- What "ND-JE" Means on This Site
- Who Issues and Administers the Exam
- How the Exam Is Structured
- The Three Published Exam Subjects
- The 15-Topic Curriculum Is Not the Exam Blueprint
- Who Can Sit for the Exam
- Fees, Application, and Scheduling
- The NEC Edition Question
- What Happens If You Fail
- After You Pass: Licensing and Renewal
- Turning the Facts Into a Plan
- Frequently Asked Questions
- ND-JE here means the North Dakota Journeyman Electrician License Exam, administered by the North Dakota State Electrical Board (NDSEB).
- The exam runs four hours thirty minutes: one hour closed book, then three hours thirty minutes open book.
- The published passing grade is 70%, but no verified pass rate exists for this exam.
- The exam application costs $25; license issuance after passing is a separate $25.
What "ND-JE" Means on This Site
Several unrelated credentials share the letters "ND-JE," so a precise definition matters before anything else. On this site, ND-JE refers to exactly one thing: the North Dakota Journeyman Electrician License Exam, the written examination an electrician must pass to earn a journeyman electrician license in North Dakota.
Be aware that "ND-JE" is a project abbreviation used by this site, not an official examination code printed on NDSEB forms. You will not find it on your application or invitation. The official credential is simply the Journeyman Electrician license. If you are searching for related explanations, our pages on what ND-JE stands for and the meaning of ND-JE cover the naming in more detail.
Who Issues and Administers the Exam
The issuer and published examination administrator is the North Dakota State Electrical Board (NDSEB). The Board sets licensing qualifications, publishes exam information, receives applications, and issues the license after you pass. Its public process and July 15, 2026 meeting minutes support Board-administered testing in Bismarck. That is worth noting because many candidates assume electrician exams are delivered through a commercial testing network or from home.
No remote-testing entitlement has been verified. Treat your Board invitation as the authority on where and when you test, and follow its instructions about supplied references. For a deeper walk through who qualifies, see our ND-JE requirements guide.
How the Exam Is Structured
The format is unusual enough to shape how you study. The examination has two parts:
- One hour closed book, where you rely on what you have memorized and understood.
- Three hours thirty minutes open book, where you work with reference materials.
Total examination time is four hours thirty minutes. That figure is exam time, not training hours, and it does not describe a separately verified practical or hands-on assessment.
| Detail | What Is Published |
|---|---|
| Administrator | North Dakota State Electrical Board (NDSEB) |
| Closed-book portion | 1 hour |
| Open-book portion | 3 hours 30 minutes |
| Total exam time | 4 hours 30 minutes |
| Passing grade | 70% |
| Question count | Not published in retrieved official information |
| Materials | NDSEB supplies codebooks, calculators, and pencils |
Two gaps deserve honesty. First, the exact number of questions, the split between scored and unscored items, and the precise item format are not published in the retrieved official exam information. Commercial sites that quote a specific question count for this exam are not citing NDSEB. Second, the public page does not clarify whether the 70% grade is applied separately to each section or to the combined result, so do not assume you can trade a weak closed-book section for a strong open-book one, or vice versa. Our passing score breakdown tracks what is and is not known.
The Three Published Exam Subjects
NDSEB's Exam Dates & Information page names three broad examination subjects. These are the only issuer-published exam topics. They are not a weighted blueprint, and no official percentages or per-subject question allocations have been verified. Our exam domains guide expands on how to approach each one.
Domain 1: Fundamental Electricity
The conceptual base. Expect to need comfort with the principles that underlie everything else on the exam, since both the closed-book hour and the calculation-heavy open-book work depend on it.
- Be fluent in the basic relationships among voltage, current, resistance, and power.
- Practice working problems without a reference, since the closed-book hour rewards recall.
- Use the NDSEB-supplied calculator conventions during practice so nothing is unfamiliar on exam day.
Domain 2: Laws, Rules, and Wiring Standards of North Dakota
The state-specific subject, and the one generic national prep tends to underweight. North Dakota's own rules govern licensing, installation requirements, and wiring standards in addition to the model code.
- Study the NDSEB Laws, Rules, Wiring and Conveyance Standards document itself, not just summaries of it.
- Learn how state rules interact with, and sometimes add to, the NEC.
- Do not replace this subject with NEC-only preparation.
Domain 3: The Current Edition of the National Electrical Code
Code navigation and application. "Current edition" is the key phrase, and it is where the code-edition transition described below becomes relevant.
- Practice finding answers quickly in the supplied codebook, since the open-book portion is long but not unlimited.
- Confirm which edition your exam and supplied references use.
- Include hazardous-location and fire-alarm provisions in your practice, as these are areas where candidates often lose time in the code.
The 15-Topic Curriculum Is Not the Exam Blueprint
A common mistake is to treat the apprentice related-training curriculum as the exam's content outline. NDSEB's Apprentice Education Requirements list 15 required core class headings for the ordinary apprentice-to-journeyman route:
- Electrical Plans/Print Reading
- Branch Circuit Distribution
- Electrical Grounding/Bonding
- Electrical Theory
- Fire Alarm System
- Industry Orientation (Laws & Rules)
- Material Identification
- Mathematic (the source's spelling)
- Motor Controls
- Motors
- National Electrical Code
- Electrical Safety
- Overcurrent Protection
- Building Automation
- Transformers
These are unweighted preparation-curriculum subjects. They are useful as a supplemental study checklist because the knowledge they build clearly supports the three exam subjects, but they are not formal examination objectives, not proof of exhaustive exam coverage, and not an official count of exam domains. The curriculum specifies 475 required core hours plus 101 elective hours, totaling 576. The National Electrical Code class accounts for 140 classroom hours, but that number does not establish any weighting on the examination. A related policy describes at least 144 hours annually over four years, again 576 total.
Key Takeaway
Use the three published exam subjects to define what the exam covers, and use the 15 curriculum headings as a gap-finding checklist. If you are weak on, say, transformers or motor controls, that is a reason to shore up the underlying theory, not evidence that the exam has a "transformers section."
Who Can Sit for the Exam
You must be approved before you can test. The core experience requirement is 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, plus successful approved apprentice training. Of those hours, at least 4,000 must be qualifying installation experience.
Several categories can count toward the total, each with limits:
- An approved electrical-school program of at least two years can earn 2,000 hours of experience credit.
- Repair work is capped at 1,000 hours.
- Fire-alarm work is capped at 1,000 hours.
- Process-control and power-limited work is capped at 2,000 hours.
- Approved military experience is capped at 2,000 hours.
- Up to 3,000 Class B experience hours may count under the stated conditions.
Documentation is where applicants often stumble. Employer experience is verified on the prescribed Employment Verification form (SFN 11845), accompanied by applicable transcripts or completion evidence. Keep your category records organized from the start of your apprenticeship, since a cap means extra hours in one category will not rescue a shortfall in installation hours.
For applicants whose majority experience was in North Dakota, the linked application identifies an accepted two-year electrical school, 576 hours of approved training classes, or a recognized professional electrical apprenticeship program as education routes. The ordinary apprenticeship curriculum hours are not an extra universal course requirement stacked on top of every alternative entry route. Our full requirements article walks through the combinations.
Fees, Application, and Scheduling
The sequence matters: apply and receive approval before choosing an exam date. Once approved, you receive an invitation that identifies available dates and permits testing within six months. If you cancel or do not attend, you need a new application and fee.
| Charge | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Journeyman exam application or reapplication | $25 | Paid when applying or re-applying |
| License issuance after passing | $25 | Separate from the exam application |
| Annual journeyman renewal | $25 | Due annually |
These are government application and license charges, not an all-inclusive testing package. The 2026 rules allow a separate examination-provider charge if one is required, but no separately assessed current provider fee was verified. No member versus non-member pricing is published. NDSEB's July 2026 newsletter directs applicants to obtain the latest posted forms, so do not assume an older printed revision of the application is the only one available. For a full budget view, see our certification cost breakdown, and for scheduling logistics see exam dates and deadlines.
The NEC Edition Question
This is the subtlest ND-JE-specific issue in 2026. The NDSEB 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. NDSEB Connections, Issue 286 (July 2026), says exams were being updated with NEC 2026 questions for introduction in early fall 2026, and the July meeting minutes also describe exam-question updates.
The important point: none of these sources establishes the exact cutover date for an individual journeyman examination. Legal adoption on July 1 is not proof of the date your exam converts.
What Happens If You Fail
The 70% passing grade is a threshold, not a pass-rate statistic, and no exact-exam first-attempt or aggregate pass rate has been publicly verified. Anyone quoting one for this exam is not working from an NDSEB-published figure; our pass rate article explains what can and cannot be said.
Retake waiting periods depend on your score:
| Score | Waiting Period |
|---|---|
| 60 to 69 | No waiting period |
| 50 to 59 | Three months |
| 0 to 49 | Six months |
To retest, submit the re-examination application and fee and receive a new invitation. The Board does not provide exam reviews, so you will not see which questions you missed. That makes your own practice-test diagnostics the main tool for finding weak areas. A strong score gap-analysis habit before the first attempt is worth more than hoping to learn from a failed one.
After You Pass: Licensing and Renewal
Passing the exam is not the final step. License issuance is a separate $25 charge. Then the journeyman license is renewed annually:
- The license expires March 31 each year, and renewal opens January 1.
- The annual renewal fee is $25.
- You need eight approved continuing education hours, including at least four code hours, with credit on file.
- The CE provider has 15 days to submit its 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 this with the different Master or Class B renewal deadline; journeyman electricians follow the March 31 cycle. For career context once licensed, see ND-JE jobs, and for earnings analysis see our salary guide and the ROI analysis. Neither relies on invented wage figures here; wage data needs separate sourcing.
Turning the Facts Into a Plan
The one place generic scheduling is worth discussing is how to sequence the three subjects, because the exam's structure drives the order. For the full approach, see our study guide; here is a compact ND-JE-specific outline:
Fundamental electricity, closed-book style
- Drill core relationships and calculations without notes, since the first hour is closed book.
- Use the 15-topic curriculum list to spot theory gaps.
North Dakota laws, rules, and wiring standards
- Read the NDSEB rules document directly.
- Note where state requirements go beyond or modify the NEC.
NEC navigation and timed open-book practice
- Build speed at locating answers, including hazardous-location and fire-alarm provisions.
- Confirm the edition named in your invitation before final review.
Finish with full-length timed practice across both formats. You can take a realistic North Dakota journeyman practice test to simulate the pacing difference between the closed and open portions, and review the one-page cheat sheet for a final scan of key facts. If you want a sense of effort required, read how hard the ND-JE exam is. For deeper practice, return to our main practice test site.
Frequently Asked Questions
On this site, ND-JE means the North Dakota Journeyman Electrician License Exam, administered by the North Dakota State Electrical Board (NDSEB). It is the written exam required to earn a North Dakota journeyman electrician license. "ND-JE" is a project abbreviation, not an official NDSEB exam code.
Both. It has one hour closed book followed by three hours thirty minutes open book, for four hours thirty minutes total. NDSEB supplies codebooks, calculators, and pencils, and your invitation gives the exact reference instructions.
The published passing grade is 70%. The public page does not clarify whether that grade applies separately to each section, and no first-attempt pass rate has been verified for this exam.
The journeyman exam application or reapplication is $25. License issuance after passing is a separate $25, and annual renewal is $25. These are government charges rather than an all-inclusive package, and no separate provider fee has been verified.
It depends on your score: 60 to 69 has no waiting period, 50 to 59 requires three months, and 0 to 49 requires six months. You must submit the re-examination application and fee and receive a new invitation, and the Board does not provide exam reviews.