Planning on taking CBT, studying advice

Pra4surf1 said:

Man that’s awesome! Do you have any idea how well you did. I heard if you pass you only get passed and that’s it.

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Zach Stone P.E. said:

Hi @mnsee glad to see our practice exam in your list!

If you're looking for advice and personal experience from other power engineers that have passed the new CBT format of the Power PE exam this year, take a look at the following youtube playlist:

Youtube - "How to Pass the CBT PE Exam"

That link is about a dozen or so hour-long interviews with former students of ours that have passed this year, and each one talks about what they did to prepare and pass.

We just filmed one today that we will be adding to that playlist shortly. It's very helpful to get an inside look at what it takes to pass.

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Pra4surf1 said:

Zack I watched your video about CBT repeat taker and was curious if you offer anything for Civil?

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Dothracki PE said:

Welcome and good luck on your journey. Everyone is different on their study prep, but I think you have a good plan thus far. I myself spent over a year studying, gradually increasing the amount of time spent each week studying. Your study sources are very good. The NCEES practice Exams, Engineer Proguides, and Electrical PE Review are the top 3 references that I used and reccomend.

If you haven't already, you should print our the NCEES refence sheet that they will give you on the exam. That is essential to know that document forwards and backwards. On the NCEES dashboard, you should be able to download it under "Useful References".

You should take a look at the engineer pro guides code question exam that covers questions on the NEC, NFPA 99, and NESC. These make up a good portion of the and are much easier points to earn with less chance of error compared to other problems. Many of these are available online for free but the NEC handbook and NFPA 70E would be a good recommended purchase. if you don't have these. The NESC is a bit pricey but you may be able to find used ones, many of the NESC questions you might see are similar to the questions you will see in the NEC but does deal with a different subject matter at times. At minimum you should have a good knowledge of NEC articles 110, 210, 220, 240, 250, and 310, 430, and Chapter 9.

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EE_transformer said:

Hello,

I am planning on taking the exam in a couple months as well and I have a question about the reference material (and I can't seem to get a good/clear answer from NCEES or anywhere else so I figured someone who has recently taken the CBT exam would know). I have the PDF version of the reference handbook, but for the code questions on the exam I can't seem to find any reference material. My question is, how is this information provided when taking the exam? Do they give you full PDF versions of the codes needed that you can search, or do they give just a portion that is needed to answer the question? NCEES told me "the information needed to answer and code questions will be provided within or along with the question it is referencing" - but that doesn't seem right... Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Also, for studying purposes, does anyone know where I can find PDF versions of the codes? I'd like to study as similar fashion to the exam as possible (i.e. being able to search within the PDF). Thanks again!

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Dothracki PE said:

That is correct. You will be given a PDF reader program that is split screen with the exam. In the program you will have tabs for the reference guide, NFPA 70, NESC, and NFPA 70E. The PDF reader has the ability to search for keywords or sections and zoom if you need it, but I was able to see the text at the standard zoom.

I know you can view the NFPA versions for free online here: https://www.nfpa.org/Codes-and-Standards/All-Codes-and-Standards/Free-accessFree-access. You might be able to find downloadable PDFs of NFPA codes from a simple Google search since these versions used on the exams are not the latest issued versions. The NESC would definitely require you to purchase it. Unfortunately it doesn't come cheap either. You can always look into used versions of these books to study from. It is not that much different.

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EE_transformer said:

Great, thank you so much for the reply. That makes me feel a bit better, I was really concerned how/if this information would be available during the exam. I took the FE test awhile back and that was also CBT version so I am familiar with the split screen set-up, and as long as the codes/standards are provided in the same format that will be good. Again, thank you so much for taking the time to reply, this is the only place I have come where I could get a definitive answer.

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EE_transformer said:

I have another question if you could help (without divulging too much information of course) - the NCEES exam specifications lists approx. 10-15 questions on "Codes and Standards", however, during my studying I am finding that I am using the NEC/ANSI/NESC standards for several questions for things such as Overcurrent protection, relaying, devices, etc. My question is, based on your experience (or anyone's) did you only use the codes/standards for those 10-15 questions in section 1, or did you find that you were expected to use them for questions throughout the exam? Many of the sample problems I am working near the end of the exam specification start by saying something along the lines of "according to NEC..." That being said, should I expect 10-15 questions where I need to use the codes/standards, or should I expect 10-15 questions in THAT section, and then also expect to use them on later problems (maybe I will need to use them for something like 20-30 problems? Again, I don't expect anyone to give away any secrets or too much information, but if anyone could answer this in such a way without doing so that would be great! Thanks again!

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EE_transformer said:

HI Again,

I have scheduled my PE Power test for end of next month and thus far I have spent the majority of my time going through the Practice exam from NCEES and I also use the Wasim Study Guide for PE (over 500 problems) - this book helped me alot during the FE exam as well. I have went thru both several times and was wondering if anyone has another reference book/practice exam recommendation? I have about a good 3 weeks left to study so if there was any one book or study guide that helped you let me know where I can purchase it. As always, appreciate the feedback on here!
Thanks!

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