About the Texas Electrical Journeyman license
Texas licenses electricians through the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR). The Electrical Journeyman license authorizes you to perform electrical work under the supervision of a licensed master electrician. You earn it by documenting the required on-the-job training hours under a master electrician and passing the trade exam. Texas requires 8,000 hours of on-the-job training for the journeyman license, and you may apply to sit for the exam once you have documented at least 7,000 hours.
The exam is National Electrical Code (NEC) based, because Texas adopts the NEC as its electrical code. It is open book: you may bring a clean copy of the adopted NEC edition — currently the 2026 NEC (effective September 1, 2026). Texas requires a soft-bound code book; loose-leaf, spiral-bound, and ring-bound copies are not allowed in the exam room. Tabs and highlighting written directly in the book are permitted; loose or handwritten notes are not — check the current rule on the PSI candidate information bulletin. 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 Texas licensing works
- Experience: 8,000 hours of on-the-job training under the supervision of a licensed master electrician. You may apply to test after documenting at least 7,000 hours, but you must reach the full 8,000 before the license is issued.
- Documentation: each supervising master electrician (or employer) signs a TDLR Experience Verification Form covering the period you worked under them — one form per master.
- Application: submit the completed journeyman application with the $30 non-refundable application fee and your experience verification to TDLR before you are approved to sit.
- Exam vendor: PSI. Since March 2025 the journeyman exam has two separately scored parts — an NEC Knowledge section and a Calculations section — and you must score 70 percent or better on each part. The exam fee is $78. Check the current question counts and time limits on the PSI candidate information bulletin.
- Renewal: the license renews annually and requires 4 hours of TDLR-approved continuing education each term, covering the NEC, Texas electrician law and rules, and NFPA 70E electrical safety.
Texas currently tests to the 2026 NEC. Before you rely on any value in this guide, check the currently adopted NEC edition on the TDLR site and PSI bulletin, since the adopted edition changes over time. 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.
