South Dakota Electrical Contractor Exam Day: ICC at Pearson VUE, Your Books, and Pacing 5 Hours

South Dakota Electrical Contractor Exam Day: What to Expect

ICC gives the South Dakota Electrical Contractor exam (530) at Pearson VUE test centers. The fee is $115. Here is what the day looks like.

Before you go

• Get approved first. You apply to the South Dakota Electrical Commission ($60) before you book. Once you are approved, you have 90 days to test.
• Read ICC's South Dakota candidate bulletin for the current ID, arrival and rescheduling rules before you book.
• Use the 2023 NEC. South Dakota's exams moved to it on December 2, 2024. If you studied on an older book, check the load-calculation tables in what is on the exam; several were renumbered.

Open book: your references

The exam is open book with:

• NFPA 70, 2023 edition (the NEC),
• Ugly's Electrical Reference, in any edition, and
• if you prefer, the hardcover NEC Handbook.

Being allowed the books does not mean you have time to read them. Know the NEC's layout well enough to go straight to the right article and table, and know what is in Ugly's so you reach for it only when it is faster.

The questions

Every question is multiple choice with four options and one correct answer. There are 100 questions in 5 hours.

Pacing

That is 3 minutes per question, the same rate as the journeyman exam, held for an hour longer.

• Answer the ones you know quickly and bank the time for lookups and calculations.
• Do not let one long lookup eat ten minutes. Make your best choice and move on.
• Answer every question.
• Check the clock at the halfway mark: about 50 done at 2 hours 30 minutes.

Scoring and after

You need 70% to pass. If you do not pass, South Dakota requires a 30-day wait before you retest, and 90 days after a second failure.

Passing the exam is not the last step: the electrical contractor license also needs a $10,000 bond and liability insurance, unless your employer carries them.

Before you go

Sit a full-length practice exam first. Our free practice test gives you 10 questions on the 2023 NEC, and the full exam prep has a timed full-length practice exam weighted like the ICC outline, with every answer citing its NEC section. For eligibility, see South Dakota Electrical Contractor requirements.