October 2014 Electrical Power Exam was Tough

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maverickPEPower

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Gals n Guys do you agree? I asked people who took 2 or 3 times before. They concur that this was the toughest. More theoretical than problematic. Let us know what you all thought?

 
Everything. Did you take the exam? Please read forum rules we are not supposed to talk specifics about questions.

 
I took the exam as well. I thought I was the only one suffering from that AM and PM exams. Like you, I talked to a guy who has taken it 3 times and told me that this time was the hardest.

 
This is my second time taking the exam...first time was in Apr 2012. Yesterday's exam didn't seem too hard, but I certainly was surprised about the variety of topics covered. This time around I practiced exams from CI, Spinup, and NCEES and really hoped the exam yesterday would be more similar...but it wasn't. Oh well...we'll see what happens:)

 
I totally agree @ronbo. I did CI, Spinup and NCEES score closed to 85% in all but this exam was tough.

 
A few insights from the exam, without discussing specifics of questions:

- I thought the morning session was extremely difficult, the afternoon was a little closer to what I expected based on the CI, Spin Up, and NCEES questions available.

- I'm glad I brought a copy of NESC; I thought I may only need the index but that wasn't the case.

- Didn't realize I would need a copy of NFPA 70E (Electrical Safety in the Workplace). I'll pick one up if I have to retake the exam.

- Most NEC questions were straight forward but there were a couple of obscure ones, one of which I never quite found the answer to and had to guess.

- I felt like walking out after only being able to answer about three of the first twelve questions. After the morning session I really didn't want to come back for the afternoon. It's been a long week at work dealing with an audit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. I wish the exam were on a Saturday so I could have a day to recharge a little before hand.

 
Don't think you really need a copy of 70E, but to each their own.

LOL @ NRC audit. Not my favorite.

 
@submarine I totally agree morning was very difficult. Evening was little easy. Lets see how this pans out in 6 weeks. I am glad I am not the only one who felt it was a tough exam. I talked with some mechanical folks. It was easy for them.

 
I don't know about "to each their own", I think that kind of minimalizes the fact that you needed the book to answer the question. I don't have tables from the NFPA 70E memorized.

Without getting specific, a question states "in accordance with NFPA 70E", then asks a question that requires you to look at a table for a specific value.

I came home and looked it up because I wasn't really familiar with what NFPA 70E is. Sure enough, the answer was in there.

I only bring it up so that others know they may need a copy of NFPA 70E in the future. NCEES may not have asked questions on this in the past, but they certainly did yesterday.

 
Well to lighten the mood a little for you recent test takers, have a look below at one of my favorite exam recaps from another forum user. Very funny in my opinion.

EE - Power. "You sunk my battleship."

Preparation Time/Materials: 250 total hours. 5 textbooks, prep coursework notebook, 2 notebooks of graduate class material, calculators, snacks, rolling suitcase.

Money: ~$1,550.

General Observations: Arrived at my site 30 minutes prior to report time. Noticed that many others had literally libraries and libraries of books. Someone had a giant wagon with bungie cords holding all of the books together. Others just had a single piece of paper. Wild. I randomly started thinking of a national geographic special with narration by Morgan Freeman on PE test taking habits. I needed that laugh to clear my head.

AM Session: Felt the AM session was great. Only ended up with 6-7 that I didn't have a single solid answer or couldn't find it in my reference. I finished slightly early and checked only some of my work.

PM Session: Total unadulterated bloodbath. Couldn't seem to concentrate enough to find the equations I needed. Calculator was spitting out answers that were out of this world. Saw stuff that I barely covered in droves. About 2-3 hours into the afternoon, my brain felt like it had been through a dishwasher and I started hopping around from question to question. Not good. I will be lucky if I got a quarter to half right. I might as well have taken another discipline in the afternoon or gone to work. A monkey may have been able to do better.

Final Thoughts: As I left the exam area, I felt numb, dumb, and a little crushed. I felt like I blew the morning session out of the water. Then the PE got off a torpedo as I was heading to collect my stamp, promotion, and better life. I'm not very good at guessing and doing the math in my head all weekend I kept envisioning a percentage score in the upper 60s with an afternoon diagnostic that simply says "monkey". 6 months of neglecting my wife and family might be for nothing in the end except doing it all over again. I know the pass rate for repeaters is low, but what is the divorce rate?

Oh well. If I recall from a coworker, last years results were released in around 45-50 days following the exam. I think he got his in late May. We shall see. I guess the ultimate decision is now do I crack open another book....or another beer?
 
the exam was tough...good luck to all.. I think that the results should be out by the first week of December maybe earlier

 
1st time test taker, but glad I'm not the only one that thought the AM was tougher then the PM.

5-6 AM questions that none of my material prepped me for. The 70E was definitely required. After the AM, I was already checking to see when the next test would be offered.

PM portion was either easier, or I did a good job coming up with the correct "wrong" answer, because almost all of my answers were listed as options in the multiple choice.

2 PM questions I had no clue, and it wouldn't have mattered if I had another 4 hrs to try.

Maybe they'll grade in a curve. Lol

 
omg same here, i studied so hard , but the exam was not even % closer to what was expected,

i remember last time i didnt prepared well but exam was so straight forward. but this time i almost cried ,,,,,,,,,,,, it was most unexpected problems

very very sad and disappointed.

good luck to all.

 
Same here, did the CI tests, the one from NCEES and read some books. I was hoping to use the calculator a little bit more but found myself looking at textbooks most of the time. The wording of the problems were not similar in anyway to the actual practice tests.

 
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