What's on the Arkansas Residential Journeyman Electrician Exam? The 40-Item Outline

What's on the Arkansas Residential Journeyman Electrician Exam?

The residential journeyman exam is not a shorter copy of the journeyman exam. Prov organizes it by NEC chapter instead of by trade area, it has no motors or calculations area of its own, and it puts nearly half its weight on one chapter. It is 40 questions in 120 minutes, and you need 70%.

The outline (40 items)

These are Prov's published counts. The bulletin names the areas only as "NEC-Chapter 1" and so on; the chapter titles in parentheses are the NEC's own. There are no article ranges or subtopics, and no Chapter 7 or 8 items at all.

Chapter 2 is the exam

18 of 40 items, 45%, come from NEC Chapter 2. On a residential exam, that is the heart of house wiring:

• Article 210, branch circuits: required circuits, GFCI and AFCI protection, and receptacle and lighting outlet placement in dwellings.
• Article 220, load calculations: the general lighting load and the dwelling service calculation.
• Article 230, services, and Article 240, overcurrent protection.
• Article 250, grounding and bonding.

If you master one part of the book, make it this one. Those article notes are our mapping; Prov lists only "Chapter 2".

The rest of the outline

• General Theory (5): the one area the Code book will not answer. Ohm's law, power, series and parallel circuits.
• Chapter 1 (4): Article 100 definitions and the general installation rules of Article 110.
• Chapter 3 (4): wiring methods. On a house that means cable, boxes and box fill.
• Safety (3): the bulletin names no safety reference besides the NEC.
• Chapters 4, 5 and 6 (2 each): equipment such as appliances and panelboards, special occupancies, and special equipment such as pools and solar.

How it compares

The residential master exam spreads its weight much more evenly. See What's on the Arkansas Residential Master exam.

No law section

There is no Arkansas law or rules area, and no rule book is listed as a reference. Arkansas has its own NEC amendments for dwellings (AFCI and GFCI exemptions, island and peninsula receptacles), but the bulletin lists only NFPA 70, 2023 and does not reference them.

On the 2023 NEC

Items are keyed to the 2023 NEC. Arkansas's own rules adopted the 2020 NEC and now adopt the 2026 NEC, and the bulletin gives no date for moving the exam. Prov says older and newer editions are "always permitted" in the room, but the answer key is 2023, and Chapter 2 is where editions differ most for a residential candidate. For example, the dwelling general lighting load (3 VA/ft²) was in 220.12 and 220.14(J) in the 2020 NEC and is in 220.41 in the 2023. Bring the 2023.

A study plan built on the counts

1. Chapter 2, thoroughly. Eighteen items. Work through Articles 210, 220, 230, 240 and 250 until you can find any dwelling rule in seconds.
2. General Theory. Five items with no book to lean on. Get Ohm's law and power formulas automatic.
3. Chapters 1 and 3. Eight items together: definitions, Article 110, cable and box rules.
4. Safety, then Chapters 4 to 6. Nine items between them; cover them, but do not over-invest.
5. Tab and highlight a 2023 NEC. Permanent tabs and highlighting are allowed; movable tabs, Post-its and notes are not.
6. Time yourself. 40 questions in 120 minutes is 3 minutes each.

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