What's on the Idaho Master Electrician Exam? All 8 Areas and How to Study Them

What's on the Idaho Master Electrician Exam?

Since December 1, 2025, Idaho master candidates take an Idaho-specific PSI exam, built by DOPL with subject matter experts and PSI. PSI's Idaho bulletin publishes the outline as eight areas, with the number of items in each. You need a score of 75, five points higher than the journeyman exam.

The outline (100 items)

These counts are published by PSI. The bulletin gives one question count, 100, and does not say whether any are unscored pretest items.

The bulletin lists area names only, with no NEC article lists. Seven of the eight names match the titles of NEC Chapters 2 through 8 word for word, so the natural reading is one area per chapter: Wiring and Protection is Chapter 2, Communication Systems is Chapter 8, and so on. That mapping is our inference, not PSI's. General Electrical Knowledge is not a chapter title; expect Article 90, Chapter 1 and electrical theory.

How it differs from the journeyman exam

The two exams share most of their outline. The master exam:

• Adds Communication Systems (3 items), which the journeyman exam does not have.
• Has 3 fewer General Electrical Knowledge items (10 instead of 13).
• Adds one item each to Wiring Methods and Materials and Equipment for General Use (20 each).
• Drops one item each from Special Occupancies (11) and Special Conditions (5).
• Raises the pass mark from 70 to 75.

Which code: 2020 or 2023?

Idaho adopts the 2023 NEC by statute (Idaho Code 54-1001). The PSI bulletin lets you bring either the 2020 NEC or the 2023 NEC, plus Ugly's Electrical References, 2023 edition, and says: "For Code-based questions, only the specific editions listed will be used."

The bulletin does not say whether there is one question bank or separate forms by edition, and there is no step where you choose one. You bring the book you prefer.

Our practice questions stick to rules that read the same in both editions, and cite the 2023 NEC. If you are buying a book, buy the 2023: it is the code Idaho enforces.

Idaho's amendments are not answer keys

The Board's rules (IDAPA 24.39.10) amend the 2023 NEC for installations in Idaho: narrower GFCI locations in 210.8, AFCI only for bedroom circuits in one- and two-family dwellings, dwelling exceptions to the surge-protection rules, PV rapid-shutdown exemptions in 690.12 and more. As a master, you need to know them on the job. On the exam, the bulletin says Code questions use only the listed NEC editions and lists no Idaho rules reference, so answer from the NEC as printed.

No Idaho law

There is no state law or rules area in the outline.

Where the weight is

• Chapters 2, 3 and 4 are 65 of 100 items. Wiring and Protection (25), Wiring Methods and Materials (20) and Equipment for General Use (20).
• Wiring and Protection alone is a quarter of the exam: branch circuits, feeders, Article 220 load calculations, services, overcurrent protection and grounding and bonding.
• Equipment for General Use (20) carries motors (Article 430), air-conditioning equipment (Article 440), generators and transformers (Article 450). Master-level motor and transformer calculations live here.
• Theory drops to 10 items, so the Code book does even more of the work.
• Chapters 5 through 8 are 25 items between them, with Communication Systems the smallest at 3.

A study plan for a 75

At 75 you can miss only 25 questions, so there is less room to write off an area.

1. Chapter 2 first. Twenty-five items. Load calculations, service and feeder sizing, overcurrent protection and Article 250, until every table opens in seconds.
2. Chapters 3 and 4 next. Forty items. Ampacity and adjustment, conduit and box fill, then motors, A/C equipment and transformers.
3. Chapter 5. Eleven items on hazardous locations, health care, agricultural buildings, marinas and temporary wiring.
4. Theory and Chapter 1. Ten items. Ugly's covers the formulas; learn the Article 100 definitions.
5. Chapters 6, 7 and 8. Fourteen items: pools, PV, EV charging, fire pumps, emergency and standby systems, Class 1, 2 and 3 circuits, and the communications articles.
6. Tab and highlight your NEC. Pre-exam highlighting, underlining and permanent indexing are allowed; writing during the exam is not.
7. Sit a timed, full-length exam, and aim well above 75 in practice before you book.

Our free practice test gives you a feel for the questions. The full exam prep has full-length practice exams weighted to this outline, with every answer explained. For eligibility, see Idaho Master Electrician requirements, and for the day itself, Idaho Master Electrician exam day.