What Is MA-JE?

What the MA-JE Actually Is

On this site, MA-JE refers to one thing only: the Massachusetts Journeyman Electrician License Exam. It is the written examination that Massachusetts requires before the Board of State Examiners of Electricians (MA BSEE) will issue a Journeyman Electrician license, formally known as Certificate B. The exam is delivered by PSI Services LLC at authorized testing centers in Massachusetts.

If you have seen the same acronym elsewhere, set that aside. Nothing in this article applies to any other credential. The Massachusetts journeyman exam is a state licensing requirement, not a voluntary industry certification, and that distinction shapes everything from who can take it to how often you must renew afterward. For related phrasing of the same question, see our explainers on what MA-JE stands for and the MA-JE certification.

The Two-Part Exam Format

The MA-JE is computer-delivered and open-book. It is built from two separate parts, each with its own question count, timer and passing threshold. Candidates often see "110 questions and four hours" as a combined figure, but the two parts are not interchangeable and you cannot move time from one to the other.

Two points trip people up. First, Part II is an applied written examination. It is not a hands-on practical, and it is not the master electrician's Business and Law exam. It tests calculation, plan reading, materials, diagnosis, Massachusetts amendments and licensing law in written questions. Second, the nineteen domain headings you will see in study materials do not represent nineteen exams. They are content headings spread across two scored parts. For a deeper look at the arithmetic of scoring, read our guide to the MA-JE passing score.

Part I: Thirteen Trade Domains

Part I covers Domains 1 through 13. The published question allocations, in heading order, are 8, 11, 7, 18, 4, 1, 2, 5, 6, 2, 6, 6 and 4. These are official item counts. They are not percentage weights, and you should not convert them into percentages that the exam outline does not publish.

Small headings still matter. Transformers has a single item and Lighting and Low-Voltage Distribution have two each, but with a 70% bar every missed question counts. Our complete guide to all 19 content areas walks through every domain in more depth.

Part II: Six Applied Domains

Part II covers Domains 14 through 19, with official allocations of 5, 5, 5, 6, 5 and 4 questions in heading order.

Troubleshooting and Testing is the largest Part II subject at six items. Because Part II has only 30 questions and a 21-correct threshold, you can afford to miss nine. That sounds generous until you notice that a weak area in two of the six headings could consume the entire margin.

Who Can Sit for the Exam

You cannot simply register and test. The application requires documentation of several prerequisites, and these hours are entirely separate from the exam's own timers:

• A high-school diploma or equivalent.
• 600 hours of approved journeyman education.
• 8,000 qualifying work hours over at least four years.
• A 15-hour approved Code Update certificate.
• Supporting school and employer documentation.
• CORI (criminal offender record information) authorization.

Keep these categories straight in your own planning. Classroom hours, Code Update training and work experience are three different requirements, and one cannot substitute for another. The application itself is submitted through the state's process described on the Massachusetts electrician license application page. For the full checklist, see our MA-JE requirements guide.

Fees, Separated Line by Line

The regular application and testing charge is $226. It is not a single fee but four components:

Qualifying VALOR applicants pay $195, because the $31 state-processing charge is waived. Separately, the initial license issuance costs $104 once you have passed and qualified, so it is not part of the $226. Retakes are priced by part and total $135 for both. A fuller breakdown lives in our MA-JE certification cost guide.

Open-Book Rules and the Notes Conflict

The exam is open-book, but "open-book" has boundaries. Approved references include the NEC, NFPA 72, the Massachusetts amendments and the licensing regulations. A qualifying nonprogrammable calculator is permitted. Testing happens only at authorized Massachusetts centers; the bulletin excludes remote and out-of-state administration.

Because the exam is open-book, the skill being measured is largely retrieval speed. A well-tabbed code book and a practiced search routine matter as much as knowledge. Memorizing individual rules matters less than knowing exactly where each topic lives.

The Code Edition Question

This is the most important uncertainty in current MA-JE preparation. The state's code page identifies a 2026-code adoption, but adoption by itself does not tell you which NEC edition your examination will be built on. The retrieved bulletin contains statements about July timing and a seven-month update period that conflict with each other, so the cutover date for the exam is not established by the sources available to us.

Because of this, we do not present any practice material as locked to a particular NEC edition. Check the Massachusetts Electrical Code page and the Board's policy page for current announcements, and read our MA-JE exam dates guide for scheduling context.

Retakes, Eligibility Windows and Renewal

Both parts must be passed within the applicable 12-month eligibility period. If you fail, you retake only what you need, at the per-part retake fees that total $135 for both. After three unsuccessful attempts, the bulletin requires additional education before further attempts are allowed. This makes the first attempt more valuable than candidates sometimes assume. Our piece on how hard the MA-JE exam is discusses where candidates tend to struggle.

Once licensed, Certificate B renews on the triennial July 31 cycle under Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 141, Section 3. Regulation 237 CMR 17.01 requires 21 continuing education hours per cycle: 15 approved hours in code, business and law, plus six professional-development hours.

Sequencing Your Preparation

You do not need an elaborate system, but the exam's structure suggests a sensible order. Start where the points are concentrated and where Massachusetts differs from a national baseline.

Our MA-JE study guide expands on this approach, and the MA-JE cheat sheet condenses the must-know facts. When you are ready to test yourself under realistic conditions, take a timed run on our MA-JE practice test, which mirrors the 80-plus-30 structure, and keep working through additional practice questions to find weak domains before exam day.

Frequently Asked Questions