Why We Built an AI Tutor for Electricians

Dakota Prep’s AI Tutor is now live in NEC Electrical Exam Prep, built to help aspiring journeypeople, master electricians, and contractors across the U.S pass their licensing exams.

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We’ve already helped thousands of electricians get licensed, but one piece of feedback came up again and again—students want more support, especially on the tougher calculation questions. So we spent the last few months building a feature to do exactly that.

Most licensing exams break down into two main types of questions: code lookups and calculations. We’ve always designed our product around how tradespeople actually learn: by doing. That’s why our platform is built around Q&A instead of passive courses. You get real practice, just like you’ll see on the test.

For code lookup questions, our format is spot-on: we help you build speed and confidence in finding the right article, section, and answer in the NEC. But calculation questions are a different beast. You’re flipping between sections, applying complex steps in order, and picking the right values—every time.

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That’s where the AI Tutor comes in.

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Whether it’s load calcs, motor sizing, or transformers, the AI Tutor helps you work through tricky problems step-by-step. It’ll guide you, correct you, and adjust to your skill level as you go. You can even decide how much help you want—light hints, full walk-throughs, or just a nudge in the right direction. It’s all chat-based and fully customizable.

Now, we get asked this a lot: “Why not just use ChatGPT?”

Fair question. Go ahead and try it. But here’s the reality—ChatGPT (or any mainstream model) gets code questions wrong. A lot. We tested this by running through 100 NEC questions on their newest model, and on average, 60%+ were wrong. Prepping with it is a fast track to failing your exam.

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So why are we more accurate?

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Because we’ve had over a million questions answered through our app. We’ve worked with thousands of students. And we’ve got licensed electricians reviewing everything, building curriculum, and shaping our models. Our product & engineering team has had decades of experience in the tech world and have built AI products before. This isn’t a generic AI—it’s built from the ground up to teach NEC the way it’s actually tested.

So here’s the bottom line: If you want to pass your exam, this is the tool built to get you there.

Welcome to the new way to prep for your electrical licensing exam!