retake exam: Power

the comeback kid · May 31, 2011

Dear follow Engineers,

This is loutrical, I have change my log in to this new name the comeback kid, since I lost my password. I taked the PE in April and Failed very bad. I writing and showing my scores to you guys in the hope of find my a cure for success. This all in the name of science please review it and look at my study habit and give me a good method ways of passing this exam.

RESULT

Principles and Practice of Engineering - Electrical and Computer: Power Your Performance Compared to Average of Passing

Examinee

Knowledge Area

X=Number of Items

Y=Your Performance (No. Correct)

Z=Your Performance (% Correct)

Average of Passing Examinees =

You = X Y Z

1 General Power Engineering: Measurement & Instrumentation 6 1 16

2 General Power Engineering: Special Applications 8 3 37

3 General Power Engineering: Codes & Standards 10 6 60

4 Circuit Analysis: Analysis 9 5 55

5 Circuit Analysis: Devices & Power Electronic Circuits 7 1 14

6 Rotating Machines & Electromagnetic Devices: Rotating Machines 10 6 60

7 Rotating Machines & Electromagnetic Devices: Electromagnetic Devices 6 3 50

8 Transmissions & Distribution: System Analysis 9 3 33

9 Transmissions & Distribution: Power System Performance 7 4 57

10 Transmissions & Distribution: Protection 8 2 25

STUDY MATERIALS

• When I got laid off from work in Oct. 13, 2010, I just started to study for the PE and make it my full time job. I paid all my bill ahead of time until April and purchase all those books listed below and study from 8:00am to 10:30PM Monday to Friday and 10AM to 8PM Friday to Sunday from Oct 20, 2010 to April 6 2011.

• Grad. at May 2007 from EE work for a marine company in louisina

• I didn’t do heavy technical work, a lot project managers stuff, coordinate w/ field guys on equipments, and going to meetings.

• I didn’t party or hang w/ friends

• I look for jobs, but only every 4 days

• I just keep to myself and study and used this board a lot for guide

• I spend almost all my saving on this and my girl left me at the end, saying “I don’t spend time w/ her or give her attention”

• The only think I did was go to bible study on Tuesdays from 5pm to 9:45pm and church on Sundays.

• I ate good, exercise 4time a week, sleep 6.5 to 8 hrs every day, and stay positive no matter the obstacles in front of me.

• The time I spend studying I actually begin to really understand hand on and engineer itself.

• I give it all I had with full force, that had to be the hardest race I ran in life for the quest of knowledge

• Out of the hungry I have in my inner self that was one of them. I need a new plan to finish this mission and one more race. This time I need everyone help w/ some advice please.

Louis Study strategy for PE Exam in April 2011

1. Review university theory materials (spend 15 wks only)

• Calculus Classes and advance calculus for engineers and sciences

• Physic I, II, and III

• Electric circuits textbook

Electromagnetic textbook

• Power electronic circuit By: Issa Batarseh

• Machinery electric By: Chapman's book

2. Practical Engineer (relearning stage) (spend 5.5 wks only)

• Machinery electric By: Chapman's book

• Power System Analysis (Author BY: John Grainger (Author), Jr., William Stevenson )( http://freevideolectures.com/Course/2353/P...ems-Analysis/1# ) and (http://courses.engr.illinois.edu/ece476/notes/)

• Ferroresonance is one example, and there is an excellent article on this subject at www.cadickcorp.com .

• Another example is shock and burns, and for this you may be interested in visiting http://ecmweb.com/mag/electric_fundamental...city/index.html

• Electrical Machines, Drives and Power Systems (motors and drives)By: Theodore Wildi

• Protective Relaying Book BY J. Lewis Blackburn. Also pdf file of overprotection for PE

• IEEE Std 141-1993 (The Red Book - Power Distribution)------------------|

• IEEE Std 399-1997 (The Brown Book - Power Systems Analysis) |

• IEEE Std 242-2001 (The Buff Book - Protection and Coordination)------|

• Practical Variable Speed Drives and Electronics by Malcomb Barnes

•

• (NEMA)APPLICATION GUIDE FOR AC ADJUSTABLE SPEED DRIVE SYSTEMS

•

• NEC 2008/NESC handbook (used mike holt w/ sections)

• Electrical Variable Speed Drives by Michael Brumback

3. Final review stages (Exam specific review materials) (spend 4.5 wks only)

• Electrical engineer's handbook By: Donald Fink and H. Beaty

• Handbook of electric power calculations by: H. Wayne Beaty

• PE (Electrical) License Manual - Volume 1 by: Dr. Chelapati's books)

• EERM (Camara PPI EERM reference/practice books (Camara)

• Ugly's References

• Binder folder notes book (In the making by 0014)

• Paper on VFDs, power quality

4. Solving Problems for the Test stage(spend 2.5 wks only)

http://www.cadickcorp.com/papers.htm

• Electrical engineer's handbook By: Donald Fink and H. Beaty(( I only used it for a couple things like Lightning protection, Ground testing, explaination on overcurrent protection devices, current limiting, etc.))

• Handbook of electric power calculations by: H. Wayne Beaty

• C&M's Electrical Calculations Handbook by Paschal

• NCEES Power Practice Problems for the Electrical PE Exam (EPRP)

• NEC sample exam tailored to Engineer only

5. Sample exam like problems(spend 7 days only)

• NCEES sample exam

• NCEES Power Sample Questions and Solutions

6. Preparation to exam place (spend 5 days only)

Get tickets for me and my girl after the exam (my girl didn’t want to come any more)

Get rental car and hotel (I only had enough for car rental)

Go walk around the exam place (just made it on time, but did happen)

Look for parking and walk from it to exam place (I stayed around there for the last three days and walk inside the place just to make sure I know where everything is at)

Sleep an 8 hrs every day that whole week and stay focus and positive (Did not happen, when I got there, stayed w/ a friend and he made me left the house and I had to stay in a shelter place until the exam day.)

Questions

Why did I still fail the test after all those hours, days, weeks, months of study?

What other method can I study?

Should I start studying in June 10 retake it in Oct? or Start studying know and retake it in April of next year?

Out of those books switch one is the best to study from again?

I just start a new job in a small town and was going to study 3.5hrs every day and 6hrs on the wkend, is that not enough?

Can you gives give me the BEST METHOD WAYS of study for the PE EXAM? Because I cannot fail any more, I spend too much $$$ and time.

Mary Faye · May 31, 2011

I also failed the April exam so I hope you get a lot of good advice so that it might help me

Xavier PE · Jun 1, 2011

Comeback Kid,

I failed Power the first time too. After taking the exam the first time, I actually felt pretty confident as I had never before failed a standardized test in my life. My diagnostic showed that I was strong in general electrical engineering, but systematically poor in transmission, and rotating machines. I looked for common subject matter links, and figured I had either root 3, per unit, and 'a' constant (for fault analysis) issues. My friends told me to focus on these subjects, but I chose to study the entire breath in hopes of picking up an additional question here or there.

I also claimed to study "enough", but in my second (and passing) attempt I stayed focused, and studied not only the subjects needed to answer the questions asked in the study guides, I also branched off to cover subjet matter related to problems of that type. e.g. if the study guide asked about a three phase fault, I also covered single-line and double-line to ground faults.

Looking at your results, you have a systematic problem. There's something, probably basic, that you are not either grasping, not realizing it's significance, or passing over because you are used to using software in your professional life that handles the calulation for you. I know it's cliche, but the problems on the exam are not difficult if you understand the subject matter. Ask yourself why you are using a particular equation, understand each part of the equation, and most importantly, read the exam question CAREFULLY...two or three times even to make sure your answer is the answer for the question asked. Often one or more of the solutions provided are correct answers resulting from perfect calculations, but not what they wanted. PU vs actual and vice versa. both answers will probably be there...make sure you are clear on which one they want.

Other than that, it's just a test, and your kids will still love you no matter the result. Don't let it get in your head. If you were smart enough to get a degree in engineering, and then hold a job for 2 years, you're smart enough to pass the PE exam.

If you don't get back in there, you can't pass, so don't wait.

Good luck.

sc57 · Jun 1, 2011

Dear Comeback kid,

Don't get discourage. I just cleared it in my second attempt. Have you consider some review course. Because I am class of '79, I decided to take review course. I found GA tech review course (on line) from this forum and decided to try one out. I am happy I did. My raw score jump from 47 to PASS (minimum is 56). Good luck.

knight1fox3 · Jun 1, 2011

sc57 said:
I decided to take review course. I found GA tech review course (on line) from this forum and decided to try one out.

lusone:

Hi all. Sorry to hear from those that did not pass. But as others have said, try not to get discouraged and stay the course. Be focused and determined. Have a look at this thread for some useful suggestions and additional links. Good luck! :thumbs:

Jakeq · Jun 4, 2011

Hello to all in this thread,

I'm a mechanical engineer and my wife is an electrical engineer in the power industry. I have ample time to study during my down time and decided to take the power PE exam as my wife had all of the study materials. I passed it my first try and feel that I understand the material well. My wife has taken the test 3 times. The first two times she failed. The third time I helped her study and she passed. I'm thinking about putting together an informational video going through the study manual for a small fee. Would there be any interest in this?

tesla314 · Jun 6, 2011

Hi ComebackKid, I'm sorry to hear things didn't work out this time. That must be really frustrating after working so hard for so long.

Everyone's study styles are different, of course, but what helped me was working lots of practice problems, especially the ones from the NEECS. I worked those before I did any of the practice problems from other companies, so that I would know what the "real" problems looked like. Since there's not a lot of problems available from NEECS I did them a couple times: at the start of my practice phase and at the end, a few days before the test.

The review class I took for the EIT (there wasn't a Power PE review class that I could do) taught us the most important thing on the first day: how to take the test. That is, strategies to make it less overwhelming when you sit down in the exam room:

When you open the test, first thing you do is turn to the last page of the morning section (or the back of the test in the afternoon). This proves to your frightened brain stem that there really is an end to the test, it won't go on forever!
Glance at each problem. If it's something that you immediately think "oh, that's A, obviously", mark it down. If it's going to take more than a minute, keep moving and glance at the next one. Put a mark next to the problem if you think you know how to do it so you'll know which ones to come back to.
Go back and work the ones you marked. Since you've eliminated a number of problems right off the bat with quick answers or "no idea", you now have way more than the average six minutes apiece to focus on these problems!
If you have time left, now try working the ones you thought you couldn't do. You might be surprised, after the confidence boost of doing all the ones you were sure of, now you might remember how to work some of these others.
For the ones that you have no idea, try to at least eliminate some of the answers before blindly picking one. This increases your odds of a correct guess.
Don't leave any question blank! You're just stealing points from yourself! Guess if you have to!
Try to leave some time at the end to review your answers.

Oh, and don't bring too many books to the test, you'll waste precious time shuffling books around. I used three: the Camara, the code handbook, and the Ugly's guide (a pocket sized compendium of the tables from the code). Those plus a notebook with a few things I'd printed out from the internet (with much love to the other board members for the links!) got me through it. If you need one table from a book, just xerox the thing rather than hassling with the whole book. It's all about saving time!

Best of luck on your next try!

aledr2001 · Jun 7, 2011

I would bejvery interested in this. I have also failed twice the Power exam (Oct 10 April 11) and really need a new strategy for the test.

palvarez83 · Jun 8, 2011

Hi comeback kid. I just answered a similar question on another forum so I will resuse lots of the information I previously posted, but customize it a bit for you. For starters, I think you have too many references. It looks like they overlap quiet a bit and don't really dwell deep into the material.

I am a mechancial PE and just took the electrical power exam in April. I'm in California so still waiting for results, but I felt pretty comfortable about it after it was over, especially given that studying for the exam was my way of learning if for the first time since my background is in mechanical.

My secret was that I used a Power System Analysis and design text book by J. Duncan Glover that a friend used while studying EE in College. Here is the link to amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Systems-Analysis-Des...8714&sr=8-2

Of that book I think that if you know chapetr 2 (Fundementals) and chapter 3 (Power Transformers) really well, you know enough to get by for the exam. Additional Chapters which mayb of interest, but not as important would be Chapter 7 (Symetrical Faults), Chapter 9 (Unsymetrical Faults), and Chapter 10 (sytems protection). The other chapters are far too mathematical, you could not really use them for a 6 minute problem. Send me a message if you end up getting that book... There are lots of practice problems which I have the solutions to.

Another thing I did was go to Allaboutciruits.com and read their A/C tutorial on the website. You can also download it as a pdf and print it out fo the exam... I did that and put it in a binder. That tutorial is very very helpful.

I felt that the Camara book, though it did cover a wide variety of topics, didn't dive deep enough for the exam. Even though I have the Camara book specificly designed for the Power exam.

The index on the Camara book was really good as was the one on the Duncan book. As you are reading topics I would suggest highlighting what stands out as important. Also, when working problems, I would tab pages that you refer to often using thos post it tabs.

Lastly, if you don't already, get an approved calculator that can do complex numbers I used the Casio fx-115es. It was truly a time saver... I could not believe how many people around me taking the power exam did not have a calculator that could do complex numbers.

If you have any additional questions even specific problems while studying to retake the exam feel free to contact me.

Best of luck,

Pablo

monsterbbb · Jun 10, 2011

the comeback kid said:
Dear follow Engineers,This is loutrical, I have change my log in to this new name the comeback kid, since I lost my password. I taked the PE in April and Failed very bad. I writing and showing my scores to you guys in the hope of find my a cure for success. This all in the name of science please review it and look at my study habit and give me a good method ways of passing this exam.

RESULT

Principles and Practice of Engineering - Electrical and Computer: Power Your Performance Compared to Average of Passing

Examinee

Knowledge Area

X=Number of Items

Y=Your Performance (No. Correct)

Z=Your Performance (% Correct)

Average of Passing Examinees =

You = X Y Z

1 General Power Engineering: Measurement & Instrumentation 6 1 16

2 General Power Engineering: Special Applications 8 3 37

3 General Power Engineering: Codes & Standards 10 6 60

4 Circuit Analysis: Analysis 9 5 55

5 Circuit Analysis: Devices & Power Electronic Circuits 7 1 14

6 Rotating Machines & Electromagnetic Devices: Rotating Machines 10 6 60

7 Rotating Machines & Electromagnetic Devices: Electromagnetic Devices 6 3 50

8 Transmissions & Distribution: System Analysis 9 3 33

9 Transmissions & Distribution: Power System Performance 7 4 57

10 Transmissions & Distribution: Protection 8 2 25

STUDY MATERIALS

• When I got laid off from work in Oct. 13, 2010, I just started to study for the PE and make it my full time job. I paid all my bill ahead of time until April and purchase all those books listed below and study from 8:00am to 10:30PM Monday to Friday and 10AM to 8PM Friday to Sunday from Oct 20, 2010 to April 6 2011.

• Grad. at May 2007 from EE work for a marine company in louisina

• I didn’t do heavy technical work, a lot project managers stuff, coordinate w/ field guys on equipments, and going to meetings.

• I didn’t party or hang w/ friends

• I look for jobs, but only every 4 days

• I just keep to myself and study and used this board a lot for guide

• I spend almost all my saving on this and my girl left me at the end, saying “I don’t spend time w/ her or give her attention”

• The only think I did was go to bible study on Tuesdays from 5pm to 9:45pm and church on Sundays.

• I ate good, exercise 4time a week, sleep 6.5 to 8 hrs every day, and stay positive no matter the obstacles in front of me.

• The time I spend studying I actually begin to really understand hand on and engineer itself.

• I give it all I had with full force, that had to be the hardest race I ran in life for the quest of knowledge

• Out of the hungry I have in my inner self that was one of them. I need a new plan to finish this mission and one more race. This time I need everyone help w/ some advice please.

Louis Study strategy for PE Exam in April 2011

1. Review university theory materials (spend 15 wks only)

• Calculus Classes and advance calculus for engineers and sciences

• Physic I, II, and III

• Electric circuits textbook

Electromagnetic textbook

• Power electronic circuit By: Issa Batarseh

• Machinery electric By: Chapman's book

2. Practical Engineer (relearning stage) (spend 5.5 wks only)

• Machinery electric By: Chapman's book

• Power System Analysis (Author BY: John Grainger (Author), Jr., William Stevenson )( http://freevideolectures.com/Course/2353/P...ems-Analysis/1# ) and (http://courses.engr.illinois.edu/ece476/notes/)

• Ferroresonance is one example, and there is an excellent article on this subject at www.cadickcorp.com .

• Another example is shock and burns, and for this you may be interested in visiting http://ecmweb.com/mag/electric_fundamental...city/index.html

• Electrical Machines, Drives and Power Systems (motors and drives)By: Theodore Wildi

• Protective Relaying Book BY J. Lewis Blackburn. Also pdf file of overprotection for PE

• IEEE Std 141-1993 (The Red Book - Power Distribution)------------------|

• IEEE Std 399-1997 (The Brown Book - Power Systems Analysis) |

• IEEE Std 242-2001 (The Buff Book - Protection and Coordination)------|

• Practical Variable Speed Drives and Electronics by Malcomb Barnes

•

• (NEMA)APPLICATION GUIDE FOR AC ADJUSTABLE SPEED DRIVE SYSTEMS

•

• NEC 2008/NESC handbook (used mike holt w/ sections)

• Electrical Variable Speed Drives by Michael Brumback

3. Final review stages (Exam specific review materials) (spend 4.5 wks only)

• Electrical engineer's handbook By: Donald Fink and H. Beaty

• Handbook of electric power calculations by: H. Wayne Beaty

• PE (Electrical) License Manual - Volume 1 by: Dr. Chelapati's books)

• EERM (Camara PPI EERM reference/practice books (Camara)

• Ugly's References

• Binder folder notes book (In the making by 0014)

• Paper on VFDs, power quality

4. Solving Problems for the Test stage(spend 2.5 wks only)

http://www.cadickcorp.com/papers.htm

• Electrical engineer's handbook By: Donald Fink and H. Beaty(( I only used it for a couple things like Lightning protection, Ground testing, explaination on overcurrent protection devices, current limiting, etc.))

• Handbook of electric power calculations by: H. Wayne Beaty

• C&M's Electrical Calculations Handbook by Paschal

• NCEES Power Practice Problems for the Electrical PE Exam (EPRP)

• NEC sample exam tailored to Engineer only

5. Sample exam like problems(spend 7 days only)

• NCEES sample exam

• NCEES Power Sample Questions and Solutions

6. Preparation to exam place (spend 5 days only)

Get tickets for me and my girl after the exam (my girl didn’t want to come any more)

Get rental car and hotel (I only had enough for car rental)

Go walk around the exam place (just made it on time, but did happen)

Look for parking and walk from it to exam place (I stayed around there for the last three days and walk inside the place just to make sure I know where everything is at)

Sleep an 8 hrs every day that whole week and stay focus and positive (Did not happen, when I got there, stayed w/ a friend and he made me left the house and I had to stay in a shelter place until the exam day.)

Questions

Why did I still fail the test after all those hours, days, weeks, months of study?

What other method can I study?

Should I start studying in June 10 retake it in Oct? or Start studying know and retake it in April of next year?

Out of those books switch one is the best to study from again?

I just start a new job in a small town and was going to study 3.5hrs every day and 6hrs on the wkend, is that not enough?

Can you gives give me the BEST METHOD WAYS of study for the PE EXAM? Because I cannot fail any more, I spend too much $$$ and time.

trying to study so many book in 3-4 month time frame will get yourself even more confusion. Power exam isn't diffcult. Buy the PE reference manual from www.ppi2pass.com. understand maxwell equation, plus study a power analysis text book, do some more question on the NEC code book, this will get you 50 out of 80 easily. then pick remain unknown question randomly for another 6-8 correct. you will have 56-58 = pass..you are good to go.

BamaBino · Jun 10, 2011

the comeback kid said:
I took the PE in April Knowledge Area

X=Number of Items X Y Z

1 General Power Engineering: Measurement & Instrumentation 6 1 16

2 General Power Engineering: Special Applications 8 3 37

3 General Power Engineering: Codes & Standards 10 6 60

4 Circuit Analysis: Analysis 9 5 55

5 Circuit Analysis: Devices & Power Electronic Circuits 7 1 14

6 Rotating Machines & Electromagnetic Devices: Rotating Machines 10 6 60

7 Rotating Machines & Electromagnetic Devices: Electromagnetic Devices 6 3 50

8 Transmissions & Distribution: System Analysis 9 3 33

9 Transmissions & Distribution: Power System Performance 7 4 57

10 Transmissions & Distribution: Protection 8 2 25

So, were there zero Engineering Economics problems on the April Power Exam? :angry:

The Number of Items totals to 80.

palvarez83 · Jun 13, 2011

BamaBino said:
the comeback kid said:

I took the PE in April Knowledge Area

X=Number of Items X Y Z

1 General Power Engineering: Measurement & Instrumentation 6 1 16

2 General Power Engineering: Special Applications 8 3 37

3 General Power Engineering: Codes & Standards 10 6 60

4 Circuit Analysis: Analysis 9 5 55

5 Circuit Analysis: Devices & Power Electronic Circuits 7 1 14

6 Rotating Machines & Electromagnetic Devices: Rotating Machines 10 6 60

7 Rotating Machines & Electromagnetic Devices: Electromagnetic Devices 6 3 50

8 Transmissions & Distribution: System Analysis 9 3 33

9 Transmissions & Distribution: Power System Performance 7 4 57

10 Transmissions & Distribution: Protection 8 2 25

Click to expand...

So, were there zero Engineering Economics problems on the April Power Exam? :angry:

The Number of Items totals to 80.

Every exam has at least 1. Though it may not show up on this diagnosis.

seandapaul24 · Dec 20, 2011

Econ is usually a subset of the General Power Engineering: Special Applications.

ferroresonance · Dec 23, 2011

I passed the Power PE this October. I would recommend the following.

Purchase the NCEES PE-Power practice exam book. Not only work the problems, but make sure you understand the result. I would also familiarize yourself with NEC book. I don't mean read the whole thing, but make sure you can quickly access sections and you know how to interpret the articles. I practiced the NEC by taking electrician exams. I reference the NEC for my job like sections 310, 240, 110, and 430. But by practicing electrician exams forces you to learn other sections and how to interpret the book.

My colleagues took a study session offered at a local university. Everyone I have talked to about it says, practice problems is the best study method.

good luck.

knd107 · Dec 23, 2011

I don't know how you could fail if you studied all of those topics with much time. Are you considering reading as "studying"?

I've spent some time watching Mike Holt's Understand the NEC videos and working on a review course (villanova) that was geared to the older exam (just skipped electronics, etc).

The real learning/studying happens when you are working problems. Start with the NCEES and make sure you know how to do them (every single problem); don't look at the solution and think "oh, that makes sense; I'll be able to do that on the exam". I considered everything I did before starting problems a waste of time (at least for passing the exam perspective).

Do you really spend 15 weeks on Theory? Did you really need to re-learn Physics? Calculus?

you probably need to switch "1" with Stage "2" which you spent 5.5 weeks on. I don't know how you would get through Grainger, Chapman, Wildi, Red Book, Buff and Brown books in that little bit of time. I could probably spent 5.5 weeks full-time on the Red Book and still not know exactly how to apply everything that I read.

You also had Cheapati's book? jeez. Don't know how you could fail with all the references you mentioned and if you actually went through them.

This is what I think I would do:

Review Theory from the power reference manual - skip Math and materials, etc and go right to electric theory and on.
Review NEC - you said that you had Mike Holt's stuff; go over chapters 1 (article 90) - Chap 4. Read the chapters first then watch the videos. Then scan the rest of the chapters; mainly for article titles/ subjects. Get a separate table of contents and tab the crap out of that book. They sell tabs for it. Mike Holt makes a version and there are some others. The new test is probably going to be 2011 version so make sure that is the one you are using. Also, the 2011 version moved around all the table designations so make sure you are looking at the correct tables when you are review solutions from previous edition problems. Do this if you have not work with the NEC before.
Start working problems - I would skip the practice problems that accompany the Reference Manual and go straight to NCEES and the PPI sample tests. I brought the Complex Imaginary Sample tests as well. Create equation sheets for each subject as you are going through problems. Research subjects that you don't understand while doing problems. For instance, you hit a Voltage drop problem and don't know how to do it then look in the NEC (there's a sample problem in there which is good in Chap 9), Beaty's Calculations and EC&M's Calculation book. You need to determine why they use double the length for some problems and single length for others, etc.

To tell you the truth, i would start with problems and fill in the theory as I hit problems i didn't know how to do. I would schedule the test in April and delay it if you don't think you are ready. Should be enough time from now til April.

By the time I took the exam, I worked the NCEES Test 4-5 times and had alternate solutions to alot of the problems. I worked 3.5 of the Complex exams, reviewed PPI sample tests and reviewed the Cheapati sample problems. When you are working problems, do not look at the solutions. I would do like 10+ and then see which ones I got right and compared my method with the solutions. In the end, I was suppose to fully work NCEES, PPI sample exams, PPI Practice Problems, Complex Imag exams (all 4), and Cheapati's problems. I only got to NCEES and 3.5 Complex Imag's exams so I scanned all of the rest.

I used the following reference materials:

- Electrical Engineer Power Reference Manual by Camara

- Electrical Engineer Power Reference Sample Problems by Camara

- Electrical Machines, Drives and Power Systems by Wildi

- Power Systems Analysis by Grainger/Stevenson

- NEC 2008 Handbook

- EC&M's Electrical Calculations Handbook by Paschal

- Handbook of Electric Power Calculations by Beaty

- Master Binder with NCEES Sample Problems on single sheets organized by Subject w/ Equation Sheets at the front of each section

- Binder with homemade notes & print-outs

- Binder with Complex Imaginary Problems on single sheets organized by Subject w/ equation sheets at the front of each section (matched Master binder organization)

- Ugly's reference books

- Cheapati's Volume I

Had 2x FX-115 and a extra TI-36X (the one I used in the FE)

knd107 · Dec 23, 2011

oops, I didn't realize that the OP started this in May 2011.

Did you take it in Oct 2011?

solomonb · Dec 23, 2011

Fellow Engineers-- Remember, the PE test is designed to find the "Minimally Competent" engineer. This is the D level student. The test is written to make sure that the D level student can pass this examination. After all, the D student is barely passing.

You should be able to identify what the question is asking by inspection. Now, you need to have some understanding and working knowledge of each area on the test. Don't get bogged down in the minutiae-- the PE test is designed for the minimally competent engineer. You DO NOT need or have to have a graduate degree to pass this examination. Actually, most of the questions, I believe are about 200-300 level college class levels.

You should be able to possess a good basic foundation knowledge of the various subjects. There is no getting around a basic, foundational level understanding of the topics on the test protocol. Be sure that you understand each area of the test. The test is designed NOT to be spooky, tricky or "stump the dummy". Don't make this any harder than it actually is.

Now, the minimally competent engineer has to have, at least, a basic understanding of the core test areas. After all, you probably passed an ABET accredited program at your college or university. Make sure that you can work the problems. Understand the units, the conversion factors, etc. Working the problems is the key- and understanding what you are doing. Don't do this mechanically--you really need to understand why and what you are doing and what result you achieve when you do the calculation.

The best answer to this question is to go back and review all of the material again, being sure that you understand each subject area. Then work the problems and be sure you understand what you are doing.

Above all, don't make this any more complicated than it really is! Remember, you are much better than the minimally competent engineer-- you can do this.

treyjay · Dec 23, 2011

well...even the "D" student has to get a "C" to pass this exam.

But I agree, the problems don't involve anything complex and if it starts to get complex, then that is because you are making it so...go back and re-read the question.

palvarez83 · Dec 27, 2011

treyjay said:
well...even the "D" student has to get a "C" to pass this exam.

But I agree, the problems don't involve anything complex and if it starts to get complex, then that is because you are making it so...go back and re-read the question.

Agreed... The only complex part are complex numbers

... But fortunately the calculator will handle those!

ASG · Jan 3, 2012

solomonb said:
Fellow Engineers-- Remember, the PE test is designed to find the "Minimally Competent" engineer. This is the D level student. The test is written to make sure that the D level student can pass this examination. After all, the D student is barely passing.

Now, the minimally competent engineer has to have, at least, a basic understanding of the core test areas. After all, you probably passed an ABET accredited program at your college or university

As somebody who has graduated from college with decent grades, passed the FE the first time and has now failed the test twice (with scores not very close to passing), I find this comment insulting.

</rant> The problem with the exam is that is that it is almost completely irrelevant to my job (despite it being requred to advance to higher levels in it). My major was EE. Our school didn't even have a Power concentration if I wanted to take classes in it (not many do). Now that I work at an MEP firm, I still don't need to know the inner workings of transformers or generators. </rant>

I find it amusing multiple people are recommending all this extra studying of the NEC when it is only a maximum of 10 questions on the test and this person already got 6 of them correct. It's one of the subjects he did best in.

retake exam: Power

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