So...How long did you study what was your game plan and what was your result

[ChoppedBroccoli]

EET

Lectures, homework and practice exams... I probably studied 100 hours, but it's hard to say, I am easily distracted. I know I spent a lot more time on the depth portion than the breadth portion.

Passed, phew!

 

[Energy_Eng]

Self Study (No Course)

Reviewed problems from my university classes and doctoral prelim exam. Reviewed and practiced problems in the MERM and the NCEES practice exam.

Studied 6 weekends - Saturday/Sunday, for about 3-4 hours a day. Total of around 40-ish hours total of studying.

Passed Mechanical T/F PE Exam, 1st attempt. Coming out of the test, I felt that there was only about 6 questions that I had to guess or make an educated guess on, so it felt okay.

I've noticed that how you should study depends a lot on how familiar you are already with the different types of material when you start studying, how comfortable you are in testing environments, and most importantly how you personally best learn. Some people do well when cramming, some people do well when studying a little bit at a time over a long time, etc. 

For me, I have a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and did my course specialization in Thermal/Fluid Sciences when getting my masters, so the material was mostly very familiar to me in the depth part. I reviewed the depth part a decent amount but spent more of my time on the general section since it had material that I didn't use for a while (i.e. mechanics of materials, etc...). 

 

[DenverEngineer]

HVAC and Refrigeration

I started studying around May, but didn't get serious until mid September.  I ended up studying for a little more than 100 hours total.  I tabbed a ton of stuff in my book and used almost none of it.

I took two days off before the test to do some last minute cramming.

I purchased the 6 Minute Solutions Book and the NCEES practice exam.  The 6-minute solutions book was pretty good.  The questions weren't too similar for the most part, but the difficulty was about right.  The NCEES practice was not great.  I found it way easier than the exam, and it seemed to focus on completely different areas. I did received some great advice to make a summary sheet of all the problems in the books for quick reference.

I Passed.

If I had to do it again, I'd do more practice problems and less reading out of the MERM.  I'd also study the stuff that seemed unlikely to be on the test, because a lot of it ended up being on the test.

 

[Kam]

Electric Power

Self Study

Started studying from august, every weekend  about 4-6 hrs (2-5 weekends were missed), random weeknights 1-3 hrs (1-4 week had 0 hrs), total time was probably about 150-200 hours. give or take 10-15 hours of me goofing off to random topics in PE that I just wanted search deeper into. This figure doesn't include my failed attempt of April, i didnt review indepth on few items that i knew i would be OK in.

 

[Phatso86]

Discipline?

Took power. no background in electrical

Prepare time?

unknown. spent about 9 months reading books and watching courses.

What study materials did you use...?

PPI, chelapati, graffeo, complex imaginary. mike holt, much more references

bring to the exam?

everything. Huge crate came with me

How did it work for you?

pass

What would you have done differently?

nothing. 

 

[smahurin]

you're a machine! i hope i can pass with 120hrs for the SE. we were similar in actual study hours for the PE, but i had to take it 2x. I blame test anxiety. 

I'm gearing up to start thinking about when I should take the SE and am leaning towards doing one day at a time. anyway, congrats!

Good luck kid!

I think most people seem to encourage you to take one at a time.  I'm personally glad I did both at once and got it over.  My opinion is you don't really lose anything by trying both at once.  However much time you have to study, you'll study... whether its for just one component or two.  If you don't pass either, you know what to expect next time.  If you pass one, then you're halfway there and in the same shape you would have been had you taken one only and passed.  And if you pass both, well congrats, you're done with test taking forever and save yourself another cycle of studying and stress.

Whichever way you decide though I'm sure you'll do fine.

 

[REsonance503]

I feel like such a slacker now after seeing these responses. I fully intended to put in a good 200 hours but a job change and move kept me busy and distracted. I was fully prepared to flunk the first go around. I went "just to see what was on the exam" since I was approved and paid up. The 2016 pass rates are up now and electronics was like 78% so that no doubt worked in my favor. I honestly felt the test was much easier than I anticipated. Going in totally relaxed thinking I was "surely going to flunk" probably helped too. It's in a way refreshing that years of study and work can be sharpened right back up with such a brief review. I regret though, not taking a good six months to review everything in more detail. Going over everything four or five years later puts it in long-term memory and makes us better engineers. 

 

[smahurin]

I feel like such a slacker now after seeing these responses. I fully intended to put in a good 200 hours but a job change and move kept me busy and distracted. I was fully prepared to flunk the first go around. I went "just to see what was on the exam" since I was approved and paid up. The 2016 pass rates are up now and electronics was like 78% so that no doubt worked in my favor. I honestly felt the test was much easier than I anticipated. Going in totally relaxed thinking I was "surely going to flunk" probably helped too. It's in a way refreshing that years of study and work can be sharpened right back up with such a brief review. I regret though, not taking a good six months to review everything in more detail. Going over everything four or five years later puts it in long-term memory and makes us better engineers. 

I wouldn't say that.  You passed, that's all that matters.  One thing I've stressed on this board, is that there isn't a "correct" number of study hours you need to prepare for the exam.  People have to figure out what works for them.

I had a coworker not study, walk in cold, and pass the exam.  Meanwhile there are others you see on this board that spend 400-500hrs prepping.  I think the best we can do is tell people what worked for us, and they need to figure their own game plan.  

 

[snickerd3]

I feel like such a slacker now after seeing these responses.

Don't feel that way.  everyone is different.  I am not always super quick on the uptake.  I have always had to put a LOT of work into school.

 

[ryno]

Civil Construction 1st try - passed.

started early september... school of pe 80 hours.. self study another 100 hours.

So happy i dont have to study again. I'm sure we all are.

 

[trochreo]

Power Electrical - Passed First time. Eight years out of school. Self-study. Married with one year old baby. Full time job, utility industry. 

Total study time way over 300 Hours, spread over a 4.5 months period, 40% of time on theory,60% of the time on problem solving.  Did over 900 problems, including, NCEES test example (repeated three times), Complex Imaginary four test set (one time), Complex Imaginary NEC code book (about 100 questions) Alexander Graffeo book (repeated twice), and  SOPE practice problems (about 40) for NEC, and about 30 for electric machines from a pdf file a friend gave me also from SOPE. Also watched a lot of youtube videos for Symmetrical components, Transmission line  problems. Complex imaginary youtube videos are the best for understanding the basic things. highly recomended. 

Test strategy: 10-8-1. Meaning, breaking down the test on 8 mini tests, 1 hour each.Completing 10 questions every hour, NO MATTER WHAT! and making sure to get 8/10 right on that hour. if I was not sure on the 8/10 rate, I will do an educated guess on the remaining two questions of each mini test. I married this strategy, did no deviate it from it at all. I was focus, and commited to my strategy, no matter what. In some of the what I called mini tests, if I will answer all questions in less than one hour, and will write the remaining time on a piece of paper  as a way of banking it, in order to use it later at the end of the AM section. I used a $15 Chronometer watch from Walmart, and set it/re-set it at the top of each each hour to stay on track.  I finished the entire test AM and PM  section with entire time to review some of the most difficult problems. 

Before Passing the PE, I failed the FE three times, and wanted to make sure to pass the first time. It worked for me. 

Hope this helps. 

 

[Eva]

Good luck kid!

I think most people seem to encourage you to take one at a time.  I'm personally glad I did both at once and got it over.  My opinion is you don't really lose anything by trying both at once.  However much time you have to study, you'll study... whether its for just one component or two.  If you don't pass either, you know what to expect next time.  If you pass one, then you're halfway there and in the same shape you would have been had you taken one only and passed.  And if you pass both, well congrats, you're done with test taking forever and save yourself another cycle of studying and stress.

Whichever way you decide though I'm sure you'll do fine.

can you take PE and SE at same time. I am civil/geotech and looking to get my GE. I thought I have to have 4 years of working experience after I get the PE to take GE. Thanks, 

 

[schm1213]

I had been out of school 9 years before I finally took the test.  I took the PE Civil WRE and passed on the first try.  

I studied 350 hours (review course and practice exams included in that total) over the course of 9 months.  First, I took the School of PE 80 hour review course on demand.  Second, I worked many practice problems (School of PE problems and Practice Problems for the Civil PE Exam).  I ended by taking 3 4 hour breadth sample exams and 4 4 hour WRE depth sample exams by going to the library, locking myself in a study room, and taking a 4 hour exam while being timed so I could build test endurance, time management, and test taking skill.  I used a variety of practice exams (Goswami, Lindeberg, and Schneiter).  I was consistently scoring about 80% on the breadth exams but only about 60% on the depth exams but the practice exams were harder than the real exam.  

Based on my experience I would say that 300 hours is sufficient for a thorough review.  By that point most concepts had clicked for me.  Also, I would recommend doing at least a couple 4 hour practice test sessions to hone your test taking skill and build endurance.

 

[User1]

4 hours ago, smahurin said: Good luck kid! I think most people seem to encourage you to take one at a time.  I'm personally glad I did both at once and got it over.  My opinion is you don't really lose anything by trying both at once.  However much time you have to study, you'll study... whether its for just one component or two.  If you don't pass either, you know what to expect next time.  If you pass one, then you're halfway there and in the same shape you would have been had you taken one only and passed.  And if you pass both, well congrats, you're done with test taking forever and save yourself another cycle of studying and stress.

Whichever way you decide though I'm sure you'll do fine.

can you take PE and SE at same time. I am civil/geotech and looking to get my GE. I thought I have to have 4 years of working experience after I get the PE to take GE. Thanks, 

No you can't take PE and SE at the same time. SE has two days worth of exams, and you have to pass both, but can pass them independently of each other, within 5 years of each other. A lot of people are curious if they should try both in one cycle (Fri 8hr vertical, sat 8hr lateral) or go one at a time. You have to have 2 more years experience past the PE requirements. I'm looking at testing soon because I tested late for the PE because I'm silly and took other non engineering licensing exams too. Sorry for the confusion!

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[User1]

4 hours ago, smahurin said: Good luck kid! I think most people seem to encourage you to take one at a time.  I'm personally glad I did both at once and got it over.  My opinion is you don't really lose anything by trying both at once.  However much time you have to study, you'll study... whether its for just one component or two.  If you don't pass either, you know what to expect next time.  If you pass one, then you're halfway there and in the same shape you would have been had you taken one only and passed.  And if you pass both, well congrats, you're done with test taking forever and save yourself another cycle of studying and stress.

Whichever way you decide though I'm sure you'll do fine.

can you take PE and SE at same time. I am civil/geotech and looking to get my GE. I thought I have to have 4 years of working experience after I get the PE to take GE. Thanks, 

No you can't take PE and SE at the same time. SE has two days worth of exams, and you have to pass both, but can pass them independently of each other, within 5 years of each other. A lot of people are curious if they should try both in one cycle (Fri 8hr vertical, sat 8hr lateral) or go one at a time. You have to have 2 more years experience past the PE requirements. I'm looking at testing soon because I tested late for the PE because I'm silly and took other non engineering licensing exams too. Sorry for the confusion!

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[vermonter]

self study using books I bought. Estimate 150 hours of studying.

Electrical & Electronics exam. Passed 1st attempt.

I used these books:


PE Electrical and Computer Engineering: Electrical and Electronics Practice Exams 


Electrical and Electronics Practice Problems for the Electrical and Computer PE Exam


Electrical and Electronics Reference Manual for the Electrical and Computer PE Exam 



 



Spin-Up for the Electrical and Computer Engineering PE Exam (Power): Second Edition (didn't open)



Digital Design: With an Introduction to the Verilog HDL 5th Edition

by M. Morris R. Mano (Author), Michael D. Ciletti (Author)


Electric Circuits (10th Edition) 10th Edition

by James W. Nilsson (Author), Susan Riedel (Author)



Microelectronic Circuit Design, 5th Edition 5th Edition

by Richard Jaeger (Author), Travis Blalock (Author)
If i had to take it again:

Bring more books - at least one from every course I took in college. Could've been even more certain about answers if I had my wireless communications textbook. 

 

[bluehengineer]

Took SOPE on demand and worked through all of the videos and practice problems, after taking the class I felt woefully unprepared for the depth portion of the test.  I signed up for EET WRE on demand depth review with Nazrul and it is definitely what saved me for the exam.  I studied 4 hours a day M-F and 6-8 hours every Saturday with Sundays off for 14 weeks.  Totaled around 350+ hours which may have been overkill but, I felt about 90% confident that I passed when I left the exam.  Studying that much was a ton of sacrifice but, having this test knocked out is a huge relief.  Time for a drink 

Result: pass on first try Civil WRE

 

[homerca]

PE power, Self-study for 3 months 3 hours a day, 1st time, passed.  Using references according to the board. Felt a bit overkill it but I definitely did not want to take it again.  

 

[Phatso86]

Electrical power

9 months

Brought everything i got my hands on. PPI, chelapati, ga tech, villanova notes. A huge crate of books, about 120lb crate. Used very little of the books. Should have used the graffeo book more. I realized there were many problems I was stuck on that graffeo book actually went over.

Passed

Would have brought less books. having a degree in EE would have helped too.

 

[Phatso86]

can you take PE and SE at same time. I am civil/geotech and looking to get my GE. I thought I have to have 4 years of working experience after I get the PE to take GE. Thanks, 

what is GE?

of course, the acronym is too short to google