TX-RW Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows

The Real 2026 Pass Rate Number

Anyone researching the Texas Residential Wireman Electrician License Exam (TX-RW) eventually asks the same question: how many people actually pass? The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), which owns the license and contracts PSI Services LLC to administer the exam, publishes attempt-level statistics. For fiscal-year 2025, the Residential Wireman examination-attempt pass rate was 30.15% - 331 passing results against 767 failures across 1,098 total examinations, with 83 additional no-shows tracked separately.

That is the most current official figure available, and it is worth sitting with before you schedule your own attempt. Roughly seven out of ten recorded attempts did not clear the 70% passing threshold. For a deeper walkthrough of every published TDLR statistic and how it's calculated, see our companion piece on the TX-RW Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows.

What an Exam-Attempt Pass Rate Actually Means

It's tempting to read "30.15%" as "less than a third of people ever earn the license," but that's not what the statistic measures. Because TDLR permits repeat examination attempts during a candidate's one-year eligibility window after application approval, one person could sit for the exam two or three times within that window, generating multiple attempts in the dataset. Each attempt - pass or fail - is counted independently.

This matters for how you interpret your own odds. If you fail once, you are not permanently part of a "70% failure group." You're one attempt inside a pool that includes people testing cold with no preparation, people re-testing after a narrow miss, and people who studied a single domain heavily while ignoring the rest of the blueprint. The number describes the system's aggregate outcome, not your individual probability, which is driven by how deliberately you prepare against the ten domains.

For a broader discussion of how difficult the exam is relative to other electrical credentials, read How Hard Is the TX-RW Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026.

Why So Many Attempts End in Failure

The exam structure itself explains a good portion of the outcomes. It is a computer-based, multiple-choice test with 80 scored questions delivered in 240 minutes, plus five unscored pilot questions and 20 additional minutes - 85 questions total across four hours and twenty minutes. That length alone tests endurance and code-navigation speed, not just knowledge.

Three recurring failure patterns show up in how the exam is built:

• Underestimating code-navigation speed. With 85 questions in roughly four hours, candidates who haven't practiced locating NEC sections quickly run out of time before finishing.
• Treating all domains equally. The scored-item allocation is heavily skewed toward specific domains - spreading study time evenly across all ten areas wastes hours on lightly-weighted content.
• Misreading calculation instructions. The exam directs candidates to use copper conductors and standard calculation methods unless a question explicitly says otherwise; missing that instruction leads to wrong answers on otherwise-known material.

A full walkthrough of every domain, including sample topic lists, is available in our TX-RW Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 10 Content Areas.

Domain Weighting and Where Points Are Won or Lost

TDLR's bulletin publishes an official scored-item allocation across ten domains. Understanding this breakdown is the single highest-leverage thing a candidate can do before scheduling an exam date.

Notice how small three domains are: Motors and Generators, Electrical Control Devices and Disconnecting Means, and Renewable Energy Technologies each carry only 2 questions apiece. That's 6 combined questions out of 80 scored items - worth reviewing, but not worth the disproportionate study time many candidates give them. Our TX-RW Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts organizes exactly this kind of high-yield versus low-yield material.

The NEC 2026 Transition Factor

A pass-rate discussion for 2026 has to account for a code-cycle change. PSI's bulletin, updated July 9, 2026, shifts exam references to the NEC 2026 edition, effective September 1, 2026. Candidates testing before that date are held to the prior code cycle; candidates testing on or after it are held to NEC 2026.

This transition period historically introduces a modest wrinkle into pass-rate data because candidates and even some instructors are working from mismatched references during the crossover months. See TX-RW Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling for how to plan your test date around the changeover.

Open-Book Rules That Trip Up Candidates

The TX-RW exam is open book, but the rules governing what "open book" means are strict enough that violations - or simple unfamiliarity with the rules - cost candidates time and points. You may bring a softbound NEC with notes, highlighting, or underlining that was completed before the exam. Permanent index tabs are allowed only if they were manufactured or provided by the NEC publisher.

• Homemade or third-party tabs are prohibited
• Movable tabs, added sheets, and the NEC Handbook are prohibited
• Loose-leaf, spiral-bound, or ring-bound books are not permitted
• You cannot mark the book during the exam itself - an electronic notepad is provided instead

Candidates who show up with the wrong book format or improvised tabs either lose valuable setup time sorting it out with proctors or lose the reference advantage entirely. This is a purely mechanical, avoidable failure mode that has nothing to do with electrical knowledge - and it's exactly the kind of detail covered thoroughly in our TX-RW Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt.

A Realistic Study Sequence to Beat the Average

Given the domain weighting and the open-book format, a study sequence that mirrors the exam's own point distribution makes more sense than a generic week-by-week template. The goal is to spend study hours roughly proportional to scored-question weight, front-loading the heaviest domains.

Because the exam allows repeat attempts within your one-year eligibility window, a failed first attempt isn't the end of the road - but each retake costs another $64 examination fee, plus your time. It's worth treating the first attempt as the one that counts. For a full cost breakdown including the $20 application fee and $20 annual renewal, see TX-RW Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.

Before you even reach the study phase, confirm you meet TDLR's eligibility path - 4,000 documented on-the-job hours supervised by a Texas-licensed Master Electrician or Residential Wireman, or completion of a TDLR-approved career and technology education program, along with separate signed experience verification from each supervisor. Full detail is in TX-RW Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.

You can benchmark your own readiness against realistic exam conditions using timed practice questions on our TX-RW practice test platform before committing to a scheduling date through PSI.

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