EE considering Control Systems PE exam (as well as General EE) advice?

[shezadeh]

I am a recent EE graduate who passed the FE exam (took the Electrical afternoon exam) in October 2011. I am debating between the Electrical and Electronics PE exam and the Control Systems PE exam. It looks like a lot of my work will be in the I&C area, so I am leaning pretty heavily towards the Control Systems PE exam. During undergrad however, I did not take a formal Control Systems/Control Theory class, though I did take an Instrumentation course which had some elements of a Controls course. Aside from that, I took a standard array of EE courses (signal processing, circuit analysis, logic design, electronics, etc.) and have some experience with microcontrollers.

I looked at the following pages for advice on the controls exam:

http://www.engr.psu.edu/cde/FE_PE/cse_tips.htm

http://www.engr.psu.edu/cde/FE_PE/morons_guide.htm

I also saw this book for sale and am considering purchasing it:

http://ppi2pass.com/shop/pe-exams-1/control-systems-pe/pe-control-systems-sample-questions-and-solutions.html

As well as some of the stuff that ISA has posted:

http://www.isa.org/Template.cfm?Section=CSE_Registration1&Template=/Content/ContentGroups/Navigation_Multi-Use_Content/CSE_Registration.htm

I am thinking of self-teaching myself the material from a controls class using a textbook (suggestions welcome) and/or Schaum's outlines. Has anyone taken the ISA review course or used their review materials? Any additional advice?

Thanks!

 

[Peele1]

You can take any PE exam you want - they all give the same license (sans Seismic, etc. in some locations).

I thought that I was going to do Computer PE exam, then decided that the E/E exam would be better, then settled on Power.

Study and see what fits your knowledge.

 

[mevans154]

If you go to the ISA.org website and search the "CSE Review Class - EN00", at the bottom of the page there is a "Pre-Instructional Survey". The survey gives you 18 questions similar to what you may see on the PE exam. Take a look at it and see how you do. It will give you a pretty good gauge of how much you know, and how much you will need to study for the exam.

I took the ISA review class and took the CSE PE exam in October 2011. I passed on my first try!!!

 

[rrui00]

I am planning on taking the CSE exam this october. I just took the EN 00 and it was very useful. Would you say that the difficulty of the questions was similar as what you saw in the EN00 course?

Thanks.

 

[mevans154]

I am planning on taking the CSE exam this october. I just took the EN 00 and it was very useful. Would you say that the difficulty of the questions was similar as what you saw in the EN00 course? Thanks.

Yes, the practice questions from the EN00 class are good practice for the CSE exam.