed into law! All in the Electrical Trade should go directly to the "Take the Test" link here!
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The Authors review of the Test The Test: ( General Journeyman Electrician ) If you're expecting trick questions, you're in for a treat! There are complicated questions, involving multiple Codes in the same question. And, not the type you would find everyday. More often, quirky anomalies in the Code, and multiples of Codes. ( See my review of the '99 NEC Handbook. ) There are not very many "no brain'ers" on the test. I also saw one question that had answers from the 2002 NEC, although this test is on the '99 NEC.so be careful. It will be challenging for even those considered to be well versed in the Code. So do not take the test lightly. The Trade section of the Contractors License exam, is easy in comparison. This is also a reading test, in the fullest sense. You'll need to be able to read the implied nature of the question, then locate and interpret Codes for all the variables in the question. Some questions had answers directly quoted from the language in the Code, most did not. So for those speaking English as a second language, this will be an issue. Other problems, are that I found one question that definitely had a misprint. It asked for temperature rating of THHW in wet location. But listed two of four possible answers, that had Celsius and Fahrenheit reversed. This left me for roll of the dice on the lesser of two evils. After questioning the "Test Proctor" about this. I got the reply of, "Oh, I've heard about this one. Some other people have spotted this before. Just do the best you can on it, I guess?" So yes, there some bugs to be worked out in the test itself. Six months later, I've heard this question hasn't been corrected. You can comment on them in the Customer Survey at the end of your test. Not that this will help your score, when the correct answer is not available. And, if you can not remember Motor calculations, and Ohm's law, you are going to have trouble. These calculation formulas are not in the NEC! So, you had better "re-memorize" them! And, something important to take note of: The questions involving Motors do not reference, Efficiency, Power Factor, or Duty Cycle. ( For those of us that used to do it that way, before the NEC required us to use the tables in 430. A change in the '90 or '93 Code, I think? ) There are various tables in the NEC that assist in load calculation of motors with the name plate letter designations and, then require correction in duty cycle. Name plate letter designations were not used in the test, but are required to perform a calculation correctly. Duty cycle is "implied" in the questions. And is used in some questions. But, I had one question that would have had a duty cycle correction, but then only had an answer without the correction. Bottom line: The questions are vague, poorly written, and force you to go through the many combinations of answers, before you can check, if one listed can be found. You have four hours for this test, you'll spend some of that checking these calculations, and Codes against the available answers. For a demo of the test method follow this link: For an idea of typical questions, try this site: ( But beware they are based on 2002 NEC, and I think Mike Holt is trying to sell Flat Conductor Cable these days. A lot of the questions have been about it lately. But still a good exercise, and free. ) Check out this sites Study Materials review: |
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