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Finally passed my PLC exam after three attempts — here's what worked

by Jessica L. 495 views3 replies
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Jessica L.OP
May 27, 2026

So I just got my results back yesterday and I'm still kind of in shock — I passed! Third time's the charm, I guess. I work in industrial automation and my company has been pushing everyone to get certified for about two years now, but I kept putting it off and then failing when I finally sat down to take it. The first two attempts I scored around a 68 and a 71, and you need a 75 to pass.

What finally clicked for me was actually slowing down and working through a solid PLC practice test before each study session instead of just reading through the manual. It forced me to confront the topics I was fuzzy on — ladder logic, I/O addressing, and timer/counter instructions were killing me. I also found a decent study guide that broke down the math behind PLC scan cycles in a way that finally made sense.

Curious if anyone else struggled with the ladder logic sections specifically? And for folks still preparing — what resources are you using? Happy to share more exam tips if it helps someone else avoid my two-year nightmare.

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James R.
May 28, 2026
Three attempts and you still pushed through — that's genuinely impressive. I'm sitting for mine in about eight weeks and I'm nervous. Currently hovering around a 70 on practice tests which feels close but not close enough. Do you remember roughly how many questions dealt with troubleshooting vs. programming concepts? I keep seeing conflicting info about the exam breakdown and it's hard to know where to focus my last few weeks.
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Daniel M.
May 28, 2026
Congrats! I passed mine last spring after about six weeks of focused prep. The ladder logic stuff tripped me up too, honestly. What helped me was drawing out the rung logic by hand before trying to interpret it on screen. Sounds old-fashioned but my retention went way up. I was scoring mid-60s on practice tests and then broke into the 80s once I started doing that. Timer/counter instructions are definitely worth extra time.
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Mike_T
May 28, 2026
The scan cycle math is no joke — I almost failed because of that section alone. If you haven't already, make sure you understand how input image tables work before test day. That one concept showed up way more than I expected.

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