Looking for a feel on how prepared I am...

I used the NCEES guide of the breakdown of the Power PE exam to figure out what to study and I worked on that alone for a few months, but recently I have just been taking practice tests from Spin-up and CI. I haven't gotten lower than a 80% on any test or over a 90% on any either, but I still don't feel confident in my ability to nail this thing yet. I have been saving my NCEES practice test for a weekend that i can take the whole thing as a moc test and see how I do. I don't want to go into the test feeling over-confident, but at the same time I don't want to be overly nervous about taking it...I guess my question to the group is how close to the real test are the CI and spin-up tests and is a 80-85% average on these good enough to feel confident in passing? Also, I plan on making copies of the practice exams and solutions from NCEES, CI and spin-up and putting them in the back of my notes folder that i have divided into sections based upon the NCEES sections of the test to use as examples during the test. The formulas and information would be right in the front and then examples of each would be right behind so I could tab right to what I want, but look at examples from the practice tests fairly easily. Is that too much prep or do you think this would be helpful?

This forum has been awesome, I was a lurker on here for a long time, reading and gathering books and info and I would in no way be as prepared or know what to utilize without many of the regular posters. Thanks for all of your assistance and advice!!

With those scores you shall do well in the actual test...go ahead and do NCEES if you get 80% on that one i guess is time for you to relax a little bit...if you get a 70% keep studying.. I only got close to 80% on complex...i passed the test...how ever NCEES is more difficult than complex

If you don't have the 8-9 hours, then split it up. I never practices problems for more than about 2 hours straight. Passed the test first try...

If you can work through the NCEES in 2 hours for each of the morning and afternoon and get a 90%+, then you should be good to go.

I worked my way through all of the PPI, Spinup, and CI sample exams over the past couple of months. I've been in the same boat, somewhere around 80% or better. Additionally, I've been able to score highly on these at a very quick pace. The Spinup exams take me around an hour and 15 minutes per morning or afternoon section. For CI, each section has been taking me between an hour and a half and two hours. Since I've been scoring so high, I similarly have had a very high level of confidence. BUT then I took the NCEES sample exam last weekend and got a 52/80. Granted, while going back over it, I made some stupid mistakes just by going too quickly. The entire exam took me a little under 4 hours. Still, it brought me back down to earth.

I would recommend taking the NCEES sample exam with at least a few weeks to spare. Don't wait until the week before. I thought that the Spinup exams were too similar to each other, and most questions were pretty basic overall. For CI, I thought they went deeper and I got more out of their explanations. But top-to-bottom, neither holds a candle to the real thing. It's very unfortunate that there aren't more truly test-level practice exams for Power. I know a big complaint for Civil and Environmental is that the 6-minute solutions are much more difficult than the actual exam. But those are the breaks! In the next month I'll probably spend some more time working through textbook problems on topics that tripped me up in the NCEES sample. I'm glad I gave myself this much time!

mauldinite said:

I worked my way through all of the PPI, Spinup, and CI sample exams over the past couple of months. I've been in the same boat, somewhere around 80% or better. Additionally, I've been able to score highly on these at a very quick pace. The Spinup exams take me around an hour and 15 minutes per morning or afternoon section. For CI, each section has been taking me between an hour and a half and two hours. Since I've been scoring so high, I similarly have had a very high level of confidence. BUT then I took the NCEES sample exam last weekend and got a 52/80. Granted, while going back over it, I made some stupid mistakes just by going too quickly. The entire exam took me a little under 4 hours. Still, it brought me back down to earth.

I would recommend taking the NCEES sample exam with at least a few weeks to spare. Don't wait until the week before. I thought that the Spinup exams were too similar to each other, and most questions were pretty basic overall. For CI, I thought they went deeper and I got more out of their explanations. But top-to-bottom, neither holds a candle to the real thing. It's very unfortunate that there aren't more truly test-level practice exams for Power. I know a big complaint for Civil and Environmental is that the 6-minute solutions are much more difficult than the actual exam. But those are the breaks! In the next month I'll probably spend some more time working through textbook problems on topics that tripped me up in the NCEES sample. I'm glad I gave myself this much time!

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This test is a test that can not be answer quickly...take your time..if you study and felt well prepared you will notice that in the actual exam you will finish early....IMPORTANT if you finish the exam early review all the questions when i took the exam i notice that about 4 questions i answered wrong and i knew the answer i just answer wrong i quickly fix them thats why you need to review your stuff 4 questions can make you pass or fail. Make sure that when you review you are confident that the answer you have is the correct answer.....dont panic if in 5 questions you dont have a clue...guess wisely.

Can someone recommend which volume of Complex Imaginary test is more difficult than another? Volume 4 over volume 1??? I just want to buy one as a mock-up exam.

If your head starts to hurt, soak it in cider.

farooqui said:

Can someone recommend which volume of Complex Imaginary test is more difficult than another? Volume 4 over volume 1??? I just want to buy one as a mock-up exam.

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I would say all of them have almost the same level of dificulty

I got around 80% on the CI exams and 70% on the NCEES exam. By exam day, I knew all of the NCEES problems and various ways of solving them. I was able to pass on the first try.

The 4 CI exams are roughly the same difficulty. Spin-up Exams were not out at the time.