Exam registration, eligibility and fees

We supply study material. We are not a licensing board and not a testing vendor, so registration, eligibility and fees all sit outside what we handle. This page explains who does what, because the three-party split confuses a lot of first-time candidates.

Who does what

  • The licensing board sets eligibility — the experience hours, apprenticeship, supervision and any prerequisite licence — and issues the licence at the end. It also decides which code edition the exam references.
  • The testing vendor delivers the exam and takes the exam fee. In the trades this is usually PSI, Prov, Pearson VUE, ICC or Prometric, depending on state and trade. The vendor publishes the candidate information bulletin.
  • We supply the books, tabs, courses and study guides. Nothing we sell affects your eligibility or your registration.

The order it happens in

  1. Confirm eligibility with the board before anything else. If your hours are short, no amount of preparation helps this cycle.
  2. Apply to the board and get approved to test. This is where most of the waiting is.
  3. Receive your authorisation to test. This names your exam, your window, and — importantly — the reference list and edition current for your sitting.
  4. Book with the vendor and pay the exam fee.
  5. Check your reference list against your books. Do this the day the authorisation arrives, not the week before the exam. How to read it.

Buying books at step 1 rather than step 3 is the common and expensive mistake, because an edition can move while your application is sitting in a queue.

Fees

Exam fees are set by the vendor and the board and are paid to them, not to us. They are modest relative to the books — Texas, for example, charges $78 for both electrician portions, and the same again to retake. Where we know a current figure we state it on the relevant study guide, but fees change and the vendor's own page is authoritative.

Licence application and renewal fees are separate again, and go to the board.

Retakes

Most boards allow retakes, often with a waiting period and always with another fee. Where an exam has independently-passed portions — Texas electrician, Florida contractor — you normally retake only the portion you failed. Check your bulletin; this one varies.

What we will do

If you tell us the state, the trade and the licence class you are going for, we will check the current reference list against what you are about to order and tell you if it does not match. That is free and takes a few minutes, and it is cheaper for everyone than a return.