What Is A TX-ME?

What Is A TX-ME, Exactly?

TX-ME stands for the Texas Master Electrician License Exam. It's the credentialing test that stands between a licensed Texas Journeyman Electrician and the top individual license tier in the state's electrical trade: Master Electrician. Passing it is a legal requirement, not a resume booster - without it, you cannot hold the Master license, supervise apprentices at that level, or pull permits reserved for Masters in most jurisdictions.

If you've landed here searching "what is a TX-ME," you're likely a Texas Journeyman weighing whether you meet the prerequisites, or you're already approved and trying to understand what the test itself covers. This article stays focused entirely on that Texas licensing exam - not any other credential that happens to share the same four-letter shorthand. For a deeper dive into terminology and how the name is used across the trade, see What Is TX-ME? and TX-ME Meaning.

Who Issues the License and Who Administers the Exam

The license itself is issued by TDLR, the state agency responsible for regulating electricians in Texas. TDLR sets the eligibility rules, collects the $45 license application fee, and reviews your supervised-hours documentation before you're cleared to test. The actual exam delivery - scheduling, testing centers, proctoring, and scoring - is handled by PSI, a third-party testing vendor.

This split matters practically: your application and approval happen with TDLR first, and only after that approval do you schedule your seat through PSI. Confusing the two agencies, or assuming one fee covers both steps, is a common source of delays. If you want the full breakdown of every dollar involved, TX-ME Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown walks through each line item separately.

Eligibility: Hours, Journeyman Time, and Approval

Before TDLR will approve you to sit for the exam, you must document:

• 12,000 hours of supervised on-the-job electrical work performed under a Texas-licensed Master Electrician.
• A Journeyman Electrician license held for at least two years at the time of application.
• Verification of your hours signed off by the supervising Master(s) - self-reported hours without verification will not satisfy the requirement.

One detail trips up a surprising number of candidates: a Journeyman Industrial license does not count toward the two-year requirement. Only the standard Journeyman Electrician license qualifies. If your career path has moved through industrial settings, confirm your license type before assuming you're eligible.

TDLR approval must happen before you're allowed to test, and once approved, you have a limited window - completion of licensing requirements is required within one year after TDLR receives your application. Miss that window and you may need to restart parts of the process. A full eligibility checklist, including documentation tips, is covered in TX-ME Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.

Exam Format: Two Portions, 108 Questions

The TX-ME is not one exam - it's two, taken back to back, each with its own clock and its own passing threshold.

That's 108 total administered questions across 320 combined minutes. The two portions are separately timed - unused time from NEC Knowledge cannot be carried over to Calculations, so pacing within each portion matters independently. You also must score 70% on each portion separately; a strong NEC Knowledge score cannot offset a weak Calculations score, and vice versa.

For a plain-language explanation of exactly what that scoring threshold means in practice, see TX-ME Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.

The 20 Domains That Define the Exam

TDLR organizes the content into 20 named domains - 10 under NEC Knowledge, 10 under Calculations. Several domain names repeat across the two portions (for example, "Electrical Services, Service Equipment, and Separately Derived Systems" appears in both), but they belong to different portions and test different skills: recall and code application in Knowledge, applied math in Calculations.

Services is the single heaviest topic across the entire exam. In NEC Knowledge, Services and Branch Circuit Conductors tie for the largest share at 11 of 70 scored questions each. In Calculations, Services stands alone as the largest domain at 8 of 30. Any study plan that doesn't front-load these three domains is leaving points on the table. The complete domain-by-domain breakdown, including what question styles to expect in each, is covered in TX-ME Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 20 Content Areas.

Fees, Retakes, and the Application Clock

The financial side of TX-ME has three distinct components:

• $45 - TDLR license application fee, paid to the state.
• $78 - PSI fee to take both exam portions in a single sitting.
• $78 - PSI fee to retake one or both portions if you don't pass on the first attempt.

Note that the retake fee is flat regardless of whether you're redoing one portion or both - there's no discount for only needing to retake Calculations, for instance. Once TDLR receives your application, you have one year to complete all licensing requirements, including passing both exam portions. For the full financial picture with context on where these fees fit relative to other license costs, see TX-ME Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.

What Test Day Actually Looks Like

TX-ME is delivered as a computer-based, multiple-choice, open-book exam at PSI testing centers, available in both English and Spanish. "Open-book" comes with strict conditions:

• You must bring an approved softbound NEC - no Handbooks, loose-leaf binders, spiral-bound, or ring-bound copies, and no added papers inserted into the code book.
• Notes, highlighting, and underlining made before the test are permitted in your code book.
• Tabs must be permanent, either manufactured by the NEC publisher or supplied tabs - no writing in your reference book once testing begins.
• A silent, battery-operated, nonprinting, nonprogrammable calculator without alphabetic capability is allowed at your station.

Bringing a prohibited code book format or an unauthorized calculator can result in denial of testing materials on the spot, so double-check your NEC copy and calculator against these rules well before your scheduled date.

After You Pass: Renewal and Continuing Education

Passing both portions gets you the license, but the license itself is valid for one year. Renewal costs $45 and requires four TDLR-approved continuing education hours per cycle, covering:

• NEC updates
• Texas electrical law and rules
• NFPA 70E electrical safety

It's also worth understanding that your individual Master Electrician license is separate from the Electrical Contractor business license. Holding the Master credential qualifies you to do the work and supervise others under it, but running an electrical contracting business as an entity involves a distinct licensing track through TDLR. Don't assume one automatically grants the other.

Who Actually Needs A TX-ME

The Master Electrician license - and by extension the exam - is typically pursued by Texas Journeymen who want to:

• Supervise apprentices and Journeymen directly under their own license rather than someone else's.
• Qualify for roles that require Master-level sign-off on permits and inspections.
• Position themselves to eventually hold or partner in an Electrical Contractor business.
• Move into estimating, project supervision, or code-compliance roles that specifically list Master licensure as a requirement.

Employers hiring for these positions - electrical contracting firms, industrial maintenance departments, and specialty trade companies across Texas - routinely list an active Master Electrician license as a non-negotiable qualifier. For a look at where the license opens doors in practice, see TX-ME Jobs and the broader outlook discussion in TX-ME Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis and Is the TX-ME Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026.

Building a Domain-Aware Study Plan

Generic study advice - flashcards, spaced repetition, timed drills - only pays off when it's pointed at the right targets. For TX-ME, that means allocating study time roughly in proportion to scored-question weight, not evenly across all 20 domains.

Because each portion is scored independently at a 70% threshold, don't let strength in one area mask a gap in another - track your practice scores by portion, not as a blended average. A structured week-by-week plan with practice-question targets is laid out in TX-ME Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt, and if you're still calibrating how much runway you need, How Hard Is the TX-ME Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026 breaks down the difficulty by portion. You can also run timed, domain-tagged practice sets on the main practice test site to see exactly where your scores stand against the real scored-item weighting before you schedule with PSI.

Frequently Asked Questions