IBEW Aptitude Test (2026): What's on It + Free Practice Questions
What it is, what's on it, how it's scored, and how to prepare. Updated October 2026.
69 questions · 97 minutes · no national passing score
Each local sets its own minimum. Find your local's rule.
The IBEW aptitude test has 69 multiple-choice questions and 97 minutes of testing, in two sections: Algebra and Functions, 33 questions in 46 minutes, then Reading Comprehension, 36 questions in 51 minutes. Plan on two and a half to three hours at the test site. That is the electrical training ALLIANCE battery; some JATCs use the separate GAN battery instead.
The IBEW aptitude test — also called the NJATC aptitude test or the electrical apprenticeship aptitude test — is a 97-minute, two-section exam administered by the electrical training ALLIANCE on behalf of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and its Joint Apprenticeship & Training Committees (JATCs). If you want into a union inside-wireman, residential, or telecom apprenticeship in the U.S., this is the gate you have to pass.
This guide covers the exact format, what's really on it, how scoring bands work, sample questions with worked solutions, a 4-week study plan, and the mistakes that cost most applicants an interview.
Test format at a glance
The electrical training ALLIANCE battery has two strictly timed sections in a fixed order, with a short break in between. Only one JATC we have checked says anything about delivery at all — Sacramento Local 340 refers to both a computer-based and a paper version, with different result times. Nobody else publishes it, and candidate accounts describe both. Ask your hall when you schedule, and treat any prep site that states one confidently as guessing. Here is the published breakdown:
| Section | Questions | Time | Per Q | Calculator? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Algebra & Functions | 33 | 46 min | ~84 sec | No |
| Reading Comprehension | 36 | 51 min | ~85 sec | N/A |
| Total | 69 | 97 min | — | — |
Every question is multiple choice with four options. There is no penalty for guessing, so never leave an answer blank — a guess is worth a quarter of a mark on average; a blank is worth nothing.
Section 1 — Algebra & functions
This section trips up more applicants than reading, and it's usually not because the math is hard. It's because the clock is unforgiving and you can't use a calculator. Expect:
- Linear equations — solve for x, systems of equations, isolating variables.
- Word problems — mixture, distance/rate/time, work-rate, ratio and proportion.
- Substitution and tables — evaluating a formula at given values, and matching a table of x/y values to its equation or graph.
- Number series — sequences built on an alternating rule, where two different operations take turns.
- Percentages & rates — markup/markdown, percent change, unit rates.
What's not supported for this battery: geometry, mechanical reasoning, electrical circuitry, spatial reasoning, trigonometry, calculus, or electrical theory. What you need is timed algebra drills.
Section 2 — Reading comprehension
Expect dense, unfamiliar factual prose, longer than the electrical training ALLIANCE's official sample. That published sample is a non-trade passage about Mayan calendar dates and solar zenith positions. Every answer is findable in the passage. You will be asked to:
- Pull a specific fact from the passage (detail retrieval).
- Infer what follows under a changed condition.
- Identify the main idea or the author's purpose.
The trap: passages are dry and dense. Most people slow down and re-read. Don't. Skim once, jump to the questions, then hunt for evidence. See reading section strategy.
Try three practice questions
Practice questions written in the format of the electrical training ALLIANCE's published sample. Not real test items.
1. Algebra & Functions
An electrician is paid a base rate of $24 per hour plus 1.5 times the base rate for any hours worked over 40. How much is earned for a 50-hour work week?
- A) $1,200
- B) $1,320
- C) $1,440
- D) $1,800
2. Algebra & Functions
A conduit run is 84 feet long. If 3/7 of the run is installed on Monday, how many feet are left to be installed?
- A) 12 feet
- B) 36 feet
- C) 48 feet
- D) 54 feet
3. Reading Comprehension
The deep red that coloured the coats of European armies and the robes of cardinals came, for three centuries, from an insect. Dactylopius coccus is a scale insect that feeds on prickly pear cactus in the highlands of what is now Mexico and Peru. The females are wingless and almost immobile, and it is the females alone that accumulate carminic acid, the compound that yields the dye. Roughly seventy thousand dried insects are needed to make a single pound of the finished product.
Before the Spanish arrival the insect was already farmed on a considerable scale, with growers maintaining cactus plantations and brushing the insects off the pads by hand. The dye that reached Europe after 1523 was some ten times stronger than the kermes red then in use, and it took hold quickly. For most of the colonial period Spain kept the source secret. European naturalists disagreed for decades over whether the dried grains arriving in their ports were seeds, berries or animals, and the question was not finally settled until microscopy became routine.
The monopoly ended not through espionage but through chemistry. The aniline dyes arrived from the 1850s and synthetic alizarin followed in 1868, and within a generation the trade had collapsed. Cochineal did not disappear entirely: it is still cultivated, in far smaller quantities, largely because it is one of the few red colourants that is not derived from petroleum.
The passage is mainly concerned with
- A) the biology of scale insects
- B) Spain's colonial trade policy
- C) how a dye derived from an insect rose to commercial dominance and then lost it to synthetic chemistry
- D) the history of microscopy
take the free timed practice test
Scoring bands (1–9) explained
The published scoring scale runs from 1 to 9, and there is no penalty for wrong answers. The raw-to-band conversion is unpublished at every tier, so no honest practice provider can tell you how many raw answers equal a given official band.
There is no national minimum. Of the 43 JATCs we have checked, sixteen publish a number — two require a 3, ten require a 4 and four require a 5. Eleven tell you only whether you passed, without a score. Nine publish no minimum at all, all of them GAN locals. Seven publish no rule. Your local's own page is the only answer that counts. Check what your JATC publishes on its local page, for example IBEW Local 3 apprenticeship (Long Island City), IBEW Local 134 apprenticeship (Alsip), Peoria JATC apprenticeship (Bartonville), Phoenix JATC apprenticeship (Phoenix) and CCETI Fresno apprenticeship (Fresno); the full list of locals has the rest. Full details: IBEW test scoring bands.
Sample algebra question (with solution)
If 3(x − 4) = 2x + 5, what is the value of x?
A) −7 B) 7 C) 9 D) 17
Solution: Distribute: 3x − 12 = 2x + 5. Subtract 2x: x − 12 = 5. Add 12: x = 17. Answer: D. A = −7 comes from reading the bracket as (x + 4): 3x + 12 = 2x + 5 gives x = −7. B = 7 is the right working with the last step reversed — 12 − 5 instead of 5 + 12. C = 9 is failing to multiply the −4 by 3: 3x − 4 = 2x + 5 gives x = 9. Target: under 84 seconds — that is all the clock gives you per item.
Sample reading question (with solution)
"A tidal bore forms where an incoming tide is funnelled into a river mouth that narrows and shallows upstream. As the channel contracts, the leading edge of the flood tide can no longer spread sideways, and the water piles into a single wave that travels against the river's own current. Bores are largest where the tidal range is great and the estuary is shaped like a wedge; a wide, deep mouth dissipates the same tide without producing a wave at all. Because the effect depends on the shape of the channel rather than on the weather, the arrival of a bore can be predicted years in advance."
According to the passage, what prevents a bore from forming in a wide, deep river mouth?
A) The tide there is weaker B) The tide can spread out and is dissipated C) The river current is faster D) The weather is less settled
Solution: The passage says the wave forms only when the water "can no longer spread sideways," and that "a wide, deep mouth dissipates the same tide without producing a wave at all." Answer: B. A is refuted by "the same tide"; C is never claimed — the current is what the bore travels against, not what stops it; D is refuted by the last sentence, which says the effect does not depend on weather.
The official sample passage is non-trade prose of exactly this kind — dense, factual, and about something you have no background in. That is the point: nothing on the reading section rewards electrical knowledge.
4-week study plan
- Week 1 — Diagnostic. Take a full timed test. Score honestly. Identify whether algebra or reading is your bottleneck.
- Week 2 — Weak-section drills. 30 min/day of algebra or reading, whichever scored lower. Focus on question types you missed, not the ones you already know.
- Week 3 — Timing under pressure. Do sets of 10 questions under average per-question timing (85 sec). This is where people leak the most points on test day.
- Week 4 — Full simulations. Two or three full 97-minute simulations, spaced 2–3 days apart. Same start time as your official test. Review every miss.
See the full breakdown in how to pass the IBEW test.
Test day & logistics
- Where: Your local JATC training center or a proctored partner site. The address is on your invitation letter.
- Bring: Photo ID and your invitation letter. The electrical training ALLIANCE's own test-day guidance says pencils, paper and all materials are provided — but at least one JATC we have checked (Atlanta Local 613) tells applicants to bring a pen. Read the instructions your local sends you; they win.
- Don't bring: Phones, smart watches, calculators, notes. Leave your phone in the car. Atlanta Local 613 is the only JATC we have checked that publishes a phone rule ("no calculators, no cellphones"), but four publish calculator bans — Atlanta, Steubenville Local 246, Fresno CCETI and Peoria — and no test centre is going to let you sit with a phone.
- Arrive: 20–30 minutes early. Locals that publish a rule do not admit late arrivals.
- Break: a brief one between sections — no JATC publishes its length. Use the restroom, eat a snack, reset.
Mistakes that cost bands
- Perfectionism on question 1. Skip and come back. Nobody gets extra credit for the hardest question.
- Leaving blanks. No guessing penalty. Answer every question.
- Untimed practice. If you never practice under 85-second pressure, you'll freeze on test day.
- Re-reading passages. Skim once, then hunt evidence from the questions back into the text.
- Skipping the diagnostic. Studying without knowing your weak section wastes half your prep time.
After you pass: the interview
Passing the test is step one. How the ranking works is set locally and few JATCs publish the mechanics. Where it is published, a qualifying test result buys you an interview and the two are considered together; at the GAN locals a Personal Experience Form and a letter of recommendation are scored alongside the test instead, and several do not interview at all. Prep for the interview the same way you prepped for the test: see common IBEW interview questions and the application checklist.
Sources
- electrical training ALLIANCE — published test format, scale and sample questions
- Per-local cut scores and retake waits: each JATC's own page, linked with the date checked on our local pages
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