# Passed the Exam! Here’s my Thoughts & Advice



## TruHero (Dec 7, 2018)

Hey y’all! First post on this forum. I’ve read this forum off &amp; on during the year as I got ready for the Power PE down here in Orlando.

So, I passed the Power PE exam in October.…first try &amp; all. I figured that I should join the fun and let y’all know what it took for me to get to this point. Hopefully, it will help at least one person reading this post. Here’s my thoughts &amp; advice on the exam:

Time Commitment:

• Yo…..I studied my ass off for nearly 5mos straight. During my 1hr lunch breaks, every night after work for about 2hrs (Mon.-Fri.), and almost all day on the weekends (a minimum of 6hrs each day).
• Unless you’re brilliant (I’m not), you have to commit to studying. There’s no way around it. This exam is brutal.
Books I Took Into the Exam:

• Graffeo – Used this one the most during the exam, but it still wasn’t much.
• Power Systems by Grainger – Answered 1 question directly
• The Wildi book – Answered about 5 questions directly 
• PPI by Camara – Practically useless
• NEC 2017 – Yeah, you need to know it, especially the Fire Pump section. Get familiar with the NEC.
• NESC 2017 – Find/buy yourself a copy. There will be at least 2-3 “gimme” questions on the exam. Don’t miss out on these easy questions.
• NFPA 70E – Again, find/buy yourself a copy. There will be at least 2-3 “gimme” questions on the exam. Again, don’t miss out.
Practice Exams:

• 2 x PPI by Camara practice exams – Practically useless and a waste of time &amp; money. The real exam is drastically different.
• Graffeo (it’s included in his book) – Eh….i found this practice exam far too easy, and not close to the real exam. Good for a couple of the Protection Relay problems on the real exam, though.
• Official NCEES Practice Exam – This is the real disappointment. The OFFICIAL practice exam is easier than the real exam. Like, a lot easier. The real exam has A TON of (primary/utility side) Protection Relay problems that aren’t on the practice exam. 
• Engineer Pro Guides (the Kauwale one) practice exam -  Sadly, not even close to the real exam. Lacking (very much so) on the Protection Relay problems.
Final Thoughts:

• Worst exam I’ve taken in my life. Easily. We’ve all taken a ton of exams to get to this point, right? WORST EXAM EVER.
• Find all the Protection Relay problems you can find. I honestly felt blindsided by the amount of problems that were on the exam. The books &amp; practice exams listed above DO NOT prepare you for this.
• Pomodoro Technique FOR LIFE. Seriously. Use it while studying. I was hesitant (like I’m sure most are reading this) to try it out, but I decided to give the technique a try one day and it’s a game changer. Use it. 
• Your own notes &amp; formulas will be the best resource during the exam.
I’ll check the thread later to answer any questions. Good luck!


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## roy167 (Dec 7, 2018)

Congrats and nice and precise write up.


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## chaosNJ (Dec 7, 2018)

I agree with everything you said. The official NCEES exam sample is laughably easy compared to the exam (I said so in their survey). Graffeo is a good book in it's own right but not very helpful as a reference in the Oct 2018 exam.

Exam was mental. Still have no idea how I passed that thing, on the first try too. Probably on the back of NEC questions (I use it all the time at work) and the non-protection questions being so well addressed in Graffeo.


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## tpkjr2006 (Dec 8, 2018)

TruHero said:


> Hey y’all! First post on this forum. I’ve read this forum off &amp; on during the year as I got ready for the Power PE down here in Orlando.
> 
> So, I passed the Power PE exam in October.…first try &amp; all. I figured that I should join the fun and let y’all know what it took for me to get to this point. Hopefully, it will help at least one person reading this post. Here’s my thoughts &amp; advice on the exam:
> 
> ...


I passed also and I agree my thoughts exactly.


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## Drewism (Dec 8, 2018)

This doesn't really help me. I did the same and still failed. I was blindsided by the power electronics questions and protection questions. That's what killed me. Everything else, I performed fairly decent on. It's hard to find a decent reference given the types of questions in these categories.


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## justin-hawaii (Dec 10, 2018)

@TruHero thank you for the comments on my Engineering Pro Guides exam.  I am working to add more problems to the exams and technical study guide to cover the Protection, Rotating Machines and VFD sections.


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## roy167 (Dec 10, 2018)

Justin, 

You must be super brilliant. You are a mechanical guy creating Power PE questions???


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## justin-hawaii (Dec 10, 2018)

@roy167  to be honest, I have a very smart electrical engineer that works with me.  She passed both the Mechanical and Electrical PEs.  I have mechanical and fire PEs.  But I handle the marketing for both mechanical and electrical.


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## DLD PE (Dec 10, 2018)

Tru Hero (and others),

Congrats on passing!  I appreciate everyone's comments here.  I know I echo most everyone's sentiments that the practice exam problems, (NCEES, Eng Pro Guides, Graffeo, Complex Imaginary, PPI among others) fall way behind and is lacking as far as preparing you for the real exam.  That said, since most of what I read recommends that we spend MANY hours taking MULTIPLE practice exams (it seems consistent that most people who passed did this) in addition to learning and understanding the topics, especially on parts of the practice exams we missed.  So, if the multiple practice exams mentioned above are severely lacking, what do you recommend we do different?


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## justin-hawaii (Dec 10, 2018)

Our current approach to improve our Engineering Pro Guides products is to focus on Protection, Rotating Machines, VFD (Power Electronic Devices) sections.  It seems like we need to better *explain and test* the underlying theory/concepts.  For example, we are working on diagrams that explain how the various rotating machines operate during various conditions (start-up, design load, increasing load, decreasing load).  The diagrams would include equivalent circuits, equations and waveforms.  It would also cover how the various parameters (current, voltage, real power, reactive power and torque) change. 

I think a lot of people understand how to use the equations during normal scenarios, but get tripped up when they need to apply a theory/concept to an unusual situation.  For example, if an induction motor is designed for a voltage of 480 V, then which of the following is true when a surge of 600 V is applied to the induction motor?  It is very difficult to do all the possible problems that could appear on the exam, but if you have your resources and understand your resources and the underlying concepts/theories, then I believe you should put yourself in the best situation to pass. 

This is our current method to improving our products and we will gladly take any feedback and look forward to responses to the question posed above by @MEtoEE.


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## roy167 (Dec 10, 2018)

justin-hawaii said:


> Our current approach to improve our Engineering Pro Guides products is to focus on Protection, Rotating Machines, VFD (Power Electronic Devices) sections.  It seems like we need to better *explain and test* the underlying theory/concepts.  For example, we are working on diagrams that explain how the various rotating machines operate during various conditions (start-up, design load, increasing load, decreasing load).  The diagrams would include equivalent circuits, equations and waveforms.  It would also cover how the various parameters (current, voltage, real power, reactive power and torque) change.
> 
> I think a lot of people understand how to use the equations during normal scenarios, but get tripped up when they need to apply a theory/concept to an unusual situation.  For example, if an induction motor is designed for a voltage of 480 V, then which of the following is true when a surge of 600 V is applied to the induction motor?  It is very difficult to do all the possible problems that could appear on the exam, but if you have your resources and understand your resources and the underlying concepts/theories, then I believe you should put yourself in the best situation to pass.
> 
> This is our current method to improving our products and we will gladly take any feedback and look forward to responses to the question posed above by @MEtoEE.


What is your policy if I bought the PDF versions of your products recently and you update some stuff? within a year?


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## justin-hawaii (Dec 10, 2018)

Once you buy the product, you will receive any future updates for free.  @roy167


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## tpkjr2006 (Dec 10, 2018)

justin-hawaii said:


> Once you buy the product, you will receive any future updates for free.  @roy167


I recommend to add protection scenarios/ more protection calculation questions


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## RadioBox (Dec 10, 2018)

justin-hawaii said:


> Once you buy the product, you will receive any future updates for free.  @roy167


Can you give us a time frame when the new updated pdf might be released?


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## justin-hawaii (Dec 10, 2018)

RadioBox said:


> Can you give us a time frame when the new updated pdf might be released?


Response: Early January 2019.


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## Nashi (Dec 11, 2018)

justin-hawaii said:


> Once you buy the product, you will receive any future updates for free.  @roy167


The Engineering pro guide helped me so much when I was studying. Will we receive an email on updates to the guide? Thank you so much


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## roy167 (Dec 11, 2018)

Nashi said:


> The Engineering pro guide helped me so much when I was studying. Will we receive an email on updates to the guide? Thank you so much


What proguide products did you buy?


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## DLD PE (Dec 11, 2018)

I bought the practice exam and downloaded the free cheat sheets, which I think there are several you can download, some of which are filled out.  These cheat sheets are well organized.  Basically they are formula and diagram sheets organized by topic.  I found them very useful both during studying/practice exams and I used them during the real exam as well.

I don't know what other "Eng Pro Guides" there are but if there's something else that could help me I would be open to getting it.


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## roy167 (Dec 11, 2018)

Justin: 

Question for you. Your or anyone's question may not be close to actual exam, I perfectly understand this but can you tell me if I go through your guide, that you have covered all the topics?  It is up to the test taker to understand the concepts to the degree they seem fit.  

I know NCEES has the syllabus out there but that is very general. For example Bus Admittance is not listed in there and it can go under many categories such as network analysis etc. 

How confident you are that the topics you have covered in your proguide is what the exam will test you on.


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## rmsg (Dec 11, 2018)

justin-hawaii said:


> @roy167  to be honest, I have a very smart electrical engineer that works with me.  She passed both the Mechanical and Electrical PEs.  I have mechanical and fire PEs.  But I handle the marketing for both mechanical and electrical.


Justin,

I had passed and I did like your study guide in certain sections. Your's and PE Electrical Review's material are well written and easy to understand. Thank You and as well to Zach (PE Electrical Review). I had back and forth looked at both the materials in the exam to find the right solutions.


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## justin-hawaii (Dec 22, 2018)

roy167 said:


> Justin:
> 
> Question for you. Your or anyone's question may not be close to actual exam, I perfectly understand this but can you tell me if I go through your guide, that you have covered all the topics?  It is up to the test taker to understand the concepts to the degree they seem fit.
> 
> ...


We are not affiliated with NCEES, so we don't have any information besides the outline.  We (along with Engineer Boards) also do not condone the sharing of the contents of the actual exam.  So I can't say for 100% confidence that I know what the exam will test you on.  However, we do have a method that we feel gives us the best chance in preparing everyone for the PE exam. 

The Engineering Pro Guides products were produced by researching all the topics in the NCEES outline and then determining the concepts and skills that we felt were key to passing the exam.  We used a four part criteria to make this determination, for more information see the end of this post.  We also are constantly improving the products.  For example, when we heard that our products were lacking in Protection, Power Electronics &amp; Devices and Rotating Machines, then we added more problems to combat this deficiency.  I know there is always room to improve, but I do feel confident that through the 3 products, the free cheat sheets and the recommended references that you have everything you need to pass the exam. 

I also need to clarify that the technical study guide covers skills and concepts that we felt were best taught through a textbook method.  The full exam and references exam teach other concepts and skills that we felt were best taught by doing exam problems.  There is some overlap between the three products, but you can't complete the full exam, simply by looking at the technical study guide.  There are new concepts and skills in the full exam that are not shown in the technical study guide. 

Product Development 4 Part Criteria

(1)  First, the concept and skill must be _commonly encountered_ in the Power Engineering field.

(2) Second, the skill and concept must be testable in roughly _6 minutes per problem_.  There are (40) questions on the morning exam and you will be provided with 4 hours to complete the exam.  The same is true for the afternoon portion of the exam.  This results in an average of 6 minutes per problem.  This criterion limits the complexity of the exam problems and the resulting solutions.  For example, power flow calculations are common in the Power Engineering field, but the calculation is often very lengthy because of the number of steps involved, especially if the circuit is complex.  Thus, the exam should use simple circuits and the math required to solve the problems should also very simple.

(3) Third, the key concepts and skills must be used or be known by practicing electrical engineers in the Power field.  This criterion is similar to the first criterion.  However, this criterion filters the concepts and skills further by limiting the field to material encountered and used by _practicing engineers_.  The Power Engineering field is vast and there are many different avenues an engineer can take.  Two diverging paths are those engineers involved in research and those who practice.  Research engineers are pushing the boundaries of the field and are highly focused in their specific area of the field.  The Professional Engineering Exam does not cover emerging technologies or highly focused material.

(4) The PE Exam must test the _principle or application_ of the skill and concept and not the background knowledge of the topic or concept.  The exam also does not cover background information on the NCEES topics.  The PE Exam is meant to prove that the test taker is minimally competent to *practice* in the Electrical Engineering field.  The exam is less concerned with theory and more with the principle or application of the theory, skill or concept.  For example, the PE Exam is less concerned with the theory of thyristors or magnetic flux and more with the performance of a rectifying circuit and the voltage output of a transformer.


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