TX-ME Certification

What Is TX-ME Certification?

TX-ME stands for the Texas Master Electrician License Exam, the credentialing exam that individual electricians must pass to hold a Master Electrician license issued by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR). This is a specific, state-regulated licensing exam - not a general industry certificate and not any other credential that happens to share the "TX-ME" shorthand. The license it produces is distinct from the separate Electrical Contractor business license that companies, not individuals, apply for.

Passing TX-ME signals to employers, inspectors, and contractors that a candidate has demonstrated code knowledge and calculation competency at the level TDLR expects of a Master Electrician of record. If you're still getting oriented to the acronym itself, our companion explainer What Is TX-ME? and the plain-language breakdown at TX-ME Meaning cover the basics before you dive into exam mechanics here.

Who Administers TX-ME and How Registration Works

TDLR sets the licensing rules and eligibility standards; PSI delivers the computer-based exam at testing centers. Before you can even schedule a seat, TDLR must approve your application - you cannot walk into a PSI center and test without that prior approval. Once approved, you have a fixed window: all licensing requirements must be completed within one year after TDLR receives your application, so delays on the study side can force you to restart the paperwork.

The fee structure has two separate components. TDLR charges a $45 license application fee. PSI charges $78 to sit for both exam portions in a single attempt, and $78 again if you need to retake either or both portions. Because the fee doesn't scale down for retaking just one portion, it pays to walk in ready on both halves rather than treating one portion as a "practice run." Our detailed pricing walkthrough at TX-ME Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown lays out how these fees stack against renewal and continuing education costs over time.

Exam Structure: Two Timed Portions, 108 Questions

TX-ME is built as two independent exams administered back-to-back, each with its own clock and its own passing threshold:

• NEC Knowledge portion: 75 administered questions (70 scored, 5 unscored) in 150 minutes.
• Calculations portion: 33 administered questions (30 scored, 3 unscored) in 170 minutes.

That's 108 total administered questions and 320 minutes of combined seat time. Time does not transfer between portions - if you finish NEC Knowledge in 100 minutes, those unused 50 minutes are gone, not added to your Calculations clock. That single rule changes how you should pace each half; sprinting through Knowledge to "bank time" for Calculations simply doesn't work.

The exam is open-book, computer-based, multiple-choice, and available in English and Spanish. For a full breakdown of pacing math, question-format quirks, and how the unscored items are folded in, see TX-ME Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.

The 20 Domains That Define the TX-ME Exam

TX-ME organizes its content into 20 named domains - ten under the NEC Knowledge portion (Domains 1-10) and ten under the Calculations portion (Domains 11-20). Several domain names repeat across the two portions (for example, "Electrical Feeders" appears as both Domain 3 and Domain 13), but they test different skills: recall and code application on the Knowledge side, arithmetic and load-calculation application on the Calculations side.

Domain 2 (Services) and Domain 4 (Branch Circuit Conductors) are jointly the largest content areas in NEC Knowledge, each worth 11 of 70 scored questions. Together they represent nearly a third of the scored Knowledge portion, so weak coverage there has an outsized effect on your score.

On the Calculations side, Domain 12 (Services) is the single largest area at 8 of 30 scored questions, followed by Domain 17 (Motors and Generators) at 6. Domains 18, 19, and 20 are each worth only a single scored question, which means spending equal study time across all ten Calculations domains is inefficient - services load calculations and motor sizing deserve far more repetition than renewable energy math. For a domain-by-domain study walkthrough with worked examples, see TX-ME Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 20 Content Areas.

Eligibility You Must Clear Before You Can Test

TDLR won't approve you for TX-ME on ambition alone. You need 12,000 hours of supervised on-the-job experience worked under a Texas-licensed Master Electrician, plus a Journeyman Electrician license held for at least two years. Note the important distinction: a Journeyman Industrial license does not satisfy this requirement - only the standard Journeyman Electrician license counts. Your supervising master must be willing and able to verify your hours, so line up that documentation early rather than at application time.

Because TDLR approval must happen before you're allowed to schedule a PSI seat, and because your entire licensing timeline must close out within one year of TDLR receiving your application, treat eligibility paperwork as a critical path item, not an afterthought. A full checklist of documentation, timelines, and common eligibility mistakes is available at TX-ME Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.

Testing-Day Rules: References, Calculators, and Language

TX-ME is open-book, but "open-book" comes with strict limits. You may bring an approved softbound NEC only - NEC Handbooks, loose-leaf editions, spiral or ring-bound copies, and any added papers are prohibited inside the testing room. Notes, highlighting, and underlining you prepared before test day are allowed, and tabs are permitted only if they are permanent tabs manufactured or supplied by the NEC publisher. You cannot write in your reference book during the test itself.

Calculators must be silent, battery-operated, nonprinting, and nonprogrammable, with no alphabetic capability - a straightforward scientific calculator works, but anything with text-entry or programmable memory functions will not be allowed at the PSI center. Testing is offered in English and Spanish, and the exam is fully computer-based.

• Approved: softbound NEC with pre-made highlighting, underlining, and publisher-manufactured tabs.
• Not approved: NEC Handbook, loose-leaf/spiral/ring-bound versions, inserted papers, alphabetic or programmable calculators.
• No writing in the reference book once testing begins.

Passing Score and What the Historical Data Shows

Each portion requires a 70% score, and the two scores are evaluated completely independently - passing NEC Knowledge doesn't carry over toward the Calculations threshold or vice versa. TDLR's official FY2025 examination-result statistics reported a 22.21% pass rate for Master NEC (771 passes among 3,472 completed examinations) and a 19.08% pass rate for Master Calculations (753 passes among 3,946 completed examinations). These figures are portion-level historical results, not first-attempt rates and not combined-candidate rates, and they predate the 2026 code transition - so treat them as a directional read on difficulty rather than a precise prediction of your own outcome.

What that data does tell you clearly: Calculations has historically been at least as difficult to clear as NEC Knowledge, if not more so, despite having fewer scored questions. Candidates who assume the shorter Calculations portion is "easier" because it has fewer items are frequently proven wrong. For the fuller statistical picture and how it should shape your prep priorities, read TX-ME Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows, and for an honest assessment of overall difficulty across both portions, see How Hard Is the TX-ME Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026.

Cost Breakdown for the TX-ME License Path

The direct costs of pursuing TX-ME licensure are narrow and specific:

• $45 TDLR license application fee.
• $78 PSI fee to sit for both exam portions in one sitting.
• $78 PSI fee if you need to retake one or both portions.
• $45 to renew the individual license annually once licensed.

Notice that the retake fee is flat regardless of whether you're retaking one portion or both - there's no discount for retesting just Calculations versus retesting the entire exam. That fee structure is a strong argument for over-preparing on your first attempt rather than treating either portion as low-stakes. A line-by-line accounting of these numbers, including how they compare to the ongoing cost of continuing education, is in TX-ME Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.

Mapping a Study Schedule to the TX-ME Domains

Rather than splitting study time evenly across all 20 domains, weight your schedule by scored-question count. Domains worth 8-11 scored questions deserve multiple review passes; domains worth 1-3 scored questions need only a single confident pass. A sample eight-week structure built around the domain weights above might look like this:

Whichever pacing you choose, practicing under real time pressure matters as much as content review, since unused minutes on one portion never carry over to the other. For a complete step-by-step prep framework built around this domain weighting, see TX-ME Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt. You can also run untimed and timed practice sets on the main TX-ME practice test platform to get a feel for question phrasing before test day.

After You Pass: Renewal and Continuing Education

Passing both portions isn't the end of the obligation - the individual Master Electrician license is valid for one year and renews for $45. Each renewal cycle requires four TDLR-approved continuing education hours covering the NEC, Texas electrical law and rules, and NFPA 70E electrical safety. Remember that this individual license is separate from the Electrical Contractor business license; passing TX-ME qualifies you individually, but running a contracting business is a distinct licensing track.

Once licensed, many electricians start evaluating how the credential affects hiring prospects and pay potential. If that's your next question, TX-ME Jobs and TX-ME Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis cover the employment landscape, while Is the TX-ME Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 weighs the licensing investment against long-term career upside.