# PE EE Oct 2008 How was it



## zorlev (Oct 31, 2008)

Dont see no member commenting on the Electrical Eng PE so let me say that we all need to hear from you all as your take on the exam

:deadhorse:


----------



## KEG (Oct 31, 2008)

Morning sucked (to me anyway). The afternoon was challenging but I felt that I did ok on it (at least I knew how to approach the problems). Of course, I thought I had a chance to pass last time (April '08) and failed miserably. I'm pretty sure that unless I get lucky I'll be back for my final try in April '09. FYI, I took EE - Power.


----------



## rancam (Oct 31, 2008)

I thought the exact opposite. The morning had much simplier, just use the right equation, type problems while the afternoon section was much more specific question on a wide topic area. I thought I did great in the morning but only so-so in the afternoon.

Which kinda stinks because the next test will be completely different. I wonder if it will have 40 questions in the morning considered easy and 40 hard in the afternoon or really will it be just 80 questions and you answer 40 in each half.

rancam


----------



## heman (Oct 31, 2008)

I was better "prepared" this time than I was in April (boy was THAT BAD....(ha ha))!

BUT, I am not sure if I did "enough" to get over the hump (WHEREVER it is). I KNOW that I read too much into most of the questions that stumped me, oh well, at least I got the PENCIL this time!

My therapy is to put ALL of the books AWAY until they announce results, and to go BACK to my normal weekend "piddling" NO MORE STUDYING for a while. I am going to make a "frame!" At least I can put my "intern" certificate in something while I "wait...."


----------



## NVRSTOP (Oct 31, 2008)

I felt much better about this exam than the April Exam, but you never know. I studied very hard on the subjects that I performed poorly on in April, but it seemed like I had questions this time about other topics that I hadn't prepared that well for. I feel like I used good fundamental theory to work the problems that I was unsure about and had good reference material for a good portion of the exam.

Of course with each day that passes, more doubt creeps into my head and I think I may have really blown it.

Good luck to all and have a Happy Halloween.


----------



## k2keylargo (Oct 31, 2008)

I took the Power in the afternoon. I thought the morning questions were easier than I expected. I think I probably got 90% of them right, except for the dumb mistakes, which I'm sure I made a few. The afternoon, there seemed to be a lot of NEC questions - I am very weak in NEC, I don't use it in my job (electric utility) I'm not sure if I considered everything that was necessary in answering those questions.

I was surprised to find a number of questions that were really simple - at least they only required a basic understanding of things - all you had to do was read the question make one simple calculation (simple like V=IR) - so simple that I'd reread the question cause I thought there must be some trick. These gave me extra time to spend on the harder questions, and I needed the extra time on some questions. I felt like there was ample time, but I could have used more.

I worked the "low hanging fruit" first, then went back to the problems that I skipped but thought I could work thru, then I tackled those that I had no clue.... and most of those I ended up guessing on. I didn't have time to go back over all my answers to look for dumb mistakes.

I'm hoping I passed, I feel pretty good, but you never know until the email comes, so I'm going about life like I passed.

If I didn't, well, I'll probably find something low stress to do, like sell everything except my row boat and spend the rest of my life fishing, maybe live in my van down by the river....


----------



## KEG (Nov 2, 2008)

rancam said:


> I thought the exact opposite. The morning had much simplier, just use the right equation, type problems while the afternoon section was much more specific question on a wide topic area. I thought I did great in the morning but only so-so in the afternoon.
> Which kinda stinks because the next test will be completely different. I wonder if it will have 40 questions in the morning considered easy and 40 hard in the afternoon or really will it be just 80 questions and you answer 40 in each half.
> 
> rancam



I have a burning hatred for any problem involving a transistor or op amp so thats primarily why I think the morning sucked. I'm praying I used the correct equations and got more correct than I feel like I did.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the format changing next time. Hopefully, I won't have to find out!


----------



## Electrical_SF (Nov 3, 2008)

k2keylargo said:


> I worked the "low hanging fruit" first, then went back to the problems that I skipped but thought I could work thru, then I tackled those that I had no clue.... and most of those I ended up guessing on. I didn't have time to go back over all my answers to look for dumb mistakes.


This fall was my first attempt at passing the exam.

I took a similar approach, and felt pretty confident with the AM electrical. Easier problems, and I knew what fundamentals the questions were asking me about, even if I didn't know how to solve a few of them. The qualitative questions seemed fair.

PM power was a lot more difficult. I chose power because I'm more familiar with power concepts than anything else, yet I found myself struggling on 10 or so problems because I didn't grasp the fundamentals behind the questions well enough. Looking back I should have allocated more of my study time to Motors/Machines/etc.

If I end up returning for April '09 exam, I'll have to change the way I prepare for problems where they give you a ton of "given" information. I think I struggled in determining what information was needed in determining and answer and what was not.

Regarding format changes to April '09? What kind of changes are people expecting? I'm out of the loop there. Now I really hope I pass.

BTW, much thanks to the folks on this board for their collective insight on the PE. I prepped for the test myself (no classes, study groups) and EB really helped!


----------



## benbo (Nov 3, 2008)

Electrical_SF said:


> This fall was my first attempt at passing the exam.I took a similar approach, and felt pretty confident with the AM electrical. Easier problems, and I knew what fundamentals the questions were asking me about, even if I didn't know how to solve a few of them. The qualitative questions seemed fair.
> 
> PM power was a lot more difficult. I chose power because I'm more familiar with power concepts than anything else, yet I found myself struggling on 10 or so problems because I didn't grasp the fundamentals behind the questions well enough. Looking back I should have allocated more of my study time to Motors/Machines/etc.
> 
> ...


For the new exam there is no morning general session. You pick power, electronics, or computers ahead of time and the whole exam is specialized. Check the NCEES website.


----------



## Electrical_SF (Nov 3, 2008)

benbo said:


> For the new exam there is no morning general session. You pick power, electronics, or computers ahead of time and the whole exam is specialized. Check the NCEES website.


Sure enough. No more silly BODE plots for me if I need to retake.

In the interest of avoiding panic, I think I'll wait to see if I made the cut before asking everyone on EB how to better prepare for the power test.

As challenging as the Power Depth module was, at least I can throw away the Computers &amp; Control notes from my 3-ring binder.


----------



## MDElec (Nov 3, 2008)

Electrical_SF said:


> Sure enough. No more silly BODE plots for me if I need to retake.In the interest of avoiding panic, I think I'll wait to see if I made the cut before asking everyone on EB how to better prepare for the power test.
> 
> As challenging as the Power Depth module was, at least I can throw away the Computers &amp; Control notes from my 3-ring binder.



I hear that! I'd be happy to not have to think of Fourier, Bode plots, op-amps, BJT's, etc.

But I hope we don't even have to worry about April, if you know what I mean. Good luck to all!


----------

