# Electrical and Electronics Exam



## the_gooch (Jan 3, 2014)

Looking for some insight on taking the Electronics focused exam. Most here seem to be taking the Power portion for Electrical.

Planning to start studying in the next week or two for April and could use any tips.


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## knight1fox3 (Jan 3, 2014)

Search this sub-forum and you should find a number of topics where this has already been discussed. Some good info has already been posted.


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## jp08ee (Jan 12, 2014)

Make sure you setup a study schedule based on the topics that NCEES says is on the test and stick too it. Focus on the areas that you think you are lacking at. For me it was communications and some of the digital systems stuff.

Get as many sample exams and practice problems that you can find and go through them. I found the best thing was to just work a bunch of sample questions from PPI and textbooks. They aren't anywhere near the type of problems on the test for the most part but it helped get me back in the "study mode" and refreshed a lot of the topics for me. Then every few weeks practice taking a simulated test using the sample exams to get used to test taking again if its been awhile (like it was for me). I tried to save the NCEES sample exam till a few weeks prior to the actual test because I wanted it to be as realistic as possible to gauge how well I was actually doing. Don't get discouraged it you start off bad on the sample exams, just focus on your weak areas.

Helpful Pointers:

- Get the NCEES sample exam, it is by far the most useful exam. Find any older NCEES exams you can as well. I was able to find one from 2001 and it was worth the purchase. Some of the questions are identical to the latest version but enough were different to make it a great sample exam. I also had the PPI sample exam and it wasn't even close. But it was useful in that it was another exam to help get me ready to take exams again.

- Get the TI-36X Pro calculator or similar other brand your used too. Its approved and has great features for a non-graphing calculator (aka COMPLEX NUMBERS and previous calculation memory). It saves time crunching the numbers during the test. I had the TI-30X from when I took the FE exam years ago but decided that I should spend the money for the upgraded one and it was a great decision for the test. Every second counts during the test.

- Use tabs in all you books for quick reference

- Get the PPI Reference Manual. Its pretty useful for studying and brushing up on most topics even though its not very detailed. Its a reference as the name states, if you need more in depth review of topics you are going to need additional textbooks.

- Spend the time to create a very nice and organized cheat sheet(s) that you know by heart. The most used reference for me was my cheat sheet(s). Second was the reference manual. I really didn't use any of the other materials I brought much, mostly because I had a good cheat sheet I guess. Saved a lot of time looking things up.

- Practice keeping to the 6 minute per problem rule. If you're at the 2-3 minute mark and feel your not going to get it in 6 minutes then move to the next one then circle back to the end. I found that to be the best strategy but everyone does things different. But by doing that I found I only had about a dozen or so problems left with more then enough time to finish them. It helped not feeling pressured at the end trying to finish problems I haven't already looked at.

- Study Communications. I don't know if its just me but I have never needed communications in any of my jobs but there are enough problems on the test with that topic that it would be in your best interest to put a lot of focus in that area. I'm glad I did.

- Don't focus on the amount of time its recommended you should study but the quality of the studying. I found when I started that I wasn't studying efficiently so I switched my technique and it was very helpful. At first I was reading sections in the manual for each topic and working problems associated with each topic. It was ok to get back in study mode but wasn't going to help me pass the exam. So I switched to working sample exams (any I could find) and then going back and learning up on the problems and topics I knew I needed help with. I probably studied for a total of 150 hours (not recommending) mainly because I have 2 young kids and couldn't get much more then that. Of that I feel probably around 100 -120 hours was actual worthwhile studying. I felt that I was 85-90% prepared. Luckily it worked for me but everyone's different and it would probably be better to get some more quality studying time then that.

- Don't get discouraged and keep with it. It'll be a long, painful journey till you take the exam and don't get discouraged if you are not starting off well or feel overwhelmed. It'll get better, trust me. I felt overwhelmed the first couple weeks I thought it was a bad Idea to try to do it but I persevered through it and by the end I felt I had a good chance. You will too if you put the time in.

- Take the day before the exam to make sure you know your cheat sheet(s) by heart. Most recommend not studying the day before but I find that reviewing equations and thinking about when I needed to use them put my mind and ease without any mental strain.

That's about all I can think of at this time. Sorry for the long post but I hope something I wrote helps with your success. I took the Electronics exam in October 2013 and passed. I know the trouble trying to find information on the electronics exam, there isn't a whole lot out there on it so I hope I helped you. If you have any other questions that I can help with I'll try. Good Luck!


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## crunchercrunch (Jan 12, 2014)

jp08ee said:


> Make sure you setup a study schedule based on the topics that NCEES says is on the test and stick too it. Focus on the areas that you think you are lacking at. For me it was communications and some of the digital systems stuff.
> 
> Get as many sample exams and practice problems that you can find and go through them. I found the best thing was to just work a bunch of sample questions from PPI and textbooks. They aren't anywhere near the type of problems on the test for the most part but it helped get me back in the "study mode" and refreshed a lot of the topics for me. Then every few weeks practice taking a simulated test using the sample exams to get used to test taking again if its been awhile (like it was for me). I tried to save the NCEES sample exam till a few weeks prior to the actual test because I wanted it to be as realistic as possible to gauge how well I was actually doing. Don't get discouraged it you start off bad on the sample exams, just focus on your weak areas.
> 
> ...




This is great stuff. Where did you find your sample exams? Mind sharing your cheat sheet?


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## crunchercrunch (Jan 12, 2014)

jp08ee said:


> Make sure you setup a study schedule based on the topics that NCEES says is on the test and stick too it. Focus on the areas that you think you are lacking at. For me it was communications and some of the digital systems stuff.
> 
> Get as many sample exams and practice problems that you can find and go through them. I found the best thing was to just work a bunch of sample questions from PPI and textbooks. They aren't anywhere near the type of problems on the test for the most part but it helped get me back in the "study mode" and refreshed a lot of the topics for me. Then every few weeks practice taking a simulated test using the sample exams to get used to test taking again if its been awhile (like it was for me). I tried to save the NCEES sample exam till a few weeks prior to the actual test because I wanted it to be as realistic as possible to gauge how well I was actually doing. Don't get discouraged it you start off bad on the sample exams, just focus on your weak areas.
> 
> ...




So sorry for the multiple posts. One of my weak areas is also communications. What study material did you use besides the reference manual?


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## jp08ee (Jan 13, 2014)

crunchercrunch said:


> jp08ee said:
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> > Make sure you setup a study schedule based on the topics that NCEES says is on the test and stick too it. Focus on the areas that you think you are lacking at. For me it was communications and some of the digital systems stuff.
> ...




I used Schaum's Analog &amp; Digital Communications. It was about the most helpful.

For sample exams I used the PPI sample exam, Kaiser Exam, and the NCEES sample exams. For an older NCEES sample exam, I just did searches for NCEES Sample exams online and got lucky to find one. But if you need the materials still, I'm selling everything on this site in the Yard Sale forum including the NCEES 2001 Sample Exam that is hard to find. Its a good chunk of what you should need for the test (minus the reference manual). Its a heck of a deal considering the price you'll pay buying all of it individually.

Sorry, but I'm not going to give out my cheat sheet. There is no reason too because what you'll need is completely different than what I needed for the test. You'd be disappointed anyway, there wasn't much on it and it was pretty basic stuff.

Good Luck!


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## crunchercrunch (Jan 13, 2014)

jp08ee said:


> crunchercrunch said:
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No worries about the cheat sheet very understandable. I'm pretty much following your footsteps in studying. I've gone through the EERM chapter by chapter (skipped the engineering economics chapter), but it was all very surface stuff. If I had unlimited time on the test I could probably go through the book to look for examples and just figure my way out from there. But that's not going to happen and I need to fully understand everything and be quick in determining what type of problem I'm facing. I'll do what you did and go through the sample exams and learn what I need to learn from there.

Were the sample exams indicative of the degree of difficulty the actual exam is? And how accurate are the percentages of topics that NCEES provides on their site?

As for the Schaum's Outlines, did you use those books just for the practice problems or did you go through each outline as well?

Thank you for answering my problems by the way.


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## jp08ee (Jan 14, 2014)

crunchercrunch said:


> jp08ee said:
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Sounds about right for me too. I think it was good to go through the reference manual to familiarize yourself with it like you did and I did at first. But to get ready for the test what I did next was go through a portion of the problems in the PPI Practice Problems that supports the reference manual. Those questions are nothing like the PE Exam but they did help me get used to where to find material in the Reference manual and my other references. I picked and chosed the problems though, some are just stupid and some are not on topic.

Once I felt I was ready to start doing exam problems I started with the Kaiser Exam (kkaiser.com) I felt that helped. He was an old professor that created a sample exam for added material to help study for the PE Exam. It covers the old NCEES version that combined Electronics, Power, and Economics so some of the questions are not applicable but I just skipped those. I'd looked at it if I where you. I also went through the PPI sample exam which is nothing like the PE Exam but it was helpful for another exam situation.

Then I started to go through the NCEES sample exams in the last month by taking timed tests. I feel that was the most helpful because it was as close as the real thing as you can get. Those exams are very similiar in question type and format. Its basically old PE exam questions they don't use anymore.

To answer your questions:

1) The only exam like the actual PE Exam are the NCEES sample exams. All others are not even close but they were helpful for more questions to do.

2) I used the Schaum's as a reference to problems I couldn't get the detail I needed in the Reference Manual. I reviewed the material, I didn't actually do any of the problems in the outlines.

Obviously everyone's background is different so what I did may not work for you. Like I said I felt pretty prepared but not fully prepared. The piece of advise that may help you the most is that the PE Exam is not an in-depth exam on the material. It skims the surface of a lot of different topics. Nothing is cover real in-depth. You are not using high level equations or detailed analysis. Most is geared toward you being able to eliminate 1-2 of the answers right off the bat then either intuitively find the correct answer or use some basic equations and analysis to find it. It is easy to make mistakes though and they do try to trick you in a sense.

Another helpful bit of info - Make sure you bring or know the Watts to dBm conversion.


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## crunchercrunch (Jan 14, 2014)

jp08ee said:


> crunchercrunch said:
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Thank you for all the advice. I fully agree with you about just grinding through a ton of questions.

Also, I've started to use the Schaum's like you did. I was stuck on a question about y-parameters so I referenced the EERM. It didn't help at all, so I looked through Schaum's and it explained it super clear and concise.

I PM'ed you about the 2001 NCEES practice exam.


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## brian84 (Jan 15, 2014)

I took the Electronics exam in April of 2013. My main reference material was my 130 page cheat sheet. Secondary was EERM. I also had a couple of schaums outlines and a few college text books. During the exam I used my cheat sheet 95% of the time and referenced the EERM the remaining 5%. I did refer to my other books during the exam but found that they didn't have the information I was looking for. There were a couple of problems on the exam that I wasn't familiar with and weren't in any of my reference materials.

My intent in preparing for the exam was to prepare a cheat sheet that was comprehensive and would cover all the topics I found on the practice problems. Of course the cheat sheet was very specific to my own background.

When working the practice problems I only used my cheat sheet as a reference, this really helped get me familiar with my cheat sheet and made it easy to find things quickly. I also had a 6 page table of contents for my cheat sheet as an aid in finding things quickly. Anyways this worked for me. Hope you can find something that will work for you. Good luck to all.


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## the_gooch (Feb 3, 2014)

Fantastic responses.

jp08EE, I am in the same boat with 2 little ones at home. I have been studying 2.5 weeks so far and it is an uphill battle. Plan on finishing up reviewing the entire EERM---doing all the practice problems with it, identifying weak areas and utilizing other study material to brush up on these and then start to take the NCEES practice exams in a timed setting.

I have already invested in the TI36 Pro---awesome bit of kit.


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## snobumPE (Feb 9, 2014)

It's a long post, but here was my story from taking the Electronics Exam: http://engineerboards.com/index.php?showtopic=14708&amp;p=6957237

Long story short, the best thing I did was write everything down, especially formulas and examples that showed key topics well. Went back a few weeks before the test, re-wrote and organized the notes into a 3-ring binder tabbed by subject. This saved me loads of time and felt more in control. It was something tailored to me and kept me from flipping too much between references. Also, going back through the notes helped me realize how much I had actually done.


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## winpasspe (Feb 9, 2014)

Check the classifieds page, I posted my PPI materials + calc if you need to get them at a discount.


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## sChris (Jun 4, 2014)

I am also a recent passer of the Electronics PE exam, first try. I would like to add a tip that I have not seen anyone mention yet:

*Print out the Mathematics and Electrical/Computer Engineering sections of the FE Reference Handbook (available to download for free on the NCEES website)! * There are tons of useful equations in these sections to use on the exam. Hole-punch these pages and add them to your "big binder of stuff". Everyone should bring a big binder where they have their formula sheets, worked problems, stuff you downloaded from the internet, and everything else. Your binder and the Electrical &amp; Electronics Review Manual (EERM) by Camara will help you out the most during the exam because you will problem know them by heart after all of your hard studying.

I also agree with what as everyone else has said. The NCEES Practice Problems are best study problems that are similar to the actual exam. The Camara practice problems are basic plug-in-the-numbers and are nowhere near what you’ll see on the exam, but they do help you get back into your college engineering rhythm and help familiarize yourself with the EERM.


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## the_gooch (Jun 6, 2014)

Well I passed first try out so I did something right. I actually bought the FE Reference Handbook which is VERY handy during the test. My binder was getting a little out of hand.

I will also say that the School of PE review notes were instrumental to me passing.


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## qiudogcool (Aug 5, 2014)

Hi, the_gooch,

does the school of PE cover both AM and PM sessions well? What other books did you find helpful?


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