Question about NCEES Power Questions

[ryanbabs]

Hello everyone. I'm new here, and I've been reading some very helpful posts recently. I'm taking the exam on the 29th and I was wondering how similar the actual exam is to the NCEES Sample Questions book. I've already went through it once.

Also, if there are other similar practice exams (besides the Kaiser problems) that I may want to go through, please let me know.

 

[Flyer_PE]

The NCEES problems are as close as you will find to those on the actual exam. There are a couple of other practice exams out there. Kaplan has one that I've seen discussed here but I don't have any personal experience with it.

 

[Wolverine]

NCEES gives you a reasonable feel for the type of questions on the test. If you see that there are several questions in NCEES on solving for real and reactive power, can you guess why?

There will certainly be wildcard questions but you can anticipate the meat & potatos topics. Make sure you know those inside out, upside down, backwards and forwards.

NEC and Econ are like free points if you know how to do them.

 

[cableguy]

The Kaplan exam is significantly more difficult (and confusing) than the NCEES exam. It's riddled with errors and some of their solutions are questionable. The questions are good - if you can slog through the Kaplan problems and work them, you are very likely ready for the exam. Slogging through the questions is the trick though. Some of them are weird and poorly written.

As for NEC, I wouldn't call it "free points" (as I have never worked with it before this test process). It can be confusing and ambiguous at times. But, after the Testmasters class, I think I have enough knowledge to do OK on that part of the exam (and then let that knowledge sail slowly in to the sunset of my mind afterwards, ha ha). I think we'll need to know motors, amapacity, overcurrent protection, short circuit/ground protection, etc very well.

 

[VectrenEng]

NCEES gives you a reasonable feel for the type of questions on the test. If you see that there are several questions in NCEES on solving for real and reactive power, can you guess why?
There will certainly be wildcard questions but you can anticipate the meat & potatos topics. Make sure you know those inside out, upside down, backwards and forwards.

NEC and Econ are like free points if you know how to do them.

I wish the NEC questions were free points! Those are what scare me the most. I am a power engineer for a utility, i.e. no real-world experience with the NEC. Thanks for the info though.

 

[LMAO]

The Kaplan exam is significantly more difficult (and confusing) than the NCEES exam. It's riddled with errors and some of their solutions are questionable. The questions are good - if you can slog through the Kaplan problems and work them, you are very likely ready for the exam. Slogging through the questions is the trick though. Some of them are weird and poorly written.
As for NEC, I wouldn't call it "free points" (as I have never worked with it before this test process). It can be confusing and ambiguous at times. But, after the Testmasters class, I think I have enough knowledge to do OK on that part of the exam (and then let that knowledge sail slowly in to the sunset of my mind afterwards, ha ha). I think we'll need to know motors, amapacity, overcurrent protection, short circuit/ground protection, etc very well.

I can't agree more, Kaplan problems are much, much more difficult than the actual NEECS exam, and yes, they are full of error. Also, a lot of them are just bad and ambiguous questions.

And you are also correct about NEC problems, you are going to have to be familiar with NEC. How to size cables, disconnects for motors, AC units, load calculations, etc. they are not bonus questions. You are going to have to know them or you'll miss out on a big chunk of your grade.

But I don't think NEC is ambiguous, it certainly is NOT a well written book (what did you expect? it is a code) but once you find your way around it, it isn't too bad.

 

[ryanbabs]

Thanks for the input. Are there any Kaplan examples available online? I haven't seen any...

 

[Wolverine]

Okay, I take it back - there are no free points, except that every point is free if you know how to do the problem, so that's not a very helpful answer. Let me try again.

See if you can find or borrow one of the independently published NEC support guides. I had access to two and though they were outdated, I will swear I gained an extra point or two just from the section on grounding ("free" points, woohoo!). Again, there are certain types of problems you can predict based on the practice exam, so make sure you can do those well (now those points are free, woohoo!).

My weaknesses were op-amps, transistors, and communications. There were no free points for me there.