Load calculations, feeders and services on the Texas journeyman exam

The half more people fail

In fiscal 2025 TDLR reports 6,328 attempts at the journeyman calculations portion producing 1,301 passes, which is 20.56 percent. The NEC Knowledge portion ran 5,731 attempts and 1,402 passes, which is 24.46 percent. More people sit calculations, and fewer of them clear it. Since March 2025 the two portions have been scored separately, which is what made that visible.

The Texas journeyman exam is two separately scored papers taken in one sitting. NEC Knowledge is 56 scored items inside 59 sat, with 130 minutes on the clock. Calculations is 24 scored inside 26 sat, with 110 minutes. Each half passes at 70 percent on its own, so you can clear one and rebook the other. For fiscal 2025 TDLR reports 24.46 percent passing the knowledge portion and 20.56 percent passing calculations, out of 26,303 attempts across every Texas electrical exam that produced 6,181 passes.

Where these items sit on the paper

On the calculations portion, services and separately derived systems is four of the twenty-four scored items, branch circuit calculations and conductors is another four, feeders is three and special occupancies is three. On the knowledge portion, branch circuits and conductors is ten of fifty-six and equipment and devices is another ten. Between the two papers this area is the largest single claim on your study time.

Our bank holds forty-two questions filed under load calculations, and the cross-area counts are larger: ninety-two of the five hundred mention a service, eighty-six mention a branch circuit, seventy-five mention a feeder.

The nine topics

• The four branch circuits a Texas dwelling has to have, and the sentence under each one that gets tested. The dwelling circuits 210.11(C) requires, counted the way the exam counts them.
• The rating of a branch circuit comes off the overcurrent device, and the Texas paper tests the direction. The rating comes from the device, and 120.11 decides what the circuit may serve.
• A feeder ends at the final branch-circuit overcurrent protective device, and two of its section numbers moved. 215.4 and 215.5 after the renumbering, and where the 125 percent goes.
• Six service disconnects are still permitted, and six handles in one panelboard are still the wrong answer. 230.70 placement and 230.71 count, after 230.85 folded in.
• One device protects the panelboard, and Article 408 will not size your feeder for you. 408.36 protection and the back-fed breaker rule people misremember.
• Demand factors on the Texas exam: which loads each one reaches, and which it leaves alone. Which loads get a demand factor, in what order, and the floor you cannot go under.
• The dwelling load calculation on the Texas journeyman exam, from floor area to amperes. The standard method in 120.41, worked in the order the exam expects.
• Kitchen and laundry circuits: what they cost the service calculation, and how the exam asks. 120.52 per circuit, the laundry allowance, and the cooking table note.
• Appliance and water heater circuits: how Texas tests the two numbers on one nameplate. Article 422 sizing, the 150 percent rule, and the double count.

The order that keeps the arithmetic honest

Demand factors covers which loads get one and in what order, and the dwelling calculation runs the whole standard method end to end. The bulletin instructs that optional calculation methods are used only where the question directs, so the standard method is the one to have automatic.

What the wrong answers are made of

The distractors in this area are almost all arithmetic that is internally consistent and starts from the wrong figure. A 1,500 volt-ampere small appliance allowance read as a dwelling total. Three volt-amperes per square foot applied to a service. Ninety-six duplex faces counted as one hundred and ninety-two outlets. Seventy percent of a dryer nameplate taken before the floor. Dividing a volt-ampere total by 120 when the system is three wire. Every one of those produces a clean number that appears on the paper.

That is why the method matters more than the speed. Feeders and services share the same failure mode.

What these cost on the job

A service sized from a calculation that started at the wrong figure is the most expensive mistake on this list, because it is found at inspection and fixed at the meter. A feeder undersized by one standard step is found the same way. Both come from the same habit of trusting a number that arrived cleanly.

The branch circuit side is cheaper to fix and more common. A dwelling that is short a required circuit under 210.11(C) gets written up, and the work is opening a wall that was closed. The branch circuit page counts what the code requires and what most people miss on the count.

What to do with this before test day

Write out the standard dwelling calculation from memory, in order, without the book. If you can do that, tab Article 120 and 230.70 and work timed sets. If you cannot, that is the week. You get about 4.2 minutes an item measured on the twenty-six you sit, and a method you have to reconstruct mid-question will not fit inside it. Thirty free questions, timed is the fastest read on where you are.

The worked calculations, with every figure shown, are in the question set.

Questions people ask

Why do more people fail the calculations portion than the knowledge portion?

TDLR reports 6,328 attempts at the journeyman calculations portion in fiscal 2025 producing 1,301 passes, a rate of 20.56 percent, against 5,731 attempts and 1,402 passes on NEC Knowledge, a rate of 24.46 percent. The two halves fail for different reasons. The knowledge portion fails on search speed, which tabs and a navigation map fix. The calculations portion fails on method, which only repetition fixes, and method errors repeat across every item that uses them.

Should I use the standard or the optional calculation method?

The standard method, unless the question directs you to the optional one. The examination bulletin carries an instruction that optional calculation methods are used only where the item says so, which means a candidate who has drilled the optional method as a shortcut will produce a number that is offered as a wrong answer. Have the standard method automatic and know that the optional exists. On a paper that gives you about 4.2 minutes an item, choosing between methods mid-question is time you do not have.

What is the most common load calculation mistake?

Applying a demand factor before a floor. The dryer load is the clearest case: taking 70 percent of a nameplate that sits below the minimum produces a smaller number than the code allows, and that number is usually one of the four choices. The general pattern is that most wrong answers in this area are arithmetic done correctly from the wrong starting figure, which is why they look right when you land on them. Working in a fixed order is the defense.

How much of the Texas journeyman exam is load calculations?

On the calculations portion, services and separately derived systems is four of twenty-four scored items, branch circuit calculations and conductors is four, feeders is three and special occupancies is three, which is fourteen of the twenty-four. On the knowledge portion, branch circuits and conductors is ten of fifty-six and equipment and devices is another ten. Counting both papers, this is the largest single claim on a Texas journeyman candidate study plan.

Is Article 220 still Article 220 in the 2026 code?

The load calculation material moved to Article 120 in the 2026 edition, which Texas adopted under 16 TAC 73.100 effective 1 September 2026. So the dwelling calculation sits at 120.41, the small appliance and laundry allowances at 120.52, and the general requirements at 120.11. Study material written for a 2023 book will send you to Article 220 for all of it. The rules read substantially the same. The address is what changed, and it changed for the whole article.