PE Control Systems Disaster of October 2014

If you had appeared for Control Systems PE in October 2014, you know that the syllabus was completely discarded for setting the question paper and many completely random questions appeared on the exams and the ones that were from within the syllabus were worded very poorly or had multiple correct answers and exceptions were not noted. I have reached out to the subject matter experts (SMEs) who develop the exam and they have requested us to provide inputs on which questions they need to cross check before the exam results are declared. Please login to your 'MyNCEES' account and send a message to 'Start Conversation' and provide inputs on which questions you think should be struck off or eliminated from the exam. Doing so is important so that the exam developers know where to adjust the passing scores.

Sounds like 'Out of Control Systems' to me. Kind of makes me rethink the position of confidence that I had that NCEES goes to excessive measures as far as QA /QC of their exams is concerned. And to put the onus on candidates to be specific about which questions 'seemed flawed' seems unreasonable to me.

I'm gonna venture a guess here and say most likely the flawed part of this equation is the examinee. It sounds like a case of sour grapes to me.

I agree with Sapper. I took the 2014 CSE and found it to be relatively easy. I know I am showing irrational confidence before results are out, but I don't agree with the OP's assessment of the exam

josef104 ..which industry do you work with instrumentation and control systems in?

CntrlEngrEIT said:

josef104 ..which industry do you work with instrumentation and control systems in?

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Pharma

CntrlEngrEIT said:

If you had appeared for Control Systems PE in October 2014, you know that the syllabus was completely discarded for setting the question paper and many completely random questions appeared on the exams and the ones that were from within the syllabus were worded very poorly or had multiple correct answers and exceptions were not noted. I have reached out to the subject matter experts (SMEs) who develop the exam and they have requested us to provide inputs on which questions they need to cross check before the exam results are declared. Please login to your 'MyNCEES' account and send a message to 'Start Conversation' and provide inputs on which questions you think should be struck off or eliminated from the exam. Doing so is important so that the exam developers know where to adjust the passing scores.

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Are you sure it isn't just you....the test is not supposed to look like the sample test.

Agreed..not the sample test...but what about the syllabus? Too far fetched for us to expect them to keep it within the syllabus? Wish I could discuss the questions...u too would see..more power to the ones who think it was fair...maybe it's me...just maybe...

They don't have to present the test in order with the syllabus... I'm not sure about control systems but in mechanical systems and materials, many topics cross over each other.

Are you sure that's not what happened?

With all due respect, I cannot agree with you that the questions were out of syllabus. This is a PE exam and meant to have cover vast topics.... There are books on each of the syllabus items...flow, level, control valves...

what out of syllabus areas are u talking abt? I didn't see any civil, soil, structural, thermodynamics, questions.....

josef104 said:

With all due respect, I cannot agree with you that the questions were out of syllabus. This is a PE exam and meant to have cover vast topics.... There are books on each of the syllabus items...flow, level, control valves...

what out of syllabus areas are u talking abt? I didn't see any civil, soil, structural, thermodynamics, questions.....

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This seems like a dangerous question to answer.

I wonder if the OP has considered taking a class targeted at the PE. It would probably help a lot, the class I took helped identify weak areas for me prior to the exam.

CntrlEngrEIT said:

Agreed..not the sample test...but what about the syllabus? Too far fetched for us to expect them to keep it within the syllabus? Wish I could discuss the questions...u too would see..more power to the ones who think it was fair...maybe it's me...just maybe...

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Josef104, are you sure you and I saw the same paper. There were questions on thermodynamics, engg economics etc. I was under the impression that nationally one exam is administered.. The questions I'm talking about are hard to miss.. Also, I took a three month course by isa and after the exam me and all other people who took the course wrote to isa about useless the course was cos it didn't prepare us for the types of questions we got. Also, for cse, hundreds of people sit for the exam, for mech electric civil, thousands do and the questions are vetted more.. Cse is relatively new exam compared to the others..

OK. I definitely took a different CSE exam Oct 2014 I took the one week ISA course in person (not this year) - I can tell you that IF I pass, that course had a big role in it. I am trying hard not to get ahead of myself, maybe I didn't grasp the questions well like you did and if you say most of your ISA class mates had the same feeling, I may be wrong. We will all get to find out in 3 weeks....

Good luck anyways!

That leaves me very curious josef104...But yeah, all the best to you as well..

CntrlEngrEIT said:

There were questions on thermodynamics, engg economics etc.

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I don't know about Thermo, but I'm pretty sure that every discipline of PE exam has engineering econ questions on it. They are easy points, and if you ever plan on being in management or starting your own company, you REALLY need to know that stuff. It's certainly not something to bitch about being on a test.

wow...and you are a pe..the purpose of a pe is not to be able to successfully run a business buddy..its PUBLIC SAFETY..that is the sole purpose why they make you get a pe..to demonstrate knowledge that protects The public....why am I wasting my time..

CntrlEngrEIT said:

wow...and you are a pe..the purpose of a pe is not to be able to successfully run a business buddy..its PUBLIC SAFETY..that is the sole purpose why they make you get a pe..to demonstrate knowledge that protects The public....why am I wasting my time..

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Engineering doesn't happen in a vacuum. If you put your head down and design, you will raise your head and realize the world has passed you by. There were a number of things on both the FE and PE that I don't need to know to do my job on a daily basis...but I learned them, passed the test, and keep on truckin'. You complaining about having to learn things that you deem unneccesary will do nothing more than frustrate you.

I think wilheld about covered it... Gently I might add.

You're getting an awful lot of latitude being you are under the stress of waiting for results.

Having said that, you may need to examine whether you're ready to be a PE after cutting down someone that is well respected and offers their perspective.

CntrlEngrEIT said:

wow...and you are a pe..the purpose of a pe is not to be able to successfully run a business buddy..its PUBLIC SAFETY..that is the sole purpose why they make you get a pe..to demonstrate knowledge that protects The public....why am I wasting my time..

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So you are bitching about learning one more equation? FV=PV(1+r)^t. There is no secret. Rearrange for what ever you need to solve for. And you might have to discount multiple future cash flows. Also to solve for t, you will need to remember the logarithmic change of base formula. It took like two hours to read the EERM and learn it. They even give you tables in the back of that book. I don't understand why it's on the test either since it isn't really enough finance to be useful, but it is easy enough to pound out. I also don't understand why they call it engineering econ, when it is finance.

On a side note, I started working on an MBA, the extent of everything that was covered by the exam we covered in the first hour of the first night of the intro to finance course. The first couple homework problems that week reminded me of the PE exam. The rest of the problems that week were slightly harder. All the problems for the rest of the class were also harder, though not impossible.