What Does NH-JE Stand For?

What NH-JE Stands For

In this article and across this site, NH-JE stands for the New Hampshire Journeyman Electrician License Exam. The "NH" is New Hampshire, and "JE" is Journeyman Electrician. It is the written examination a candidate must pass, with Board approval, to earn a journeyman electrician license in the state.

Because the letters "NH-JE" are short, they can be mistaken for other things. This page is only about the electrician licensing exam. If you want the broader definitions, our pages on what NH-JE is, NH-JE meaning, and what NH-JE certification is cover the same ground from different angles.

Who Runs the Exam

Licensing authority sits with the New Hampshire Electricians' Board, which operates under the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification (OPLC). The Board's page on the OPLC website is the authoritative place to check eligibility and forms: oplc.nh.gov/find-board/electricians-board.

Testing is delivered by Prov, Inc., which publishes Candidate Information Bulletins (CIBs) for the New Hampshire electrician exams. Those bulletins are where the exam's subject headings and question allocations come from. When you search for "NH PROV electrician exam," this is the relationship you are looking at: the Board licenses, Prov administers.

Exam Format, Fees and Retake Rules

The written exam is computer-delivered and multiple-choice. Here is how the verified logistics fit together:

The $90 figure is the exam fee only. Separate state licensing charges exist but are not quantified here because they were not verified; check the Board for current amounts. For a fuller cost discussion, see our certification cost breakdown.

Two details deserve emphasis. First, 110 questions in 270 minutes works out to a generous pace of roughly two and a half minutes per question, so this is not a speed test; it rewards careful code lookup and calculation. Second, be wary of third-party descriptions that cite shorter exam formats. The official figures above come from the Prov bulletins. A passing score of 70% is a cut score, not a pass rate; if you want to understand how hard candidates find the exam, read our passing score explainer and the difficulty guide.

The Twelve Exam Subject Headings

The official bulletins list twelve subject headings. These are examination headings, not a preparation curriculum, so they describe how the test is organized rather than how a course should be taught. The Domain 9 heading is printed in the source with a trailing colon ("Branch Circuits and Conductors:"), and we preserve that here.

1. General Electrical Knowledge
2. Equipment for General Use
3. Motors and Generators
4. Control Devices
5. Special Conditions
6. Special Equipment
7. Special Occupancies
8. Services and Service Equipment
9. Branch Circuits and Conductors:
10. Feeders
11. Wiring Methods & Materials
12. Administrative

How the 110 questions are distributed

The bulletin that labels the exam "Journeyman Electrician (2023)" (dated 2025.12.12, printed page 7) allocates questions in Domain 1 through 12 order as 22, 9, 19, 5, 2, 2, 2, 12, 6, 8, 14 and 9. The newer bulletin (2026.08.06, printed page 7) labels it "Journeyman Electrician (2020)" and allocates 21, 9, 19, 5, 2, 2, 2, 12, 6, 8, 14 and 10. Both total 110. Percentage weights are not published, so we do not state any.

The small headings are easy to underestimate. Special Conditions, Special Equipment and Special Occupancies are each only 2 questions, which tempts candidates to skip them. At 2 questions each, though, that is 6 questions combined, and with a 70% threshold, every point counts. For the full walkthrough, see our complete guide to all 12 content areas.

The Code-Edition Conflict You Should Know About

This is the most important caveat in the whole article. The two official bulletins disagree on how to label the exam: one says Journeyman Electrician (2023), the newer one says Journeyman Electrician (2020). The 2025 bulletin's reference list includes both a 2023 NEC entry and a separate 2020 NEC entry, while the 2026 bulletin specifies the 2020 NEC.

What this means in practice: do not buy a code book solely because a commercial vendor claims a particular code year. Confirm with the Board or Prov first, and treat any edition-specific question bank as unverified until the conflict is resolved. The headings, the 110-question total and the 270-minute timing are consistent across both bulletins and remain safe to plan around. If you are assembling a book list, our one-page cheat sheet and study guide will help you organize it once the edition is confirmed.

Who Can Sit for the Exam

Board approval is required before you test, and approval starts a 365-day eligibility window. The qualification rule is Elec 304.01 (read via Cornell LII's republication of the New Hampshire code, not a state-hosted file). In summary:

• 8,000 hours of practical field apprenticeship under a Board-licensed journeyman or master electrician, plus one of the following alternatives.
• 600 hours of electrical schooling, including 24 safety hours (a qualifying electrical associate or higher degree is recognized within that provision).
• Ten years licensed as a journeyman or master elsewhere.
• A previous New Hampshire journeyman or master examination.

Approved school-based practical credit can cover up to 2,000 of the apprenticeship hours, with documentation, and hours cannot be double-counted concurrently. Field experience is documented with employment dates, the type of work and the supervising master's signature. Note the 600-hour schooling figure: some commercial summaries cite a different number, so rely on the rule text. Our requirements article walks through the paperwork, and candidates moving from Massachusetts should verify reciprocity directly with the Board rather than assuming it applies.

Reference Materials and Calculator Rules

The bulletins list the permitted references. Besides the NEC, they include American Electrician's Handbook (17th edition), Ugly's Electrical References (2020), NH Elec 300-400, RSA 319-C and named 2017 state amendments. Authorized printed state reference documents are allowed.

At test centers, a simple four-function calculator is permitted. Remote candidates follow separate system and equipment instructions, so read those well ahead of exam day. Because permanent tabs are allowed but movable ones are not, prepare your books early and tab them the way you will use them, then practice finding answers under timed conditions.

After You Pass: Renewal and Code-Change Hours

Two separate obligations apply to licensed electricians, both read from regulatory republications rather than state-hosted rule files:

• Renewal (Elec 401.01): amended effective May 4, 2024, licenses renew two years from issuance. Older descriptions that mention a three-year cycle are outdated.
• Code-change education (Elec 403.01): 15 hours on the 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 a code-cycle requirement, separate from the biennial renewal.

For career context, our NH-JE jobs overview and salary guide treat earnings as a research topic; no salary amount here is verified, and nothing in this article should be read as an earnings promise. You can weigh the investment in our ROI analysis.

Sequencing Your Study by Domain

You do not need a generic method here, just a sensible order tied to the exam's structure. Because question counts are published, you can weight your time by them. The sample plan below assumes you have already confirmed the NEC edition.

Put Administrative later in the plan on purpose: it is the one domain where you must study New Hampshire's own text rather than a national book. Any practice questions you write or buy should be original practice, never claimed copies of live exam items. For a head start, try the free practice questions on our main practice test site and keep working through them until you can finish a section well within the time allowed.

If you need pace data or want to see how our readers fare, our pass rate article explains why official cohort statistics are not claimed here, and our exam dates page covers scheduling within the 365-day window. When you are ready to test yourself, head back to the practice exam.

Frequently Asked Questions