How to pass the Michigan journeyman electrician exam

Last verified 2026-07-25

Michigan is tight in two directions at once: under two minutes a question, and a code book that has to be factory clean. Of the states in this series that let you bring your own book, none permits less than Michigan does. Get either one wrong and it does not matter how well you know the trade.

Here is what the bulletin actually says.

The three facts that shape how you prep

Straight from the PSI Michigan Electrical Candidate Information Bulletin:

• 80 questions, 150 minutes, 75% to pass. That is under two minutes a question. Of the states we have verified against primary bulletins, Michigan is the fastest clock. Texas gives you 240 minutes for the same 80 questions.
• You bring your own references. The bulletin: "Candidates are responsible for bringing their own references to the examination center."
• The exam is based on the 2023 NEC. Straight from LARA/BCC, the agency that owns the exam: "All Electrical examinations are currently based on 2023 National Electrical Code, 2023 Michigan Electrical Code Rules Part 8, 1972 PA 230, 2016 PA 407, and all associated promulgated rules." If you have read otherwise, see the next section, because there is a stale document in circulation.

That second one is worth stopping on, because there is a persistent piece of shop-floor lore that Michigan hands you the code book at the testing center. The current bulletin says the opposite. Do not show up expecting a book to be waiting for you.

If you have read that Michigan tests on the 2017 NEC, that document is stale

You are going to run into this, so here it is straight.

The PSI candidate bulletin for the Michigan electrical exams says: "Other editions of the NEC may be used during the examination, but the items are based on the 2017 edition." That line is still sitting in a PDF that circulates widely, and study sites repeat it.

That bulletin is stamped "Last Revised 5/1/2019."

Since then, Michigan adopted the 2023 NEC as its electrical code, in R 408.30801 Rule 801(1), effective March 12, 2024. And LARA's Bureau of Construction Codes, which owns these exams, states on its current exam page that "All Electrical examinations are currently based on 2023 National Electrical Code, 2023 Michigan Electrical Code Rules Part 8, 1972 PA 230, 2016 PA 407, and all associated promulgated rules."

PSI administers the exam. LARA writes it. When the vendor's five-year-old PDF and the agency's current page disagree, the agency wins.

So: study the 2023. If you already bought a 2017 because a study site told you to, that is worth fixing before test day, and in Michigan it matters more than in any other state in this series, because you cannot tab or mark your own book. Whatever edition you carry in is the one you are working from cold.

Source, straight from the state: Michigan LARA/BCC electrical examination information.

Michigan's code book rules are the tightest of any bring-your-own state here

This is the part people get burned on. In Michigan your code book is essentially required to be factory condition.

The bulletin allows a code book that "may have factory markings or highlights with factory tabs only." Read that literally, because they mean it literally:

• Factory tabs only. Not your tabs. Not nice tabs. Not tabs you bought separately and applied carefully. Factory.
• Factory markings and highlights only. The highlighting you did all semester is a problem, not an asset.
• And during the exam, nothing at all: "Any candidate caught writing, highlighting, underlining and/or indexing in the references during the examination will be reported to the BCC." That is a referral to the board, not a warning.
• The NEC Handbook is not allowed. Standard code book only.

If you have been prepping in a book you have been marking up all year, you need to sort that out well before test day, not the morning of.

Confirm this against your own bulletin before you go. These rules get revised and the bulletin is the authority, not this page. Pull the current one here: PSI Michigan Electrical Candidate Information Bulletin.

Why Michigan's rules make navigation the whole exam

Put the clock and the book rules together and you can see what Michigan is actually testing.

You get under two minutes a question. And you are not allowed to walk in with a book you have personally optimized, no color coding, no marked shortcuts, no system you built over the semester. Everyone is working from a stock book.

So the only edge left is the one thing they cannot take off you at the door: knowing your way around the code. That skill has three parts.

1. Index or table of contents, decided instantly. Some questions hand you a term and the index is fastest. Others are really asking which article governs a situation, and the chapters get you there quicker. Making that call in two seconds instead of forty is most of your time budget right there.
2. Landing on the actual rule. Finding the right article is not the same as finding the right subsection. Close is slow.
3. Following cross-references without losing your place. The code constantly sends you elsewhere, go see 310.16 and now you are in a table. Every hop costs time, and people who have made the hops before make them fast.

In a state that hands you a stock book and a short clock, that is the entire ballgame.

How to practice it

The problem with most practice sites is that you miss one and they immediately show you the answer. It feels productive. It is not, because on test day nobody shows you anything, they hand you a book and start a timer.

That is why I built electricianstudyguide.org while going through school myself.

• 250+ original questions on the 2023 NEC, and it will not give you the answer. Every question points at a real rule you have to go look up, which is the exact motion Michigan is timing you on.
• A built-in tutor, Sparky, who will not hand it over either. He teaches you to run the rule down in the index rather than just telling you where it is.
• A toolkit with conduit bending, ohms law, trig, and a motor lab. I use the bender in class myself.
• Tap any term for its definition, have questions read aloud, works on your phone, nothing to install.

On editions, since Michigan is where that question gets muddled. Our bank is built on the 2023 NEC, and that is the edition Michigan's exams are currently based on. Same code, same edition, no gap to work around.

Worth saying plainly anyway: the bank is 2023 only. There is no 2017 version of it, and we are not planning one. For Michigan that is not a limitation, it is the point. If you find a study tool still built on the 2017 because it was made off that old bulletin, that is the one to be careful with.

Michigan is also the state where the right edition matters most, because it is the one that will not let you tab or mark your own book. In the other states where the book is yours to bring, you can at least build a system into the pages. In Michigan the book has to carry you as it comes, so it had better be the right one.

It cannot promise you a pass, nothing honestly can. What it does is make you practice finding rules under time pressure, which in Michigan is the thing being measured.

Common questions

Exam details on this page were taken from the PSI Michigan Electrical Candidate Information Bulletin and from LARA's Bureau of Construction Codes, last verified 2026-07-25. Rules change, so confirm before test day, and know which source answers which question: the candidate bulletin is the authority on exam logistics, what to bring, and how the day runs. On which NEC edition the exam is based, LARA's current exam page is the authority, and it says the 2023.