What's on the Arkansas Journeyman Electrician Exam? All 10 Areas and How to Study Them

What's on the Arkansas Journeyman Electrician Exam?

Prov's candidate bulletin for the Arkansas Board of Electrical Examiners publishes the journeyman outline as 10 areas and the number of items in each. It is 60 questions in 180 minutes, and you need 70% to pass.

The outline (60 items)

These counts are published by Prov, not our estimate. The bulletin prints the services area as "Service, Feeders, Branch Feeders and Overcurrent Protection"; "branch feeders" almost certainly means branch circuits.

What the bulletin does not give is NEC article ranges or subtopics. The "where to look" notes below are our mapping of each area to the Code, not Prov's.

Where the weight is

• The top three areas are 25 of 60 items. Calculations (9), services through overcurrent protection (8) and raceways (8) are over 40% of the exam.
• Calculations is the largest single area. The bulletin gives no subtopics, but think load calculations, Ohm's law, voltage drop and conductor sizing. In the Code, Article 220 is where load calculations live.
• Services, feeders, branch circuits and overcurrent protection sit in Chapter 2: Articles 210, 215, 220, 230 and 240.
• Raceways and Enclosures (8) is Chapter 3: box fill in Article 314, the raceway articles, and conduit fill in Chapter 9.
• Conductors (7) means Article 310 ampacity tables and their adjustment and correction factors.
• Motors and Controls (7) is Article 430, with Article 440 for air-conditioning equipment. Know the motor full-load current tables and how branch-circuit protection is sized from them.
• Grounding and Bonding (6) is Article 250.
• Low voltage is only 2 items. Do not spend a week on Chapters 7 and 8.

No law section

The outline has no Arkansas law, rules or business area, and no statute or rule book is listed as a reference. Every item is electrical knowledge or the Code.

On the 2023 NEC

Every item is keyed to NFPA 70, 2023 edition. Arkansas enforces a different code: the Board's earlier rules adopted the 2020 NEC, and the current rules adopt the 2026 NEC. The bulletin announces no date for moving the exam to a newer edition.

The bulletin also says older and newer editions are "always permitted" in the room. That does not change the answer key. If you bring a 2020 or 2026 book, rule numbers and some values will not match. A few 2020-to-2023 moves to know:

Use a 2023 book and these questions stop being a problem.

A study plan built on the counts

1. Calculations first. Nine items, and the largest area. Work load calculations, voltage drop and Ohm's law until they are routine.
2. Chapter 2 next. Eight items on services, feeders, branch circuits and overcurrent protection, plus grounding (6) from Article 250.
3. Then Chapter 3 and Article 310. Raceways (8) and conductors (7) together are 15 items.
4. Motors. Seven items from Article 430. Practice sizing conductors and protection from the tables.
5. Cover the rest in proportion: equipment (6), special occupancies (4), safety (3) and low voltage (2).
6. Tab and highlight your 2023 NEC. Permanent tabs and highlighting are allowed; movable tabs, Post-its and handwritten notes are not.
7. Sit a timed, full-length exam. 60 questions in 180 minutes is 3 minutes each.

Our free practice test gives you a feel for the questions on the 2023 NEC. The full exam prep has full-length practice exams weighted to this outline, with every answer explained. For the day itself, see Arkansas Journeyman Electrician exam day.