Firstly, I'd like to extend congratulations to anyone reading this who has recently passed the PE exam .... God only knows this is truly a monumental task! I have recently received approval to sit for the electrical PE exam and plan to take the exam in April of 2009, with power selection .... I am now assuming for both AM and PM. My question for anyone experienced with taking the exam - Has anyone made their own notebook of solved problems and brought this to the exam, if so, did you find it useful or was a textbook better for reference material. (Regardless, I do plan on taking hardcopy reference material to the exam.)Basically I am trying to strategize the best approach for handling problems during the exam. With nine months to study, I plan on doing a lot of problems. So any guidance on your behalf would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
I just recently passed the April 2008 PE exam in Power.
I tabbed my references according to subject (computers, power, communications, etc.) I had class notes first, followed by example problems. Let me tell you time flies so looking at problems is time consuming. Sometimes you know it or you just don't. Expect these types of problems.
I did have handwritten notes, but in MD they are not allowed so I made copies of ALL my handwritten problems and solutions. Time consuming but at least I had it with me for reference.
Text books were my last resort if I didn't know a problem. Depending on your references, you can find the solution or not. Small quantity of good references helps, lots of bad references takes up time and time is precious.
Advice from previous posts that helped me A LOT was the following:
Go through the exam entirely. Read each problem word for word and write down what they are looking for and the units. Write it big enough to always see it and remind yourself of what you are trying to solve for and most importantly UNITS. This can hurt you if you don't remember it, and sometimes the wrong unit answer can be on the exam. Play close attention to this.
As you write down the units and answer they are looking for, label the problems as easy, medium or hard. Do this till you get to the end of the exam.
Know go back to te beginning and do the easy ones, followed by medium, and then hard problems.
When I took the exam I was mentally prepared to pass but when I started doing all the easy ones I got really excited and realized I knew more than I thought. This helps during the exam because it is exhuastive, and after the morning exam I was burned out but felt good going into the afternoon. Sometimes people go problem per problem and lose sight of time and stay on a problem longer than they should. This can fail you easily.
I think this method helped me out a lot, since I breezed through the easy and medium type problems and then realized I had time to research the harder type problems. Just a suggestion on what helped me pass this time around.
Good references I used for the exam were the MGI PE readiness power program, my HP-33s and the Dr. Blank DVD which I am selling in the yard sale section of this website.
Also get the power system anaylsis book by Wildi and the other one by Bergen. Good texts for the afternoon especially for transmission lines.
Ugly's is also good for quick reference and code problems. The rest of my books were from a review class I took for the PE exam. That really helped me as well. Try to take one if you can.
Lastly, the most helpful of all texts and references is this board. They help you before, during and after the exam. Browse topics or do a search and information comes up that helps any and everyone of us.
Good luck
OdentonPE