Study Materials

For those taking the exam for the first, or the fourth time, allow me to offer my opinions on what I used to finally pass.

As with many I often travel at the most inopportune times, for that reason I elected to go with the online courses rather than the in-person ones. I felt this also had another advantage of being able to really focus in on areas that I felt more deficient in.

April '10 I did minimal studying. Used the NCEES sample exam and the Camara PE Book and sample exam. No passo.

I took the GA Tech PE course for the Oct '10 exam. I was in Minneapolis for the entire month of September for work. I feel I leaned on this course to teach me rather than me learn from it. Needless to say I did not pass.

For the April '11 exam, I put more effort into learning. I opted to pony up for the Irvine Institute course. This was actually pretty good. I also purchased several Schaum's books and the Ugly's references. Schaum's I never had a chance to get into. The Ugly's turned out to be a big investment. I also purchased the NEC tabs. They helped break the book down into more specific sections instead of a whole section on Motors, etc.

The GA tech and Irvine course materials turned out to be quite helpful. Several problems involving lighting were not in the Camara book. However, the GA Tech had several formulas related to the exact question asked.

For my passing attempt I took:

Camara PE Reference Book

Irvine Institute Course Book

GA Tech Course folder

Book on Motors

Ugly's Electrical Reference

Ugly's Motor Reference

Other hand written notes

NEC/NEC tabs

NCEES sample exam

I would be happy to elaborate more on any of these materials.

VolInGA said:

For those taking the exam for the first, or the fourth time, allow me to offer my opinions on what I used to finally pass.
As with many I often travel at the most inopportune times, for that reason I elected to go with the online courses rather than the in-person ones. I felt this also had another advantage of being able to really focus in on areas that I felt more deficient in.

April '10 I did minimal studying. Used the NCEES sample exam and the Camara PE Book and sample exam. No passo.

I took the GA Tech PE course for the Oct '10 exam. I was in Minneapolis for the entire month of September for work. I feel I leaned on this course to teach me rather than me learn from it. Needless to say I did not pass.

For the April '11 exam, I put more effort into learning. I opted to pony up for the Irvine Institute course. This was actually pretty good. I also purchased several Schaum's books and the Ugly's references. Schaum's I never had a chance to get into. The Ugly's turned out to be a big investment. I also purchased the NEC tabs. They helped break the book down into more specific sections instead of a whole section on Motors, etc.

The GA tech and Irvine course materials turned out to be quite helpful. Several problems involving lighting were not in the Camara book. However, the GA Tech had several formulas related to the exact question asked.

For my passing attempt I took:

Camara PE Reference Book

Irvine Institute Course Book

GA Tech Course folder

Book on Motors

Ugly's Electrical Reference

Ugly's Motor Reference

Other hand written notes

NEC/NEC tabs

NCEES sample exam

I would be happy to elaborate more on any of these materials.

Click to expand...

How did you like irvine in terms of past archived classes? Also what books did you use for the class? Did u use the economics part too? Haha so many questions. Great writeup though and congrats! Maybe third will be the charm for me!

CntrSnr2001 said:

How did you like irvine in terms of past archived classes? Also what books did you use for the class? Did u use the economics part too? Haha so many questions. Great writeup though and congrats! Maybe third will be the charm for me!

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I wasn't able to get any of the archived classes. There was a little bit of trouble with the Adobe Connect system that they were using. However, each session was recorded and I would watch them the next day. The week of the exam I even used them again to refresh.

I did purchase the economics book. However, I felt this book didn't specifically address anything the Camara book didn't. The issue I had with the exam was they tricked you by referring to what they were looking for by a different name. The best thing to do was to look at the info given (what do you have: P,F,i,n,t,G,etc???) and what are they asking for.

For homemade example, not anything from the exam: They give you information and may ask for the interest rate and call it something. Well, the info given all relates to a simple P=F^(1-i) or something similar. You have to look at the info and not the words (if that makes sense)

VolInGA said:

For my passing attempt I took:Camara PE Reference Book

Irvine Institute Course Book

GA Tech Course folder

Book on Motors

Ugly's Electrical Reference

Ugly's Motor Reference

Other hand written notes

NEC/NEC tabs

NCEES sample exam

I would be happy to elaborate more on any of these materials.

Click to expand...

I did the same thing you did on your first attempt, studied the NCEES sample exam and the Camara book, and got the same result. I failed miserably, I scored 45/80.

What are the Ugly's ? I am not familiar with what this is?

Irvine Institute Course book - Did you used the Chelpati book, or is this something different?

Also what specific book on Motors did you used?

dmann921 said:

I did the same thing you did on your first attempt, studied the NCEES sample exam and the Camara book, and got the same result. I failed miserably, I scored 45/80.
What are the Ugly's ? I am not familiar with what this is?

Irvine Institute Course book - Did you used the Chelpati book, or is this something different?

Also what specific book on Motors did you used?

Click to expand...

Yes I used the Chelpati books. The Ugly's reference books are about 3"x5" little spiral bound books typically for electricians. Basic Electrical has red spiral binding, Motors is blue, and NFP70A is green. each are about $15 or so.

I will look at the motors books I used. I'm in South Dakota right now and can't remember off the top of my head.

dmann921 said:

I did the same thing you did on your first attempt, studied the NCEES sample exam and the Camara book, and got the same result. I failed miserably, I scored 45/80.
What are the Ugly's ? I am not familiar with what this is?

Irvine Institute Course book - Did you used the Chelpati book, or is this something different?

Also what specific book on Motors did you used?

Click to expand...

Have a look at my post in this thread dmann921. Some good information and suggestions there. And Ugly's is a quick reference handbook (typically pocket-sized) that has a lot of fundamental information in it. Hope that helps.

I used PPI reference manual heavily and found some topics on the test that weren't covered in the review manual at all (which I'm sure is the case for most other review manuals). Did you prep for topics that were in the review manuals? If so what did you bring or use?

To me, short of bringing in every type of electrical reference including the entire collection of IEEE color books what can we do to prepare for the random questions they extract from their rear end?

CntrSnr2001 said:

I used PPI reference manual heavily and found some topics on the test that weren't covered in the review manual at all (which I'm sure is the case for most other review manuals). Did you prep for topics that were in the review manuals? If so what did you bring or use?
To me, short of bringing in every type of electrical reference including the entire collection of IEEE color books what can we do to prepare for the random questions they extract from their rear end?

Click to expand...

I did not use the PPI reference manual for my preparation. I reviewed the topics that were covered by the online GA Tech course I took. You can't possibly be prepared for EVERY single question on the exam. You can only reinforce fundamental concepts to have the best chance at obtaining the correct solution.

I took:

Chelapati

Power Systems Analysis

Motors and Transformers by Wiley

NEC 2008 Handbook

Economics Book

EPRM

A NESC handbook my boss had

and EC&M Calculations

Some of the random questions I knew from my various jobs, some from studying, some from complete guesses.

Thanks guys for feedback.

Which chelapati books specifically are best and can I bring them in to the test in Illinois?

Can u also let me know which Wiley book? Im having trouble finding it on amazon.

CntrSnr2001 said:

Thanks guys for feedback.
Which chelapati books specifically are best and can I bring them in to the test in Illinois?

Can u also let me know which Wiley book? Im having trouble finding it on amazon.

Click to expand...

Volume 1 (for the Power examination) and yes you can use it in Illinois

Er I dunno my boss got it in college from one of his professors...everyone here recommends a motors and transformers book by wildi that should suit you fine

willsee said:

CntrSnr2001 said:

Can u also let me know which Wiley book? Im having trouble finding it on amazon.

Click to expand...

everyone here recommends a motors and transformers book by wildi that should suit you fine

Click to expand...

This is the Wildi book that I purchased. Wasn't crazy about getting it overseas but it was cheap and came in better than expected condition. Also, AddAll is a great book searching tool to use to try and find cheap and "like new" reference books.

I'll just say that I really believe that the Wildi book is a MAJOR contributor to my passing the PE. I think it's a great reference for a very broad amount of Power Engineering.

I almost exclusively used that, my Power System Analysis (Glover/Samar) book from school, and the NEC Handbook. I also had the economics reference from the FE (and an econ book I never opened) and a lighting article for reference (but I do lighting design, so I didn't really need it). I had the EERM, brought it, but never used it becuase of the Wildi book. YMMV

knight1fox3 said:

dmann921 said:

I did the same thing you did on your first attempt, studied the NCEES sample exam and the Camara book, and got the same result. I failed miserably, I scored 45/80.
What are the Ugly's ? I am not familiar with what this is?

Irvine Institute Course book - Did you used the Chelpati book, or is this something different?

Also what specific book on Motors did you used?

Click to expand...

Have a look at my post in this thread dmann921. Some good information and suggestions there. And Ugly's is a quick reference handbook (typically pocket-sized) that has a lot of fundamental information in it. Hope that helps.

Click to expand...

I used Ugly's Electrical Reference also. Additionally, I found it very helpful to cross reference the NEC table number and page number in the Ugly's book. This made it easy to turn to the NEC if I needed to look for exceptions, notes, etc.

Also, I used the NEC Handbook, but it was very heavy and bulky. But for me, it was nice to have it for explaining things in the code as well as providing a source of sample NEC calculations.

Tom Henry's NEC index (a more detailed index than in the NEC itself) was also useful for me.

First time pass. I didn't guess at any of the problems but came to solutions that matched one of the options. I only know for sure of one problem that I missed because of a simple brain fart.

Here is what I used and would strongly recommend.

Chelapati

Grainger - Power Systems Analysis

Wiley - Motors and Transformers

NEC 2008 Codebook (not the Handbook - too large and there isn't enough time to mess with the explanatory info)

EC&M Calculations

I also took in two 3" binders with a wide and deep variety of printed materials. Lighting calcs, KVA method, PU method, Transformer formulas (same KVA, different %Z, etc.)

I think PPI is largely a waste of time and money for preparation although the reference manual did provide a few bits of information that resulted in answers. The only thing worse is Kaplan which has no place in the exam room.

The single best tools to prep for the test are real world experience and the NCEES practice test.

FYI, I just bought the latest NCEES Power Example Problem book and it contained the exact same questions as the book printed in 2009 that I bought early last year. I just wasted $50 on the same book thinking that maybe they would provide new questions.

Here is what I used to pass:

NCEES sample exam with worked out problems and answers (Essential)

Binder mixed with internet collected documents: NEMA VFD Guidelines, Lightning Protection, Lighting Calculation Standards, Grounding, Motor Guidelines, Paralleling transformers guide, and other stuff mentioned in this forum

Wildi Power Book (El Savior)

NEC Code Handbook

Power Factor Correction Table

Engineering Economics (Notes from my Masters class)

Camara Book (did not even open it...very useless)

Testmasters Book (opened a couple of times)

Pack of Mentos...the freshmaker

A prayer before morning and afternoon exam

I completely understand the FE and PE are two totally different exams, but our school (University of New Orleans) requires seniors to take a FE prep class and they use Kaplan. I passed the FE in October and am a little surprised to hear all negative about Kaplan as a PE prep. I thought they had very good FE prep material. When/If the time comes to take the PE, I'll definitley check back here for tips and resources.

You took theApril 11 exam and knew you passed by May 26!? Man they have gotten fast with the results!!

I've had lots of problems with the excessive amounts of information provided in many of the engineering texts. While they are nice for on-the-job practical engineering, or for a college engineering course, they seem to me to be overkill for the actual PE test. I didn't like wasting study time on things not in the actual test. For me it, the primary issue was: practice, practice, practice. Real practical exams that match the PE-style questions were the most important study aid for me. Unfortunately, there aren't many really good practice exams (of course the NCEES official one is good - but it's really just one test).

So, I started a company offering really accurate PE style question types. We have 4 unique practice tests (80 questions each) that match the PE content and question-style. I've put in tons of question explanations, and the questions really mirror the actual experience of taking a real PE. They have basically all the formulas you'll need, and the backup for all question types. I put in a lot of effort on the question explanations. I don't think there's another practice test out there with as much (or as thorough) explanation of the questions as these ones. I really think you won't find better exam preparation than just doing REALLY GOOD exams, and being able to practice multiple times on different exams.

These are a new offering to the Power PE community. I genuinely hope they'll help you out. Check us out at:

www.compleximaginary.com

I believe it'll be the most practical (and most realistic practice) study you'll have for the PE.