# I passed with a 91. Here are the books I used.



## JohnMdd

I did great on the exam. While this can't be entirely attributed to the books I use, they did play a part. I'll be selling most of the books I used, either on the classifieds here or on Ebay. Also you can PM me if you want to have first dibs on any of my books; I will be selling them cheap.

*NFPA 70 – NEC* – A required reference. 11-15 problems draw directly from this book. I brought the handbook version which I recommend, due to the amplifying information, graphics, and commentary. (I won't be selling this one).

*NFPA 70E – Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace – *A required reference. 1-3 problems draw directly from this book.

*NESC – National Electrical Safety Code ANSI/IEEE C2 – *A required reference. 1-3 problems draw directly from this book.

*NCEES Practice Exam* – you should bring it just in case. I did not refer to it during the exam. It is vital for studying as it is the ONLY way to get a feel for what exam questions really look like.

*NCEES FE Supplied Reference Handbook* – VERY useful. I have the 8th edition (2008 printing), I doubt there’s a significant change in content since then. If anything, it could be useful to have the current edition (free to print from NCEES) AND an older edition like this.

*The Electrical Engineer’s Guide to Passing the Power PE Exam – Graffeo*. Must I say more? The most highly recommended book on EB, and an absolutely vital resource. I can’t imagine prepping for or taking the PE without it. A must-have. Contains 1 full-length practice exam.

*Power PE Exam Primer – Graffeo*. Goes with the above book, contains 3 full-length practice exams. They are useful. I will say that they are in Graffeo’s style, which is a bit different from NCEES, and that there are enough typos and clerical errors that you can’t just score your answers by the key – but when you learn how to spot the errors, you learn how to solve the problem! Useful for study, not to bring into the exam.

*Engineering Pro Guides Power PE – Technical study guide: how to pass the exam. By Justin Kauwale, PE*. Unfortunately for me, I only learned of this a few days before the exam. I bought the PDF – a bargain at $35ish – printed and bound it, and brought it with me. It is actually just as good as Graffeo, I think! But I can’t swear to it – since I found the book late, and had already learned Graffeo, this book was somewhat redundant for me personally. But I HIGHLY recommend it! (I don't think it's fair to Justin, or maybe legal, for me to sell this one.)

*EERM – Electrical Enginering Reference Manual – John Camara, PE*. Highly recommended on EB. Useful for studying, has a lot of breadth, and works well in tandem with the practice problems below. I personally did not find it useful for the exam itself.

*Electrical Engineering Practice Problems for the Power, Electrical and Electronics, and Computer PE Exams – John Camara, PE*. – Used as a study focus aid. Did not bring to exam.

*Electrical machines, drives, and power systems – Wildi*. Immensely popular and highly recommended by EB users, I did not use it for study or bring to the exam. However it seems to be a great book. For me, it was redundant to some of my other references.

*The Art and Science of Protective Relaying – C Russel Mason*. I’m glad I read a lot of this before the exam. I don’t think I used it much during, but the concepts were very helpful. It is an older book, and the language is a bit dated, but it’s very much valid. The PDF is available free online, but the printed version is a) easier to study and b) can be brought to the exam.

*Standard Handbook for Electrical Engineers – Beaty, Fink – 16th edition*. A heck of a book! Saw it recommended here on EB and bought it. It has a lot of depth in some interesting areas, and breadth over most areas. I brought it to the exam.

*Power System Analysis – Grainger, Stevenson*. Highly recommended on EB. Useful for both studying and during the exam. Very information-dense. A must-have.

*Electric Machinery Fundamentals – Chapman*. I was very lucky to have used this book in college, so I was already familiar with its layout and contents. I can’t recommend it enough – GREAT book. It’s the reason I didn’t read Wildi. Multiple questions on the exam cover topics that this book addresses explicitly. On one problem in particular, I was stumped until I saw the exact answer in this book – nearly verbatim. A must have – and I’m not selling this one!

*Protective Relaying, Applications and Principles – Blackburn*. Along with “Art and Science”, a good book on the subject. The PDF is free online. My copy was printed and bound from that.

*Personally Curated Selection of Notes and Whitepapers* – I spent a good bit of time finding whitepapers and notes on the internet that seemed relevant. I printed them and used them for studying and brought into the exam. I recommend doing this! But don’t get carried away with irrelevant detail. My printed notes are available for sale, or I can include them with other books as a package deal.

Mods, my intention with this thread is to recommend material, not to sell my wares. I'll be using the classifieds for that. But if I've crossed a line, let me know and I'll edit.


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## Owism

are you a bot? They don't tell you your score, its just pass fail guy.


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## DLD PE

From reading other posts throughout this board, apparently a few states (Texas, for instance) will give you your score.  I live in TN and I have heard rumors where examinees passed the exam and with enough probing and reaching out to NCEES they were able to find out their actual score (like I said, just rumors).  Personally, if I passed (taking test for first time this coming October) I wouldn't care what my final score was.  If I failed I would want to know how bad I did (I think they give you your score if you fail), but that's just me.  Personally, I don't think the OP is a bot.

I appreciate everyone's contributions to this board, which I only discovered a couple of months ago.  I'm taking Zach Stone's 6 month course, and although I realize the wall in front of me is quite high, this board has helped give me a feel for how difficult the exam is, what it feels like, things to look out for, as well as additional study materials I may end up buying.


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## OhPowerPE

I just passed this past April too and I concur with JohnMdd's reference materials, though I brought a smaller subset to the exam:

*NFPA 70 – NEC* – Definitely a must-have.  Don't need to get the workbook version.

*NFPA 70E – Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace – *I didn't buy this (my material budget was getting stretched thin as it was) but I bought the NFPA 70E Ugly's book (2014 version, about $15 on Amazon) and it got me at least one question IIRC.

*NESC – National Electrical Safety Code ANSI/IEEE C2 – *Definitely a must-have.  Don't need to get the workbook version.

*NCEES Practice Exam* – Definitely a must-have for studying, I brought it but didn't use it.

*The Electrical Engineer’s Guide to Passing the Power PE Exam – Graffeo*. - I bought this based on all the high marks it got on EB, and used it frequently, but I was actually underwhelmed with the book.  The info in it is great, but the formatting was a distraction for me.

*Engineering Pro Guides Power PE – Technical study guide: how to pass the exam. By Justin Kauwale, PE*. - I see this as an updated version of Graffeo's guide.  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.  This was my primary study guide (I also bought his Code practice exam and normal Practice exam, and along with the NCEES practice exam, was the majority of how I studied).  The info isn't necessarily better than Graffeo (and in some cases just different, so I can't recommend replacing the Graffeo guide completely with this), but the formatting is soooo much better and is just all around a great guide (assuming he keeps it updated for the future, there were some things like capacitors that the PE exam just added focus to that neither Graffeo nor this guide covered).  Also, his quick formula sheets at the back were invaluable.

*Electrical machines, drives, and power systems – Wildi*. - I think this saved me on like 1 problem.  Definitely a good reference, but it is redundant with Graffeo and Kauwale.

*Power System Analysis – Grainger, Stevenson*. - Personally, same as the Wildi book, though it may have been slightly more helpful than the Wildi book on the exam itself.

*Personally Curated Selection of Notes and Whitepapers* – I downloaded all of the whitepapers Kauwale has on his website as additional references, http://www.engproguides.com/powerreferences.html, then printed and bound them at Staples (pdf's were all free, the printing/binding cost was like $40).  Definitely a lot of material, and it saved me on a few questions.


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## knight1fox3

@justin-hawaii


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## JohnMdd

Owism said:


> are you a bot? They don't tell you your score, its just pass fail guy.


In TX they release your individual score. You can only see your own, though.


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## Owism

JohnMdd said:


> In TX they release your individual score. You can only see your own, though.


Texas is truly a unique country of its own...


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## Wow_PE!

JohnMdd said:


> *Standard Handbook for Electrical Engineers – Beaty, Fink – 16th edition*. A heck of a book! Saw it recommended here on EB and bought it. It has a lot of depth in some interesting areas, and breadth over most areas.


Have others found this to be helpful?  I have already spent a lot of money on books , but I found Beaty on the cheap.  It seems pretty good but they are not really 6 minute problems.


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## Zach Stone P.E.

Wow! said:


> Have others found this to be helpful?  I have already spent a lot of money on books , but I found Beaty on the cheap.  It seems pretty good but they are not really 6 minute problems.


Looks like a good book! I just picked up a copy on amazon to review it.


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## roy167

Wow! said:


> Have others found this to be helpful?  I have already spent a lot of money on books , but I found Beaty on the cheap.  It seems pretty good but they are not really 6 minute problems.


I found this to be way overkill for PE exam. Might be a good reference book for an EE but I did not think it would be helpful for PE exam. I bought it and then returned it after a week or so.


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## Drewism

Wow! said:


> Have others found this to be helpful?  I have already spent a lot of money on books , but I found Beaty on the cheap.  It seems pretty good but they are not really 6 minute problems.


I have this book. In fact, I got it a while ago way before I took the exam. It's great. It has so much information and a lot of esoteric information. It's definitely a good for backup. I would hold onto it even though you may never use it during the exam.


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## Sparky Bill PE

@JohnMdd Did you pay for any online course for taking your test? If you did, can you please explain why.


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