Checked against primary sources 2026-08-24
Sit on August 31 and it is the 2023 code. Sit on September 1 and it is the 2026.
PSI put the date in capitals in its July bulletin. It follows the day you sit rather than the day you booked, and the book in your hand has to match it.
On this page
Which NEC edition does the Texas exam use?
Through 31 August 2026 it is the 2023 edition. From 1 September 2026 it is the 2026 edition. PSI says so in the candidate information bulletin, in capitals, and that bulletin was updated on 9 July 2026.
EFFECTIVE SEPTEMBER 1, 2026, THE EXAMINATIONS WILL BE REFERENCED TO THE 2026 NEC.
PSI Candidate Information Bulletin, TDLR Electricians, updated 9 July 2026
The plural is accurate. That bulletin covers every TDLR electrical examination PSI delivers, from residential appliance installer through journeyman lineman to master sign, so the line is not a journeyman and master announcement.
Underneath it sits the state adoption: Texas adopts the 2026 National Electrical Code effective 1 September 2026 under 16 TAC 73.100. Same day, two different bodies. In several other states those dates are a year or more apart, which is where a lot of secondhand advice about this comes from.
I booked in August and sit in September. Which edition do I get?
The 2026. The edition follows the date you sit, not the date you paid. Book on 20 August, sit on 3 September, and you are answering against the 2026 book.
The bulletin ties the change to a date and says nothing at all about booking, so there is nothing in the published text that carries an August booking across the line. If your date is within a few days of 1 September and this matters to you, ask PSI. Do not take it from a forum and do not take it from here.
Two useful ways to think about the choice, if your date is still movable. If you are ready now, sitting before 1 September keeps you on material you already know. If you are not ready now, moving your date up to dodge an edition is a worse trade than being ready, because the pass mark does not care which book you sat against.
Which code book do I carry into the room?
The one matching the edition your exam references on the day you sit: a 2023 softbound before 1 September, a 2026 softbound from 1 September. You bring it yourself. The testing center does not hand you one, and the National Electrical Code is the only reference on the list.
Binding
Softbound only. Loose-leaf, spiral-bound and ring-bound copies get turned away, and that includes a book that was softbound until somebody cut the spine off to punch it for a binder.
The Handbook stays in the truck
The NEC Handbook is a different product from the NEC. It wraps the code text in commentary and explanatory artwork, and commentary is the thing the restriction is aimed at. It is an easy wrong purchase to make, because it costs more and looks more complete.
Tabs
Manufacturer-supplied permanent index tabs are fine. Homemade tabs are not, and that covers index flags, sticky notes trimmed to size, and a tab set you laid out and printed yourself. This is the restriction that costs the most preparation, because a hand-built tab system is genuinely good work and takes an evening to build.
Marks you made yourself
Highlighting, underlining and handwritten notes put in before you arrive are all fine. So the compliant book is not a clean book. It is a softbound with publisher tabs that you have marked up for months.
I tabbed a 2023 book. What breaks?
Your tabs and your memorized addresses break. The method does not. Article numbers moved in the 2026 edition, and the largest single move is load calculations, which left Article 220 and now sit at Article 120.
A load calculation you can work today is still correct in September. What is no longer correct is the page you turn to first.
Article 220 is empty in the 2026 book, and that is the friendly version of the failure: you turn there, find nothing, and immediately know something is wrong. The expensive version is a number still occupied by a different rule, because it reads plausibly enough that you can lose two minutes before you realize you are in the wrong place.
Under a clock that is the entire cost of the change. Not new knowledge. Lost minutes, on a paper where a journeyman calculations item averages a little over four minutes and a knowledge item a little over two.
What to do with the old book
- Sitting before 1 September? Keep it. It is the correct book for that paper and re-tabbing now would only cost you familiarity.
- Sitting after? Buy the 2026 softbound and tab it from its own table of contents, never from a tab list published for the 2023 edition.
- Work the front of the book first. Chapter 1 is where the moves are concentrated and it is now where the calculation articles live.
- Drill the load calculation material at its new address until Article 120 is where your hand goes without thinking about it.
What does not change on September 1?
The shape of the paper and the mark you need. Seventy percent passes, before and after. Item counts, time limits and the two-portion structure are all untouched by the edition switch.
| What | Before and after 1 September 2026 |
|---|---|
| Passing score | Seventy percent, on every Texas electrical examination |
| Journeyman knowledge portion | 59 scored items in 130 minutes |
| Journeyman calculations portion | 26 scored items in 110 minutes |
| Master knowledge portion | 75 scored items in 150 minutes |
| Master calculations portion | 33 scored items in 170 minutes |
| Fee | $78 for both portions, and $78 again to retake a failed one |
The two-part structure predates the edition change by well over a year.
Starting March 11, 2025, the Journeyman Electrician exam was changed to consist of 2 separate parts: a knowledge portion and a calculations portion.
TDLR, Electrician Examination Information
The subject weighting holds as well. On the journeyman knowledge portion, branch circuits and conductors, wiring methods and materials, and equipment and devices each carry ten items, and that weighting is a property of the examination blueprint rather than of the code edition.
So the change is narrower than it feels from the outside. Same clock, same pass mark, same blueprint, different book.
What should I do this week?
One comparison decides everything else: put your exam date next to 1 September 2026.
- Confirm your date, then decide which edition you are sitting against. Everything below follows from that.
- Read the current candidate information bulletin end to end. It carries the book rules and it is dated, which is more than almost anything else written about this.
- If you are sitting after the date, order the 2026 softbound with publisher tabs now rather than in the last week. Stock moves in a cutover month and a book that arrives two days early is a book you have not tabbed.
- Spend an hour on the front of the book with the table of contents open, checking where the articles you use most actually live.
Nothing else about the paper moves. Put the effort into the book rather than into worrying about the format.
What this page cites
- PSI Candidate Information Bulletin, TDLR Electricians Updated 9 July 2026. Carries the edition change line quoted above, the reference list, the open book rules, item counts and timings. source
- PSI Candidate Information Bulletin, TDLR mirror The same bulletin hosted by TDLR as a PDF, useful when the PSI link moves. source
- 16 TAC 73.100 Texas adoption of the 2026 National Electrical Code, effective 1 September 2026. The examination change follows it. source
- TDLR Electrician Examination Information The two-portion journeyman structure, in place since 11 March 2025. source
- NFPA 70 The 2026 edition. NFPA publishes a free-to-read document information page for the standard. source