Ten state boards license cosmetologists, estheticians, nail technicians and barbers on PSI’s National written examination rather than the NIC one. Seven sit the same paper — California, Kentucky, Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland and Michigan. Tennessee adds its own law exam, Massachusetts sits the theory alone with no practical, and Hawaii moved onto it in January 2026, where a NIC or PSI pass from another jurisdiction may qualify you for a waiver of the examination. The hours you must train and the mark you must hit are set by your own board, and they differ more than candidates expect. Verified against PSI’s published bulletins.
Every question is original, modeled on the publicly available PSI content outline effective 1 April 2026 — the same outline whichever of the ten states you sit in. Domain weightings match that blueprint. Cosmetology is published in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Korean; Manicurist in English, Spanish and Vietnamese. California candidates can buy from either page: it is the same product.
10 questions from the PSI National Cosmetology bank and 10 terminology cards from the decks — the same items, the same rationales, the same study modes you get after checkout. No email, no signup.
Every question comes with a full rationale. When that isn’t enough — the concept is new, the wording is dense, you got it right by luck — tap Explain and the tutor talks you through it: why your answer was wrong, and what the right idea actually is. Ask it anything back, as many times as you need.
If English isn’t the language you learned this in, it teaches in yours, switched whenever you like. The questions stay in English, because that is how you will see them on exam day. Where enough candidates ask we translate the prep itself — so far Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese, Russian and Simplified Chinese, on the products that have it.
Included with every product · every question · 19 languages
PSI’s National examination is a separate instrument from the NIC one, with its own item bank, its own content outline and its own weightings. A candidate who studies NIC material for a PSI state is studying the right subject from the wrong blueprint.
A multiple-choice written theory examination delivered at PSI test centers. Most of these states also require a practical examination, set and scored separately by the state board — Massachusetts is the exception and requires no practical at all, and California dropped the cosmetology practical while keeping the barber one.
PSI ran a new validation study and the content blueprint was rewritten effective 1 April 2026, moving Safety and Infection Control to roughly 30% of the cosmetology paper and 50% of the manicurist paper. California adopted it on that date. Because the California form and the national theory form are the same instrument — PSI’s bulletin 930 and our own outline comparison agree on this — that reweight is the national outline, not a California-only change.
Training hours, the passing mark, how many attempts you get and how long your window runs are set by your own state, not by PSI. Those are the numbers in the table below, and they are the ones candidates most often get wrong from a forum post about a different state.
Verified against PSI’s published state bulletins. Most were re-pulled from the live documents on 25 September 2026. Two figures were not: Massachusetts throughout, and Colorado’s practical mark — that day’s Colorado pull covered the theory cut. Both are carried from the August record. Where a board has not published a figure we could verify, we say so rather than fill it in.
| State | Cosmetology hours | Written pass mark | What is different here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 1,500 | 70% | Three written and three practical attempts, both inside two years. |
| California | 1,000 | No fixed cut published — we study to 75% | The theory test is scored against a criterion, and PSI bulletin 930 publishes no passing percentage. Adopted the April 2026 reweight on the day it took effect; no cosmetology practical, barbers still sit one. |
| Colorado | 1,500 | 70% | The practical must be passed before the theory. |
| Georgia | 1,500 | 70% | On PSI National since mid-2025. Forty-eight month window. Confirm with the Board which languages Georgia offers — availability differs by state, and Kentucky’s exam publishes in seven. |
| Hawaii | 1,800 | 75% | Moved from Prometric/NIC to PSI National on 1 January 2026. If you passed the NIC or PSI exam in another jurisdiction you may qualify for an examination waiver — that is a Board licensing rule rather than an exam spec, and it is an application with an outcome, so check with the Board. |
| Kentucky | 1,500 | 70% | Instructor candidates pass at 80/85. Practicals at PSI Lexington from 1 June 2026. Braiding is exempt from licensure. |
| Maryland | 1,000 | 75% | The outlier. Same paper as Colorado and Kentucky, four points higher to pass, on the practical too. |
| Massachusetts | 1,000 | 70% | Theory only — no practical examination. Manicuring is 100 hours, the lowest requirement in the country. |
| Michigan | 1,500 | Raw points, not a percentage | 70/100 cosmetology — which is 70% — then 56/75 esthetics, 45/60 nails and 56/85 barber, which do not. It is a scoring convention rather than a different exam, so check the figure for your modality rather than a single percentage quoted for the state. |
| Tennessee | 1,500 | 70% | A separate 25-question Tennessee law examination on top of the national paper, and a three-year window. Tennessee prep is its own product — the law questions are not in the national bank. |
If your state is not in this table, you are almost certainly sitting the NIC examination instead — our NIC prep is here, and the state directory will tell you which one your board uses.
PSI delivers the national paper in more languages than any one board permits, and the permission is the board’s. California offers English, Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese and Simplified Chinese; Michigan and Kentucky add Portuguese; Georgia is English only by rule. Check your own board before you plan to sit in a language other than English — our practice tests are published in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Korean, and the Interactive Tutor explains in nineteen languages whichever edition you study.
No. They are separate examinations from separate organizations, with separate item banks and separate content outlines. The subjects overlap heavily — infection control, anatomy, chemistry, services — but the weightings and the questions do not. Studying NIC material for a PSI state means studying the right subject against the wrong blueprint. We publish separate products for each.
It no longer needs to. These four products were built for California first, because California was the first of these ten states we published for, and the California form is the national theory form. This page is their home now; California keeps its own page for California licensing, hours and fees.
Seven do — California, Kentucky, Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland and Michigan. Tennessee adds a 25-question state law examination, Massachusetts sits the theory with no practical, and Hawaii moved onto the national paper in January 2026, and a NIC or PSI pass from another jurisdiction may qualify you for a waiver of the examination — a Board rule, so ask the Board.
Seventy percent in most of these states, seventy-five in Maryland and Hawaii, and raw points in Michigan, where cosmetology’s 70/100 is 70% but the other three modalities do not resolve to a round percentage. California publishes no fixed cut at all — its theory test is criterion-referenced, and 75% is the target we study to rather than a number the board prints. Colorado passes both the theory and the practical at 70%. Your board’s number is the one that counts, not PSI’s.
No — buy the Tennessee prep. You sit the national paper plus a separate Tennessee law examination, and those law questions are not in the national bank. The Tennessee product carries both.
Parts of it, and not the parts that decide your score. The science is the science, but the weightings differ and the item banks are unrelated. If you are sitting a PSI state, the prep on this page is the one built against your blueprint.
Enter the email you used — or want to use — at checkout. You'll enter this same email on the access page to unlock your product.
🌐 Your Interactive Tutor speaks 19 languages. Español, Tiếng Việt, 한국어, Русский, العربية and 14 more — choose yours in the tutor panel once you are in, and switch whenever you like. Included with every product; there is nothing extra to buy.