# Practice Problems-Review books



## eng.dork (Feb 20, 2007)

I am taking the electrical PE for the first time in April. I got one of the practice problem books and need to know if the problems that they have in the book are good examples to what is on the test. It appears to me the most of the problems are "to straight forward" meaning kind of easy. I was expecting problems to be much more difficult. I was thinking that they would be like problems that I had done in college. Can anyone help me with this? I feel like I got the wrong book. I can't imagine that it is this easy. I am not saying that I have mastered every topic, but I don't get why some of them are easy. The book is "Practice Problems for Electrical and Computer Engineering PE Exams". Please help because there is so much that I have to learn, but I feel like this book is not that good.


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## benbo (Feb 20, 2007)

eng.dork said:


> I am taking the electrical PE for the first time in April. I got one of the practice problem books and need to know if the problems that they have in the book are good examples to what is on the test. It appears to me the most of the problems are "to straight forward" meaning kind of easy. I was expecting problems to be much more difficult. I was thinking that they would be like problems that I had done in college. Can anyone help me with this? I feel like I got the wrong book. I can't imagine that it is this easy. I am not saying that I have mastered every topic, but I don't get why some of them are easy. The book is "Practice Problems for Electrical and Computer Engineering PE Exams". Please help because there is so much that I have to learn, but I feel like this book is not that good.


If what you have is one of the green cover Camara books (from "the other board") it is somewhat easier than what is on the PE exam.

The closest thing to the style of the exam is the NCEES Sample Problems and Solutions.

The difficulty of the test is somewhere between this NCEES book and the Kaplan sample exam.

The test is not technically really hard. For me it was tough because I graduated so long ago and had forgotten a lot of the stuff. If you have just recently graduated and were a decent student you may indeed find it basic. It is meant to test basic competence on a broad variety of topics. You will not have time to plot out complex root locus diagrams or calculate Fourier coefficients on the exam. The problems are meant to be done quickly. So you might actually find the exam fairly easy.


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## eng.dork (Feb 20, 2007)

Thanks for your reply. That helps me out tons. Here's to ordering more books!


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## grover (Feb 21, 2007)

I found the NCEES sample exam to be indicitive of the type and difficulty of the problems on the exam, but unfortunately didn't have enough breadth to be inclusive in and of itself... What I mean is that for the FE, I took the approach where I studied everything until I was sure I knew it all and then took the exam and discovered I had way over-prepared and had wasted a lot of time unecessarily. So, for the PE I took the approach of doing practice problems and only studying what I needed to know for the exam.

I learned everything on the NCEES exam very well. Unfortunately, the actual PE exam was made up, in large part, of questions unrelated to those on the sample exam. Same difficulty, just not the ones I'd studied- I found myself feverishly looking through my references trying to figure out about 15 or so of the questions in the afternoon session that I was absolutely clueless on. Camara was a great reference for the morning, but didn't go in-depth enough to easily answer all the questions in the afternoon (Power) session.

In the end, I ultimately passed with a wide margin, so take that as you will


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## gregdzip (Feb 21, 2007)

I too found the PE Elecectrical Exam sample test book form NCESS to be very similar to the actual test. Maybe 2 or 3 questions were almost exaclty the same (with some minor modifications)

I also found the Schaums outlines to be very helpful in preparing for the exam and during the exam.

The "the other board" EE reference book was good form the am session, but not for the pm session.


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## Dark Knight (Feb 22, 2007)

Sorry to repeat this so many times but is worthy, IMHO. Don't forget to include Kaplan's Sample Test to your study material. VERY GOOD - Five Stars. The problems are not PE Test style and are also harder. But the test will make you review concepts you will need for the afternoon and will make your morning better. At least that was my experience.

The Kaplan's reference Manual? Not so good.

Kaplan's Sample Test?....GO FOR IT!!!!

:reading:


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