Best Electrician Exam Prep Apps, Ranked Honestly
Five options most journeyman candidates end up choosing between, what each one costs, and what each one is genuinely best at. One of them is ours. We say where the others beat us.
Last reviewed July 2026
Best fit
- 1. JourneymanIQ, $49 a month or $129 for 3 months. Best for retakers and anyone with a test date inside 60 days. A free 15-question diagnostic ranks your weak NEC sections, then 102 short video lessons open on your weakest area first, with original questions, four calculators and a 30-day plan. Weakest point: it is built for Texas, California, Michigan, Washington and Maryland, and it is not a 40-hour foundation course.
- 2. Mike Holt Exam Preparation, $400 to $1,599 depending on the library. Best for the deepest instruction on theory, code and calculations, from the person who has taught this exam longer than anyone. Weakest point: it is a course to work through in order, not an app that adapts to your misses, and the price is a real decision for a journeyman.
- 3. PSI practice tests, from $24.95 for a single 100-question test, more for bundles. Best for rehearsing the exact format, timing and question style of the test PSI administers in most states. Weakest point: it tells you a score, not what to study next.
- 4. JADE Learning exam prep, roughly $99 to $150 by state. Best for a state-specific, self-paced course with narrated modules and a large question bank. Weakest point: still a course you take front to back, with lighter tools for finding your own gaps.
- 5. Mometrix, free practice test. Best as the first thing you take before spending anything, to see whether the questions feel familiar. Weakest point: generic, national, and built to sell a study guide.
Watch for this
- Any app that claims real or copied exam questions. That is a legal problem for them and a trust problem for you.
- A question bank that cannot tell you whether you missed the calculation or the code lookup. Those are different problems with different fixes.
- National NEC prep with your state's name added on. Texas is two separately scored parts. California provides the references at the test center. Those change how you should study.
- A score gauge that pretends fifteen questions predict an 85-question exam. Use a small sample to find weak areas, not to forecast a pass.
Where JourneymanIQ fits
- The free diagnostic gives you weak NEC sections in priority order before you pay anything.
- After purchase, the first screen you see is your plan: weakest areas ranked, days to your test, first lesson cued.
- 102 video lessons organized as a path, easiest first inside each area, your weakest area first overall.
- Original questions tied to article families, four calculators that show every step, and state-specific exam facts sourced to the licensing body.
Side by side
| Question | Static prep | JourneymanIQ |
|---|---|---|
| First thing you do | Start the course at lesson one, or open a quiz bank at question one. | Take 15 free questions. Your weakest sections come back ranked. |
| Price | Mike Holt $400 to $1,599. JADE about $99 to $150. PSI from $24.95 per test. | $49 a month, cancel any time, or $129 once for three months. |
| Video | Mike Holt: hours of classroom-style instruction. Others: narrated modules or none. | 102 two-minute lessons, the rule written out by hand while a narrator talks you through it. |
| State handling | Mostly national NEC with a state label. JADE and PSI are the state-aware exceptions. | State pages, state diagnostics and state exam facts for TX, CA, MI, WA, MD. Nothing for the other 45 yet. |
| When it is the wrong choice | You have 60 days and you already own a book. A second course is not what you need. | You are starting from zero with six months. Take a foundation course first, then use this to aim. |
The bottom line
Buy the foundation course if you need a foundation. Buy the practice test if you need a rehearsal. Buy the app that tells you what to study tonight if you have a date on the calendar and a weak area you cannot name. Most retakers are in that third group, and it is the one we built for.
Common questions
What is the best app for the electrician exam?
It depends on how much time you have. With a test date inside about 60 days, an app that finds your weak sections and orders your study around them (JourneymanIQ) earns its money fastest. With three months or more and no foundation, Mike Holt's libraries are the deepest instruction available. For the cheapest useful rehearsal of the real format, PSI's own practice tests.
Is Mike Holt worth it for the journeyman exam?
For a candidate who needs to learn the code and the calculations from the ground up, yes, and the price reflects decades of teaching this exam. For a candidate who already knows the trade and failed by a few points, it is a lot of money and hours spent re-learning what you already know. That candidate needs targeting more than instruction.
What is the cheapest electrician exam prep?
Mometrix's practice test is free. PSI sells a single practice test from $24.95. JourneymanIQ's diagnostic is free and the paid plan is $49 a month. The cheapest option is the free diagnostic, because it tells you whether you need to spend anything else.
Does JourneymanIQ replace Mike Holt or JADE?
No. If a course is teaching you, keep it. JourneymanIQ is built to aim your study, by showing which NEC sections and calculation types are costing you points, and then teaching those first. Plenty of candidates use a course for foundation and this for the last six weeks.
Which electrician exam app has real exam questions?
None of the honest ones. PSI's practice tests are written by the test administrator to mirror the format, which is as close as it legally gets. Any app claiming leaked or copied questions from the live exam is selling you a problem.
Take the free diagnostic before you buy any of these
Fifteen minutes shows whether your problem is calculations, codebook speed, or a specific NEC area. Then you know which product, if any, has a job to do.