# Do you really need to study from books?



## roy167 (Dec 18, 2018)

A lot of us buy references such as Graffeo, EngProguide ( I consider these as NOTES;  Grainger, Wildi etc as typical BOOKS). For PE, we are not required to have an in depth knowledge on any particular subject but have a basic knowledge on a lots of different subjects. Most importantly be able to solve the problems in 6 minutes.

These NOTES cover need to know information, important formulas and give you quick run down on a topic. Now, I'm sure real exam will have stuff beyond these notes. My view is, let's say if something is asked beyond the reference material covered in these notes then the chances are you are going to have a hard time anyway to get the answer right. In other words, if you can't solve it from these notes then you can't solve it anyway due to time needed etc.  

So if that is the case, do we need to even go through these books, rather spend your time in going through these notes, make your binder and solve a lots of problems from where ever you can get, such as Spin up, Complex , etc etc.

Protection book is a different matter as that subject is not covered very well by these notes. You also need to practice looking up NEC code. 

Previous test takers and preparing for the exam, what is your take on this? Previous test takers, did the books help you answer questions which could not be answered through these notes? ( exclude protection questions and NEC questions) , I am talking about not spending a lot of time on Camara, Wildi, Grianger BOOKS but rely on these notes instead.


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## Szar (Dec 19, 2018)

roy167 said:


> A lot of us buy references such as Graffeo, EngProguide ( I consider these as NOTES;  Grainger, Wildi etc as typical BOOKS). For PE, we are not required to have an in depth knowledge on any particular subject but have a basic knowledge on a lots of different subjects. Most importantly be able to solve the problems in 6 minutes.
> 
> These NOTES cover need to know information, important formulas and give you quick run down on a topic. Now, I'm sure real exam will have stuff beyond these notes. My view is, let's say if something is asked beyond the reference material covered in these notes then the chances are you are going to have a hard time anyway to get the answer right. In other words, if you can't solve it from these notes then you can't solve it anyway due to time needed etc.
> 
> ...


This kind of rubs me the wrong way. There are no spark notes for the PE exam.  

If you can determine all the values in a transmission system, great, you can probably get away with minor studying in that subject area and some refresher notes.  

If you have no idea how a motor works or how to select settings for an impedance relay , its time to crack open a book. 

There is no shortcut, and I guarantee you will be screwed if you think you just refer to someone else's (or even just your own) without a fundamental understanding of the core concepts.  If you understood the core concepts, you wouldn't be asking about if shortcut notes would be OK and avoid the reading.  You'd be confident its all you needed.


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## DLD PE (Dec 19, 2018)

I think you need to do everything.  Need to do both...spend a heavy amount of time on practice exam problems from different sources and then spend a lot of time reading up on material/topics you don't understand.  

I did not pass, but I gave it a good attempt and my feedback sheet shows I was pretty well balanced in the topics, except for protection, which I bombed at 31%.  The feedback I'm getting from the successful test takers is they worked through MANY sample exams (Graffeo, NCEES, CI, Eng Pro Guides) and spent a lot of time reviewing what they missed and made sure they understood the topics of the questions they missed.  Like Szar said, there are no shortcuts.


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## tpkjr2006 (Dec 19, 2018)

MEtoEE said:


> I think you need to do everything.  Need to do both...spend a heavy amount of time on practice exam problems from different sources and then spend a lot of time reading up on material/topics you don't understand.
> 
> I did not pass, but I gave it a good attempt and my feedback sheet shows I was pretty well balanced in the topics, except for protection, which I bombed at 31%.  The feedback I'm getting from the successful test takers is they worked through MANY sample exams (Graffeo, NCEES, CI, Eng Pro Guides) and spent a lot of time reviewing what they missed and made sure they understood the topics of the questions they missed.  Like Szar said, there are no shortcuts.


I would agree with this. You need to remember fundamentals and thought process.


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## LJEngineer (Dec 20, 2018)

I would just like to say that I read a lot about how each question will only take 6 minutes, but I think it's EXTREMELY important to study from textbooks. Don't listen to people who say that something is too specific for the exam. From my experience, the exam throws these throw-balls (totally unexpected) that are super specific. I

If I had to choose between review courses and studying from textbooks, I would study from textbooks. In the last exam, these questions were SO specific that I was able to answer a bunch of them because I had recalled studying them from textbooks vs review courses.


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## ItsStudyTime! (Feb 7, 2019)

roy167 said:


> So if that is the case, do we need to even go through these books, rather spend your time in going through these notes, make your binder and solve a lots of problems from where ever you can get, such as Spin up, Complex , etc etc.﻿


Creating your study binder that is YOUR NOTES and organized BY YOU is incredibly important (in my opinion). For me, it required me to use the books/references to create this binder. I did focus the majority of my time on doing actual problems. Early on, I would have to spend a lot of time looking up/reading/studying/watching videos when I got stumped on a question. So while I used the textbooks, videos, etc to study, I let sample problems be the driving force. As I got better, I found myself using my own previously solved problems as 'notes' to solve new problems in practice exams. When this happened, I knew I had a good grasp on a topic. When I had no helpful notes in my binder to solve a given problem, it was back to the textbooks/videos/studying. I hope that makes sense. I wrote about it in more detail on my page here about 'how I approached the exam' - studying is a VERY personal experience, and everyone's brain is different, so you have to find the methods that resonate with you.


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## ellen3720 (Feb 7, 2019)

There is no shortcut. 

Reference "notes" (Graffeo, etc.) are structured around the core exam concepts. However, the exam tests you on everything - including small details and unexpected topics every time.

Sure the "notes" cover the core material, but the exam tests on much more than that. If you only study the "notes" I'd estimate you will be totally unprepared for at least 1/3 of the questions.


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## ChebyshevII PE PMP (Feb 8, 2019)

I had some textbooks I thoroughly reviewed in detail prior to taking the exam, and others that I brought with me for reference that I did not spend much time in during study. Most important for me was having books with indices, which I could use to cross-reference certain subjects if I needed it.

More important than just “reviewing” textbooks, however, is practice. You can have all the formulas and code in the world in front of you, but if you don’t know how to use them, you won’t get very far. The exam is far less about “testing your knowledge on certain subjects” than it is about gauging your problem-solving skills; the NCEES spec is there only as a guideline, not a guarantee.

Based on my experience, I would have failed miserably if I only took the time to “familiarize” myself with all the subjects on the spec, rather than doing as much actual practice as I could.

DISCLAIMER: I took the computer engineering exam, but I feel the above applies in all subjects.


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## KatyLied P.E. (Feb 11, 2019)

Yes you do need to study from BOOKS.  Along with NOTES, internet, YouTube, and sample tests.  I would also recommend you take a formal course if time and finances allow.  I recommend Georgia Tech but there are other good ones as well.  It may well be the case that you do not look at a book the day of the exam.  However those books should have helped you prepare your note sheet and provided context for sample problems and understand them inside and out.


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