What's on the Hawaii Journey Worker Electrician Exam? The PSI Outline

What's on the Hawaii Journey Worker Electrician Exam?

The Hawaii Journey Worker Electrician exam has 70 scored questions, and you need 70% to pass. It is open book on the 2020 NEC, and there is no law or business section: every area is code and electrical knowledge. The counts below are from PSI's candidate bulletin for Hawaii's electrician exams.

The outline

Thirty-six of the 70 questions are on four wiring-method areas: services and branch circuits, grounding and bonding, conductors, and raceways and boxes. Those map to NEC Chapters 2 and 3, the most-used part of the code.

Where each area lives in the 2020 NEC

PSI does not map its areas to NEC articles. This is where you will find the rules for each one.

• General Electrical Knowledge: Articles 90, 100 and 110, Chapter 9 tables, and the circuit theory behind them (Ohm's law, power, voltage drop).
• Service, Feeders, and Branch Circuits: Articles 210, 215, 220 (load calculations), 225, 230 and 240.
• Grounding and Bonding: Article 250.
• Conductors and Cables: Article 310 ampacity tables and the cable articles (NM, MC, AC, UF, SE, TC), plus cords in Article 400.
• Raceways and Boxes: Articles 300, 312 and 314 (box fill), and the raceway articles 342 to 392.
• Special Occupancies, Conditions, and Equipment: Chapters 5, 6 and 7: hazardous locations, health care, pools, emergency systems and more.
• Electrical Power, Motors, and Equipment for General Use: Chapter 4, including Article 430 for motors and 450 for transformers.
• Low Voltage and Communication Circuits: Articles 725, 760 and Chapter 8.
• Lighting: Article 410.
• Safety Information: safe work practices; OSHA's construction standards (29 CFR 1926) are on PSI's study list.

Why the pass rate is low

Only 71 of 346 Journey Worker exams were passed from January to July 2026, about 21%, and 15% passed in 2024. Before 2023, when a different vendor tested on the 2008 NEC, about three in four passed. The move to PSI and the 2020 NEC changed the exam, and much of the study material in circulation never caught up.

What you can use in the room

Only the 2020 NEC that PSI provides. You cannot bring your own book, so your tabs and highlighting stay home. Ugly's Electrical References (2020), the National Electrical Safety Code and 29 CFR 1926 are on PSI's list as study references only.

How to study

1. Learn the index, not just the code. With an untabbed book, the index and the article layout are your tabs. Practice finding answers in a clean copy.
2. Put the four big areas first. Branch circuits and load calculations, Article 250, the 310 ampacity tables and box and conduit fill are more than half the exam.
3. Use the 2020 edition. The 2023 NEC renumbered several rules, including the Article 220 load-calculation tables (the 2020 Table 220.42 for general lighting loads is Table 220.12 in 2023). A 2023-based course will send you to the wrong section.
4. Practice at the pace of the real exam. Seventy questions in three hours is about two and a half minutes each, including the lookup.

Practice for the exam

Our Hawaii Journey Worker Electrician practice test draws from these ten areas in the same proportions, and every explanation cites the 2020 NEC section. For test-day logistics, see the Hawaii Journey Worker exam day.