I've been in the Heavy Industrial part of the electrical trade for 16 years. I want to change gears so I decided to go for my Masters. which "I have gotten permission from the state of Utah to take their test." It's been I think 13 years since I've tested, I'm kinda freaking out! I am wondering if you guy's and gals knew of any really good web sights so I could bone up on my code, I have ordered a bunch of calculation material VD ohms law stuff like that. any help would be very much appreciated. thank you for your time: Erick Tollen

welcome,
this is a great site. i have learned alot from experienced people that contribute here.

Mike Holt's study guide is extremely comprehensive.

Welcome Aboard Erick,

Bill

Now, how is that for swearing in Church?

Seriously, Erick, I was just kidding, there is a heap of worthy reading available down in the Technical Reference Area of this site.

Mr Scott35 has done a wonderful job of this area, I would put money on any electrician learning something from his posts there.
Instant Link

BTW, welcome aboard, mate, I hope your exam goes well.
Just remember this, people seem to "beat themselves up" when studying for an exam, thinking they aren't prepared or haven't done enough to sit the exam.

I have sat about 58 exams since I left school, believe me, what matters the most is YOUR frame of mind going into the exam room, you need to be relaxed.

I have set apprentices up for exams before, one thing you HAVE to do is READ the paper before you start, some people have failed by not taking on board simple instructions outside of the actual paper, but were written on the paper itself.

Like,"Do not do calculations on this exam paper, to do so will void your results, you have been provided with extra paper for this purpose"

Welcome to ECN from one of the 'Jersey Guys'

As above, Mike' site and books are helpful, and YES there is a lot of good, useful info here at ECN; plus....you can get opinions, interpertations, and have a bit of fun here at the forums.

You may want to consider a evening course at a local Vo-Tech, or thru a private instructor also.

Take care, stay safe

Erick:

Also remember that the purpose of these exams is not to prove that you have memorized the code, but to show that you know how to use it as your reference tool. If you maintain that mindset, you'll focus on where to find answers rather than trying to remember them. That is the best advice that I can offer.

Welcome aboard. I've sure learned a lot here myself as well. It is interesting to keep up on codes/practices in other parts of the country or even the rest of the world for that matter. You will also find that things are very relaxed here, with no tension or bickering. I haven't been here very long, but I feel as if I know much more about the industry as a whole from my experience here.

I vote for Tom Henry's method. If you do as he says you will pass on your first try.

My situation is just like yours. I started my career in construction, but ended up taking the masters after more than 15 years in industrial. I went to the local community college and spent 12 weeks on Tom Henry's program.
My last class was on a Wednesday and I tested the following Saturday. Passed.

Check out the video training.

when I took my masters test I bought a Stallcup's masters exam study guide and a electric pro calculator both came in very handy.The calculator was useful because you can do so much with it,like conduit fill,amp.of wires,ground sizes,... all buy a few quick button presses instead of long formulas and the such.On my test some of the questions came right out of the study guide.

I am surprised you could take a calculator like that. When I did my inspector exams (IAEI and SBCCI) they only let you have a basic math unit.

I am too. But a tool can save time and its something folks use in the field so why not use them in a test.

The thinking is they wanted to be sure you could find and use the tables in the book in case you had a dead battery in your calculator or left it in the truck. It also demonstrates that you understand the concepts. After you have looked at these things for a few years you can tell an overstuffed box or raceway within a wire or so with a glance but it is still good to run the numbers now and then, just for drill.
In the case of a box, a "neat" guy can make an overfilled box look OK and a sloppy job can make a box with plenty of room look stuffed.

I could not use that type of calculator either. But I was able to get through with my code book stuffed with "keyword index" and "reminders".
I also had the ohms law circle on the back of my calculator. These items were provided to me from Tom Henry's course.

I did get a backpack in to the test, but was to scared to pull anything else out. Code book and calculator was all that was allowed.
I got an extra 15 minutes as they started collecting the exams from the other end of the auditorium.
There were about 200 people of all different trades testing that day.
Now the test is only four hours long, computerized and is available every Saturday. When I took mine it was a 150 mile drive and 8 hours long.
The drive home seemed like it took forever as I was sure I failed.

The only test prep I had was in a very active internet NEC discussion group. (Harold Endean, Joe Tedesco and several others). We quizzed each other every night and by test time I knew a lot of the stuff by heart and was familiar enough with the book that I could find the rest quickly.
All together I took 5 exams (Iaei 2A,2B, 2C, SBCCI Comm and 1&2 fam)and I finished them all early. I was out of the SBCCI 1&2 family in 45 minutes. That was the last one I took. It seemed that by then I had already seen everything on the test. I just clicked them off.
I agree I was not very confident on the first one.
I came up with my own book tabs and I used a highlighter to mark the edges of pages on the most important sections. Make sure you have all the important tables tabbed. That is a huge time saver. Just deciding what to tab will help you learn the book.

I think for the most part in order to use the calculator correctly you have to understand the concepts. A dead battery happens in the real world, you best be prepared:)