How We Teach at Dakota Prep
73% of people fail their electrical journeyman exam annually in some states, and that trend looks the same across the country. This means no promotion, no raise, and potentially dropping out of the trade altogether. Every year, thousands of electricians hit this same wall, not because they can’t do the job, but because these exams are high pressure, tricky, and built to confuse you.
Let’s be honest. None of us got into the trades to take more tests. We were done with them in high school. We chose this path because we like building things with our hands.
And yeah, you’ve got to know the code, but actually being able to do the work and apply it in the field is what makes you great. Passing the exam is just this very difficult hurdle you need to get through to move forward.
So our goal at Dakota Prep is simple: make sure you pass the first time so you can get back to doing what you do best.
Here's our learning philosophy:
Every part of the app is built around two things that reflect your exam: code lookups and calculations. Most exams are about 70% code lookup and 30% calcs. You don’t learn those by reading — you learn them by doing.
From the moment you open the app, you’re solving real exam-style problems. For calculations, our AI tutor walks you step-by-step through each question so you understand how and why it works — not just the answer. For code lookups, we push you with the most common questions but also hardest, most obscure questions so you get fast, confident, and intuitive with flipping through codebook. Get it wrong? That's fine. Read through the walkthroughs on how to solve questions so you know how to do it the next time you see one.
We built Dakota Prep for people who work long hours, grab lunch in the truck, and don’t have time to drag around a textbook.
You can study wherever you are: on break, after work, or between job sites. Our mobile app is perfect for quick reps during the week, while the web version gives you more space for deeper study sessions on the weekend.
We’ve got different study modes depending on where you are in your prep — whether you’re brushing up on code lookups, drilling calculations, or practicing without a codebook at all. The app keeps track of what you’ve done so you can focus where it matters most.
We know these exams because we’ve lived them. Our team’s a mix of instructors who’ve taught at JATCs, electricians who’ve sat for these tests, and technologists who know how to break them down.
Every question, walkthrough, and explanation in Dakota Prep comes from real exam experience: we ask everyone of our students what actually shows up in exam, what people struggle with, and bake this into our curriculum. We have had over 15,000 electricians use Dakota Prep already. That is a lot of exam data.
Behind the scenes, our AI tools help us spot patterns across thousands of users, which questions trip people up, what code articles cause the most confusion, and where apprentices tend to get stuck. That lets us refine the content faster and make sure every update hits closer to what’s on the actual exam. By the way, we’re not just saying this: we update 100s of questions per month.
At the end of the day, this isn’t about studying for a test — it’s about unlocking your career. When you pass, you move up, earn more, and lead others. That’s what we’re here for.
Dakota Prep exists to help every tradesperson take that next step — one question at a time.
Best of luck with your exams!
Alex
Co-founder of Dakota Prep
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