About the Massachusetts Journeyman Electrician license
Massachusetts licenses electricians through the Massachusetts Board of State Examiners of Electricians. The Journeyman Electrician license authorizes you to perform electrical work, generally under the responsibility of a master, supervising, or administrator electrician. You earn it by meeting the experience-and-education requirement — a combination of documented on-the-job hours and approved classroom instruction, or completion of an approved apprenticeship — and passing the trade exam.
The exam is National Electrical Code (NEC) based, because Massachusetts adopts the NEC as its electrical code. It is open book on the PSI bulletin effective September 30, 2026. Part 1's own reference list names the current adopted National Electrical Code and NFPA 72. That line does not print a four-digit year. Tabs, highlighting, and underlining of the original text are allowed. Before the exam, the items-allowed section permits formulas on blank codebook pages and handwritten notes in the margins. During the exam, write only on the scrap paper PSI provides. 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 Massachusetts licensing works
- Experience: 8,000 clock hours (roughly 4 years) of documented, supervised electrical work under a licensed electrician, typically through a registered apprenticeship.
- Education: 600 clock hours of Board-approved classroom instruction covering the NEC and the Massachusetts amendments (527 CMR 12.00), completed alongside the on-the-job hours.
- Application: submit the application, fees, and proof of experience (signed off by a supervising/master electrician or employer) to PSI, which processes applications and schedules exams on the Board's behalf.
- Exam vendor: PSI. The exam is normally given in two parts — a longer NEC/theory part and a shorter applied part — and the passing score is commonly 70 percent on each part. Confirm the current question counts and time limits on the candidate information bulletin.
- Renewal: licenses expire on a three-year cycle and renewal requires 21 clock hours of continuing education — 15 hours on the current Massachusetts Electrical Code and 6 hours of professional-development electives.
Before you rely on any value in this guide, confirm the currently adopted NEC edition on the board and PSI 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.
