Learning the National Electrical Code for Electrical Exam Study

Electrical Exam Prep

well hey everybody welcome to another

episode here at electrical code academy

incorporated

where we teach you the national

electrical code and hopefully you're

following us over on our youtube channel

which is

youtube.com forward slash master the nec

but you're also listening to our

podcasts and they're available over on

our website

at masterthenec.com or you can even

listen to them here

on our youtube channel or if you go to

your popular podcasting channel you can

also search

for master the nec kind of like you see

up there

and you'll be able to find us and you'll

listen to us that way we have a lot of

episodes both in podcast

as well as video now if you want to be a

subscriber and get exclusive content

then you want to go click the join

button over on our youtube channel

because that's where we

keep all of our private content our pre

re-recordings our rebroadcast i should

say of all of our wednesday night

sessions

we put in there for exam prep also

special content

as well analyzing the national

electrical code all of that is in

that members only area of course we do

share a lot of things public

like this video but there's a lot of

private stuff in there as well now

if you're thinking about passing an

electrical exam and you're thinking

this is going to be tough how do i pass

this electrical exam

maybe you've been searching around maybe

you've been searching for things like

electrical exam

prep electrical exam preparation

maybe you've been searching for in your

state look

the national electrical code is the same

in every state

what might change is they might have

some local rules

or regulations or laws that you need to

understand

things like when your license would

expire what the fees are

what fines are we're not going to teach

you that that's something that you need

to do

okay you need to understand what the

laws and regulations are in your state

and usually these are a free download

you can get them from your state

administrator in fact if you go to our

website we

actually can show you all the licensing

regulations for your state

and links to your state by simply going

to our website and you'll see

there's a link on our main page that

actually takes you to your state

regulations

okay so you can actually find out by

clicking on it

what the requirements are in your

specific state and download those

and in many cases they'll even let you

take those into the exam but

what you're really struggling with is

learning the national electrical code

and that's what i'm here to help you

with because i have taught over 40 000

students for over 30 years

i've authored books on the subject i

have taught seminars all over the

country

and i created a fast tracks program that

is designed to use what's called

ballistic training and that is

we just don't believe in videos only

because people go to sleep they get

bored by them depending on the

educator's

tone every monotone they just don't hold

your attention

but we have created a program that

interacts with not just videos

but also high graphic illustrations and

a lot of reading material now why do we

prefer reading material you might say

well can i just read a book

well there's a lot of people that try to

study

by just grabbing the national electrical

code that is the worst way you could

ever study

because the code book is not set up in a

way to be a study manual in fact the

code even tells you it's not an

installation manual

it's not the way to study by just simply

grabbing it and just flipping through

the code book

you need to have a structured plan so i

learned many years ago with my students

that if we created

a structured plan and i kind of walked

you through all the key fundamentals

that along that way you're not just

going to learn the nec

but you're going to also retain that

information that's what we've done in

our fast tracks program

and we've mixed in their videos high

illustrated graphics that really call

out

key things a lot of reading material we

even have a readme feature if you want

to sit back

and highlight it and let it read it to

you and you follow the bouncing ball and

you read it at the same time it's

reading it to you

that's the ballistic training it just

helps your

retention of the material again that's

the biggest problem i see with students

they can't retain the information so i

know you're on the edge of your seat

you're thinking what is this fast tracks

program he's talking about

well let's go look at this program

because i really am excited to show you

what it is all about

so in the fast tracks program you'll get

your own console you can access it 365

days

24 7 for an entire year you can print

anything you want

um and you're free to do that

again 24 7 365. all the pages in here

are again

really clear to print but here's the

thing

you can do this on a browser-based

whether it's a phone

a tablet laptop desktop

doesn't matter because it is

browser-based okay you get your own

console to log in

now everything is broken down into five

sections

but then you have inside of that you're

going to have units in these units

there's 19 of them here

19 breaking down every little piece and

component

and it also breaks it down into

something that is

palatable in other words something that

you can read it without being too bored

with it

because we give you the images and then

we give you what's called call outs

but rather than just talk about it let

me show you what you get in this program

this is just

a peek into the program so if i were to

go into cables and i click reading

material for example

in this case i've already in the program

if you want to go back to the beginning

you can get your table of contents take

you back to the

very beginning and we talk about board

holes very beginning

in this unit a see the call out this is

the board hole

and it tells you hole must be board so

that the edge of the hole is at least

one and a quarter inches from the

nearest edge of the wood framing member

and see how i clicked my left mouse and

drug over it

i can highlight that at any time if it's

something that i want to

keep and remember and again you can go

get over here in the study hub

it'll show you everything that you've

highlighted so you can come back later

to some important topics

but here's something else that i want to

do if you want to take the highlighting

off you click it again and just remove

it

see these chevrons right here anytime in

our program you see these chevrons

you need to grab your code book because

a whole process here is not just

watching a dvd and watch somebody else

commentate

here you're interactive so when you see

a chevron and we've added these chevrons

so that you go to your code book and

read that code section

because we're going to give you

commentary you're going to see the

illustration

now you're going to read the code we do

this all through the program

why do we do it this way it's

interactive it really gets you

maneuvering through this book

and this is what you want to do you want

to get used to there you want to get

used to going through this book

and we give you the process and how to

do it okay

and so that's what's unique about it and

here you've got a lot of notes a lot of

extra information

let's say you just want something to be

read to you well you can highlight it

left click and hold it i'll just do a

little bit of it and click read the text

holes must be bored so that the edge of

the hole is at least

and there you go if you want to read the

whole thing highlight the whole thing

it'll read it if you just click this

it'll read the whole thing to you if you

want to

kind of hear it follow along watch the

bouncing ball uh

all these things are tickling the senses

that's going to help you retain

the information there's a reason why we

want you to read

because reading comprehension is the

biggest

thing that people have a bad experience

with on an exam

they read a question and they just can't

understand it they

cannot comprehend what they just read

so how do we combat that we give you the

meat and potatoes of the core

requirement

we put it on the screen you read it okay

you go look it up in the code when you

see the chevrons

it starts to make sense okay now another

thing i'll tell you

our students know that they can go to

our website which again

masterthenec.com and over the top they

actually can download an app put the app

on their phone

and it has a feature if they can contact

me

at any time to ask me a question about

something in their unit that they don't

understand

okay and i have everything right here on

my phone

and i answer these questions now i have

literally

over a thousand students in my fast

tracks program

right now and let me tell you what i

answer their questions i

interact with them but they also come to

our wednesday night training

okay you're not required to come to our

training but if you want that training

that little bit

more for this low price that you're

paying for our program with all the

interaction with all the other benefits

you also get access to me on wednesday

nights where

i will answer your questions that you're

struggling in the unit something you

don't understand

we will go over it i even do scheduled

training

like box fill uh range calculations

all these types of things and i do this

also i record them

and i share them later for all of my

fast track students

so they can come back and watch it so

maybe you missed a session

but you still want to get the training i

make it available to you

that's all included in our program

nothing extra for that

okay so one of the things that you do

here is you simply go through the unit

and read it every time you see a chevron

you go look it up

okay again this works on any type of

browser-based system whether it's on

your phone your tablet

pc doesn't matter macbooks doesn't

matter it's browser-based

you can change the font size right here

if you want to be bigger

or you want to be smaller totally up to

you

if there's something that's really

important here you want to create a

bookmark go for it if you want to print

this page

go for it you have access to everything

now

also want to know that we do reviews so

at the end of the unit

you'll get review questions and you have

to answer these review questions now

we're just gonna it's not gonna be a b c

or d here it is you have to give your

code reference in this box

and the actual reference to the answer

and make sure you read the question

right this one wants the answer in

inches

then you make sure you answer the

question accordingly where do you get

these answers

well in many of these competency reviews

remember it's a competency review

so in that unit you'll get a lot of the

answers in that unit

but you won't get all the answers we do

this on purpose because

during the process of you going into the

chevrons remember in looking in the code

book

you're going to have to get better

familiar with going in and out and

maneuvering through

this code book i mean at the end of the

day that's what it's about right this is

the document that you get to take into

the exam

not this you don't get to take test uh

practice tests you don't get to take

uh dvds or or textbooks you get to take

your code book

so what we want to do is test your

competency not only on the material you

just read

but we're also testing your ability to

find the answers and they're going to be

within the

the actual genre of what the unit's

about for example

cables so it's going to be in chapter 3

but what we're doing is testing your

ability to

take what you read and retain it but

then are you able to

navigate in and be able to find the

answer

because we've given you the tools to do

that during that unit so

very unique they've been the questions

have been selected

very specifically in order to test your

ability

and that's what a competency test is

supposed to do

also at any given time you can always go

over here and click the book

it's available even during these exams

or these tests if you will

for i'm in unit four you could go to

table of contents you go down to unit

four

and everything is in here okay to be

able to understand

what you're dealing with and how you

work it out they're all right here

so you can just go through and pull up

anything here

and you can help answer your questions

here but all the material might not be

specifically in the reading material so

you need to remember that right

there was our set hole setbacks uh and

all those types so everything is here

you can print any of these pages as well

so it's all available at your fingertips

right there okay so anyway this is when

you're done with this

you fill it all out and you just click

submit and i

grade these personally every single one

of these

gets graded by me personally and i give

feedback

on every question that you get wrong

provided you get at least a 60 you get

less than 60 then you didn't comprehend

the unit very well

i want you to redo the unit remember

this is not a sprint

this is a marathon okay take your time

be very patient

you will learn the nec there's no doubt

about it if you follow this program

also you'll notice right there that

little green circle

when i do a grade a review that's where

you go to see

my comments on your review and to get

your scores and things like that

okay so a lot of information in here

you simply go through the unit do the

reading material go through

every folder and then do what's called a

unit for assessment that's your ending

assessment before you go on to the next

unit you'll also notice that we put

videos in here

as well that correspond with the topic

of that unit

and go through it then before you go to

the next unit

we'll grade it and we'll give you your

feedback you need to review the things

that you got

wrong and then once it's done you can go

on to the next unit

okay so as you can see there's tons of

units in here tons of activities

here you see it's broken into the

general provisions specific provisions

load calculations and in services and

electrical equipment

broken down in every unit there's a

review there's an assessment

here you see we put some videos in there

there's just some simulations in there

if you want to play with them it's up to

you

and then you've got some drill work in

this unit that you got to work on

right we put them all in there to test

your knowledge

okay but remember you want to go into a

unit

finish that unit before you leave that

unit

because there's so much packed into each

unit

next you get all the way through each

one of these and again we put all the

videos here

together so you can kind of jump to any

video you wanted as well

but we also get you some of these now

here's the video that i do that explains

how to dissect

the root of a question that's an

important video you can look at a

question

and dissect it so that when you're using

the index

or you're trying to get in the right

article or section

you have a better understanding of the

question and that's what that root

video does it really tries to break down

the fundamentals of identifying a

question

now here's the other thing that people

like people are paying

a lot of money for question databases

quizzes now there's some free ones

online

but they're not updated so in here

there's some

great questions they're full database

driven

they give you the answer when you get it

wrong and it actually gives you the

answer even when you get it right so

that you can see where it is in the code

book to make sure that you're on track

and so in here you've got 20 of these

with 25 questions do the math they're

all in here

and then you've got some final exams and

these have a hundred questions each

so there's a lot of questions for you to

work it and i encourage you to work

through these questions until you start

getting scores

that are above 85 percent so if i don't

get a score that's 82 percent

do that one again do that entire quiz

again and it'll scramble the questions

up

why is this important because we're

getting you in and out of the code book

look you cannot be successful without a

plan

you might stumble and maybe pass the

exam maybe

the problem is once you get in the field

and i have people that call me on a

daily basis

that they got their license but they're

still struggling

how to use this book the goal of my

program

is that you don't struggle you can find

the answers you don't need to call

somebody like me to help you in the

field

because you know how to navigate this

book

this is why we created the fast tracks

program it's designed

to help you learn navigate and become

very proficient

with the national actual code no other

course does it

like we do it some of them just give you

graphics

some of them just give you code somebody

has an automated person talking to you

but they also don't do what they don't

do

repetition they don't require you to

read the material

they don't require you to do competency

reviews they don't have the ability to

come on wednesday nights

and actually ask me a question about

something that maybe you heard on the

job or

or maybe there's a calculation you're

not you're confused with or

or maybe you don't understand maybe the

securing and supporting requirements of

non-metallic sheath cable

like you really want to or maybe you

want to know more about mc cable

i'm a resource i want to be your

resource

that's why people invest in this program

and if you go look at the price of our

program

tell you what go out there and price

question and answer programs

go question don't go price books and

then try to put all that together and

then

try to do the pricing on tutoring and

see what that cost you

you're getting tutoring with me every

week if you choose to attend

it's already in the course i'm invested

in your success

that's what our program is all about now

this video was not going to show you

every feature that's what it wasn't

designed to do

there's a ton of features in here we

have other videos for that i encourage

you to watch them

in fact if you go to our website

masterthenec.com

and you'll actually click on the exam

preparation course it'll say electrical

exam preparation click on it

and what you're going to see is a demo

video watch that video

because that video talks about all of

the features

just like what i talked about today but

even more in depth

and you're going to realize why this is

the best investment that you can make

for electrical exam preparation but look

i'll go even one step further

this is the best program you're ever

going to invest in to learn

the national electrical code it's not

about the book

it's not about the illustrations it's

not just about the

the uh the read me feature it's not just

about the competency reviews

it's about all of those things it's

about the wednesday night one-on-ones

that you have with me

it's about the ability for you to read

it and have a question that you can

reach me anytime

do that with other educators at least

ones that you google

and at my level see if they're reaching

out to you

do it that's why i'm here i have

dedicated my life to this

i have dedicated to teaching you i don't

know everything

but i know enough trust me to help you

be successful

hopefully you will invest in the fast

tracks program i look forward to seeing

you as a student if you have any

questions

as always feel free to reach out to us

the email address is above

info master the nec.com until next time

folks stay safe

god bless