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Checked against primary sources 2026-09-07

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Colorado Exam Book Rules: You Cannot Bring Your Own

The standard trade advice is to tab and highlight your own code book for months before the exam. In Colorado that advice is wrong, and following it wastes the preparation time you have left. Here is the rule in PSI's own words and what to practice instead.

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On this page
  1. The rule, quoted in full
  2. What those sentences mean, taken literally
  3. Why this changes how you prepare
  4. What to practice instead of tabbing
  5. The drills on this site that train it
  6. The formula page
  7. The other materials bar
  8. Questions people ask
  9. What this page cites

The rule, quoted in full

From PSI's candidate information bulletin 3395, printed as Updated 6/18/2026:

Effective 8/1/2026: all examination questions are consistent with the 2026 National Electrical Code book. The 2026 National Electrical Code book and Formula Page will be provided to you at the test center. You may not write, highlight, underline, and/or index on the references. You may not use any other materials. The 2023 code book can be provided upon request until 11/1/2026. After this date, the 2023 book will no longer be provided as an option.

The bulletin carries the earlier version of the same paragraph too, written around the 2023 book, and it uses exactly the same two restrictions: you may not write, highlight, underline, and/or index on the references, and you may not use any other materials.

So the marking bar is not new. It did not arrive with the edition change and it is not going away with it.

What those sentences mean, taken literally

Four things follow, and nothing else does.

The only references in the room are the ones PSI hands you. A code book and a formula page.

You do not bring a book. There is nothing to bring, because you may not use any other materials.

Tabs, highlighting, underlining and indexing are barred. They are barred on PSI's own copy, and there is no other copy for them to go on.

The exam is open book in one sense and not in another. A book is on the desk. It is not the book you prepared.

Why this changes how you prepare

A tabbed book is a personal index. It converts a question into a page in one movement, because you built the map yourself over months.

Take the tabs away and the map has to be in your head. That is a different skill and it is trained differently. You are no longer learning where your tab is, you are learning where the code puts a subject, which chapter it belongs to and what the heading is likely to say.

It also changes the clock. Each Colorado paper gives 240 minutes for 90 scored items, which is two minutes forty seconds a question. That is enough time to look things up if you know roughly where to go, and not enough if every lookup starts at the index.

What to practice instead of tabbing

Four habits replace a tabbed book, and all of them can be built in a few weeks.

Find by subject, not by number. Given a question about receptacle spacing in a dwelling, you should be reaching for the branch circuit article before you think about a number. The chapter order is the thing to know cold.

Use the table of contents at the front of the article. Every article lists its parts. Getting into the right article and then the right part is faster than the index for most questions, and it works in any edition.

Read table headings before rows. Most wrong answers on calculation questions come from the right number in the wrong table, and the heading is what tells them apart.

Practise on a clean book. Borrow one, or keep one copy unmarked deliberately. If you have only ever used your own marked copy, your first clean lookup will happen in the exam room, and that is the worst place for it.

The drills on this site that train it

Everything below is free and none of it needs a marked book.

The drill is built around finding a rule fast rather than recalling it. Spot the error puts a described installation in front of you and asks what is wrong with it, which is the same mental move as reading a rule and applying it. Which table trains the heading habit above.

The timed practice test runs 30 questions with a clock so you can see your real pace. The diagnostic ranks your weak subjects in 24 questions, which tells you where to spend the weeks you have left.

Then take the two worst subjects into the topic sets and work them with a clean 2026 book open beside you. Our sets are written to the 2026 numbering, which is the edition Colorado tests.

The formula page

PSI provides a formula page alongside the code book, on both the pre-switch and post-switch wording. It is the only other reference in the room.

We do not reproduce it and we have not seen its contents, so we cannot tell you which formulas it carries. What we can tell you is that it exists, that it is supplied, and that the same marking bar applies to it.

Plan your calculation practice on the assumption that you will do the arithmetic yourself and that the page is a prompt rather than a worked example.

The other materials bar

You may not use any other materials is a short sentence with a wide reach. It is not limited to code books. On its face it covers notes, printed tables, personal formula sheets and anything else you might want on the desk.

Board rule 3 CCR 710-1.8.A adds the identification requirement: the candidate must present positive photo identification in order to be admitted to the examination area. The test day page covers what PSI accepts.

If you want to check anything about what you may carry, ask PSI before the day rather than the proctor at the door. The proctor's answer is final and it arrives too late to plan around.

Questions people ask

Can I bring my own code book to the Colorado electrician exam?

No. PSI provides the code book and the formula page at the test center, and the bulletin says you may not use any other materials.

Can I tab or highlight the code book?

No. The bulletin says you may not write, highlight, underline, and/or index on the references. That applies to PSI's copy, and there is no other copy in the room.

Is the Colorado electrician exam open book?

A book is provided, so you can look things up. It is not open book in the sense people usually mean, because the book is not the one you prepared and you cannot mark it.

Which book will be on the desk?

The 2026 National Electrical Code, since August 1, 2026. The 2023 book can be provided on request until November 1, 2026, after which the bulletin says it is no longer offered.

What should I practice instead of tabbing?

Finding rules by subject, using the part list at the front of each article, reading table headings before rows, and working on a clean unmarked copy so your first clean lookup is not in the exam room.

How much time do I get per question?

240 minutes for 90 scored items, which is two minutes forty seconds each. There are 30 extra minutes for unscored items on top, up to 7 of them on the residential wireman paper and up to 10 on the other three, so plan for about four and a half hours in the chair.

Put it to the test

Thirty free questions, timed, with the working shown

Every miss comes back with the arithmetic worked out and the code section named, so you learn the trap and not just the answer. No account.

Start the free practice testSee the $79 question bank

All questions here are original. They are not actual exam questions, and no question bank can promise you a pass.

What this page cites

If your notes still say 2023

The 2023 to 2026 section crosswalk maps every section that moved, both directions, $29 once.

NEC and National Electrical Code are registered trademarks of the National Fire Protection Association.

Trojan Digital Marketing is an independent company. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by NFPA, the Colorado State Electrical Board, PSI, or any licensing authority, school or union.

The Colorado examinations are open book only in the sense that PSI puts a book on the desk. PSI provides the National Electrical Code and a formula page at the test center, bars writing, highlighting, underlining and indexing on them, and allows no other materials. The questions have followed the 2026 edition since 1 August 2026, and the 2023 book is provided on request until 1 November 2026.

All practice questions are original. They are not actual exam questions.

Built and maintained by Jeff Clerisier, Trojan Digital Marketing.

Every rule here is cited to the section it comes from, and corrections are logged in public with the date. This is study material rather than electrical advice, and it does not replace your own code book or your inspector.

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