NH-JE Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass

The Number That Matters: 70%

If you are searching for the New Hampshire journeyman electrician exam passing score, the answer is short: 70%. That is the passing score for the computer-delivered, multiple-choice written examination administered for the New Hampshire Electricians' Board, which sits within the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification (OPLC). Prov, Inc. is the exam provider that delivers the test and publishes the Candidate Information Bulletins (CIBs) describing it.

The rest of this article explains what that 70% means in practice: how many questions you can miss, how the exam content is spread across twelve subject headings, why two recent bulletins do not perfectly agree with each other, and how to build a preparation plan around the threshold. For a broader view of how demanding the test is, see our guide on how hard the NH-JE exam is.

What You Are Being Scored On: 110 Questions, 270 Minutes

The written exam is a computer-delivered multiple-choice test with 110 questions and a 270-minute time limit. That works out to roughly two and a half minutes per question on average, which is generous compared with many licensing exams. The challenge is rarely the clock; it is navigating a code book quickly and accurately under pressure.

Be wary of third-party summaries that describe a shorter exam or a different time limit. The 110-question, 270-minute structure is what the official bulletins describe. For a fuller cost picture, including items beyond the exam fee, read our NH-JE certification cost breakdown.

Turning 70% Into Questions

Percentages feel abstract until you convert them. With 110 questions and a 70% threshold:

• 70% of 110 is 77, so 77 correct answers reaches exactly 70%.
• That means you can miss up to 33 questions and still land at the threshold.
• Each additional miss beyond 33 puts you under 70%.

One caution: the official materials state the 70% passing score but do not, in the sources reviewed here, describe whether any items are unscored or how scoring is rounded. Do not plan around a margin of a single question. Treat 77 as the floor and aim comfortably above it, since a candidate who targets exactly 77 has no cushion for the questions that turn out to be ambiguous or poorly remembered.

Where the Points Live: Domain Allocations

The exam draws from twelve official subject headings. These are the headings printed in the Prov candidate bulletins, not a study-curriculum outline, and the bulletins publish question counts rather than percentage weights. The counts below follow the Domain 1 through 12 order, and the two retrieved bulletins differ in two places.

Both versions total 110. The trailing colon in "Branch Circuits and Conductors:" is how the source prints that heading.

What the allocations tell you about strategy

Three observations matter for anyone chasing 77 correct answers:

1. General Electrical Knowledge is the largest block in both bulletins (22 or 21 questions). It is the single biggest source of points, so weakness here is expensive.
2. Motors and Generators holds steady at 19 questions in both versions. That is more than Services and Service Equipment (12) and Wiring Methods & Materials (14), which surprises candidates who assume motors are a niche topic.
3. Three domains carry only 2 questions each (Special Conditions, Special Equipment, Special Occupancies). Together they are 6 questions, about 5% of the exam by count, so they should not consume a disproportionate share of your study hours.

For a deeper walk through each heading, see our complete guide to all 12 NH-JE content areas.

The Edition Conflict You Should Know About

This is the part most exam-prep pages skip. The two Prov bulletins do not describe the exam identically:

• The 2025.12.12 bulletin labels the exam "Journeyman Electrician (2023)."
• The newer 2026.08.06 bulletin labels it "Journeyman Electrician (2020)" and specifies the 2020 NEC.
• The 2025 bulletin's reference list includes both a 2023 NEC entry and a separate 2020 NEC entry.
• General Electrical Knowledge moves from 22 to 21, and Administrative moves from 9 to 10.

The permission to bring older or newer reference editions into the test does not tell you which edition the question bank is written against. And the fact that it is 2026, or that a state may adopt a newer installation code, does not by itself mean the exam tests a 2026 NEC. Do not assume an NEC edition from a calendar year.

Practically, this means you should avoid any prep product that confidently promises "the 2026 NEC exam" or locks you into a single code year without citing the bulletin. Our NH-JE study guide covers how to structure prep while that question remains open.

Passing Score Is Not a Pass Rate

These two ideas get conflated constantly. The passing score is the line you must reach: 70%. The pass rate is the share of all candidates who clear that line. They answer different questions.

No official cohort pass-rate statistic for the New Hampshire journeyman exam was verified in the research behind this article, so none is given here. Be skeptical of any site quoting a precise pass rate without citing a source. For what is and is not known, see our NH-JE pass rate analysis.

Fees, Eligibility Windows and Retakes

The mechanics around the score matter because they shape how much risk a single attempt carries.

• Fee: $90 per attempt, and that fee includes retakes, effective February 1, 2025. State licensing charges are separate and are not quantified here because they were not verified.
• Board approval: You need Board approval before testing.
• Eligibility window: Testing eligibility lasts 365 days from approval.
• Retake interval: A two-day interval is required between attempts.

The two-day interval is easy to misread as a reason to rebook immediately. It is a minimum, not a recommendation. If you miss 70%, use your score feedback to identify which domains hurt you, then rebuild those areas before sitting again. With a 365-day eligibility window, you have room to retake thoughtfully rather than reflexively.

Eligibility itself depends on meeting qualification rules. The retrieved text of Elec 304.01 requires 8,000 practical field apprenticeship hours under a Board-licensed journeyman or master, plus a prescribed educational or experience alternative. See our NH-JE requirements guide for the full breakdown, and check exam scheduling details when you are ready to book.

Test-Day Rules That Protect Your Score

Because a code book is part of the exam, how you prepare it affects your score as directly as what you know.

Other listed references include the American Electrician's Handbook (17th edition), Ugly's Electrical References (2020), NH Elec 300-400 and RSA 319-C, and named 2017 state amendments. Because the NEC edition is on verification hold, confirm which code book you are bringing before test day.

If you choose remote delivery through Examroom.ai, read the system and equipment requirements well ahead of time rather than discovering a problem on exam morning. A technical setback is a needless way to lose focus on a test that already demands sustained concentration over 270 minutes.

Building a Plan Around a 70% Target

Rather than generic advice, tie your schedule to the allocation table. Because the threshold is 77 correct answers, the goal is to secure the big blocks first and not let the tiny ones consume your time.

Administrative deserves special attention because it is state-specific. Some commercial courses explicitly exclude Administrative topics (JADE Learning's public New Hampshire product page states this), so if you rely on a third-party course, verify that you are covering the New Hampshire rules and statutes yourself. Our NH-JE cheat sheet helps with final-week review.

Original Practice Questions in the Exam's Style

The questions below are original illustrations written for this article. They are not copies of live examination items, and they are not drawn from any bulletin. They show the kind of reasoning the exam rewards: applying a rule to a scenario, not reciting a definition.

For high-volume, scored drilling that mirrors this reasoning style, use the NH-JE practice test and track your results by domain.

After You Pass: Licensing and Renewal

Clearing 70% is the gate, not the finish line. Two obligations follow, and they are easy to confuse:

• Biennial renewal: Under Elec 401.01, amended effective May 4, 2024, renewal is two years from issuance. Older descriptions of a three-year cycle are outdated.
• Code-cycle education: Elec 403.01 requires 15 hours on latest-NEC changes, including at least one hour on New Hampshire laws, rules and installation concerns, completed by the end of the calendar year following the NEC edition's publication. This is separate from your two-year license renewal.

These licensing provisions were checked in regulatory republications rather than state-hosted rule files, so confirm current requirements with the OPLC before relying on them. If you are weighing whether the whole path is worthwhile, our ROI analysis and salary guide cover earnings context; note that salary figures were not verified for this article and should be treated as a research topic, not a promise.

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