Texas Master Electrician Exam Day: NEC Tab Rules, Calculators, and Pacing 320 Minutes

Texas Master Electrician Exam Day: What to Expect

The master exam is the longest electrical exam in Texas: 150 minutes of NEC Knowledge and 170 minutes of Calculations, scored separately. It is open book, so the rules about the book matter — PSI turns people away, or makes them test without it, for tabs and bindings that break the rules.

Your NEC: what is allowed

You bring your own copy of the NEC. Since September 1, 2026, questions are written to the 2026 edition.

Allowed:

• Any soft-bound edition of the NEC.
• Highlighting, underlining and notes you added before the exam.
• Permanent index tabs made or supplied by the NEC's publisher.

Not allowed:

• Homemade, DIY or third-party tabs. Remove them before you go.
• Writing, highlighting or marking the book during the exam.
• Loose-leaf, spiral-bound or ring-bound copies.
• The NEC Handbook.
• Any extra paper — loose, taped, stapled or stuck in.

A non-compliant book leaves you three bad options: test without it, strip the tabs on the spot, or forfeit your fee and come back. Check your book the night before.

PSI provides an electronic notepad for working problems.

Calculator

Only non-programmable calculators that are silent, battery-operated, have no paper-tape printing and no alphabetic keyboard. A basic scientific calculator with a square-root key covers the Calculations portion, including √3 for three-phase work.

Arrival and ID

• Arrive 30 minutes early. If you arrive after the start time you are not admitted and you forfeit the $78 fee.
• Bring one valid government-issued photo ID with your signature, date of birth and expiration date, matching the name TDLR sent PSI. An expired driver's license only works with a valid DPS temporary permit.
• Everything else goes in a locker: phone, smartwatch, wallet, bag, notes, food and drink. Jackets and open sweaters are not allowed in the room.

To cancel or reschedule, do it at least 2 days before your appointment through PSI's website or by phone — voicemail and email do not count.

English or Spanish

PSI offers the exam in English or Spanish at no extra cost. Choose the language when you schedule. You may also bring a bound word-to-word translation dictionary with no pictures or definitions.

The 70% rule — on each portion

There is no combined score, and time does not carry over: finish NEC Knowledge early and those minutes are gone.

Pacing

• NEC Knowledge gives you about two minutes an item. Answer what you can find quickly and come back to the rest — you can return to any question and change your answer before time runs out.
• Calculations gives you more than five and a half minutes an item, because master problems are multi-step: a service load, a motor feeder, a transformer's primary and secondary protection. Work each one fully and write the intermediate values on the notepad — a slip in step two of a feeder calculation lands you on a wrong answer that is sitting in the options waiting for you.
• Never leave a question blank.

After the exam

Your score appears on screen when you finish, and an official score report prints at the site. If you did not pass, the report includes a diagnostic breakdown by subject. A failed portion is retaken on its own for $78, and you can test as many times as you need within your eligibility period.

Before you go

The surest preparation is to have sat both portions under exam conditions already. Our free practice test scores NEC Knowledge and Calculations separately, the way PSI does, and the full exam prep has a timed practice exam for each portion on the 2026 NEC.