Practice Tests and Study Materials

Your guide to passing your Journeyman Electrician or Master Electrician state exam

Hey everyone!  I’m getting a lot of people asking for practice tests and study materials for taking their Journeyman / Master Electrician exams.  I passed my Master Test on the first try and it’s only because I studied for a year before taking it.  The Journeyman test is pretty difficult as well, but not as bad as the Master.

I’ve decided to scan some notes and practice tests that I’ve used.  There’s a lot more coming but until I get the books and guides I’ve borrowed out to friends this is all I’ve got.  In another post I’ll also recommend some books and magazines for those of you actually taking this whole studying thing seriously.

ELECTRICAL EXAM PREP RESOURCES

Hand-Written Sample Questions

Typed-Practice-Questions

Typed-Practice-Exams

Simulated Practice Exam

More coming soon!!!

What To Do With Them

STUDY!!!  The best way to pass this test ahead of you is to do as many practice tests as you can get your hands on before ever setting foot in that room.  It’s not about how much of the NEC you can memorize…nobody does that.  The test is about how much of it you can quickly find.

Pro-Tip

When you’re sitting in that test room make sure you take this test methodically.  There is a right way and a wrong way to take a 4-hour (5-hour for Masters) timed exam.  

What you DON’T want to do is spend time answering every question one after the other unless you can quickly find every answer.  Being that this is a timed test you need to approach this a certain way.  Practice these steps each time you take a practice exam:

1. Take the first 10 minutes and go through the entire test from beginning to end and only answer the questions you KNOW 100%.
2. After that go through a second time and answer the questions you can find in under 2 minutes.  This will get you a couple hours into the test and ensuring that you have everything correct up to this point.  NO GUESSING!!!  If you have to guess…skip it.  Do not answer it if you’re just going to guess.
3. Once you’ve gotten all the way through the second pass, take a 60 second breather.  Now you’ve seen the entire test twice front to back.  You know what questions are huge time-wasters (calculating multiple motor circuits, service load calculations, conductor ampacity/pipe fill – mostly math-based questions that require flipping through multiple tables and areas in the code book; and what questions are just difficult to find (wind turbine, electrified truck parking, mobile refrigeration, specific cord and conductor properties and uses, and pretty much anything in grounding (Art 250).
4. Begin your third pass by trying to find the difficult-to-find questions.  Try to limit your time on this to under 3 minutes per question.  If you have to stretch it to 4 minutes on a couple that’s fine.  But if you have 25 questions left and an hour to spare, that ONE extra minute per question adds up to a wasted half hour in a hurry!
5. After you’ve found MOSTLY everything that you can find, but are still missing a few…leave them alone and move on.  If you finish early you can mess around trying to find them later.  At this point go to the quickest math questions.  Only answer what you can in 3-4 minutes, if it takes longer skip it (AGAIN).  The theory here is that you’re narrowing down your questions answered correctly to 75% or more.  (ex. if you are taking a 100 question Master test, once you’ve guaranteed you’ve answered 75 questions right the rest do not matter.   You’ve already passed.  Now don’t be stupid and assume that you’ve gotten all of them right, and stop trying after 75..then fail the test because you were wrong on one.  STILL TRY TO ANSWER EVERY QUESTION RIGHT.  YOU MAY HAVE MISSED 10 QUESTIONS YOU THOUGHT WERE RIGHT!!!
6. Finally you should (hopefully have 10-20 minutes to spare before the test is over.  With this time left try to squeeze in anything you think you have a shot in hell answering that you’ve left blank.  If you have to guess, at this point its’ fine, but make sure you’re giving educated guesses.  Don’t just fill in “C” for everything.  You have a better shot at reading the question and eliminating the ones that make absolutely no sense.  Then picking between 2 options rather than guessing at 4.
7. Click “Finish Test” and prepare for the cold beer waiting for you at the gas station.  Regardless if you pass, this test is a mother fucker and damn it you deserve a ice cold brew!

If you have any more questions or need any help, PLEASE reach out to me.  Either email me at dustin@journey2master.com or leave a comment on the Journey 2 Master Facebook page. (follow it first).  Or DM me at twitter, youTube, instagram…you get the idea.

Cheers, and keep grinding!

-Dustin

Episode 4 – Why I Chose To Be An Electrician

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Being an electrician was not my first pick of things to do with my life.  After flying planes, working construction, being a chef, working in restaurants, being in the Marines, working in factories, and being a corporate salesman I was given the opportunity to try my hand as an electrician.

At first I didn’t like it.  I didn’t want my friends to know I was working with my hands.  I figured they would look down on me for being in construction.  This is back when I gave a shit about what they thought.  After a few years however I started making real money, and working around some guys that changed my perception of reality.  I grew up, learned a skill, and found stability in my life because I found a purpose.  I was able to raise my son as a single father and found something that would lay the foundation for a great life, as well as maintain my drive and passion to learn.

I’ve always had to hustle.  Being a single dad at the age of 18 is never easy, and between the government taking a quarter of your income and child support taking another quarter, you’re not left with much regardless what your wage is.  And as an early 20-something, I wasn’t spending the remaining 50% of my money well.  In the midst of being broke and nearly homeless, having a suspended license, and needing to get my kid to school and get to work, I had multiple run-ins with the law with no money to get myself out of the hole.  Since I’ve been of working age I’ve always had to hold down at least 2 jobs, sometimes 3.  Its the only way I could put food on the table since graduating high school.  I made my own bed (of course), and I realized that taking this craft seriously was the only way I could pull myself out of it.

Now I’m 32 and after years of working around wise men, and learning to be really good at something that changes constantly forced me to focus my attention and set goals for myself.  I was able to see a light at the end of the tunnel and found a way to climb out of the struggle.  Now I have a commercial driver’s license, own a home, am married, and have financial freedom that I’d never known existed.

Doing this everyday has given me a way of living and a way of thinking that has changed everything in my life.  Now I own a company and have the freedom to make my own way in this crazy life.

LISTEN TO AUDIO

 

Episode 3 – How To Make The Phones Ring

ABOUT THIS EPISODE:

Well its April, we’re 7 months in and we’ve gained a lot of knowledge of many of the paid services out there to advertise your business through. We’ve tried most of them, but there are still a few we need to test.

In this episode we talk about the different paid lead services we’ve used since inception and which ones are worth the buck. From Angie’s List, to Home Advisor, Yelp, Yellow Pages, Houzz, Facebook, AdIQ, Google AdWords, and Yodle – we’ve tried them all. I talk about the pros and cons, and who we’ve liked using but most importantly which one makes the phones ring! Starting your own electrical contracting company requires paying money to be seen by customers. There’s no getting around it until you get to the point where you can work from straight referrals.

I’m here to teach and be taught. I’m documenting my journey from becoming a Master Electrician to growing an electrical contracting company from scratch.

Please like, comment, share, or DM me if you have any thoughts or would like to get in touch.  If you like this podcast PLEASE SUBSCRIBE and LIKE my videos on YouTube.

LISTEN TO AUDIO HERE:

Episode 2 – Where We’re Headed (Goals)

ABOUT THIS EPISODE:

In this video I talk about my plans for where I’d like to be over the next decade. I’d like LiveWire Electrical to be a company that’s known for the quality of work we do, as well as the quality of relationships we nurture.

Customer service is a big deal, as well as treating your employees right. I don’t want a company that has a high turnover rate, but one where electricians come to be better electricians. I want to build a legacy as one of the best companies around, and would like education and humility to be the thing that ushers that in.

My belief is that I can train anyone to be an electrician, but that you can’t train good into a bad person. I want to take my time and vet out a group of outstanding men and women to lay a firm foundation for the framework of the company I have planned.

I’m here to teach and be taught. I’m documenting my journey from becoming a Master Electrician to growing an electrical contracting company from scratch.

Please like, comment, share, or DM me if you have any thoughts or would like to get in touch.  If you like this podcast PLEASE SUBSCRIBE and LIKE my videos on YouTube.

LISTEN TO AUDIO HERE:

 

Episode 1 – Documenting My Startup

 

ABOUT THIS EPISODE:

I’m Dustin Stelzer, I own an electrical contracting company called LiveWire Electrical Services, Inc. based out of Austin, Texas.  I took my Master Electrican license exam in October of 2016 and passed on the first attempt.  Ever since then I’ve been documenting my work and I’d like to share what I’ve learned has worked/not worked along the way.

This vlog and all its content is about starting an Electrical Contracting company and documenting our successes and failures.  I will use it to ask questions as well, so please interact if you have anything that you think will help us out.  I’d like to meet other guys out there like me and share tips and tricks that we’ve learned, as well as advice for ways to avoid headaches going into this.

In this video I introduce myself and talk about why I’ve created this channel. I’d like to meet other people that are just starting out their journey to growing an electrical contracting company. This is mainly for electricians…more specifically young hustling electricians, to be able to get and give advice for how to start your own company and talk about the lessons learned along the way. Whether you’re an Apprentice, Journeyman, or Master, please comment and watch our journey. It may help you on yours.

I talk a little about being young and trying to find guys (and gals) that are young like me and are hustling and grinding everyday because this is their passion. I’d like to use this channel as a way to meet other electricians and get insight into how I can better grow my company.  I’d also like to use this as a platform to show other electricians what we’re doing and what problems we run into along the way.

I’m here to teach and be taught. I’m documenting my journey from becoming a Master Electrician to growing an electrical contracting company from scratch.

Please like, comment, share, or DM me if you have any thoughts or would like to get in touch.  If you like this podcast PLEASE SUBSCRIBE and LIKE my videos on YouTube.

LISTEN TO AUDIO HERE: