Checked against primary sources 2026-08-24

Read your score report before you rebook

A failed sitting comes with a diagnostic report naming your strengths and weaknesses, and most people rebook without reading it. The retake is $78 whether you lost one portion or both.

The three things you came here to find out

Answered first, because you can read the rest later and you cannot rebook later.

• The retake costs $78. That is the same figure as the original sitting, and the bulletin prices failing one portion and failing both at the same $78.
• There is no published waiting period. TDLR says you can retake as many times as needed until you pass, and the bulletin says candidates are allowed to test unlimited through their eligibility period. Nobody publishes a cooling-off interval, so the constraint on your next attempt is the appointment calendar and your own readiness.
• The clock that does exist is the eligibility period. TDLR gives applicants one year from the date it received the application to satisfy every requirement, the examination included. Count from that date, not from the date you first sat.

Get the exact figure for your own record from PSI on the number TDLR publishes, (833) 333-4741, or from TDLR. Not from a study site, this one included.

Do you re-sit one portion or both?

This is the question the page exists for and the honest answer has two halves, one solid and one not.

What is published: the two portions are separately scored and separately passed, at seventy percent each. They are separate administrations, and the bulletin says so in the course of warning you that leftover time on the first portion does not roll over into the next one. And the fee sentence draws the distinction itself, pricing a failure of one portion and a failure of both at the same $78.

If you fail a portion or both portions, the retake examination fee is $78.

PSI Candidate Information Bulletin, TDLR Electricians, updated 9 July 2026

What is not published: neither PSI nor TDLR states in writing that a portion you passed is banked, or for how long it stands. We looked at the bulletin, TDLR's examination page, TDLR's frequently asked questions and the examination rule at 16 TAC 73.21 on 24 August 2026. None of them say.

So do not build a study plan on the assumption that your good half is safe. Telephone PSI, ask them to look at your record, and get it in writing if you can. If the answer is that you sit only the portion you lost, your preparation narrows to one paper and one set of subject areas, and that is worth a phone call. If the answer is that both go back on the table, you needed to know that this week rather than the week before your date.

What bounds it either way is the one-year window. Whatever the banking rule turns out to be, a passed portion cannot outlive the application it belongs to.

You are the majority, and the calculations paper is why

Fiscal 2025 across every Texas electrical exam: 6,181 passes against 26,303 attempts. The year before it was 4,000 against 15,170, so the rate fell from 26.37 percent to 23.50 percent while the number of attempts rose by nearly three quarters.

The journeyman calculations portion is the worst of them. 6,328 candidates sat it and 5,027 walked out without it, which is a 20.56 percent pass rate. On the knowledge portion the same year, 1,402 of 5,731 passed, 24.46 percent.

That is a fact about the paper rather than about you, and the useful thing to take from it is that the two portions are not equally hard and should not get equal preparation.

What the report actually gives you

Your score appears on the screen the moment you finish, and an official score report is printed at the examination site before you leave. If you have lost it, a duplicate prints from your PSI online account.

A failing report carries more than the number. The bulletin describes it as a diagnostic report indicating your strengths and weaknesses, which is the whole reason this page tells you to read it before you do anything else.

If you do not pass, you will receive a diagnostic report indicating your strengths and weaknesses by examination type with the score report.

PSI Candidate Information Bulletin, TDLR Electricians, updated 9 July 2026

The strengths and weaknesses map onto the content outline the bulletin publishes, which is the same outline the paper is built from. On the journeyman knowledge portion that is ten subject areas carrying 56 scored items between them, and on the calculations portion ten more carrying 24. So a weak area on your report is not a vague impression. It is a named subject area with a known item count, and you can work out roughly how many marks it cost you.

The grade handed to you at the test center is for your own records. PSI sends the result to TDLR electronically and you do not have to forward anything.

Reading the pattern rather than the lowest number

Everything in this section is our judgment rather than anything TDLR or PSI publishes, and it is worth saying so before you act on it.

One weak area with everything else solid is a study gap, and it is the cheapest kind to fix. Several mid-range areas with nothing strong usually is not a knowledge problem at all.

If your marks are even and mediocre across the board, the likeliest explanation is that you ran out of time and guessed the tail. More studying does not fix that. A per-question clock does.

Set the arithmetic against your report. The journeyman knowledge portion allows 130 minutes for 59 items, which is about two minutes and twelve seconds each. Calculations allows 110 minutes for 26, about four minutes fourteen. Master runs 150 minutes for 75 and 170 for 33. If you were nowhere near those numbers, that is the finding.

The three failure modes, and what each one needs

Also our judgment, drawn from what the reports tend to show rather than from a published study.

• You could not find things. The fix is tabbing and repetition, not more reading. You need to know where a topic lives before you read the question, not after.
• You found things and computed them wrong. The fix is worked problems in the specific areas your report flags, done until the sequence is automatic.
• You knew the material and ran out of time. The fix is a per-question clock and a decision rule for when to skip. People who fail this way often need a strategy change rather than more studying.

The report usually tells you which of these you are. Very few people check.

The one thing on this page with a deadline attached

Texas adopts the 2026 National Electrical Code effective September 1, 2026 (16 TAC 73.100), and the bulletin states in capitals that the examinations are referenced to the 2026 NEC from that date.

If you failed on the 2023 edition and rebook into September, the book on your desk changes between the two attempts. Your calculations method survives the change. The article numbers you tabbed do not, and load calculations in particular left Article 220 for Article 120.

One trap here, and it is a real one. Both published reference lists still name the 2023 edition. PSI's own bulletin carries the September line and a 2023 reference entry in the same document, and TDLR's examination page says 2023 too. Both were read on 24 August 2026. So checking the official reference list before you rebuy is the sensible thing to do and it currently gives you the wrong answer for a September date.

What to do in the next week

1. Read the diagnostic report and write down which portion you failed and your two weakest subject areas.
2. Telephone PSI and ask whether your passed portion stands, and until when. Neither agency publishes it, so your own record is the only place the answer exists.
3. Work out the date your one-year eligibility period ends, counting from when TDLR received your application.
4. Decide which of the three failure modes you are. Be honest, because the wrong diagnosis wastes the whole retake cycle.
5. Confirm which code edition your date falls under, and buy the right book if it changed.
6. Work the two weak areas specifically, under a clock, until the method is automatic.
7. Only then rebook, and remember the fee is forfeited if you arrive late.

The instinct after failing is to rebook immediately and study harder. The people who pass on the second attempt usually studied differently, not more.

What this page cites

• PSI Candidate Information Bulletin, TDLR Electricians, updated 9 July 2026 The $78 retake fee for a portion or for both, the seventy percent pass mark on each portion separately, the separate administrations, the diagnostic report given to failing candidates, unlimited testing through the eligibility period, and the content outline behind the subject areas on your report. Read 24 August 2026. source
• TDLR Electrician Examinations Retake as many times as needed until you pass, with no waiting period published. The one-year eligibility window running from the date TDLR received the application. PSI on (833) 333-4741. Results sent to TDLR electronically. Reference materials still naming the 2023 edition on 24 August 2026. source
• TDLR Electrician Exam Statistics, fiscal year 2025 Journeyman Calculations 1,301 of 6,328 and Journeyman NEC 1,402 of 5,731. Program total 6,181 of 26,303, 23.50 percent. Read 24 August 2026. source
• TDLR Electrician Exam Statistics, fiscal year 2024 The prior year, 4,000 of 15,170, 26.37 percent. Read 24 August 2026. source
• 16 TAC 73.100 Texas adoption of the 2026 National Electrical Code, effective 1 September 2026. source
• 16 TAC 73.21 The examination rule itself. Checked on 24 August 2026 for anything on retakes, waiting periods or portions, and it carries none of the three, which is why this page reports what PSI and TDLR publish instead. source