What Is CO-ME?

What CO-ME Actually Is

CO-ME stands for the Colorado Master Electrician License Exam. It's the credentialing test that a licensed journeyman electrician in Colorado must pass before applying to DORA for a master electrician license. It is not a training program, not a certificate of completion, and not a generic industry certification - it is a state licensing exam tied directly to Colorado's electrical licensing statute and administered on behalf of the Colorado State Electrical Board.

If you've searched other pages on this topic - CO-ME Meaning, What Does CO-ME Stand For?, or What Is A CO-ME? - they all point to the same answer: this is Colorado's state-level master electrician licensing exam, delivered through PSI's testing network.

Who Administers the CO-ME Exam

Two entities matter here. The Colorado State Electrical Board, operating under the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA), sets the licensing rules, experience thresholds, and renewal cycle. PSI Services LLC is the third-party testing vendor that builds, schedules, and scores the actual exam at test centers. When you register for CO-ME, you're dealing with PSI's scheduling system and candidate bulletin; when you apply for the license itself, you're dealing with DORA's application portal.

This distinction matters for exam-day logistics: PSI controls what reference material you can bring (none of your own), what's supplied (the NEC and a formula page), and how the onscreen calculator works. DORA, separately, controls the paperwork trail for experience verification and transcripts once you've passed.

Exam Format and Question Style

CO-ME is a computer-based, multiple-choice exam. The scored portion consists of 90 questions to be completed in 240 minutes. PSI also seeds up to 10 unscored pretest questions, with an additional 30 minutes allotted for them - you won't know which questions are scored versus unscored, so every item should be treated as if it counts.

Passing requires 70%, or 63 of 90 scored answers correct, calculated across the whole exam. This is a critical point candidates often misunderstand: CO-ME does not require you to pass each domain separately. A weak showing on a small domain like Overcurrent Protection can be offset by strong performance on a heavily weighted domain like Grounding and Bonding, as long as your total scored count clears 63. For a deeper breakdown of exactly what this scoring threshold means in practice, see CO-ME Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.

The current PSI candidate bulletin, updated June 18, 2026, specifies that NEC 2026 references become effective for exam questions starting August 1, 2026. If you're scheduling near that transition date, confirm which code edition your exam session will reference before you finalize your study plan - see CO-ME Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling for scheduling specifics.

The 13 CO-ME Exam Domains

CO-ME is built from 13 content domains, each with a fixed number of scored questions. Knowing the exact allocation tells you where to spend your prep time.

Grounding and Bonding is the single largest domain at 14 questions - nearly 16% of the scored exam by itself. Services, Feeders, and Branch Circuits is next at 11, followed by a cluster of domains at 9 questions each: Special Occupancies, Special Equipment, and Electrical Calculations. Domain 7, Special Conditions, is the lightest at just 2 questions. For a full walkthrough of what each domain actually tests, read CO-ME Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 13 Content Areas.

Eligibility: The Path to Sitting for CO-ME

You don't just sign up for CO-ME cold. Colorado offers two primary pathways to eligibility:

• Experience-based route: 10,000 hours of qualifying electrical work over at least five years, including planning, layout, and supervision experience that goes beyond standard journeyman duties.
• Education-based route: Qualifying electrical-engineering graduates, or graduates of approved trade schools or community college programs, may qualify through their coursework combined with required verification.

Either way, you'll need to submit employer or master-level experience verification and, if applicable, education transcripts as part of your eligibility file. This documentation is separate from - and a prerequisite to - sitting for the exam itself. A full breakdown of the exact eligibility criteria lives at CO-ME Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.

Registration, Fees, and Scheduling

The initial CO-ME exam fee is $78. If you need to retest, the fee drops slightly to $73. These fees are paid through PSI at the time you schedule your exam session, separate from any DORA application fees you'll encounter later when you formally apply for the master license. For a complete cost picture - including what to budget for study materials, retest scenarios, and license application costs - see CO-ME Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.

Remember: eligibility approval typically needs to happen before you can schedule a testing appointment, so build that lead time into your planning rather than assuming you can register the moment you decide to test.

After You Pass: Licensing and Renewal

Passing CO-ME is a milestone, not the finish line. You still submit your DORA license application - with experience/education verification - after your passing result posts. Once licensed, active master electrician licenses in Colorado renew every three years, requiring 24 continuing-education hours per cycle. Of those 24 hours, at least 4 hours must cover NEC code changes, and no more than 4 hours can count toward safety topics - the balance covers other approved electrical topics.

One notable exception: the first renewal after a license issued by examination is exempt from the CE requirement. After that, you're expected to retain your continuing-education records for seven years in case of audit.

Who Actually Needs This Credential

CO-ME matters to journeyman electricians in Colorado who want to run their own crews, take on supervisory responsibility for planning and layout work, or eventually pursue electrical contractor registration. It's worth noting that electrical contractor registration is a separate credential from the individual master license - passing CO-ME and holding a master license doesn't automatically register you as a contractor; that's an additional step through DORA.

Employers hiring for master-level roles - electrical contracting firms, commercial construction companies, industrial maintenance departments - typically list a Colorado master electrician license as a hard requirement for supervisory or contractor-of-record positions. For a look at how this credential connects to career outcomes and hiring demand, see CO-ME Jobs and CO-ME Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis.

If you're still weighing whether pursuing the master license is worth the time and cost relative to staying a journeyman, Is the CO-ME Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 walks through the tradeoffs in more detail.

Preparing for the CO-ME Content Areas

Given the domain weighting, a smart prep sequence front-loads the heaviest domains early, when you have the most runway to revisit weak spots, and saves lighter domains for quick review passes closer to test day.

For a structured, week-by-week study plan built around this exact domain weighting, read CO-ME Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt. If you want a candid assessment of how tough the exam actually is relative to the journeyman exam you've already passed, check How Hard Is the CO-ME Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026, and for aggregate performance patterns, see CO-ME Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows.

When you're ready to test your recall under timed conditions, our practice test platform mirrors the 90-question, 240-minute scored format so you can gauge readiness before scheduling with PSI. A condensed reference - useful for last-minute review the night before - is available in the CO-ME Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts.

Frequently Asked Questions