# WA state administrator's exam



## chris856 (Jun 12, 2009)

I am planning on taking a class and taking the test in May. I was wondering if anyone has any good advice or knows of some good resources or even some good literature to bring along for it.
I'm pretty good when it comes to referencing code, so I am thinking I will need to brush up on my theory and load calcs and such.


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## mikeg_05 (Jan 1, 2009)

WAC book


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## BEAMEUP (Sep 19, 2008)

chris856 said:


> I am planning on taking a class and taking the test in May. I was wondering if anyone has any good advice or knows of some good resources or even some good literature to bring along for it.
> I'm pretty good when it comes to referencing code, so I am thinking I will need to brush up on my theory and load calcs and such.


 
Do load calcs untill your blue in the face, and study the admin side of the wac, and you should do fine.


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## oramac406 (Feb 7, 2010)

Tom Henry has a pretty good book for calculations. Easy to understand and very informative. Helped me pass my Florida Journeyman test and Colorado journeyman and Masters


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## oramac406 (Feb 7, 2010)

Go online and type in Tom Henry Electrical books


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## chris856 (Jun 12, 2009)

Got it. Tom Henry it is.


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## nitro71 (Sep 17, 2009)

WAC and NEC part is easy IF you can read fast. Study duplex, multifamily, multi-motor feeder protection/sizing, marinas and multiple welder calcs. Mike Holts basic Exam Prep book is decent enough. Calcs part is challenging. Test is going to change in March so everything I've just told you can be taken with a grain of salt if you aren't taking the test this mos. Have no idea what or how it's changing.


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## The Lightman (Jan 9, 2010)

oramac406 said:


> Tom Henry has a pretty good book for calculations.


They run excellent live classes as well. I did a six week class there prior to taking my Florida exams, they're good people. Get their highlighted/tabbed book and practice the timed tests in a quiet environment.


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## kevinsryan (Jun 29, 2010)

*Washington Major Load Calcs*

Chris
I am taking the exam this week. Can you give me a rough overview on the load calc section of the exam.


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## chris856 (Jun 12, 2009)

kevinsryan said:


> Chris
> I am taking the exam this week. Can you give me a rough overview on the load calc section of the exam.


It will mostly cover dwelling unit load calcs so that is the important part. You will likely have one multimotor load calc and I hear it varies on whether you will be sizing for wire size or OCD size. There will be one really long commercial load calc, I would do this last. Check all your stuff on everything else then do this one if you have time. There will likely be motors and a multi welder calc on it.
If I remember right, I had 1 duplex standard and 1 duplex optional, standard and optional multifamily, 1 motor, 1 commercial, and the rest were pretty easy, stuff like what the minimum amount of 15A and 20A circuits are required on a house with 1000sq feet. Just remember to divide the square feet by 600 for 15 amps and 800 for 20 amps.
The last two were just asking the load in VA of a dwelling unit and a church or something like that.

I was probably the most stressed about the math section and I had by far the easiest time on it. Bring your ugly's and dog ear page 15, 24, 29, 30, 31, and 50. You will come across some odd theory questions and a lot of them can be found on those pages. Make sure you at least have a tabbed book cause the NEC part wll have you going all over the place.

God help your soul on the RCW/WAC.


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## kevinsryan (Jun 29, 2010)

*Washington State*

What do you mean dog ear page?How are you using the 600 and 800 for figuring the amount of circuits in the house problem?


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## chris856 (Jun 12, 2009)

kevinsryan said:


> What do you mean dog ear page?How are you using the 600 and 800 for figuring the amount of circuits in the house problem?


 On a dwelling unit you have 3VA per sq. ft. Imagine you have 1000 sq ft
So one way to do the problem is 3x1000= 3000
A fifteen amp circuit is 15x120= 1800
So then you divide 3000 by 1800 and get 1.666667 round up and you get a minimum of 2
Dividing the sq. ft. by 600 skips a couple steps and speeds things up.
Instead of multiplying the sq ft by 3 every time you just use 1800 divided by 3 all the time which is 600.
Same goes for a 20A circuit.
20x120= 2400
2400 divided by 3 is 800.

By dog ear I mean just mark the page somehow, like folding the corner.
You will see a question like "Inductance is expressed in _____" and the answer is Henry's. In the 2008 ugly's on page 29 it say inductance is expressed in henrys.


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## chris856 (Jun 12, 2009)

kevinsryan said:


> What do you mean dog ear page?How are you using the 600 and 800 for figuring the amount of circuits in the house problem?


 Good luck and let me know how it goes.


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## chris856 (Jun 12, 2009)

Oh yeah, make sure you eat real good before you go. They make you take all three sections with no breaks in between the first time you take it. It is a seven hour test and any bathroom or coffee breaks will come out of the time given for the test, at least that's how it went for me.


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## kevinsryan (Jun 29, 2010)

Thank you and I will certaily let you know the results. :sweatdrop:


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## kevinsryan (Jun 29, 2010)

*Washington*

Chris, Well I did a 76 on the WAC, a 89 on the NEC and Theory and a 50 on the load calc section.
Your pointers were quite helpful and I certainly wish I had of known multifamily dwelling cals a whole lot better. Thanks for your help. Time to go to work on the calcs. If you would like a copy of the questions I have put together I would be willing to send them to your email address.Let me know.


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## mrmufc27 (Nov 9, 2010)

hey kevin 

i would love your questions as im getting ready to start the studying phase of the test lol i just relocated here to wa from texas and passed the journeymans figured the administrators is the next step if your offering of course lol


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

mrmufc27 said:


> hey kevin
> 
> i would love your questions as im getting ready to start the studying phase of the test lol i just relocated here to wa from texas and passed the journeymans figured the administrators is the next step if your offering of course lol


If it helps, I just passed the WA Administrator test a couple weeks ago.

The NEC portion was pretty standard... just had to jump around a lot. I had a couple of theory questions too, such as "What is the inductive reactance of .12 millihenry inductor operating at 60 Hz?" And "You place an ohmmeter across two leads, and it gives a reading of 0 ohms. What does this indicate? A) Ground fault B) open circuit C) short circuit D) none of the above." Overall, just know your code. If you have a key word index, it helps too.

The WAC/RCW portion sucks. It has 17 questions or so. I failed it the first time through and had to retake it a couple weeks later. Can't really offer much advice on this... just read the RCW and WAC cover to cover and try to retain what you can. Most of the installation requirements and code amendments are in the WAC portion, so if you get a question like "What kind of venting does a residential sewage disposal chamber require?" or some such, then look in the WAC. The RCW is mostly administrative crap... it's REALLY hard to navigate (at least for me). Your best bet is just to read it a few times. I had to retake this portion 2 weeks later, and it wasn't much better the 2nd time (though I passed).

The calculations weren't as bad as I thought. I had 10 questions total... maybe half of them were things like motor feeder OCPD sizing, multifamily cooking appliance service demand, and the like. Not full building calcs. The other half WAS building calcs. I had a couple of residential duplexes, one multifamily dwelling, one single-family dwelling, and one really brutal combination retail space/commercial industrial double-occupancy service calc with show windows, lighting, plugs, specific appliances and equipment, several motors, and about 432,098,391,045 welders.

Pretty sure I didn't get that question right.

Overall, you only need 70% to pass. So don't get too hung up on a single question or calculation unless you're sure you've got the time to spare. I finished the NEC portion like two hours early so instead of moving on to the next section, I reviewed that portion as if I were taking it for the first time. If they give you the time, you might as well use it. Also, there's no penalty for getting the wrong answer, so if you're running short on time or you just DON'T KNOW, then guess. You'll have a 25% chance of getting it instead of a 0% chance.


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## mrmufc27 (Nov 9, 2010)

Thank you i appreciate your input.......


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## mambo (Dec 14, 2011)

*Share !*

Do not be greedy. SHARE! Write your experiences of the exam when you complete it:
I wrote the 06 Limited Energy (WA) - Electrical Administrator exam with PSI in Oct/2011. I thought it was rather easy, i studied for 2 weeks and the last 2 days really crammed for about 10 hours a day.

My experience and recommendation on what you should know :thumbsup::

*From NEC 2008:*
1. Basic working knowledge of electricity: What is Impedance, Reactance.
2. I did not have any P=IV V=IR or any lighting calculation based questions.
3. What is the resistance of a cable at a given length.
4. What maximum distance can a telecommunication cable be supported.
5. What maximum distance can a PVC pipe be supported (for a given size)
6. What is minimum size of grounding conductor under different conditions
7. What is Class 1, 2, 3 (Know 725!!!)
8. Understand Class I, II, III, Divisions 1 and 2 (what are they, where they apply)
9. Understand how transformers work, relation of primary to secondary windings.
10. Box fill (cu.in. calculations) based on wiring that goes into it.
11. Types of equipment grounding conductors (250.118)
12. Temperature limitation of conductors. They asked a question based on the FPN! 310.10
13. Spacing between service for power and communication (800.44(A)(4))
14. What do the Chapters 1 thru 4 cover (applies to all electrical installations)
15. NEMA ratings and their types
16. Substitutions of cables (T725.154(G))
17. Class 1 Power-Limited Circuits (30V/1000VA) 725.41(A)(1)... but you should know the whole article 725!
18. What is peak based on RMS calculation
19. I had no questions which related to Chapter 9 T1 or T2. However there was a question for the bend radius of a coax cable or some low voltage cable (5x).
20. Chapter 9 Table 11(A) - maximum overcurrent protection question
21. No questions for conduit or tubing fill from Annex C
22. Pretty obvious, know your T310.16. They asked conductor size for a given current of a cable type.
23. Spray Application, Dipping and Coating Processes 516.3 (Classification of Locations)
24. Power source for PLFA CCT's (760.121(A) (1) thru (3))
25. Something about Audio Article 640 (as it related to protection) - forgot
26. Know your articles 500, 501 thru 503
27. Running wiring thru a Duct. (permissable/not permissable)
28. Find capacitive reactance calculation (Xc = 1/(2 * pi * F * C))




*From WAC/RCW:*
1. How many voting members on the board (15)
2. How many administrators can a electrical contractor assign
3. Electrical Board: Professional Engineer is a member of RCDD
4. Can a telecom worker install cable trays
5. Something about laboratory tested equipment in WA (i forgot)
6. Number of days for appeals, disputes. Highlight all numbers in RCW so you can quickly find them.
7. Penalty for misrepresentation is deduction of 2000 hours
8. 10 day notification for administrators termination
9. There were no definition based questions.
10. Electrical Contractor License is valid for how long
11. There was a question about asking 8 hour training for renewal - forgot
12. Nothing on WAC Part A, B, C. I would recommend you read Part D, E, and mainly F (Administrative)

Thats all i can remember boys and girls. 
From Russia with Love - J :thumbup:
SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES you GREEDY PIGS! dont just read for your own benefit. *SHARE!*


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## kbatku (Oct 18, 2011)

On the load calcs, it's all about the exceptions baby. They will work you in circles until you understand what the problem is really about.


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## NWsparky (Jun 27, 2011)

I took the masters at the beginning of this year and didn't find it too difficult, except WAC/RCW. The code questions were straight forward - either you can find them or not. The load calcs were - commercial bldg, church lighting, (2) motor load calcs, single family standard, RV park sizing feeders, optional duplex (which I know I missed because I didn't times it by three). I don't remember my other calcs. Good luck with the test, and I hope you have work lined up already cause its not any better up here for new businesses compared to anywhere else.


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## Wireman191 (Aug 28, 2011)

WAC and code calculations.


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## sacadmin (Feb 12, 2013)

*WA Admin Calc test*

I have taken the Calc test twice. I studied hard for the second and failed by 1. I used Tom Henry but still couldn't get the same results as the test. I have done many many commercial calc as a California C-10 contractor but not many dwellings for a while. Sticking points are: every reference includes 2 appliance circuits @ 1500W. But the test doesn't state that in the list of loads. So if you assume to include it is that correct. I actually wasn't able to match exactly any of the dwelling calc. Pointers are requested. I'm going to go for the third attempt.


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## europeancar (Oct 29, 2013)

Anyone Study for the wa 06 limited energy admin exam.

I have taken once with no luck and studied a ton beforehand. I think what I am held up on is how many questions are not related to the 06 license. I also found that the wac/rcw is super tough with a bunch of questions that seems to be different upon reading different areas of the wac or rcw?

There where a couple question such as 14awg and rated lbs. Could not find this any where in the motor controller section?

Nema wire and class M wire. Could not find them anywhere?

Any more insite on what you guys are studing for.


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## Scott Foster (Dec 1, 2013)

Hi everyone, I'm new to this sight and appreciate the above advice from everyone. I'll be taking my administrator exam on the 10th of Dec. I've taken several classes from CEUWashington and you can do practice exams at his web sight http://ceuwashington.com/ . If you click on EXAM PREP, click on ENTER COURSE and create a free account. I've taken the practice exams several times and no two have been the same. There are test on the NEC and WAC/RCW. Hope this helps


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## Scott Foster (Dec 1, 2013)

*Hope this helps someone*

I pass my Administrator Exam, YAY :thumbup:, so while it is fresh on my mind here are my thoughts on it.

NEC: Make sure you know how it is laid out so you can find things fast, a class on it would be recommended if you haven't have one yet. Although there are a variety of exams my RCW/WAC section was loaded with telecommunication questions (the one section I really didn't study  ). there were questions on the board and how long their term lasted, study the administration section. I used several different books: NEC 2008, Fern's Fast Finder, Uglies, Illustrated Guide to the National Electrical Code and RCW/WAC book I purchased from CEUWashington.com with motor calculations and Major Load Calculations, I referred to them all many times. I recommend taking courses on the NEC, Major Load Calculations and Theory if you haven't. I studied for two weeks until I was sick of studying, then I studied more. :laughing: GOOD LUCK


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