What's on the Colorado Master Electrician Exam? The 13 Areas and How They Differ From Journeyman
The PSI Master Electrician outline: 90 scored items across 13 areas — grounding and bonding (14), services and feeders (11), special occupancies and equipment (9 each), motors (8) — on the 2026 NEC.
Contents
What's on the Colorado Master Electrician Exam?
The master exam has the same format as the journeyman exam — 90 scored items in 4 hours, all NEC and theory, no state law — but a different balance. It spends less time on basics and more on the parts of the code a master plans and signs off.
The outline
| Content area | Master | Journeyman |
|---|---|---|
| Grounding and Bonding | 14 | 14 |
| Services, Feeders, and Branch Circuits | 11 | 9 |
| Special Occupancies | 9 | 5 |
| Special Equipment | 9 | 6 |
| Electrical Calculations | 9 | 9 |
| Motors | 8 | 6 |
| General Electrical Knowledge | 6 | 11 |
| Overcurrent Protection | 5 | 6 |
| Raceways and Boxes | 5 | 5 |
| Conductors and Cables | 4 | 8 |
| Electrical Devices | 4 | 5 |
| Transformers | 4 | 4 |
| Special Conditions | 2 | — |
| Photovoltaics | — | 2 |
Up to 10 more questions are unscored pretest items, with 30 minutes added for them.
Where the master exam is harder
- Special Occupancies (9) — nearly double the journeyman weight. Hazardous locations (Articles 500–505), health care (517), garages and fuel dispensing (511–514), assembly occupancies (518, 520), agricultural buildings (547), RVs and manufactured homes (550, 551) and temporary installations (590).
- Special Equipment (9) — signs (600), elevators (620), EV charging (625), information technology rooms (645), pools (680), solar PV (690) and fire pumps (695).
- Motors (8) — Article 430 conductor, overload and short-circuit protection, and Article 440 air-conditioning equipment.
- Services, Feeders, and Branch Circuits (11) — service rules (230), feeders (215) and the load calculations behind them, now in Article 120 of the 2026 NEC.
- Special Conditions (2) — emergency, legally required and optional standby systems (Articles 700–702) and similar Chapter 7 rules.
Grounding and bonding is again the largest area at 14 items, and calculations again take 9.
The 2026 NEC changes to watch
- Load calculations: Article 220 → Article 120; dwelling general lighting 3 → 2 VA/ft²; optional dwelling calculation first 10 kVA → first 8 kVA at 100%
- Transformer overcurrent protection: 450.3 → 450.5
- Motor branch-circuit protection table: Table 430.52 → Table 430.52(C)(1)
A study plan built on the weights
- Grounding and bonding first, as for any Colorado exam — 14 items.
- Then Chapters 5 and 6. Special occupancies and special equipment together are 18 items, a fifth of the exam, and they are where journeyman-level knowledge runs out.
- Motors and service calculations. Eight motor items plus calculations — know Article 430's tables and the Article 120 load calculations cold.
- Practice with an unmarked book. PSI hands you a clean 2026 NEC; you navigate by the index.
- Sit a timed, full-length practice exam before the real one.
Our free practice test gives you 10 questions weighted like the master outline and scores each area. The full exam prep has a 90-question practice exam on the 2026 NEC, with every calculation worked out step by step.
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