REMEMBER YOUR CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT

Welcome back after your (hopefully) succesful attempt at the PE exam! Here's hoping you did something fun this weekend and enjoyed some free time after all the studying you've put in. DO NOT ruin your preparation and career by posting any exam specific items here! Do feel free to talk about lunch.

...and about hot proctors.

Kidding aside, it has happened before and we do not want it to happen again. Do not post PE Exam questions. There is no such a thing like being anonymous in the internet and they can, and will find you, if the agreement is violated.

Last friday was a nightmare. I hope i can pass with 30 correct answers total...lol

I went into the exam expecting to nail it. Instead it nailed me. It was definitely a nightmare.

40 of the problems I think I got correct.

30 of the problems I think I got it down to 50%-50%

10 of the problems I just guessed.

That gives me 40 + 15 + 2.5 = 57.5 correct (I hope)

I need some luck to pass. I hope my estimate is correct.

I went in expecting to get 75+ out of 80 correct.

I may just begin studying for April now, incase I was not lucky.

Lunch...

a turkey sandwich, apple, cheese stick, and water in my car while I listened to the radio and played games on my phone.

I think that i will have to wait for the letter that is going to say "i have to regret that base on your totall score of much less than 69 .....bla bla bla

EEVA said:

I may just begin studying for April now, incase I was not lucky.

Click to expand...

I'm going to wait the ~2 months until I get the letter.

EEVA said:

I went into the exam expecting to nail it. Instead it nailed me. It was definitely a nightmare.

40 of the problems I think I got correct.

30 of the problems I think I got it down to 50%-50%

10 of the problems I just guessed.

That gives me 40 + 15 + 2.5 = 57.5 correct (I hope)

I need some luck to pass. I hope my estimate is correct.

Click to expand...

70% is passing for sure, right? So that is 56.

70% passing score is based on scaled (equating) score (not raw score). Usually there is a curve to make scaled score to determine the passing score. Literally passing score (raw) may be 56 or > 56 correct out of 80, but most of the time it is little lower than 56. In this forum, I found only one candidate who failed with 53 correct answer (scaled score 69). So we can assume around 53 correct may be good to pass. Bottom line is that NCEES will determine minimum number of correct answer corresponds with minimal competence in a particular discipline for Oct'11 test.

Hope for the best and good luck for all!

Thanks,

BamaBino said:

EEVA said:

I went into the exam expecting to nail it. Instead it nailed me. It was definitely a nightmare.

40 of the problems I think I got correct.

30 of the problems I think I got it down to 50%-50%

10 of the problems I just guessed.

That gives me 40 + 15 + 2.5 = 57.5 correct (I hope)

I need some luck to pass. I hope my estimate is correct.

Click to expand...

70% is passing for sure, right? So that is 56.

Click to expand...

There is a potential error I think of ~10 points in my estimate. I could be as low as 47.5 correct.

How well or bad did others think they did?

I had an answer for all the questions, but there were 3 or 4 I changed back and forth so they were probably a bust. Maybe 6-8 were educated guesses, so worst case I was pulled off by the wrong answer that made sense to me - lets say 50% on those. I know from the practice questions that about 15-20% of the time when I really thought I had it right, I actually had not read the problem closely enough and made a stupid mistake. I made a real effort to correct that habit, but assuming worst case that would make it

4 * (0%) + 8 * (50%) + 68 * (80%) = 58/80

This should do it...keeping my fingers crossed.

EEVA said:

I went into the exam expecting to nail it. Instead it nailed me. It was definitely a nightmare.

40 of the problems I think I got correct.

30 of the problems I think I got it down to 50%-50%

10 of the problems I just guessed.

That gives me 40 + 15 + 2.5 = 57.5 correct (I hope)

I need some luck to pass. I hope my estimate is correct.

I went in expecting to get 75+ out of 80 correct.

I may just begin studying for April now, incase I was not lucky.

Click to expand...

I feel the same way...I got nailed...will wait for the results before I start studying for the April Exam....I have a lot of pressure from my employer to pass so they can make me the head of the department....there is an acting department head who passed the exam but not have the experience I have...not passing will be very awkward and embarrassing......

I felt like I did decent on this go around. I guessed on maybe 10 problems, and was able to calculate an answer that seemed correct for the rest of the problems. There were a couple of curve balls that threw me for a loop and had me scratching my head during the exam. I am hoping for the best.

I can honestly admit that I squandered precious time when I should have been working problems in preparation for the exam. I felt pleasantly surprised after the first half, and thought during lunch that if the afternoon were at least as fruitful, I'd be getting the "Congratulations" version for Christmas. Instead, I regret to say that's not what I'm expecting now.

One thing-and not topic specific-but I never thought I'd see problems on the exam that were completely foreign to me, especially given that I had almost all of the references that came with the highest recommendations by others who passed previously. I would never claim to be the sharpest engineer that God created, but having worked for 10 years+ as a tech and another 10 as an engineer, with a grad degree to boot, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I read several of those questions.

I'd be curious to know who felt completely and adequately prepared and didn't get caught off guard by a single question on the exam? Also, I'd like to know what study materials prepared you that well? And lastly, if you're still reading and this applies to you and you offer an answer, thanks for still taking the time to help out others who are trudging through this process when you obviously don't have a need to be!

Audienceof1 said:

I felt pleasantly surprised after the first half, and thought during lunch that if the afternoon were at least as fruitful, I'd be getting the "Congratulations" version for Christmas. Instead, I regret to say that's not what I'm expecting now.

Click to expand...

Are you saying that the afternoon part was more difficult for you than the morning? That is how I felt.

Yep, and that in itself was kind of a shock. I was expecting to go into an extension of the morning session, but felt like the difficulty level jumped noticeably.

I know what you two are talking about. I did feel much more confident in the AM than the PM in general. I also think I might know at least one topic you are referring to that was a shock. I guess I was lucky that I took a course in college that covered this, and I had my old notes with me. Having said that, there were less "I am 100% sure I got this one right" questions in the PM than the AM for me. There were more than a few questions I managed to figure out after digging deep into my references and then felt very fortunate to have found them. I am not trying to pass off as some sort of genius, but I believe I just had the correct references for this particular test and I was having a good day.

I brought over 20 references and ended up using almost all of them at least once. I may have looked a bit strange to some with my huge suitcase full of books and binders, but my philisophy for the test was the same as owning firearms for self-defense: It's better to have it and not use it than need it and not have it.

R2KBA said:

I brought over 20 references and ended up using almost all of them at least once. I may have looked a bit strange to some with my huge suitcase full of books and binders, but my philisophy for the test was the same as owning firearms for self-defense: It's better to have it and not use it than need it and not have it.

Click to expand...

I had over 20 references too. I feel that the right references covering all topics is a key for the Computer test at least. For the problem-solving type questions, I think you just needed to know how to do it and could not have picked that up from the references under a time crunch. But the topics on the test were broad enough that it is pretty easy to get a qualitative question on something you never heard of.

I didn't use every one of my references, but I probably used 3/4 of them and will bring all of them again if I have to retake.

I too believe that some of these questions that you guys are referring to caught me a little off gaurd. Luckily I have some experience with these particular items.

As a general comment (I dont believe this violates teh NCEES confidentiality agreement) I know that in the NCEES exam topics layout, the one with the percentages for each amount of problems, motor starters was covered but there seemed to be a decent amount of questions on this. (note: I dont think I have just stated more than can been seen on the feedback section of PPIs website, if there is any doubt though, the moderators should please feel free to delete this post) In these regards, could someone recommend a refernce that would be good for motor starters of all types and varieties? I would like to have this for my job, because I do work with alot of starters and still do not have all the information concentrated in one place. This would include VFDs, Soft Starters, Wye Delta, Starters, Auto-transformers, standard FVNR starters, etc...

Any help would be appreciated. Keeping my fingers crossed for January!

Rob

BamaBino said:

Audienceof1 said:

I felt pleasantly surprised after the first half, and thought during lunch that if the afternoon were at least as fruitful, I'd be getting the "Congratulations" version for Christmas. Instead, I regret to say that's not what I'm expecting now.

Click to expand...

Are you saying that the afternoon part was more difficult for you than the morning? That is how I felt.

Click to expand...

I certainly agree that the PM section was harder than the AM. Overall I was caught off guard by probably 5 questions on the test that I had no idea where to begin. None of my references helped me either. I did some educated guessing, but never saw a sample question even remotely similar.

I brought 6 reference books and used 3 of them (Camara, NEC Handbook, Elec Power and Controls) for 90% of the questions. Power System Analysis & Design helped for a couple of the questions and I didn't use my battery handbook or another one at all.

Overall I feel pretty good about the exam. I had plenty of time to go back and review all the questions, which was a big help. None of the math caught me off-guard and I didn't feel like I was missing any equations. In fact I hardly used my equation sheet at all. There were a great deal more conceptual type questions that I was prepared for. Seemed like you either knew it or you didn't, and finding it in a text/Code book would be very difficult. I'm feeling positive and hope to hear good results sooner than later from the state board.