Read your score report before you rebook
Three in four people fail. The score report tells you which half you lost and roughly where, and most people rebook without reading it.
On this page
You are the majority
TDLR publishes exam statistics by fiscal year. Across every Texas electrical exam in fiscal 2025, 26,303 attempts produced 6,181 passes. That is a 23.5 percent pass rate, down from 26.4 percent the year before.
On the journeyman calculations portion specifically, 6,328 people sat and 5,027 failed.
That is not encouragement. It is a fact about the test rather than about you, and it should change how you prepare rather than whether you continue.
The exam is two tests, and you probably lost one of them
The journeyman exam is split into a knowledge portion and a calculations portion, scored separately. You can pass one and fail the other.
Your score report will show you which. Read that before anything else, because the two halves fail for completely different reasons and the study response is not the same.
Failing knowledge usually means a navigation problem: you could not find the rule fast enough. Failing calculations usually means a method problem: you found the right table and did the wrong thing with it.
Preparing for the wrong one is the most expensive mistake available to you right now.
What the subscores are telling you
The report breaks your performance into content areas. Those areas map onto the exam blueprint, which maps onto specific articles.
Look for the pattern rather than the lowest number. One weak area with everything else solid is a study gap. Several mid-range areas with nothing strong is a timing problem, and timing problems do not respond to more studying.
If your marks are even and mediocre across the board, you probably ran out of time and guessed the tail. That is a strategy fix, not a knowledge fix.
The three failure modes, and what each one needs
- You could not find things. The fix is tabbing and repetition, not more reading. You need to know where a topic lives before you read the question, not after.
- You found things and computed them wrong. The fix is worked problems in the specific areas your report flags, done until the sequence is automatic.
- You knew the material and ran out of time. The fix is a per-question clock and a decision rule for when to skip. People who fail this way often need a strategy change rather than more studying.
The report usually tells you which of these you are. Very few people check.
Before you rebook, confirm four things
Sources disagree on several of these, including sources that sell exam prep. Get them from PSI or TDLR directly rather than from a study site, this one included.
- Whether a passed portion is banked, and if so for how long. This decides whether you retake one half or both.
- The current retake fee. Published figures in circulation disagree with each other.
- Any waiting period between attempts.
- The current rules on what you may bring, particularly the code book edition, binding type, tabs and whether a calculator is provided.
That last one moves. Texas adopted the 2026 NEC effective September 1, 2026, and the edition tested is tied to that adoption. Sitting with the wrong edition on the desk is an avoidable way to lose a day.
What to do in the next week
- Read the score report and write down which portion you failed and your two weakest content areas.
- Decide which of the three failure modes you are. Be honest, because the wrong diagnosis wastes the whole retake cycle.
- Confirm the four rebooking facts above with PSI or TDLR.
- Work the two weak areas specifically, under a clock, until the method is automatic.
- Only then rebook.
The instinct after failing is to rebook immediately and study harder. The people who pass on the second attempt usually studied differently, not more.
What this page cites
- 16 TAC 73.100 Texas adoption of the 2026 National Electrical Code.