Is Mike Holt Worth It for the Journeyman Exam?
Short answer: yes, if you need to be taught the code from the ground up and you have the months and the money. Not the best buy if you already know the trade, failed by a few points, and need to find the sections that cost you. Here is the honest version, with his prices, from a competitor who will tell you where he is better.
Last reviewed September 2026
What it costs
- Journeyman Basic Video Program: $400.
- Journeyman Intermediate Video Library: $645.
- Journeyman Comprehensive Exam Prep Video Library: $999.
- Journeyman Supreme Exam Prep DVD Library: $1,599.
- Books and practice exams are sold separately below those figures. Full coverage usually means more than one book, which is the cost complaint that shows up most in reviews.
What Mike Holt does better than anyone, including us
- Instruction. Forty-plus years of explaining the NEC on camera. If you do not understand why a rule exists, his videos are where that gets fixed.
- Depth. The libraries cover theory, code and calculations at a level no app matches. When a section is genuinely new to you, this is the foundation.
- Trust. Candidates on trade forums describe the practice exams as close to the real test in feel, and the free YouTube material is real teaching, not a funnel.
- Longevity. Updated every code cycle. A 2023 library will be a 2026 library.
Where it falls short, for one kind of candidate
The candidate it serves worst is the most common one on the retake line: a working electrician who has been in the field for years, sat the exam once, missed by a few points, and does not know which sections did it. For him:
- It is a course, not a diagnosis. You start at lesson one whether or not you already know lesson one. Nothing in the library tells you that your problem is services and grounding and not wiring methods.
- The hours are the price nobody quotes. A library sized for a full course is a heavy lift at 60 minutes a night after a ten-hour shift, and most of those hours re-teach what a five-year journeyman already knows.
- The explanations on missed practice questions are short. Reviewers say so consistently. A wrong answer tells you it was wrong, not which trap caught you.
- The dollars. $400 to $1,599 is a real decision on journeyman pay, especially when the section costing you points might be two of the eighty hours.
The alternatives, honestly
JADE Learning, roughly $99 to $150 by state
A self-paced state-specific course with narrated modules and a large question bank. Cheaper and more state-aware than the libraries, still a front-to-back course.
PSI practice tests, from $24.95
Written by the company that administers the exam in most states, so the format is as close as it legally gets. They give you a score. They do not tell you what to do about it.
JourneymanIQ, free diagnostic, then $49 a month or $129 for three months
Fifteen questions rank your weak NEC sections before you pay anything. After purchase, the first screen is your plan: weakest areas ranked, days to your test, and the first of 102 short video lessons cued on your weakest area. It is built for Texas, California, Michigan, Washington and Maryland and it is not a forty-hour foundation course. If you need the foundation, buy the foundation.
So, is it worth it?
- Starting from little code knowledge, six months out, budget allows: yes, buy a library and work it in order.
- Field electrician, retake inside 60 days, do not know what cost you: no, not first. Find the sections first, then buy instruction only for those.
- Have both time and a specific weak area: the combination. His video on the section you are weak in, then drills on that section until it holds.
Find out what actually cost you points before you spend $400
The free 15-minute diagnostic ranks your weak NEC sections. If it says you need foundation, buy foundation. If it says two sections, you just saved the price of a library.