# Which exam should I take?



## DBL (Jul 12, 2012)

Obviously this is a personal decision, but I am hoping for some input from those who have taken the Power and/or Electrical &amp; Electronics exams to help me decide.

I got my EE degree about 10 years ago and I have not sat for any PE exams previously. My work experience has touched on some topics listed on both of these exam specs from NCEES (as well as a little bit of Civil), but without a lot of depth in any particular area.

It appears there are a lot more options in review courses for Power, but I have little to no practical experience with 3-phase, medium/high voltage or rotating machines. I also felt more comfortable with the DC circuit analysis than AC when I took the FE exam in April, and I know I could brush up on things like Boolean algebra again pretty easily.

On the other hand, the Electrical &amp; Electronics exam appears to cover a much more varied set of topics, which appears to be challenging to prep for in only a few months.

I noticed that most of the posts on this board are related to the Power exam. Is there a reason that so many go that direction? Sorry for the long-winded first post. I appreciate any input or advice you can offer.


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## Wildsoldier PE (Jul 12, 2012)

I have a BSEE with a minor in electronics but my experiance is more based on electrical portion of comercial and industrial projects were NEC ruled on these...i took power option because it was based on my experiance. Also i didnt want to get again on laplace transform, furier transform op-amps, transistors etc. Power have some electronics envolved but not that much. To make the story short i felt by that time that power was easier for me than electronics. Also there is a bunch of resources to pass power (complex imaginary, spin off, courses) more than electronics in my opinion.

(null)


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## DBL (Jul 12, 2012)

Thanks, Wildsoldier. Very similar situation, and the more that I think about this the more I'm leaning towards Power, as well.

The lack of review courses for Electronics is definitely a factor. PPI is offering an Electronics online review course for the Oct exam, but looking at the curriculum it looks like it's missing a lot.


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## Adrenaline (Jul 13, 2012)

I took the electronics exam because I have no work experience in 3 phase, relay schemes, grid stuff, etc... I found the electronics exam was very similar to my undergrad studies. Although the exam is more broad, antennas/em to computers/boolean logic, the questions are supposed to be answerable in 6 minutes or less, so they are not that in depth.


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## DBL (Jul 16, 2012)

Thanks, Adrenaline.

So did you prepare for the electronics exam independently, or did you take a review course?


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## Adrenaline (Jul 16, 2012)

I prepared by myself.

Took the NCEES practice exam in 2 - 4 hour sessions with only the EERM 5th edition as reference. Score the exam, focused studying where I needed it.

I also bought the Kaplan PE Electrical &amp; Electronics Engineering Problems and Solutions and PE Electrical &amp; Electronics Engineering Sample Exam. The Engineering problems and solutions are far more in depth than the test would be, however I think it helped just working the problems.

For the exam I had a pile of references compared to most people, however I used each of them for at least one question I was unsure about. I was able to answer over half of the exam without cracking a book, YMMV.


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## ventilator (Jul 17, 2012)

I took the power exam because my job involves motor loads and 480v distribution in industrial facilities. I had some familiarity with the NEC because of this so that helped out. I have also done some small scale power studies for breaker coordination and arc flash. While this is only a small portion of what the power exam covers I felt it was my best bet for experience and work related. I was able to learn all of the rotating machine and other items that I have no experience in, at least well enough for the test. I used the PPI power book, NCEES exam, and the Spin Up exams to study with as well as a power review course which I feel helped. In the end I would go with whatever you feel you have the most experience in.


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## btm723 (Jul 20, 2012)

Agree with all that was posted here take the module you feel most comfortable in. personally I took the power because I was working in the building design field.


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## lac41 (Oct 1, 2012)

This looks like an old thread but I am in a very similar position for the Oct 2013 exam. I have an EE degree with a concentration in electronics but have worked for an MEP firm since 2008 - so most of my work is basic power distribution. I don't really deal at all with electronics at work but the power exam also seems to go WAY more in depth than anything I ever see in my field. I bought both the Power and the Electronics NCEES practice exams and am finding that the power questions seem to involve much less work (math) overall, but most of the questions are completely foreign to me. On the other hand, the Electronic practice exam is overall familiar and similar to what I remember being good at 5 years ago, but is also riddled with concepts that I have either completely forgotten or have never seen.

At this point I'm about 90% of the way to being convinced to take the Electronics version and sign up for the PPI online review course (compliments of my company) and just buy another book or two from some other organizations to make up for what their curriculum seems to be missing. I'm guessing it'll be easier to re-learn the electronics and remember how to actually do real math again than have to worry about learning totally new power material - even though the power stuff seems to be less complex.

So that's not really advice, but it's my story and I'm interested in hearing your final decision. Good luck!


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## willsee (Oct 1, 2012)

Take whatever you feel the most confident in passing. Order practice exams for each and go from there.

I work at an MEP firm have my M.Eng in EE and took the power and felt it correlated with what I work on everyday.


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