How hard is the exam, really?

Start with the thing everyone searches for and nobody answers: there is no published pass rate. NABCEP does not publish one for the PV Associate examination, not on the Associate programme page and not in its FAQ. Any figure you see quoted is either a single provider's claim about its own students or an invention. We are not going to add another one.

What is actually known about the format

• Seventy multiple-choice questions, four options each.
• Up to two hours. That is about a minute forty a question.
• A scaled score of 65 to pass. Scaled is not a percentage — it is a conversion that accounts for the difficulty of the particular question set you were given, so do not read it as "65 % correct".
• English only, computerised, proctored.
• No experience requirement and no trade licence to be eligible.

The sceptical view, which deserves airing

If you have read the trade forums you will have met the opinion that the Associate is, in one contributor's words, "essentially a vocabulary test", and that when an inspector or a tender asks for "NABCEP" they mean one of the professional certifications rather than this one.

Both of those points are substantially right, and we would rather say so than have you find out from somebody else after paying us. The Associate is the entry credential. NABCEP's own description is that it qualifies the holder to work in a supervised capacity, and it carries no digital badge. It is a first rung.

What the sceptics get wrong is the conclusion. A first rung is extremely valuable to somebody standing on the floor. It is worth having if you are a career changer who needs something verifiable before anyone will interview you; if you are an internationally-trained electrician or engineer locked out of Canada's own PV credential, which requires a provincial trade certificate first; or if you need forty hours of documented training on paper. It is worth much less if you already install solar full-time and nobody who hires you is asking for it.

So is it hard?

It is not a difficult examination for somebody who has studied the right things. It is an unforgiving one for somebody who has studied the wrong things. The vocabulary half is straightforward and rewards reading. The calculation half is where results are decided, and it is not generous about near-misses.

The three things that actually catch people

1. Temperature-corrected voltage. Voltage rises as temperature falls, so a string sized at 25 °C can exceed an inverter's maximum input on a cold bright morning. Two negatives multiply to a positive, and candidates who rush produce a lower voltage, find that number among the options, and move on satisfied. It is the most reliable source of marks in the paper and the most expensive mistake in the field. Worked, in full →
2. Units. Watts against watt-hours, kilowatts against kilowatt-hours. It sounds beneath mentioning and it costs people the examination. A watt is a rate; a watt-hour is a quantity.
3. Applying a factor the wrong way round. Losses increase the array you need; they do not reduce it. If a loss calculation made your answer smaller, you inverted it — and the inverted answer will be one of the four options, because the examiners know exactly which mistake people make.

How long to prepare

The forty hours associated with this credential is a qualifying requirement, not a measure of readiness. Some people need less and most need more, and the honest test of readiness is whether you can do a temperature-corrected string calculation without looking anything up.

Who should not sit it

If you already install solar professionally, nobody who hires you asks for the Associate, and your real goal is a NABCEP professional certification, then the Associate is a detour. The professional credentials require documented installation experience, which no course and no examination shortens. Start recording your hours this month instead. That advice costs us a sale and it is the right advice.

What we can and cannot do about your result

NABCEP writes, delivers and scores the examination. We teach beforehand and administer the sitting. We cannot affect a result, see one before you do, or advocate for a candidate, and we do not sell a pass guarantee, because it would be a promise about something we do not control. Any provider offering you one is telling you something about itself.

Twenty questions worked in full, free → · What is on the exam, domain by domain → · What it costs →

Common questions