- What the Label "CO-JE" Actually Refers To
- Who Issues the License and Who Runs the Test
- How the Exam Is Built: Format, Timing, and Scoring
- The 13 Content Areas and Where the Questions Land
- The 2026 NEC Transition and the Reference Book Problem
- Eligibility: Hours, Classroom Training, and SB25-165
- Order of Operations: Exam First, Application Second
- Costs, Retakes, and What the Exam Fee Does Not Cover
- After Licensure: Renewal and Continuing Education
- Weighting Your Prep Toward the Real Exam
- Frequently Asked Questions
- CO-JE here means the Colorado Journeyman Electrician license exam, issued through the Colorado State Electrical Board and delivered by PSI.
- The test has 90 scored multiple-choice questions in 240 minutes; 63 correct answers (70%) pass.
- Grounding and Bonding carries the largest published allocation: 14 of the 90 scored items.
- You must pass the exam before submitting the license application, and a passing score alone does not establish eligibility.
What the Label "CO-JE" Actually Refers To
On this site, "CO-JE" is shorthand for the Colorado Journeyman Electrician License Exam. That is a project abbreviation, not an official examination code printed on any Colorado document. If you search the Colorado State Electrical Board materials for the string "CO-JE," you will not find it. What you will find is the license title, Journeyman Electrician, and a PSI examination designation of Journeyman Wireman (JW).
That distinction matters because the same letters get used elsewhere for unrelated credentials. Nothing in this article applies to any of those. Everything below is specific to the Colorado journeyman electrician pathway: a state-issued license that lets a qualified electrician work unsupervised-by-a-master within the scope Colorado defines, earned by documenting experience and classroom training and then passing a computer-based exam.
If you want a broader orientation to the terminology, our companion pieces cover what CO-JE means and what CO-JE stands for. This article focuses on what the credential actually is and how the pieces fit together.
Who Issues the License and Who Runs the Test
Two separate organizations are involved, and candidates routinely confuse them.
| Role | Organization | What They Do |
|---|---|---|
| Licensing authority | Colorado State Electrical Board, within the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA), Division of Professions and Occupations | Sets eligibility rules, reviews your experience and education documentation, issues and renews the license |
| Test administrator | PSI Services LLC | Schedules appointments, delivers the computer-based exam at test centers, reports your score |
The Board's information lives at the Division's Electrical pages (dpo.colorado.gov/Electrical). PSI publishes the Candidate Information Bulletin that defines the exam content, format, and reference materials. The bulletin used for this article was updated June 18, 2026. Note that cojeexam.com is an independent preparation site, not the issuer; the Board and PSI are your authoritative sources for rules, fees, and scheduling.
How the Exam Is Built: Format, Timing, and Scoring
The exam is computer-based and entirely multiple choice. The scored portion is 90 questions in 240 minutes, which works out to roughly two and a half minutes per question on average. That is generous for definition-style items and tight for multi-step calculations that require flipping through the code book.
Scored versus unscored items
The bulletin also describes up to 10 additional unscored items, with 30 additional minutes allotted for them. These are experimental questions PSI uses to evaluate future content. You will not know which items are which, so treat every question as if it counts. When you read about the exam length, remember that the 240-minute figure describes the scored component; your total appointment can run longer when experimental items are included.
Passing standard
The passing threshold is 70%, or 63 scored answers correct. Scores are provided after testing. That 70% is a cut score, not a pass rate. No current first-attempt or overall candidate pass rate was publicly verified for this exam, so be skeptical of any site quoting one without a source. For more on the threshold itself, see our guide to the CO-JE passing score, and for what the data does and does not show, see CO-JE pass rate.
No remote-proctoring entitlement was verified for this exact examination, so plan on an in-person test center appointment unless PSI tells you otherwise.
The 13 Content Areas and Where the Questions Land
The bulletin lists 13 content headings and publishes an item allocation for each, totaling 90. Official percentage weights are not published, so the numbers below are raw question counts only. The headings are the exam's own; how you study them is up to you. For a deeper walk-through, see the complete guide to all 13 content areas.
| Content Area | Published Items |
|---|---|
| General Electrical Knowledge | 11 |
| Services, Feeders, and Branch Circuits | 9 |
| Grounding and Bonding | 14 |
| Overcurrent Protection | 6 |
| Conductors and Cables | 8 |
| Raceways and Boxes | 5 |
| Special Occupancies | 5 |
| Special Equipment | 6 |
| Electrical Devices | 5 |
| Motors | 6 |
| Transformers | 4 |
| Photovoltaics | 2 |
| Electrical Calculations | 9 |
Grounding and Bonding (14 items, the largest block)
This single heading accounts for more scored questions than any other. Candidates who treat it as one topic among many are leaving points on the table.
- Distinguish grounding from bonding in service equipment, separately derived systems, and metal piping contexts.
- Practice grounding electrode system questions that require locating the right NEC article and table quickly.
- Work equipment grounding conductor sizing and bonding jumper scenarios until the lookup path is automatic.
General Electrical Knowledge (11 items)
The bulletin recommends reviewing electrical theory and common formulas in addition to code navigation. This heading is where theory shows up.
- Ohm's law, power relationships, and series/parallel behavior should be second nature.
- Expect conceptual questions that do not need the code book at all, which makes them the fastest points on the exam.
Services, Feeders, and Branch Circuits (9 items) and Electrical Calculations (9 items)
These two headings overlap heavily in practice. A branch-circuit or feeder question often is a calculation question.
- Practice load calculations from start to finish, including demand factors and conductor selection.
- Get comfortable working under time pressure with the on-screen calculator.
The smaller areas should not be ignored: Motors and Special Equipment carry 6 items each, Overcurrent Protection carries 6, and Photovoltaics carries only 2. Because every heading shares one pool and the cut score is 63 of 90, you can afford a weak spot, but not several.
The 2026 NEC Transition and the Reference Book Problem
This is the part of the exam where candidates are most likely to get tripped up in 2026, so read it carefully.
The bulletin text states that, effective August 1, 2026, questions are consistent with the 2026 NEC and PSI supplies the 2026 NEC. It also says a 2023 book may be requested until December 1, 2026, after which that is no longer an option. At the same time, older introductory and rendered reference text in the same bulletin still specifies NEC 2023. Those two statements do not fully agree, and we are not going to paper over the discrepancy.
Practically, this means you should study from the edition your appointment will use, and you should learn the differences between the 2023 and 2026 editions in the areas you are weakest. For scheduling windows and how they interact with this transition, see CO-JE exam dates.
Eligibility: Hours, Classroom Training, and SB25-165
The journeyman license is not available to anyone who simply passes the test. The Board reviews your documented experience and education. Under the current framework, as changed by enacted SB25-165 (Licensure of Electricians, signed June 3, 2025), the requirements are:
- 8,000 qualifying hours of experience over at least four years.
- Within that, 2,000 hours over at least two years in commercial, industrial, or substantially similar work.
- At least 288 classroom-training hours during the last eight years of training, apprenticeship, or practical experience, documented separately from on-the-job hours.
The enacted change supersedes older descriptions you may still see online, such as a 4,000-hour commercial/industrial figure or a four-year classroom lookback. If a source mentions those, it is out of date.
The older-training exception
SB25-165 also lets the Board credit older training when you show 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. Do not plan around it until the Board confirms it applies to your record.
Safety instruction inside the 288 hours
Rule 1.7(D)(1)(b) specifies 10 to 40 hours of OSHA-curriculum safety instruction within the 288-hour training requirement. That wording is corroborated in an older version of the Board's rules (3 CCR 710-1), but the rule register identifies a newer version effective July 15, 2026, so confirm the current wording with the Board and do not rely on superseded training lookbacks or NEC editions from older documents.
Our CO-JE requirements guide walks through documentation in more detail, and the Board's applications page (dpo.colorado.gov/Electrical/Applications) is the issuer source for forms.
Order of Operations: Exam First, Application Second
Colorado's sequence runs opposite to what many candidates expect: you take and pass the examination before submitting the license application. Passing alone does not establish licensing eligibility. The Board still reviews your experience and education, so a passing score is one prerequisite, not the only one.
Key Takeaway
Start assembling your hours and classroom-training documentation while you study, not after you pass. The exam result and the Board's review run on separate tracks, and a clean paper trail prevents delays once you apply.
Costs, Retakes, and What the Exam Fee Does Not Cover
The published PSI fees are:
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Initial examination fee | $78 |
| Retest fee | $73 |
No member or non-member pricing tiers are published for this exam. Importantly, these are examination fees only. A current initial licensing charge and a renewal charge were not independently verified and are not included in the $78. Budget separately for those, and check the Board for current amounts. Our CO-JE certification cost breakdown covers the full picture.
If you do not pass
The bulletin permits you to schedule from the day after a failed attempt for the next available test date, paying the retest fee. It does not promise an immediately available seat, so seat availability at your preferred test center may push the actual date out. Treat a failed attempt as a diagnostic: your weakest content areas, especially Grounding and Bonding and the calculation-heavy headings, are the first place to look.
After Licensure: Renewal and Continuing Education
The journeyman license renews on a three-year cycle requiring 24 continuing education hours, including at least four hours on NEC changes and no more than four credited safety hours. Initial licenses obtained by examination between October 1, 2023 and September 30, 2026 are exempt from CE until after their first renewal. The current cycle expires September 30, 2026 (per a DORA reminder dated March 12, 2026).
The Board's CE page (dpo.colorado.gov/Electrical/CE) is the authoritative source.
Weighting Your Prep Toward the Real Exam
You do not need a generic study system. You need a plan shaped by the allocation table above. Here is one way to sequence a six-week build, tied directly to the exam's structure:
Grounding and Bonding first
- It is 14 of 90 items, so mastery here pays off more than any other single area.
- Drill electrode systems, bonding, and equipment grounding conductor lookups until the NEC path is fast.
Calculations and circuit sizing
- Combine Services, Feeders, and Branch Circuits (9) with Electrical Calculations (9) since they feed each other.
- Add Conductors and Cables (8) and Overcurrent Protection (6) for sizing and protection logic.
Equipment headings and timed practice
- Cover Motors, Special Equipment, Transformers, Special Occupancies, and the small Photovoltaics block.
- Finish with timed sets so you can judge your pace against 240 minutes.
For a fuller plan, see the CO-JE study guide, the one-page cheat sheet, and an honest look at how hard the exam is. When you are ready to test yourself on realistic question styles, take a timed set on our practice test site, and revisit weak headings with targeted drills from the main CO-JE practice platform.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. CO-JE is the abbreviation used on this site for the Colorado Journeyman Electrician license exam. The official license title is Journeyman Electrician, and PSI's examination designation is Journeyman Wireman (JW).
There are 90 scored multiple-choice questions in 240 minutes, with up to 10 additional unscored items and 30 extra minutes. You need 63 correct scored answers, which is 70%.
No. The exam is open book, but PSI supplies the NEC and a formula page. Personal references are prohibited, and writing, highlighting, underlining, or indexing the supplied references is not allowed.
After. You take and pass the exam before submitting the license application, and passing alone does not establish eligibility. The Board separately reviews your experience and classroom-training documentation.
The bulletin says questions are consistent with the 2026 NEC effective August 1, 2026, with a 2023 book requestable until December 1, 2026, while older text still references NEC 2023. Confirm the edition and your appointment arrangements directly with PSI.