1.1 Michigan LARA Electrical Licensing & Exam Format

1.1 Michigan LARA Electrical Licensing & Exam Format

Exam Focus: LARA/BCC administrative structure, the Skilled Trades Regulation Act (2016 PA 407), the 8,000-hour experience requirement, the verified PSI examination format, permitted bound references, and the official published subject list.

Becoming a licensed Electrical Journeyman in Michigan is regulated by state statute. Electrical licensing is administered by the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) through the Bureau of Construction Codes (BCC) and the electrical administrative board. Knowing the statute, the eligibility rules, and the exact test-room policy is worth real points on exam day, because the Candidate Information Bulletin (CIB) states that the journeyman examination tests your knowledge of the skilled trades regulation act and the rules promulgated under it.

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Statutory Authority: The Skilled Trades Regulation Act

All Michigan electrical licensing, enforcement, and discipline is governed by 2016 PA 407, the Skilled Trades Regulation Act (MCL 339.5701 through 339.5739, effective April 4, 2017). Act 407 consolidated the separate trade licensing acts — including the former Electrical Administrative Act, 1956 PA 217 — into a single statute in Chapter 339.

The electrical administrative board created under the former 1956 PA 217 continues in existence and is designated as the board for the electrical article by MCL 339.5705. Its statutory role includes:

1. Standards and rules: promulgating administrative rules on candidate qualification, license classification, and renewal.
2. Examination oversight: approving the content of the licensing examinations that LARA delivers through its testing contractor, PSI Services LLC.
3. Remedial education: approving the Michigan electrical code, electrical fundamentals, or electrical theory course that a twice-failed candidate must complete before retesting (MCL 339.5715(3)).
4. Renewal education: approving the code-update course that every licensee must complete within 12 months of a state construction code change (MCL 339.5715(4)).

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                    MICHIGAN ELECTRICAL REGULATORY STRUCTURE             |
|                                                                         |
|           Michigan Department of Licensing & Regulatory Affairs         |
|                                  (LARA)                                 |
|                                    |                                    |
|                       Bureau of Construction Codes                      |
|                                  (BCC)                                  |
|                                    |                                    |
|                      Electrical Administrative Board                    |
|                          (MCL 339.5705)                                 |
|                                    |                                    |
|             PSI Services LLC (contracted testing vendor)                |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Candidate Qualification & Prerequisites (MCL 339.5715)

LARA — not PSI — decides eligibility. You apply to the BCC, and only after the department approves you does PSI notify you to pay for and schedule the examination.

1. Age and Experience

The department issues an electrical journeyman's license to an individual who is at least 20 years old, meets the general requirements of article 2, and has at least 8,000 hours of experience obtained over a period of at least 4 years related to electrical construction, maintenance of buildings, or electrical wiring or equipment.

2. Supervision Requirement — Read the Statute Carefully

The 8,000 hours must be earned under the direct supervision of an individual who is licensed under this article. That means a Michigan-licensed journeyman or master electrician — the statute is not limited to master electricians. This is a classic exam distractor: options that narrow the supervisor to "a master electrician only" are wrong.

3. Military Service Route (MCL 339.5715(1)(b) and (2))

An applicant who served on active duty as an interior electrician or an equivalent job classification, and who was honorably discharged within the 1-year period preceding the application, may qualify by filing an affidavit signed by a commanding officer, supervisor, or military superior attesting to 8,000 hours of entry-level experience and basic knowledge in ten enumerated areas — trade terminology and practical calculations, system and circuit grounding, circuit classifications and branch-circuit loads, ampacity/insulation/installation/protection/support/termination, motors and control circuits, load calculations and service and feeder sizing, fuses and circuit breakers and protective devices, raceways and conductor fill, power-limited circuits, and lighting fixtures. If the applicant falls short, subsection (2) allows the department to grant partial credit toward the 8,000 hours at its discretion.

[!CAUTION] Do not invent credit rules. Act 407 contains no general provision awarding fixed hour credit for a college degree or a trade-school diploma. The only statutory credit mechanism is the military discretionary credit in MCL 339.5715(2). Anything else is an evaluation the BCC makes case by case.

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Verified PSI Examination Specifications

PSI delivers the examination by computer at Michigan test centers (Dearborn, Holt-Lansing, Southfield, Grand Rapids, Gaylord, and Marquette) and at PSI centers in other states.

[!IMPORTANT] The pacing is the exam. At under two minutes per question you cannot read an article; you can only look one up. A failed candidate receives a diagnostic report of strengths and weaknesses — but a second failure inside two years triggers MCL 339.5715(3): you become ineligible for at least one year and must then present the board proof that you completed an approved course on the Michigan electrical code, electrical fundamentals, or electrical theory.

                 PSI JOURNEYMAN EXAM TIME BUDGET (150 MINUTES)
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Total Exam Time: 150 Minutes / 80 Questions = 1.88 Min per Question]    |
|                                                                         |
|   Pass 1: Direct code lookups (50 Questions @ 1.2 min)  -->   60 Mins   |
|   Pass 2: Calculations (20 Questions @ 3.0 min)         -->   60 Mins   |
|   Pass 3: Flagged / Michigan rules (10 Questions @ 2.0) -->   20 Mins   |
|   -------------------------------------------------------------------   |
|   Total Allocated Time                                  =   140 Mins    |
|   Buffer / Final Review Window                          =    10 Mins    |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Permitted References & Test Center Rules

The journeyman examination is open book, and the CIB lists exactly four permitted references:

[!IMPORTANT] Reference regulations that decide who gets turned away:

• All reference material must be bound. Documents printed from the BCC website must be bound with 3 staples on the left edge, as separate documents.
• Highlighting, marking, and tabs in the printed documents are not permitted. Only the NEC may carry factory markings, factory highlights, and factory tabs.
• No additional papers, loose or attached, may be brought in with your approved references.
• Writing, highlighting, underlining, or indexing in any reference during the examination is reported to the BCC.
• The NEC Handbook is not allowed in the examination room.
• A straight edge rule without calculations is permitted. You may use the on-screen calculator or bring a basic four-function, silent, non-programmable, non-printing calculator without an alphabetic keyboard. Scratch paper and a pencil are issued and collected.
• Other editions of the NEC may be used, but the items are written to the 2023 edition — bring the 2023 book.

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Official Subject Coverage (and Why There Are No Percentages)

PSI and LARA publish a subject list, not a percentage blueprint. The CIB states that the journeyman examination includes, but is not limited to, questions testing knowledge of the skilled trades regulation act, any rules promulgated under it, the current electrical code rules — Part 8, the Stille-DeRossett-Hale Single State Construction Code Act, any code adopted under section 4 (MCL 125.1504) and section 8a (MCL 125.1508a) of that act, and the theory relative to those codes.

The questions on electrical installations cover:

[!NOTE] Beware of published "weightings." Third-party prep sites circulate percentage breakdowns for this exam. Neither LARA nor PSI publishes item counts or percentages for the Michigan journeyman examination. Study to the subject list above, and give real weight to the four Michigan legal instruments — they are named first in the CIB and most candidates never open them.

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Out-of-State Applicants and Reciprocity

Michigan does not grant automatic journeyman reciprocity. An out-of-state licensee applies to the BCC, submits an out-of-state license verification form and verified experience documentation, is evaluated individually, and must still pass the Michigan examination. Note also that some municipalities — Detroit and Grand Rapids among them — require a separate local registration to work in the city.

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Exam Day Strategy

1. Tab for speed, not for coverage. At minimum tab Articles 210, 220, 230, 240, 250, 300, 310, 314, 430, 450, and Chapter 9 Tables 1, 4, 5, and 8 — using factory tabs only.
2. Triage. Answer direct definition and table-lookup questions first; flag long load and motor calculations for a second pass.
3. Read the qualifier. Check whether the item asks for a minimum conductor size, a maximum overcurrent device, or an exception.
4. Pre-read the Michigan documents. Part 8 and PA 407 cannot be highlighted or tabbed, so know their layout before you sit down.