California General Electrician's Exam - Failed by 1

[JoeWeider]

I have been a C-10 for more than 20 years and only recently find myself having to open my options and have to sit for the General Electrician's exam.

Sat for the exam a few weeks ago and failed by one question. Feel like this is a scam just so that I have to sit for another exam. I asked them to look at my answers, but they won't let me look at it for review. I wonder if it's common for people to miss or fail by just one or two questions.

It's easy for them to make money just be failing people and having them to pay again just to sit for another exam. It's crossed my mind, so I'm putting it out there just in case someone else is thinking the same. If not, hey, just sharing ideas.

 

[BAHTAH]

Calif Exam

Calif Exam

Never met anyone who failed by just one question, but anything is possible. I got my C10 in 1972. When I decided to retire I had a young man who had his C10 ask me to help him grow his business in the commercial market. I quickly found that because I was going to work for another contractor I had to take the Calif exam even though I had
my C10 and had been working for years in the trade. I had spent many years teaching apprentices and was always keeping up with the current code, even when the latest had not be adopted locally. That probably gave me an advantage as I felt all Calif was after was the fee and not much interested in enforcement of the requirement. In the four
years I helped the young man grow his business, I was never once asked for my journeyman's card. I scored a 98 on the exam. I found that most of the exam was your
ability to look-up the answer in the code book provided with a few basic theory questions thrown in along the way. My advice is get where you can look up the information
in the code quickly, get your card and do the CEU to keep current and you will probably never hear from Calif again. I always wondered why the Workman's Compensation Insurance Companies, have not told contractors they would have no coverage if their injured worker is not properly licensed.... somehow I can see that in the future.

 

[LEO2854]

I have been a C-10 for more than 20 years and only recently find myself having to open my options and have to sit for the General Electrician's exam.

Sat for the exam a few weeks ago and failed by one question. Feel like this is a scam just so that I have to sit for another exam. I asked them to look at my answers, but they won't let me look at it for review. I wonder if it's common for people to miss or fail by just one or two questions.

It's easy for them to make money just be failing people and having them to pay again just to sit for another exam. It's crossed my mind, so I'm putting it out there just in case someone else is thinking the same. If not, hey, just sharing ideas.

It's always by one.

 

[GoldDigger]

It's always by one.

They stop scoring questions once you hit the cutoff point?

 

[Ponchik]

Why makes you think it is a scam?


You missed the test by 1 question. I am sure you will pass it next time.

 

[sparkycoog]

Haha I missed the Master Electrician exam by 2 points (needed 75 and got a 73). I really thought I had it and since I had been sitting for 5 hours without food and was starting to shiver, decided to guess on a couple of questions that I should have been able to find answers to had I looked a little harder.

I was bummed about it but I thought I'd have it for sure the next time and even found about 5 more points that I could have had on that test.

Next test, I got a 71. I actually went down! Granted the other test seemed really weird asking really useless questions that are just a footnote on table somewhere and had weird calculations the likes of which I have never seen in either Mike Holt, Ray Holder, or Tom Henry's book but these tests are not easy. I just wish there was an official study guide or at the very least we could know what questions we missed. Every college class I have ever taken would give our test back so we could learn from it.

 

[Sierrasparky]

Haha I missed the Master Electrician exam by 2 points (needed 75 and got a 73). I really thought I had it and since I had been sitting for 5 hours without food and was starting to shiver, decided to guess on a couple of questions that I should have been able to find answers to had I looked a little harder.

I was bummed about it but I thought I'd have it for sure the next time and even found about 5 more points that I could have had on that test.

Next test, I got a 71. I actually went down! Granted the other test seemed really weird asking really useless questions that are just a footnote on table somewhere and had weird calculations the likes of which I have never seen in either Mike Holt, Ray Holder, or Tom Henry's book but these tests are not easy. I just wish there was an official study guide or at the very least we could know what questions we missed. Every college class I have ever taken would give our test back so we could learn from it.

I thought there was a book by Stallcup , Maybe is was only for Colorado.

 

[Sierrasparky]

Never met anyone who failed by just one question, but anything is possible. I got my C10 in 1972. When I decided to retire I had a young man who had his C10 ask me to help him grow his business in the commercial market. I quickly found that because I was going to work for another contractor I had to take the Calif exam even though I had
my C10 and had been working for years in the trade. I had spent many years teaching apprentices and was always keeping up with the current code, even when the latest had not be adopted locally. That probably gave me an advantage as I felt all Calif was after was the fee and not much interested in enforcement of the requirement. In the four
years I helped the young man grow his business, I was never once asked for my journeyman's card. I scored a 98 on the exam. I found that most of the exam was your
ability to look-up the answer in the code book provided with a few basic theory questions thrown in along the way. My advice is get where you can look up the information
in the code quickly, get your card and do the CEU to keep current and you will probably never hear from Calif again. I always wondered why the Workman's Compensation Insurance Companies, have not told contractors they would have no coverage if their injured worker is not properly licensed.... somehow I can see that in the future.

I thought if you were sub-contractor then you are exempt. Also If you are not making connections over the VA limit. in CA.

 

[norcal]

I thought if you were sub-contractor then you are exempt. Also If you are not making connections over the VA limit. in CA.

If you are working under your C10 lic, no certification is required, once you work for another contractor even though you are also a contractor, then electrician certification is required.

 

[Sierrasparky]

If you are working under your C10 lic, no certification is required, once you work for another contractor even though you are also a contractor, then electrician certification is required.

You still can work under your own C-10 contractor license as sub-contractor no certification necessary. Where is it written that a C-10 cannot sub to another C-10. If you are working for Wages then I belive you are correct.

 

[Sierrasparky]

I just re -read this c) As used in this section, "electricians" includes all persons
who engage in the connection of electrical devices for electrical
contractors licensed pursuant to Section 7058 of the Business and
Professions ...............

My take on this and I know other contractors have done the same is : If you are trenching and
laying conduit this is not a operation requiring the certification,
Some go as far as pulling in the wire and call that labor not electricians. If this
has not become a battel of words yet I would think it will.

 

[peter]

I too gree that the California test is a fraud. The questions seem to gravitate around subtle differences such as "the authority having juristiction a] approves b] authorises c] endorses d] alllows ..."
From a practicle perspective, all of the choices work but you have to look it up in the book to get the right answer.
Doctors and lawyers only have to take one test before they are allowed to practice. Why do we electricians have to take it every three years? You don't forget this stuff.
I took and passed this thing two times. In six years noboby asked to see my card. All the job offers in Craigslist require a state card. They didn't send me a notice before my second card expired.
~Peter:slaphead:

 

[MichaelKelley]

I am sorry to hear that, you have been failed by one as it hurts a lot when you fail after reaching so close, I think they should have some grace mark for such students.

 

[JDBrown]

I've never been able to decide if it's worse to fail by a lot or by one. On the one hand, you feel like a huge failure if you're way off the passing mark, but on the other hand, you get to deal with a lot of self-recrimination ("If only I'd taken a bit more time to re-check my answers") if you only miss it by one.

At least they tell you your score, though. For the Professional Engineer's exam, they just tell you Pass or Fail. If you fail, you have no idea if you missed it by one or if you got no answers right. If you pass, you don't know if you barely squeaked by or if you aced it.

Good luck on your test for the next time around. And just for kicks and giggles, I'll leave you with a conversation I once had with my doctor:

Dr. M.: Do you know what they call the guy who graduates last in his class from medical school?

JD: No. What do they call him?

Dr. M.: Doctor.

Then he grinned at me. On a totally unrelated note, he's not my doctor anymore.

 

[sparkycoog]

I was happier when I failed by a lot because I knew that there was a lot of room for improvement and only my ego was bruised. When you're knocking at the door and miss by one or two points and you gave it your all however, self doubt starts creeping in, pressure starts building (both the time and money spent on preparing for the test), and you're not sure what else you can do. For me, I'm kind of out of ideas until my next test since I've taken every practice test. I've been scouring the internet looking for harder problems or something similar to what I saw at the PSI test to no avail.

As a last resort, I'm just reading the code book cover to cover and trying to get familiar with the footnotes and such. The old Wireman and Journeyman tests I took which were pencil and paper were far more on topic but the PSI test is really designed to fail you rather than teach your knowledge or skill. I remember one question had answer choices like "24 square inch, 24 inch square" (that's not the actual number in case PSI is reading this and wants to sue) but once you're on the 80th question of a 103 question test, and you know the number that matters, why try to trip up the test taker by asking dyslexic questions like that?