CO-JE Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts

The Exam at a Glance

This page condenses the Colorado Journeyman Electrician License Exam into the facts you can review in a few minutes before a study session or an appointment. The exam is administered by PSI Services LLC on behalf of the Colorado State Electrical Board, which sits within the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, Division of Professions and Occupations. On PSI's side the exam is designated Journeyman Wireman (JW). "CO-JE" is simply the shorthand this site uses; it is not an official examination code, so use the PSI designation and the Board's name when you search or register.

The 70% figure is a passing standard, not a pass rate. No current first-attempt or overall candidate pass rate has been publicly verified, so be skeptical of any number you see quoted elsewhere. For more on how the cut score works, see our guide to the CO-JE passing score, and for a realistic read on difficulty, see how hard the CO-JE exam is.

The NEC Edition Problem: Confirm Before You Book

This is the single most important detail to verify, because the source material is not perfectly consistent. The retrieved Candidate Information Bulletin (updated June 18, 2026) states that, effective August 1, 2026, exam questions are consistent with the 2026 NEC and that PSI supplies the 2026 NEC. It adds that a 2023 book may be requested until December 1, 2026, after which that option ends. Meanwhile, older introductory and rendered reference text in the same materials still specifies NEC 2023.

Practically, this means your article references, section numbers, and table locations may shift depending on edition. When you take practice questions, note which edition they were written against, and train yourself to navigate by article and table headings rather than by memorized page positions.

Scored Time vs. Appointment Time

The published exam length is 240 minutes for 90 scored questions. That works out to roughly two and a half minutes per scored question if you spend the entire window, though calculation items will eat far more than that and recall items far less. The bulletin also notes that up to 10 additional unscored items may appear, with 30 extra minutes allotted for them. You will not know which items are unscored, so treat every question as if it counts.

• Scored component: 90 questions, 240 minutes.
• Experimental items: up to 10 more, with 30 additional minutes.
• Longest possible appointment: longer than 240 minutes once experimental items are included, so plan your day accordingly.

A sensible pacing approach is to make a first pass answering everything you can do quickly, flag the long load calculations, and return to them with the on-screen calculator. Because you pass at 63 correct, you can afford to miss 27 scored questions. Do not sink fifteen minutes into one feeder calculation if it puts easier points at risk.

Where the 90 Questions Come From

The Board publishes item allocations for each of 13 content headings. Official percentage weights are not published, so the table below shows only the published item counts, listed in heading order.

The totals add to 90. Grounding and Bonding is the clear heavyweight at 14 items. Together, General Electrical Knowledge (11), Services, Feeders, and Branch Circuits (9), and Electrical Calculations (9) round out the next tier. Photovoltaics is the smallest at just 2 items, which means it is worth a focused review but should not consume a disproportionate share of your calendar. For a fuller explanation of each content area, read our complete guide to all 13 CO-JE exam domains.

Domain-by-Domain Must-Knows

The study notes below are editorial treatments of the official headings, not additional official domains. Use them to decide what to drill, and always verify specifics against the NEC edition supplied at your appointment.

What You Can and Cannot Bring

The exam is open book, but the books are not yours. PSI supplies the NEC and a formula page, and an on-screen calculator is available. Personal references are prohibited, and writing, highlighting, underlining, or indexing the supplied references is also prohibited.

Remote proctoring has not been verified for this exact examination, so plan on testing at a PSI test center unless PSI confirms otherwise for your appointment. Because navigation speed is the real skill being tested, build it deliberately. Our CO-JE study guide covers how to structure that practice in more depth.

Eligibility Numbers to Memorize

Colorado's experience and education requirements changed with enacted SB25-165, signed June 3, 2025. The changes supersede older descriptions you may still find online, such as the previous 4,000-hour commercial/industrial figure and the older four-year classroom lookback.

• 8,000 qualifying hours over at least four years.
• 2,000 of those hours over at least two years in commercial, industrial, or substantially similar work.
• 288 classroom-training hours, documented separately from on-the-job hours, within the last eight years of training, apprenticeship, or practical experience.
• Older training: SB25-165 permits the Board to credit older training upon evidence of at least four additional hours on the current or immediately previous NEC or other adopted standards. This is a Board-reviewed exception, not automatic credit.
• Safety instruction: Rule 1.7(D)(1)(b) specifies 10 to 40 hours of OSHA-curriculum safety instruction within the 288-hour training requirement. Confirm the current rule wording, since a rule version effective July 15, 2026 appears in the official rule register.

Keep your documentation organized from day one: pay records, supervisor attestations, course certificates, and a log that separates classroom hours from field hours. The full breakdown lives in our CO-JE requirements guide.

Exam First, License Application Second

In Colorado, the sequence matters. You take and pass the examination before submitting the license application. Passing alone does not establish licensing eligibility, because the Board separately reviews your documented experience and education. Treat the exam as one gate and the Board's review of your hours as another.

1. Confirm your hours and classroom training meet the requirements above.
2. Register with PSI and confirm the reference edition for your appointment.
3. Take and pass the exam.
4. Submit the license application with your documentation to the Board, using the forms at the Board's Applications and Forms page.

If you do not pass, the bulletin permits scheduling from the following day for the next available test date, with the retest fee. It does not promise an immediately available seat, so check seat availability at your preferred center before assuming a fast retake. Our exam dates and scheduling guide goes deeper on planning around availability.

Fees and Retakes

No member or non-member exam pricing is published. Keep exam fees, licensing fees, and renewal fees in separate columns of your budget, since the exam fee covers only the test. For a fuller picture of what to plan for, see the CO-JE certification cost breakdown.

Renewal and CE Quick Facts

Once you are licensed, the three-year renewal cycle requires 24 hours of continuing education, including at least four hours on NEC changes and no more than four credited safety hours. The current cycle expires September 30, 2026.

One caution: an earlier review noted renewal availability through November 30, 2026, but that post-expiration window could not be independently revalidated. Do not treat it as permission to practice on an expired license. Verify directly with the Board before relying on any grace period.

Formula and Calculation Drill Sheet

The bulletin recommends reviewing electrical theory and common formulas in addition to code navigation. PSI supplies a formula page and an on-screen calculator, but you should know which formula applies before you reach for either. Review these relationships until they are automatic:

• Ohm's law: E = I × R, with the rearrangements I = E / R and R = E / I.
• Power: P = E × I for DC and resistive loads; apply power factor for AC reactive loads.
• Single-phase current: I = P / E (resistive), or I = VA / E.
• Three-phase current: I = VA / (E × 1.732).
• Series circuits: resistances add; current is the same through every element.
• Parallel circuits: voltage is the same across branches; branch currents add.
• Transformer turns ratio: primary voltage over secondary voltage equals primary turns over secondary turns.
• Continuous loads: remember the 125% treatment when sizing conductors and overcurrent devices.

If you are deciding how to sequence your preparation, a reasonable order is to start with General Electrical Knowledge and calculations, move into Grounding and Bonding while it is fresh, then work through conductors, services, and motors, saving the smaller domains such as Photovoltaics and Transformers for a final sweep. Our study guide turns this into a week-by-week plan, and you can test yourself on the CO-JE practice test site as you go.

Frequently Asked Questions