The exam format and the references allowed

The box of books arrived at Congaree on a Tuesday: a 2023 National Electrical Code, the American Electricians' Handbook, NFPA 72, a bound copy of the federal construction safety standards, the South Carolina 811 manual and the NASCLA business and law guide for South Carolina. Caleb Simmons, the second-year apprentice, helped Tamika carry it in from the truck. "You get to bring all of these into the test?" he asked. "All of them," Tamika said, "and I'm still going to run out of time if I don't know where things are." Wade, walking past, laughed. "Open book is the hardest kind of test," he said. "It's not about knowing the answer. It's about finding it before the clock does."

This lesson covers the two exams Tamika will sit: the electrician trade exam for the electrical classification and the Business Management and Law exam. For each, it describes the number of questions, the time allowed, the passing score and the references listed in the PSI bulletin, then turns to how to prepare the books and pace yourself. The figures come from PSI's South Carolina contractor bulletin updated September 15, 2026.

The electrician trade exam

The trade exam for the electrical classification is an open-book exam of 80 scored questions. Candidates have five hours, and a passing score is 56 correct, which is seventy out of each hundred questions. The bulletin lists the fee at 78 dollars. The questions are multiple choice and draw on the NEC and the other listed references, covering the topics in the bulletin's content outline: general requirements and definitions, wiring methods and materials, services and feeders, branch circuits and load calculations, overcurrent protection, grounding and bonding, motors and controls, special occupancies and equipment, fire alarm systems, safety and the use of the reference handbook.

Five hours sounds generous for 80 questions, and it is more time per question than many states allow. But open-book questions take longer than closed-book ones. A load calculation question might need two or three tables and a few minutes of arithmetic. A question about a specific occupancy might need a search through the index and then through an article. Lesson 12 covers pacing in detail. The short version: 300 minutes for 80 questions is 3.75 minutes per question, and a good target is about three and a half minutes, which leaves around twenty minutes to return to marked questions.

The trade exam references

The bulletin lists the references allowed in the exam room. For the electrical trade exam they include the National Electrical Code, NFPA 72 on fire alarm and signaling systems in the 2019 edition, the American Electricians' Handbook in its 17th edition, the federal construction safety standards in 29 CFR Part 1926, a key word index to the code that the bulletin names, and the South Carolina 811 manual on underground facility damage prevention. Candidates bring their own copies.

The code edition is in transition. Under the September 2026 bulletin, from November 1, 2026 a candidate may use either the 2020 or the 2023 NEC, and questions are written so that either edition supports the answer. From July 1, 2027 only the 2023 edition is listed. That matters for Tamika's timing. If her exam falls before July 2027, she may bring either edition. If it falls after, she needs the 2023 book. Because South Carolina currently enforces the 2020 NEC on jobs, as Lesson 5 explains, she may end up studying one edition for the exam while working from another on the job.

The Business Management and Law exam

The business exam has 50 scored questions in 125 minutes, and a passing score is 35 correct. It is also open book. The reference is the NASCLA Contractor's Guide to Business, Law and Project Management for South Carolina, in the ninth edition listed in the bulletin. The questions cover business organization, licensing law, estimating and bidding, contracts, project management, risk and insurance, lien law, tax and payroll, employment law and workplace safety recordkeeping. Many of the answers are in the guide's South Carolina chapters, so tabbing those chapters is time well spent.

The business exam has less time per question than the trade exam: two and a half minutes. Many questions are short and factual, such as a form number, a filing deadline or a definition, and can be answered in under a minute with good tabs. Others are calculation questions on markup, depreciation, payroll taxes or break-even points. The balance means a candidate who knows the guide's layout can bank time on the quick questions and spend it on the calculations.

exams = {
    "Electrician trade": {"questions": 80, "minutes": 300, "pass": 56},
    "Business and law": {"questions": 50, "minutes": 125, "pass": 35},
}
for name, e in exams.items():
    per_q = e["minutes"] / e["questions"]
    share = e["pass"] / e["questions"]
    can_miss = e["questions"] - e["pass"]
    print(f"{name}: {per_q:.2f} minutes a question, pass with {e['pass']} "
          f"({share:.2f} of the questions), can miss {can_miss}")

Electrician trade: 3.75 minutes a question, pass with 56 (0.70 of the questions), can miss 24
Business and law: 2.50 minutes a question, pass with 35 (0.70 of the questions), can miss 15

The output shows a useful fact: Tamika can miss 24 questions on the trade exam and 15 on the business exam and still pass. Nobody needs a perfect score. A candidate who spends twenty minutes chasing one stubborn question is trading away time that could earn three or four easier points.

Preparing the books

The bulletin's rules on books are strict and are enforced at check-in. Bound references are allowed with tabs and highlighting. Loose papers, sticky notes with written answers and handwritten pages inside the books are generally not. Permanent tabs with article numbers or topic names are the safe choice. If a book has handwritten notes in the margins, check the bulletin's wording on notes before you bring it; when in doubt, use a clean copy. A proctor who finds prohibited material may refuse the book, and a candidate without the NEC has little chance of passing.

Tamika tabbed her NEC by chapter and then by the articles she used most: 90, 100, 110, 210, 215, 220, 230, 240, 250, 300, 310, 314, 430, 450, 500 and 700, plus the Chapter 9 tables. She tabbed the business guide by chapter, with extra tabs on the South Carolina licensing and lien chapters and the payroll tax tables. She practiced finding answers with only those tabs, and moved a tab when she kept missing a section.

Calculators and test-center rules

The bulletin describes the calculators allowed, generally a silent, non-programmable calculator without a printing tape or alphabetic keyboard. Phones, smart watches and bags stay in a locker. Candidates sign in, show identification that matches the registration name exactly, and may be photographed. The exam is delivered on a computer, which lets candidates mark questions to review later. Read the bulletin's section on test-day rules before the exam rather than in the parking lot.

What the content outline tells you

The bulletin's content outline lists each topic area and, usually, the number of questions drawn from it. Use it to set priorities. A topic with ten or more questions deserves more study time than one with two. For the electrical trade exam, load calculations, wiring methods and grounding usually carry a large share. Fire alarm questions come from NFPA 72 rather than the NEC, and safety questions come from 29 CFR Part 1926 and the 811 manual, so a candidate who studies only the NEC leaves points on the table.

How the questions are written

Exam questions on open-book tests are usually built so that the answer can be found in a reference, but finding it requires knowing the right word to look up. A question might describe an installation in plain terms, such as a pool pump, a feeder to a detached garage or a fire alarm circuit in a hospital, and expect the candidate to translate that description into the code's vocabulary. That is why the key word index is on the reference list. When the obvious word fails in the index, try the code's term for the same thing: a swimming pool is a pool, but a hot tub may be a spa or hot tub, and a detached garage is a separate building or structure.

Many questions include extra details that do not affect the answer, and a few include one detail that changes it completely. Read the last sentence first to see what is being asked, then read the whole question for conditions such as the voltage, the occupancy, whether a conductor is copper or aluminum and whether the installation is indoors or outdoors. Those conditions decide which table or section applies.

Practicing with the references

Practice with the same books you will bring. Every lookup builds familiarity with where things are on the page, and that speed is worth more on test day than any memorized fact. Tamika set herself a drill: twenty random questions from a practice book, a timer and only her tabbed references. She tracked how long each lookup took and which book she reached for first. In three weeks her average fell from more than five minutes a question to under three. The drill also showed her which tabs she never used, and she removed them, because extra tabs slow down the search for the ones that matter.

One last point about the references: bring every book on the list, even the ones you expect to use least. A single fire alarm question answered from NFPA 72, or a single excavation question answered from the 811 manual, can be the point that separates a pass from a near miss.