What's on the Michigan Master Electrician Exam? All 15 Topics and How to Study Them

What's on the Michigan Master Electrician Exam?

The Michigan master electrician exam is 76 questions in 180 minutes, and you need 75% to pass. The PSI bulletin lists the same 15 electrical topics as the journeyman exam, in the same order, plus Michigan law. What it adds is one sentence: the master exam "covers additional knowledge required to plan and supervise electrical installations."

The outline (76 questions)

The bulletin lists the topics but not how many questions each gets. The counts below are our estimate, not the state's. For the master exam we weight load calculations and Michigan law more heavily than for the journeyman, because planning and supervising an installation is mostly sizing services and feeders and knowing the permit and licensing rules.

Use the numbers to plan your time, not as a forecast of your exam.

Which code?

Questions are based on the 2023 NEC. You may bring another edition, but the bulletin says the items follow 2023. Michigan adopted the 2023 NEC (second printing, with tentative interim amendments 70-23-1 to 70-23-13, errata and Annex H) through Part 8, effective March 12, 2024.

A 2026 NEC adoption is pending (rule set 2026-17 LR). It takes effect 120 days after filing, it has not been filed as of November 2026, and no exam switch date has been announced. Study the 2023 edition.

The Michigan law in scope

For a master, the law section matters more, because it governs how you run the work:

• 2016 PA 407. Licensing classes, the rule that one master qualifies only one contractor, apprentice ratios (one journeyman or master to no more than three apprentices), fees, renewal, and the classes of work that are exempt.
• The Skilled Trades Regulation Rules. In scope, but not on the list of books you can bring.
• Part 8, the Michigan Electrical Code Rules.
• 1972 PA 230, the Stille-DeRossett-Hale Single State Construction Code Act: how the state code is adopted and enforced, permits and inspections.

Part 8 rules a master should know

• Plans. Required when the service or feeder exceeds 400 amps at 1,000 volts or less and the floor area exceeds 3,500 square feet. Part 8 lists what the plans must show, and conductors are assumed to be copper.
• Permits. Not transferable, posted on site, expire 180 days after issue (extended 180 days from the last inspection), with annual permits available. No permit for minor repair work as PA 407 defines it.
• Disconnection. The inspector can disconnect a dangerous installation, with notice within 24 hours. Reconnecting without approval is unlawful. After emergency repairs by a licensed contractor, the utility may reconnect, with the permit pulled by the next business day.
• Service equipment must be approved before the load side of the meter is energized.
• 230.85 (Michigan text). The outdoor emergency disconnect for one- and two-family dwellings.
• 250.104(B). CSST bonding with a jumper no smaller than 6 AWG copper.
• 334.10 and 334.12(A). Where NM cable may and may not be used.
• 700.9 and 701.9. Emergency and legally required standby systems follow NFPA 110 and NFPA 111 (2019).

The pending 2026 rules would replace the 230.85 and 700.9/701.9 amendments, so watch the edition of anything you study.

Where the weight is

• Calculations drive the master exam. Load calculations, feeders and services together are 20 of our 76 items. Expect dwelling and commercial service and feeder sizing, demand factors, and motor feeders.
• Grounding, wiring methods and overcurrent are the next block, as on the journeyman exam.
• Theory is lighter than on the journeyman exam in our estimate, but it still shows up inside calculation questions.

A study plan built on the weights

1. Load calculations first. Work Article 220 problems end to end: dwelling, multifamily and non-dwelling, with demand factors.
2. Services, feeders and overcurrent. Size the conductors and protection that come out of your calculations.
3. Grounding and bonding, and wiring methods. Articles 250 and Chapter 3, plus the Chapter 9 fill tables.
4. Michigan law. Read PA 407's licensing and permit sections and all of Part 8. They are short, and the questions are direct.
5. Motors, special occupancies and the rest in proportion.
6. Sit a timed, full-length exam. 76 questions in 180 minutes is about 2 minutes 20 seconds 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 Michigan Master Electrician exam day.