Michigan electrician exam format: how many questions

The format at a glance

• Questions: 80 multiple-choice, all scored.
• Time: 2 hours 30 minutes, which is 150 minutes total.
• Pass mark: 75%, five points higher than most states.
• Delivery: PSI Services at a proctored test center, with the result handed to you on the spot.
• Code edition: the 2023 NEC, adopted for Michigan Part 8 effective March 12, 2024.

The 75% pass mark is the part guys miss

Most states pass you at 70%. Michigan needs 75%. On an 80-question exam that means you can miss 20 and pass at 70%, but only 20 still leaves you short here. The real number to beat is 60 right out of 80. Plan for that line, not the one you saw on a Texas or California guide.

Open book is not a shortcut

Michigan is open book, but that cuts both ways. You can bring the code, so the exam stops testing whether you memorized it and starts testing whether you can find the rule fast and run the calculation clean. The guys who fail are usually the ones who planned to look up every answer. At under two minutes a question, the book is a tool for the few you are unsure of, not a crutch for all 80.

What you may bring is tightly drawn. References must be bound. Factory tabs and printed markings only. No handwritten notes, no personal indexing, and the NEC Handbook is not allowed. The allowed set is your own copy of these:

• NFPA 70, National Electrical Code, 2023 Edition
• 2023 Michigan Electrical Code Rules (Part 8)
• 1972 PA 230 (Stille-DeRossett-Hale Single State Construction Code Act)
• 2016 PA 407 (Skilled Trades Regulation Act)

How hard is it, honestly

LARA does not publish a journeyman pass rate, so any site quoting a Michigan number is making it up. We will not. The honest difficulty is not some secret failure statistic. It is two things you can see coming.

• The clock. 80 questions in 150 minutes is under two minutes each. Calculation questions eat more than that, so the rest have to move.
• The open-book trap. The book is allowed, which tempts candidates to look up everything. Page-flipping for answers you should know cold is how the time runs out at question 60.

For comparison, the states that do publish a rate show how hard these exams run. Maryland reports roughly 27% of candidates pass its journeyperson exam. Michigan stays quiet on its own number, so treat the test with the same respect and prepare for the clock.

What the format means for your prep

The format tells you where to spend your nights. The exam leans on calculations and grounding, and it rewards fast code navigation in a book you tabbed yourself. So the prep that moves your score is not 200 random questions. It is finding your two weakest NEC chapters first, then drilling those under a timer until the lookup is automatic.