1.1 PRC Board of Electrical Engineering & REE Examination Overview

1.1 PRC Board of Electrical Engineering & REE Examination Overview

Executive Mandate & Legislative Authority

The regulation of the electrical engineering profession in the Philippines is anchored on statutory authority administered by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) through the Board of Electrical Engineering (BEE). Operating pursuant to Republic Act No. 7920 (otherwise known as the New Electrical Engineering Law), the Board is legally empowered to administer national licensure examinations, issue professional licenses, enforce ethical and safety standards, and regulate the practice of electrical engineering across commercial, industrial, utility, and institutional sectors nationwide.

Prior to RA 7920, the profession was regulated under Republic Act No. 184, the Old Electrical Engineering Law of 1947. Recognizing the immense technological evolution in power systems, electronics, industrial automation, and high-voltage transmission, the Philippine Congress enacted RA 7920 on February 24, 1995; its Section 43 (Repealing Clause) expressly repealed RA 184. Under this modernized framework, the Board functions as a collegial regulatory body under the administrative supervision of the PRC (governed by RA 8981, the PRC Modernization Act of 2000).

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Electrical Engineering Practice Cadres under RA 7920

Republic Act No. 7920 establishes a three-tiered professional hierarchy designed to ensure safety, technical rigor, and clear operational boundaries across electrical installations in the Philippines. The law defines three distinct practitioner titles:

1. Professional Electrical Engineer (PEE): The highest professional grade, holding sole statutory authority to seal and sign all electrical plans, designs, technical specifications, feasibility studies, and official reports for building permits and utility interconnections without capacity or voltage limits.
2. Registered Electrical Engineer (REE): The primary engineering grade. Under Section 31 (Field of Practice) an REE may take charge of or supervise the operation and maintenance of electrical equipment in power plants, industrial plants, watercraft and locomotives; the manufacture and repair of electrical supply and utilization equipment; the teaching of electrical subjects; and the sale and distribution of equipment requiring engineering calculations. Section 33 (Personnel Required) places an REE on the same footing as a PEE for installations of any capacity and any standard voltage — RA 7920 sets no kilovolt ceiling on REE practice.
3. Registered Master Electrician (RME): The specialized technician grade, authorized to execute electrical wiring installations, maintenance, troubleshooting, and operation of electrical systems up to 600 Volts and an aggregate connected load of 500 kVA.

Practitioner Cadre Comparison

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Structure and Content Weighting of the REE Licensure Examination

The REE Licensure Examination is conducted semi-annually (traditionally April and September) by the PRC at designated testing centres across the Philippines. Under the PRC 2026 Schedule of Examinations the September 2026 sitting runs on 5 and 6 September 2026 across two days, with the separate Registered Master Electrician examination on 7 September 2026.

The content of the examination is fixed by two instruments that must be read together:

• Republic Act No. 7920, Section 19, which names the three subjects and sets their statutory weights of 25%, 30% and 45%. Because these weights are written into the statute, no Board resolution can change them.
• PRBEE Resolution No. 40, series of 2024, which adopted the Enhanced Tables of Specifications for the REE and RME examinations and expressly superseded Board Resolution No. 23 (s. 2011). The Enhanced TOS keeps the statutory subjects and weights but re-expresses the topics under each one to match CHED Memorandum Order No. 88, s. 2017 (the Policies, Standards and Guidelines for the BSEE programme), and specifies 100 items per subject — 300 items in total together with a Bloom's-taxonomy item distribution.

Candidates who study from a pre-2024 reviewer are working against the retired 2011 syllabus. The tables below reproduce the topic structure of the current Enhanced TOS, which is the authoritative statement of what the Board may ask.

Subject Weights and Item Counts

Mathematics — 25% of the examination, 100 items

Engineering Data Analysis is the largest Mathematics topic — larger than either calculus block — and, together with Numerical Methods & Analysis, was absent from the 2011 syllabus. Chapters 5 and 6 of this guide cover both.

Engineering Sciences and Allied Subjects — 30% of the examination, 100 items

Topic H is the largest ESAS topic and is where RA 7920, the Code of Ethics, the Philippine Electrical Code and Basic Occupational Safety and Health (BOSH) are all examined.

Electrical Engineering — 45% of the examination, 100 items

Power System Analysis is the single largest topic in the entire examination at 9.00% and 20 items — per-unit systems, symmetrical components, fault analysis, load flow, economic dispatch and stability. Chapter 19 is devoted to it.

Cognitive Level Distribution

The Enhanced TOS also fixes how items are distributed across Bloom's taxonomy. For each of the three subjects, roughly 30 of the 100 items test remembering and understanding, 50 items test applying, and 20 items test analysing and evaluating. Half the examination is therefore straightforward application of formulas, and only a fifth demands multi-step analysis — a decisive fact for how you allocate review time.

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Examination Grading Rules, Passing Criteria & Conditional Status

The evaluation of REE examination answer sheets is computerized, conducted under strict confidentiality by the PRC Rating Division. The statutory passing criteria are defined under RA 7920 Section 19 (Scope of Examination):

$\text{GWA} = (\text{Grade}_{\text{Math}} \times 0.25) + (\text{Grade}_{\text{ESAS}} \times 0.30) + (\text{Grade}_{\text{Prof}} \times 0.45)$

$\text{Pass Requirement: } \text{GWA} \ge 70\% \quad \text{AND} \quad \text{Grade}_i \ge 50\% \quad \forall i \in \{\text{Math}, \text{ESAS}, \text{Prof}\}$

Statutory Passing Rules

1. General Weighted Average (GWA): The candidate must obtain a final composite GWA of 70% or higher.
2. Minimum Subject Grade Floor: The candidate must not score below 50% in any single subject area. Even if an examinee achieves an overall GWA of 72%, if their score in Engineering Mathematics is 48%, the candidate fails the examination.
3. Conditional Status and the Removal Examination: Under the Board's Implementing Rules and Regulations of RA 7920, an examinee who obtains an average of 70% or above but has a disqualifying rating below 50% in any subject cluster receives a conditional mark rather than an outright failure. Section 21 (Reexamination of Failed Subjects) then allows the candidate to retake only the subject or subjects graded below 50%, and the licence is granted once an average of 70% is obtained in the repeated subjects. PRC's current documentary requirements set the removal examination to be taken within two (2) years after the last examination; beyond that window the candidate applies as an ordinary repeater. Note the precise trigger: conditional status requires both a 70% average and a sub-50% subject rating. An examinee who simply falls short of 70% overall, with no subject below 50%, has failed outright and retakes the complete examination — there is no conditional mark in that case.

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Application Requirements & Documentation Checklist

To apply for the REE Licensure Examination through the PRC's Online Licensure Examination and Registration System (LERIS), applicants must submit the following statutory documents:

• Degree Certificate: Official Transcript of Records (TOR) with Special Order (S.O.) number issued by CHED (for private institutions) or copy of state university charter (for SUCs), explicitly bearing the degree Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) and the applicant's graduation date.
• Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Clearance: Original PSA-issued Birth Certificate printed on security paper. Female married applicants must additionally submit a PSA Marriage Certificate.
• NBI Clearance: Original National Bureau of Investigation clearance valid for at least 6 months from the examination date.
• Government Identification: Valid Philippine Passport, UMID, Driver's License, or National ID.
• Passport Photographs: Three (3) recent passport-sized color photographs in plain white background, showing the applicant wearing a collared shirt, with a complete printed name tag (Last Name, First Name, Middle Name).
• PRC Examination Fee: ₱900.00 for examinations requiring a baccalaureate degree under the current PRC schedule of fees (a removal or conditioned examination is ₱450.00). After passing, initial registration is ₱600.00 plus the ₱450.00 annual renewal fee.

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Proven Examination Strategies & Time Management

Achieving top performance in the REE Licensure Examination requires a disciplined strategy designed around the multiple-choice format (MCQ) and test duration:

1. Time Pacing: Each subject carries 100 items and the examination is administered over two days. PRC publishes the exact room-call and session times in the examination programme released shortly before each sitting, so confirm them there rather than assuming. Plan on roughly two to three minutes per item as a working average, bank time on the 30 recall-and-understanding items per subject, and reserve it for the 20 analysis items that carry the multi-step power calculations.
2. Dimensional Analysis & Back-Solving: For numerical circuit or machine problems, verify units ($V, A, W, VA, VAR, \Omega, H, F$) before carrying out full derivations. Where appropriate, plug given multiple-choice choices back into governing system equations to save time.
3. Formula Memorization vs. Physical Intuition: Memorize standard transformer equivalent circuit formulas, induction motor torque-speed relations, per-unit conversion equations, and PEC conductor ampacity tables. Combine memorization with physical intuition (e.g., reactive power flows from higher voltage magnitude to lower voltage magnitude).