Checked against primary sources 2026-08-24

The day in the order it happens, and where each rule comes from

Everything below is from the PSI candidate information bulletin dated 9 July 2026 and from TDLR, both read on 24 August 2026. Where those documents leave a question open, you get the open question and the name of the person who can close it.

The desk, thirty minutes before your appointment

Thirty minutes ahead of your appointment time is what PSI asks for, and the bulletin says what those minutes are for: signing in, and verifying who you are.

One government-issued photo identification satisfies it. The bulletin describes what has to be on the card: name in print, photograph, a signature or fingerprint, date of birth, expiration date. Turn it over tonight and read the expiration, because a card that lapsed in June looks exactly like a card that has not.

Something happens at that desk that most candidates do not expect, and the bulletin states it plainly.

A digital copy of your identification documentation will be taken upon check in and stored with your personal data.

PSI candidate information bulletin, TDLR electrical examinations, dated 9 July 2026

Arriving late ends the day at that desk. The bulletin says a late candidate is not admitted and forfeits the examination registration fee, which makes the drive the only part of your preparation with a price printed next to it.

What gets turned away

The examinations are open book and the book is yours to bring. No test center keeps a copy behind the counter for you.

Four checks decide whether the copy you brought goes in with you.

• Binding. Any soft-bound edition goes in. A copy held together by a coil, a comb or three rings does not, and the bulletin names all three of those bindings.
• Title. The Handbook stays out. The commentary interleaved with the rules is what disqualifies it, which makes the most complete book on the shelf the one you leave in the truck, and the one a helpful supplier hands you when you ask for the best version.
• Tabs. Permanent index tabs manufactured or provided by the NEC book publisher are fine. PSI names homemade, DIY and non-NEC tabs and rules out all three, which puts a bookstore tab set you applied yourself on the wrong side of the line.
• Loose paper. Anything not bound into the book is not part of the book, taped and stapled included.

Marks are the exception people get backwards. Highlighting, underlining and handwritten notes entered before the session are all accepted, and PSI does not allow the book to be written in, highlighted, underlined, indexed or marked during the session. So the last useful evening for your margins is the one before you travel.

The edition conflict sitting in the published material right now

One sentence in the bulletin is set in capital letters, and it puts the examinations on the 2026 edition from September 1, 2026. Further down the same document sits the Examination Reference Material List, and on 24 August 2026 that list still named the 2023 edition. TDLR's examination page said the same thing on the same day.

Both statements were live on the same day, in material published by the two organizations that run this examination. Sit in August and the older book is correct and the reference list agrees with you. Sit in September and it is not, while the reference list carries on agreeing with you.

That conflict is the likeliest single reason a September candidate walks in holding the wrong book. The date on your appointment decides the edition, not the date on the reference list.

What the room gives you, and what it will not hold

Personal belongings go into secure storage at the site before you enter the room, and the list of what stays behind runs down to a wallet, a hat, a coat and a watch. Pens, pencils and other writing devices are on it too, so nothing you write with reaches the workstation. Losing the watch matters more than it sounds: the countdown on the screen becomes the only clock you have.

The scratch surface is on the screen instead. PSI provides an electronic notepad and that is what you work on for the whole session. If you have spent four weeks laying calculations out on paper, spend one evening laying one out somewhere you cannot rest a pen on the page.

The calculator is yours to bring, and the description is narrow: non-programmable, silent, battery operated, no paper tape, and no keyboard containing the alphabet. That last clause disqualifies the scientific model with a text entry line and anything that stores formulas. Buy the cheap one early and practice on the one you will carry.

Once seated, the restroom is the only reason to leave the examination room, it takes the proctor's permission, and the examination clock keeps running while you are gone. There is no eating, drinking or smoking in the center, and no communication of any kind between candidates.

The tutorial is free time, and almost nobody spends it well

Before the examination starts, a tutorial to the computer and keyboard runs on screen. Up to fifteen minutes of it does not count against your examination time, and sample questions follow it so you can practice answering and reviewing.

That is fifteen free minutes inside the building, on the machine you are about to be tested on. Use them to find two things: where the review function lives, and where the clock is.

Both matter more than they sound. Items are delivered one at a time, so the paper never appears in front of you as a whole, and a countdown of the minutes left sits above whichever item you are on. Locating that countdown while it is stopped is worth more than one more read of an article, and the pacing page linked below is what to do with it once it starts.

Each portion runs on its own clock and the minutes do not travel

A journeyman sits 59 knowledge items against 130 minutes, then 26 calculations items against 110. A master sits 75 against 150, then 33 against 170. Each of those is marked separately, and 70 percent clears it.

Finishing one portion early banks nothing. The bulletin states that time left on your first portion does not roll over into the next administration, which turns an early finish into minutes with no other use. Spend them where you are, on the items you guessed.

A split result, and where the paperwork runs out

Your score appears when you finish, and an official score report is printed at the site. A duplicate can be printed later from your online account.

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 electrical examinations, dated 9 July 2026

On the money the documents are exact. Both portions together cost $78. A retake is priced at $78 as well, and PSI quotes that one figure whether the candidate failed one portion or two, so half a failure costs what a whole one does. TDLR adds that a candidate may sit again as many times as needed and may be responsible for a fee with each attempt, and the bulletin allows unlimited attempts inside your eligibility period.

On everything else about a split result, the documents stop. The bulletin names an eligibility period and never defines one. Nothing we can find states whether a passed portion is held, or for how long. Plenty of sites will tell you confidently, and not one of them can show you the sentence it came from.

One outer boundary is published, and TDLR owns it. The department gives an applicant a year, counted from the day it received the application, to finish everything the license needs, the examination included. Inside that year, how long your passed half stands is a question for PSI at the moment you rebook. Ask it, and write down both the answer and the date you got it.

Two dates worth putting in your phone

The cancellation deadline comes before you feel ready to use it. A cancellation notice reaching PSI 2 days before the examination date protects your fee. After that the decision is made for you.

The other date is the one on this page. Everything here was read out of the bulletin and the department site on 24 August 2026. Both documents are free, both are dated, and if either one disagrees with anything above, it is right and this page is stale. That is not a disclaimer, it is the order of authority.

What this page cites

• PSI candidate information bulletin, TDLR electrical examinations Dated 9 July 2026, read 24 August 2026. Source for the arrival time, the identification description and the digital copy taken at check in, the late arrival forfeit, the open book and reference material rules, the tab and marking rules, the calculator description, the electronic notepads, the storage and conduct rules, the tutorial, the on-screen presentation, the item counts and time limits, the 70 percent standard, the fees, the score report, the diagnostic report, the eligibility period sentence and the two day cancellation window. source
• PSI candidate information bulletin, TDLR mirror The same bulletin hosted by TDLR as a PDF, useful when the PSI link moves. source
• TDLR electrician examination information Read 24 August 2026. Source for the retake sentence, for the one year an applicant has to satisfy every requirement including passing, and for the department page still naming the 2023 edition as the reference on that date. source
• 16 TAC 73.100 Texas adoption of the 2026 National Electrical Code effective 1 September 2026. The examinations change edition on the same date. source