- What the Pass-Rate Data Actually Shows
- Passing Score vs. Pass Rate: Two Different Numbers
- How the Exam Is Built
- The Three Published Exam Subjects
- Why Eligibility Rules Shape Who Sits for the Exam
- The NEC 2026 Transition and Your Preparation
- Score-Dependent Retake Waits
- Fees and Application Mechanics
- Sequencing Your Preparation Around the Exam Structure
- After You Pass: Licensing and the March 31 Deadline
- Frequently Asked Questions
- No exact first-attempt or aggregate pass rate for the North Dakota journeyman exam has been publicly verified.
- The published passing grade is 70%, but a passing grade is not a pass rate.
- Exam time totals 4 hours 30 minutes: one hour closed book, then three and a half hours open book.
- Retake waits depend on score: 60-69 has no wait, 50-59 means three months, 0-49 means six months.
What the Pass-Rate Data Actually Shows
If you searched for the North Dakota journeyman electrician pass rate hoping for a tidy percentage, here is the honest answer: no exact-examination first-attempt or aggregate pass rate has been publicly verified for the North Dakota State Electrical Board (NDSEB) Journeyman Electrician exam. The Board publishes the exam's passing grade, its format, and its retake rules, but the pages reviewed for this article do not publish a pass-rate statistic.
That matters because a lot of exam-prep content fills the gap with confident-sounding numbers borrowed from other states, other trades, or commercial providers. Those figures do not describe this exam. On this page, you will not find an invented percentage. What you will find is a careful reading of what the Board actually publishes and what that tells you about how to prepare.
This article is a companion to our main resource on the topic, the ND-JE pass rate overview, and it focuses on separating verified facts from the noise surrounding them.
Passing Score vs. Pass Rate: Two Different Numbers
Candidates routinely confuse these two ideas, so it is worth being precise.
| Concept | What it means | Status for the NDSEB journeyman exam |
|---|---|---|
| Passing grade (cut score) | The score an individual candidate must earn to pass | 70%, as published by the Board |
| Pass rate | The share of all candidates who pass, first attempt or overall | Not publicly verified |
| Per-section scoring | Whether 70% applies to each exam section separately | Not clarified on the public page |
| Question count | Number of scored and unscored items | Not published in the retrieved official information |
The 70% figure tells you the bar you must clear. It tells you nothing about how many people clear it. For a deeper breakdown of the cut score itself, read our ND-JE passing score guide.
One genuine ambiguity deserves a flag: the public page does not state whether the 70% grade is applied separately to the closed-book and open-book portions or to the combined result. Do not assume either interpretation. Ask the Board if it matters to your strategy, and treat both sections as worth taking seriously.
How the Exam Is Built
The format is the single most useful piece of verified information for anyone trying to gauge difficulty without a pass-rate number.
| Component | Detail |
|---|---|
| Closed-book portion | One hour |
| Open-book portion | Three hours thirty minutes |
| Total examination time | Four hours thirty minutes |
| Passing grade | 70% |
| Materials | NDSEB supplies codebooks, calculators, and pencils |
| Question count and item type | Not published in the retrieved official exam information |
Notice what is not here: this is not an entirely open-book exam, and the Board's retrieved information does not confirm a particular number of questions. Commercial claims of an 80-question test, a 75% threshold, or third-party delivery do not appear in the Board's published information for this exam, and you should disregard them.
Because the Board supplies the codebooks, tabbing, highlighting, and personal-reference advice from other jurisdictions should not be assumed to apply. Read the instructions in your invitation carefully. Our ND-JE study guide walks through how to prepare for this mixed format.
The Three Published Exam Subjects
NDSEB's exam information lists three broad examination subjects. The Board does not publish percentage weights or per-subject question allocations, so no area can be called "largest" based on verified information. Treat the three as equally deserving of attention.
Domain 1: Fundamental Electricity
The theory layer underneath everything else. Because the closed-book hour leaves no room to flip through a codebook, this is where memorized fluency pays off most.
- Ohm's law relationships and power calculations
- Series, parallel, and combination circuit analysis
- AC fundamentals and basic transformer and motor behavior
- Comfort with the math involved, since the apprentice curriculum includes a dedicated "Mathematic" core class
Domain 2: Laws, Rules, and Wiring Standards of North Dakota
This is the state-specific subject, and it is where generic NEC-only preparation falls short. North Dakota's own laws, rules, and wiring standards sit alongside the national code.
- Licensing structure and the rules governing electricians in the state
- North Dakota wiring standards that supplement or modify the national baseline
- The practical meaning of the Board's regulations for installers and contractors
Domain 3: The Current Edition of the National Electrical Code
The code itself, with the edition question front and center this year (see the transition section below).
- Navigating the code book quickly during the open-book portion
- Applying general requirements, then special occupancies and conditions
- Study examples worth practicing: hazardous-location rules and fire-alarm provisions
For a closer look at each area, see our complete guide to the ND-JE exam domains.
The 15-topic apprentice curriculum is not the exam blueprint
NDSEB's apprentice education page lists 15 required core classes: Electrical Plans/Print Reading; Branch Circuit Distribution; Electrical Grounding/Bonding; Electrical Theory; Fire Alarm System; Industry Orientation (Laws & Rules); Material Identification; Mathematic; Motor Controls; Motors; National Electrical Code; Electrical Safety; Overcurrent Protection; Building Automation; and Transformers. Together they total 475 required core hours plus 101 elective hours, for 576 in all.
These are valuable preparation topics, but they are a curriculum, not a weighted exam outline. The NEC class carries 140 classroom hours, yet that figure does not establish how heavily the code is weighted on the exam. Use the list as a study map, not as a prediction of question counts.
Why Eligibility Rules Shape Who Sits for the Exam
One reason pass-rate comparisons across states are unreliable is that eligibility rules differ. In North Dakota, you cannot simply register and test. The Board requires applicants to have:
- 8,000 qualifying hours over at least three years as a registered apprentice under a contracting master or master of record in a jurisdiction with similar licensing and inspection rules
- Successful completion of approved apprentice training
- At least 4,000 hours of qualifying installation experience
Category caps apply: an approved electrical-school program of at least two years can earn 2,000 hours of credit, and other categories carry limits such as 1,000 repair hours, 1,000 fire-alarm hours, 2,000 process-control/power-limited hours, and 2,000 approved military hours. Up to 3,000 Class B experience hours may count under stated conditions.
Employers verify your experience on the Board's Employment Verification form (SFN 11845), and you supply applicable transcripts or completion evidence. The practical takeaway: by the time someone reaches the exam room, they have already cleared a substantial experience filter. That is a reason to be cautious about comparing this exam to open-enrollment tests elsewhere. Full details are in our ND-JE requirements guide.
The NEC 2026 Transition and Your Preparation
This is the part of the pass-rate conversation that is genuinely time-sensitive. The 2026 Laws, Rules, Wiring and Conveyance Standards, effective July 1, 2026, reference NEC 2026 and NFPA 101 (2024). Meanwhile, older general Laws & Rules webpage text still refers to NEC 2023. The Board's July 2026 newsletter says exams were being updated with NEC 2026 questions for introduction in early fall 2026.
What should you do? Confirm the edition listed in your Board invitation and in the reference materials supplied at the testing site. If you are studying from a code book, make sure the edition matches what your invitation specifies, and do not assume a mismatch is harmless. Because article numbering, definitions, and requirements shift between editions, studying the wrong one can quietly cost you points on the open-book portion.
Score-Dependent Retake Waits
Even without a published pass rate, the Board's retake structure reveals something useful: how far from passing a score landed matters.
| Score range | Waiting period before retesting |
|---|---|
| 60-69 | No waiting period |
| 50-59 | Three months |
| 0-49 | Six months |
To retest, you submit the re-examination application and fee and receive a new invitation. The Board does not provide exam reviews, so you will not be able to see which questions you missed. That makes it important to build your own diagnostic habits during preparation instead of relying on a post-exam breakdown.
Also remember that the invitation permits testing within six months, and cancellation or nonattendance requires a new application and fee. Do not choose an exam date until you have applied and received approval. Scheduling details are covered in our ND-JE exam dates guide.
Fees and Application Mechanics
The published government charges are straightforward:
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Journeyman examination application or reapplication | $25 |
| License issuance after passing | $25 |
| Annual journeyman renewal | $25 |
These are application and license charges, not a verified all-inclusive testing package. The 2026 rules allow a separate examination-provider charge if required, but no separately assessed current provider fee was verified, and no member versus non-member price distinction is published. The Board's July 2026 newsletter directs applicants to obtain the latest posted forms rather than assuming an older printed revision is the only one available. For the full financial picture, see the ND-JE certification cost breakdown.
Testing is Board-administered, and the Board's public process and July 15, 2026 meeting minutes support testing in Bismarck. No remote-testing entitlement was verified, so do not plan around taking this exam at home.
Sequencing Your Preparation Around the Exam Structure
Since no pass-rate figure can tell you how much margin you need, build your own margin using the exam's structure. One sensible way to order the work, tied directly to the three published subjects:
Fundamental Electricity (closed-book foundation)
- Drill Ohm's law, power, and circuit math until it is automatic
- Review motors, transformers, and grounding/bonding theory
- Reason: this content must be recalled without a reference during the one-hour closed-book portion
Laws, Rules, and Wiring Standards of North Dakota
- Read the 2026 state rules and wiring standards directly
- Note where North Dakota requirements differ from generic national guidance
- Reason: generic NEC-only prep leaves this subject exposed
NEC Navigation and Application
- Practice locating answers quickly in the correct code edition
- Work hazardous-location and fire-alarm examples
- Reason: open-book success depends on speed and edition accuracy
Timed Mixed Practice
- Simulate the closed-then-open sequence
- Review misses by subject, since the Board offers no exam review
For a one-page refresher to use alongside this plan, see the ND-JE cheat sheet, and when you are ready to test yourself, take a timed run on our ND-JE practice test site.
After You Pass: Licensing and the March 31 Deadline
Passing the exam is not the end of the paperwork. License issuance carries its own $25 charge, and the journeyman license is annual, expiring March 31, with renewal opening January 1. Renewal requires eight approved continuing-education hours, including at least four code hours, with credit on file. Providers have 15 days to submit their completion roster, so verify recorded credit with NDSEB rather than assuming it posted. An expired license requires a reinstatement fee equal to the annual license fee.
Do not confuse these dates with deadlines for other license classes; the Master and Class B renewal timelines are different. If you are weighing what the credential delivers, our ROI analysis and earnings guide cover the career side, and you can practice at our main practice-test site any time.
Frequently Asked Questions
No exact first-attempt or aggregate pass rate has been publicly verified for this exam. NDSEB publishes a 70% passing grade, which is the score you need, not the share of candidates who pass. Be skeptical of any site quoting a specific percentage without a primary source.
No. The 70% grade is the cut score an individual must reach. A pass rate would describe what fraction of all candidates succeed. The public NDSEB page also does not clarify whether the 70% applies separately to each exam section.
It is mixed. The exam runs one hour closed book followed by three hours thirty minutes open book, for four hours thirty minutes total. NDSEB supplies the codebooks, calculators, and pencils, so confirm reference instructions in your invitation.
It depends on your score. A score of 60-69 has no waiting period, 50-59 requires three months, and 0-49 requires six months. You submit the re-examination application and fee and receive a new invitation. The Board does not provide exam reviews.
The 2026 state rules reference NEC 2026, effective July 1, 2026, and NDSEB said exams were being updated with NEC 2026 questions for early fall 2026. No exact cutover date for an individual exam was established, so confirm the edition in your Board invitation and supplied references.