About the Maine Master Electrician license
Maine licenses electricians through the Maine Electricians' Examining Board. The Master Electrician is the senior credential. It requires at least 4,000 hours of documented experience as a licensed journeyman electrician (roughly two years) — or at least 6,000 hours as a journeyman-in-training, or at least 12,000 hours as a helper or apprentice — plus 576 hours of approved coursework (Electricity I/II, Electronics I, Math I, Controls I/II, Motors, Blueprint Reading, Transformers, and a current NEC course), and passing a more demanding exam that adds heavier load-calculation, design, and code-application content. A holder at this level can typically pull permits, supervise journeymen and apprentices, design installations, and serve as the qualifying individual for a licensed contracting business.
The exam is National Electrical Code (NEC) based, because Maine adopts the NEC as its electrical code. It is open book. The only book allowed is the softcover 2023 National Electrical Code. The hardcover Handbook is not allowed. You may tab that book, write in it, highlight it, and underline it. You may not staple, tape, glue, or insert pages. Plan to tab and index your code book before test day, because the exam is as much a test of how fast you can locate a section as it is of what you have memorized.
Know these scope facts cold, because the exam asks them in plain-language form: the license is held by the individual, not the company; most installations require a permit and inspection before concealment (rough-in) and again at final; you must work within the classification you hold; and performing electrical work without the required license, or beyond your scope, is a violation that can cost you the license and carry civil penalties.
How Maine licensing works
- Experience: at least 4,000 hours as a licensed journeyman electrician, or at least 12,000 hours of qualifying electrical installation experience for candidates outside the journeyman path.
- Education: 576 hours of approved coursework covering electrical theory, code, motors, transformers, blueprint reading, and a current NEC update course, on top of the experience hours above.
- Application: submit the application, fees, and proof of experience (often signed off by a supervising/master electrician or employer) to the board before you are approved to sit.
- Exam vendor: Prov, Inc. The Master exam is 100 questions with a 4-hour time limit and a 70 percent passing score. That is Prov bulletin MOPOR-2026.04.17, read October 10, 2026. It is not the journeyman paper.
- Renewal: licenses renew on a 2-year cycle and require a 15-hour current NEC update course each renewal.
Before you rely on any value in this guide, confirm the currently adopted NEC edition on the board and Prov bulletin. Ampacities, GFCI/AFCI scope, working-clearance distances, and receptacle-spacing rules all change between editions, and the exam is written to the edition your state has adopted — not necessarily the newest one published.
This is the opening of the full study guide. The complete guide continues into code navigation, worked calculations and solved exam questions.
