NC Electrical Contractor Exam

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DesignerMan

DesignerMan

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Location
Lititz, Pennsylvania
Just wondering if there is anyone out there that has recently taken the NC Electrical Contractor exam. I am taking it on November 22, 2008 and wanted to get some insight on it.
I went through the practice questions in the NC handbook and they seemed a little more difficult than some of the exams I've taken so far.
I know they also include Fire Safety (NFPA72) questions & NC Business & Law questions on the exam, but do not allow those references to be used during the exam.
Just wondered how much I need to study in these books as well.
Thanks for your help...:rolleyes:
 
360Youth

360Youth

Senior Member
Location
Newport, NC
Study the Laws and Rules if you can. Call Raleigh and order the books and you will have time to study. The best is answer on how to take is to know the sections (where they are) and be familiar with your calculations, they take the longest and if you are comfortable you won't feel as rushed. Don't shy away from using the examples and index. Have you taken the test before?
 
DesignerMan

DesignerMan

Member
Location
Lititz, Pennsylvania
360Youth; Have you taken the test before?[/QUOTE said:
No not this one; I've taken the VA Master exam, Allentown, PA Master exam, & NJ Electrical Contractor exam.
I've got the NC Business & Law booklet & their Contractor book as well. I only worry because I am not allowed to reference them or NFPA72 during the exam.
Also, the practice exam in the NC booklet had some difficult questions in comparison to what I've seen on previous exams.
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Dennis Alwon

Dennis Alwon

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Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
DesignerMan said:
No not this one; I've taken the VA Master exam, Allentown, PA Master exam, & NJ Electrical Contractor exam.
I've got the NC Business & Law booklet & their Contractor book as well. I only worry because I am not allowed to reference them or NFPA72 during the exam.
Also, the practice exam in the NC booklet had some difficult questions in comparison to what I've seen on previous exams.
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I took the exam over 30 years ago but there were only about 5 questions from the booklet.

The NC exam has always been difficult with a regular passing rate of 17%. Well either the test is hard or we have an uneducated bunch of dudes here.:D

The unlimited is not much different from the limited.
 
B

blueheels2

Senior Member
Location
Raleigh, NC
Occupation
Electrical contractor
I just took the limited last Saturday and I got an 85. I was a little disappointed in that I felt I should have done better than that. The only difference in the limited and the unlimited is the high voltage questions and I think load calcs may be a little more difficult. I took a class from JCR Productions in early October. It was expensive but worth every penny. He has a practice exam book with 5 practice exams. These tests are dead on with the NC test. Jeff used to write the exam questions for NC about 20 years ago and he has stayed on top of it ever since. The last practice exam I took I made a 84 on it and I made an 85 on the real thing. This backs up Jeffs's claim in his code workshop that the grade you make on his practice exams will be pretty close to what you actually make. I would recommend that you take his class and if you cannot do that buy the exam book. I firmly believe that if I did not take that class I would have failed. He tells you exactly what to study and articles in the code to memorize in order to save you valuable time and energy.

I hope that helps. Oh yeah the practice exams are set up to be for the unlimited license,
 
ceb58

ceb58

Senior Member
Location
Raeford, NC
Dennis Alwon said:
I took the exam over 30 years ago but there were only about 5 questions from the booklet.

The NC exam has always been difficult with a regular passing rate of 17%. Well either the test is hard or we have an uneducated bunch of dudes here.:D

The unlimited is not much different from the limited.
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I was in the last testing group in Raleigh before they went to doing it by computer. Best I remember 720 people set for it only 216 of us passed. This included all classes of licences lim., intermed, unlim and the special restrictive. It was a long 6 hrs.
 
William1978

William1978

Senior Member
Location
N.C.
ceb58 said:
I was in the last testing group in Raleigh before they went to doing it by computer. Best I remember 720 people set for it only 216 of us passed. This included all classes of licences lim., intermed, unlim and the special restrictive. It was a long 6 hrs.
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When did they go from doing that big group test to doing it by computer?
 
360Youth

360Youth

Senior Member
Location
Newport, NC
Dennis Alwon said:
I took the exam over 30 years ago but there were only about 5 questions from the booklet.
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I think there was about 10 or more. The exam booklet should say the percentage of laws and rules question per classification. Yes, it is a pain that there are no books allowed. (NEC allowed, of course). I took an inspectors class last weekend for CEU and I was told you are allowed to take whatever does not fall out your book for those exams.
 
DesignerMan

DesignerMan

Member
Location
Lititz, Pennsylvania
Not this time...

Not this time...

Well I gave it a try with the study manual I've used on previous exams, but that was a mistake. This was a very different type of exam from the ones I took before.
I failed with a horrible score of 65%!!!
I've taken 3 master/contractor exams before and scored in the upper 80's to lower 90's on all of them.
Man, this was a tough one!
I'm going to take the advise I was given earlier about using JCR Productions exam book because I need some proactice on the types of questions found on this particular exam.
I've got to wait 3 months now before I can take it again so in the meantime you will probably see me posting several questions in this forum that are similar to NC exam questions.
I apparently need the help!!!:-?
 
William1978

William1978

Senior Member
Location
N.C.
You can take the Intermidate or the limited test right now if that would help you. You only have to wait 3 month's on the unlimited.
 
DesignerMan

DesignerMan

Member
Location
Lititz, Pennsylvania
William1978 said:
You can take the Intermidate or the limited test right now if that would help you. You only have to wait 3 month's on the unlimited.
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No, the Limited or Intermediate won't really help. And at this point I don't feel confident enough to pass them either.
I did speak to Jeff Rodriquez from JCR Productions yesterday and I believe I am going to get the calculations DVD & 500 Question Exam book. It would be great to take a class, but I'm in PA not NC. So that is out of the question.
Anyway, I'll get some study material that is more NC specific and go for it again in 3-months; better prepared this time.;)
 
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