GA review course

[user 26087]

So my company is really pushing for me to get my PE. I failed October with a 50 and I've been cranking on practice exams and reading material. I asked them about taking the GA course and they said they would pay for it. So I signed up yesterday and afterwards found out it could take a week to confirm registration and another two weeks to get binder from professor. Was this a wise decision with it being end of February? Will I be able to really benefit from this course?

 

[knight1fox3]

I believe that is the standard lead time they provide to cover themselves. But IIRC, the process time and binder delivery is actually much quicker. It would probably have been a little more ideal for you to sign up for this at the beginning of this month, but you should still be ok. Just be prepared to hit it hard. You might have to double up on the modules you view per day. And since you registered during off-peak registration times, I would think they could process your registration and binder delivery a bit quicker than normal.

Also if you have any questions on delivery or the course itself, just email Dr. Russ Callen. He is very knowledgeable and does pretty good at responding quickly via email.

Good luck in your studies! :thumbs:

 

[sskh1212]

I am currently taking the GA tech course for the April exam. I think Testmasters is best as far as content is concerned, but if you don't have access to TM, then GAtech is best. You can't beat Dr. Russ Callen's knowledge. I feel they have skipped a lot of details and the number of example problems are very less. You can finfish going through the lectures if you pick the areas that you are weak. The binders are ok. If you can get a hold of Testmasters binder from someone who has taken it..that's the best. I think you will get the binder MUCH earlier.

The worst are the symmetrical faults and Transmission line section. If you have grainger and Stevenson, you can skip transmission lines module.

 

[solomonb]

Certainly you can do this. It is going to mean burning a lot of midnight oil between now and test day, however, you can do it! Plan on 10 hour per day on each weekend up to the test date, along with about 10 hours of study/review time during the week. Make sure the spouse understands the import of this activity-- tell the children why this is so important (if you have kids that can understand), then hit it hard.

There is no reason to take this more than once-- really study and understand the questions and what they are looking for. Remember, they are testing for the minimally competent engineer, the C- student. The problems are written to be completed in 6 min or less. Don't overthink the problem-- there are no "trick" questions-- they are all straight forward questions-- where many folks get goofed up is that they do not fully comprehend or understand the concept being tested and get out in left field and burn 30 min. If that happens, push reset and go on. Come back to the problem after you have worked several others-- it may be that the answer jumps out at you.

I have been on the IE PE test development team for 4 years. Some questions can take less time, some take more, however, the average is 6 minutes per question. If you know the subject, the answer should be obvious. Sure, there may be some calculations involved, but you know what calculations need to be made to derive the answer to the question.

Work LOTS of problems-- make sure that you understand what you are doing and not doing it mechanically-- really understand what they are asking you to solve. If you have been out of school some time, you may need more than 10 hours a week and 20 hours per weekend-- this will be rough for 8 weeks, but you can do it.

Buy an approved calculator and really learn all of the functions. I have a TI 30X-- nothing fancy, it is approved for PE tests. It works, however, you have to work it to recall all of the buttons and functions.

Good Luck-- I have great faith in your skills and abilities-- it will be HELL for 8 weeks-- OK, you know that now-- work like Hell and finish it-- take the wife out for a long weekend-- your wife and your boss will both be happy campers.

 

[Ship Wreck PE]

I took the course in August 2013 and it was prerecord so you can work at your own pace.

The course is only 33 hours long so if you can go

without sleep you could watch it all in 2 days.

I went through the entire course twice in six weeks, so you have plenty of time. What areas are you weak in?

 

[user 26087]

My biggest weakness was Electromagnetic Devices (1/6). I purchased the Wildi book and have been studying that plus CI practice exams. I've also need some additional improvement in other areas and heard so many positives for GA that I threw it out to my employer and they said take it. My plan was to review the videos on lunch, nights, and weekends. So it sounds like I'll have the time to complete.

 

[user 26087]

Anyone else have issues verifying account with GT after receiving confirmation of acceptance for pe review course?

 

[knight1fox3]

No. And I don't recall anyone else reporting anything either. What does this "verification" include? And when did you register for the course?

At any rate, it might a good idea to contact the registrar to see what your status is.

 

[user 26087]

I received an email from the registrar's office with a PDF of my receipt. In the PDF it stated I needed to activate my account in order to login to the course site. I contacted them and they told me to contact the IT group. So now I'm waiting on them to get back to me. Just wasn't sure if anyone else ran into these issues. I registered last Thursday in the morning. Received the email Friday afternoon.

 

[knight1fox3]

It could be a proponent of technical difficulty however, it hasn't even been a week yet. From my experience, registering with any university, no matter how large or small the program is, a week's time tends to be fairly standard.

And you tried contacting the IT department directly? You might also try contacting Dr. Callen to see if he has any "go-to" people to get in touch with first. I would keep on this though so it doesn't get forgotten given your time frame.

 

[Redskinsdb21]

TECH course was best I seen out there and helped me immensely....make sure to do the practice exams as well and you should be fine

 

[user 26087]

So far I've been through the first 2 modules. Actually learned some things that I was like "huh wish I knew that before". So far I'm liking the course. The binder came today and Dr. Callen has been real responsive with emails.