Guides · The exam
You are not taking “the” journeyman exam. You are taking your state's exam, from your state's vendor, under your state's rules — and the differences fail people who know plumbing cold.
Oregon's journeyman exam is 4 hours, 64 questions, open book. Other states run closed-book, computer-based exams through vendors like PSI, ProV or ICC. The code your state adopts (IPC, UPC, or a state code) decides which book belongs on your desk for the months before — studying the wrong code is the classic self-inflicted failure.
Wrong or mismatched ID. Late arrival. A reschedule requested inside the vendor's window, converting a postponement into a forfeited fee. These are administrative failures with trade-sized consequences: a new fee, a new wait, sometimes a new attempt clock (Indiana allows up to 7 attempts in 2 years).
Eligibility first — hours, split, registration (checker). Then your state's exam facts on its ladder page: vendor, fee, format, retake rules. Then, and only then, a course if you want one.
