all right before we get going and getting into the actual material uh it's a separate section on the DVD is how to prepare and pass the exam and I didn't mention this but every one of our team members have been on the code panel for many code Cycles every one of them are Educators every one of them are former electricians you're never a former electrician you're still an electrician but they all work with the tool so they they know the practice things they understand what's important and and just from a personal Point what I do what I do is to change lives what these guys are doing is to change lives we know that if we can impact your life and educate you in a way you can make more money you can feel more confident you can provide for your family at a better level and you're going to make a safer environment and we want you to realize that you are the future leader of our Industries somebody's replacing my col Mike cth the graphics all all the team members we're going to be going away you individually are going to be one of the leaders in the future now where you going to fit we don't know so we got a lot of experience here speaking and I'm going to ask each of them to kind of give them a little thoughts something that for you to think about and and maybe you can put in perspective John if you can go ahead and get us started here first and give us what tell us something your experience with these guys get started they got to get organized make sure you have the code books with you make sure you got your calculator your highlighters your pencils your scratch paper be ready to dedicate yourself to following the videos and going through with us when we do our calculations you do your calculations don't just go by what we're saying do your calculations follow along with us you're going to need support you're going to have to find a place to be organized uh with your stuff so you'd know where it's at you're not looking around where did I put my calculator where did I do this don't waste time it's time management is what we're looking for here uh two things you said that that I want to pick up on number one is support and and I hate to tell you this but when I was electrician working in the field learning to past my journeyman's test I would be studying my codebook or taking my work you know some my workbooks at the at the job site and do it break time before class lunchtime after class and people made fun of me oh Mr codebook you think you're such a big shot and I didn't understand why would anybody be making fun of me on the job I mean I'm a young guy I'm trying to study I'm trying to pass my ger life listen what I found over 40 years of being in the electrical trade nobody is going to help you nobody really wants you to succeed I hate to tell you that maybe your mother if you're a guy your mother's you know mothers and sons it's a special deal I'm not going to get into that whole deal there your father I'm not quite sure you know dads are a little bit of competitive and they're not sure whether they really want their son to be better than them at some point they might realize okay I can let it go but there's a there's a tension like water has tension there's there's something that break that tension there your friends not a chance they don't want you to succeed if they're losers they don't want you to succeed if they're if they're successful people they want to support you so you're going to have to surround yourself around with a support system find out who is promoting you and helping you to get this done you might have a wife like you're going to be watching the DVD again I thought we can maybe go out and party and like oh my gosh get rid of her all right tell her to watch this video tape tell her listen you better get it together here I'm moving forward and you better get on the bandwagon here don't let anybody bring you down I don't care if is your wife I don't care who it is you make that commitment I'm doing it and it's not going to be easy because hardly anybody's going to support you John said get organized get a spot everything is there it's quiet you close a door hey take a closet take everything out of the closet put a fan inside there with no air conditioning if you have to put a light in there close the door tell your wife I'm out here and close the door and close the door close the door and tell her listen you got to to take the kids out or you if you can't work that out then you get out but you're going to have to have a plan and be organized so John says you can't there's no time you're watch you're taking care of a family you're working you're doing everything you're trying to study there's no time so you can't waste it so that's John's comments great one John Dennis I took of my only one week vacation and from 7:00 in the morning to 7:00 at night I went down into my basement and that's where I was the only time I went upstairs was to go to the bathroom and get something to drink and get something to eat and I went right back down so 12 hours a day for a full week prior to me taking that exam is what I did so you got to make that commitment um you got to be focused hold on one second that is brilliant I have never in my entire 40 years ever heard anybody say that that is absolute brilliant the take off of vacation right and dedicate seven full days at well no more than that nine days at 12 hours a day not even a question about that I would do that in a heartbeat do you know how much you can get done and you have them bring the food down right you just bring the food down and pick up the plates and then scream and yell let them scream and yell at you you know what I mean whether it's your husband or your wife whatever you know you might be a woman taking this class listen in nine days you can create a huge amount of work done I'm sorry but that was brilliant well and it just it just helps you you know become the go-to guy you you start to realize why we're doing this and why we do the things that we do um you know staying focused I mean it's a career you got to think about that is that if what you're if you're at this point and you're looking through these books now you've already spent two or three years doing this is a trade and it's not a trade anymore it can be a career and you can go any place you want to if you put your mind to it and that's probably the biggest when you're hiring people because you're more like in human resources and you know you're getting people what is it that you're looking for when somebody comes to the door to you what do you what skill sets are you looking for what do you realize what's the purpose of this whole thing a well-rounded electrician and what I mean by a well-rounded electrician is not only the knowledge of the codebook but being able to do Hands-On so you got to you got to have it both because you can have many people out there that can install conduit and pull the wire in the conduit but is it right do they know how to how to terminate the motor those kind of things you got you got to be able to do it all not just one thing no okay Mike what what can you help these guys see Vision what I hope to do there's there's many people here with years and years of experience and I'd like to convey to everybody out there if if we can convey the passion that we have for what we do and I had set a couple of goals one being it was a point in my life after 40 years having a master's license to pass the torch which I've successfully I think done to my son and and there's a time then when they can take that over now there's one other goal that I have is to pay it forward there's a lot of people that help me learn what I have learned and the knowledge that I've gained I want be able to convey that to other people and other electricians ex uh that want to take and be a licensed electrician and and share that passion with them but what happens is they go through a four-year apprenticeship being put down and and being belittled now they have to develop the confidence they can take and pass this exam and pass it with a with a uh U with the in spite of all the people that have taken and made fun of them all time along the line and utilizing some of the programs and the information available being organized having a strategy taking programs like that you've contributed to the snaps program being familiar with taking the exam so they're not uh blindsided by a computerized tell us more Mike what do you mean by the snaps program it's a program that actually uh mimics the exact programs that many states use to administer the exam they time the exam and it's very important to be organized to and and and uh to be able to take and go through the exam more than once and don't be afraid to fail don't be afraid to fail you said you said two important points that I want to pick up on number one is the snaps program go to mold.com go to products you can order this electronic exam preparation where you just take tests of course you got to complete the course then you take the test and that's going to get you prepared to take these electronic exams number two you said something I never thought about and that is for four years you've been put down and that is something I didn't really realize but I mean I felt that but I never really realized that everybody's going through this here you are is a guy getting started and they they they make fun of you they put you down you're stupid they be a little you and and I don't understand why we do this as an industry instead of saying Hey listen like I told my son he's electrical contractor I looked at him I said look let me tell you something everything we're doing is very important let me tell you why is it important that you learn because he did this he took all the DVDs and the course I said let me tell you why this is important you are going to be replacing me and everybody else on this team you are a leader you're the future of this industry it's all you young guys that are out there got to learn that you're going to be the next leaders you're the ones that are going to be making the big bucks so it's important for me and Mike what you said it's this is our time to be giving back to the young guys to to and I say young I mean you might be 50 years old starting to trade and that's okay too the young in the industry there for us to give it to you to give you that passion to realize no we believe in you we know you can do it we know you can be successful no matter what anybody else says out there you can make a success out of yourself Eric Mike I'd like to say that in order to take an exam it takes a tremendous tremendous amount of energy you know you can know all the stuff you can know the code you can have you can be organized and all that stuff it still takes a tremendous amount of energy and and on top of that because when you have a question question and you're looking at that question you say oh my gosh I can't believe I'm looking at this question it takes energy to attack that question and to work it out to even if you if you're a little bit fuzzy on the math or something say you know what let's just work it let's just work it if I if I don't get the right answer the first time let's keep working it if you have to look up the code it takes energy and you know it it is a pretty well-known statistic in test taking circles that the people who leave the test site early are the people who get the lowest scores it's the people who stay there till the end that get the highest scores so when you're when you're sitting in that test room and people are starting to leave you know some people have been taught to think oh my gosh these people must be smart they're leaving before me no look at him and say quitters well the thing is you're absolutely right and that's another good point and that is that when I took a test I was the last person they would say okay time is up I'm still working time is up I'm still working now computer is a little different story today because that's different story but if I was doing a computer I'd go through the first pass second pass all the stuff that's contained in the book and I will sit there if I'm done an hour early I will sit there and relax because when you take a test and you get outside of the exam and you walk in your car and you're like was that single pH or three- phas did they ask this did they ask that you all of a sudden you get the flashback of the questions no no no I'm done with the test early let's say cuz I'm really prepared I'm not going anywhere I'm going to wait there and I'm going to go back look at the questions again and Steve will talk more about how to take the strategy and and how it works with the book inside there but but there's a thing that you said about the energy level right preparing for this year and you know energy has to do with attitude if you thinking E I think I want to take my test you're not going to have the energy to do that there's so many other and your friends and it's just never going it's just one of these dreams inside here if you're saying I'm passing my test I'm not I'm not saying you're going to pass the first time but I'm going to pass my test well then you have the commitment you have to have that commitment and with that commitment you get the energy because you get the inspiration that this is making a difference and I'm going to make a difference because education is everything anything else Eric got it Steve I'll have you close this up any wise things and what these guys can look for well after hearing the comments the rest of the team Mike I'm really excited about what we're going to end up in this video I think we've got a lot of great experience and and great uh comments coming forward and if uh the students would look in the front of the exam prep book they'll find some information a little more detail about getting ready to take your test the things that you should do uh who you should contact to know how to prepare for each test you know every state uh to a big extent has their own individual uh test it's not all the same and so there's not just a one siiz fits-all you need to know what your state requires for you to have and and so on for your test and on the same token there is no such thing as a book that you're going to just open up and just give you all the answers to your test so we're trying to help you build your knowledge so you can t pass any test based on the national electrical code not just a set 50 questions or whatever we're not just giving you answers we're not we're not teaching you how to pass this test no we're not teaching you how to just pass this test we're trying to help contribute to your future in this trade to help your knowledge of the code overall we may be covered things that are not on your test but that's to help you in your learning and your own self-improvement and that's going to give you a lot more confidence uh about yourself as well so we're trying to help you not only to prepare for the exam but to prepare for your career as an electrician and and as instructors uh personally one thing that I really uh do not like to see is when a student says well just tell me what I need to know yeah to pass the test I like to see a student who has a desire to learn and and as trainers if you're a trainer that's starting to watch this video to help you learn learn how to teach you know it's important to you also and and I like to uh use the old saying that we're not here just to give you a a fish we want to teach you to fish to teach you how to study the code how to use the code and how to learn absolutely all right that's the end of the rahah get you going get you thinking listen you can change your life and we all of us are here are here to help you do that and what does it take it's G to take that commitment it's going to take that Focus you start in the beginning of the book and you go back and you read all that material about how to prepare for the exam what do you got to do to get yourself mentally ready we talk about the tables and the classes and the pencils and all that other stuff how to do that and then how to actually take the test and we we talk about how to the process of taking the exam none of that stuff in the book is like ah no no no it's all important we want to change your life and we can make a difference it's going to require you to pay attention to get your codebook out make sure because when I I'm going to be talking about code rules as I talk about code rules put it on pause as I ask you hey guys take a look at this you put on pause you work out the calculat I'll try to remind you to put it on pause to get inside there this is not something you're going to sit there you're going to watch no no you're going to be engaged you're going to be part of the process