4th time the charm

[Tokoyoshi]

Hi guys,

I have been a lurker on this forum for about 3 years. I studied mechanical engineer in college and I finally passed my Electrical Power PE exam as of Wednesday. It took me 4 attempts (2 attempts as paper and pen and 2 attempts for computer base test). For those of you who are struggling..... as others have stated in the past, don't give up. Even if you failed once keep on pushing other wise your time would be wasted.

It took me 4 tries to finally figured out how to "study" for the test and I want to thank Zach Stone's program. As a mechanical engineer who only took Electrical 101 in college back in 2010, Zach's class helped me understand the fundamentals of EE and of course prep for the PE Test. These are the order I would recommend that works for me.

1. Going through Zach's course on-demand or live.
2. Do Zach's homework problems
3. This will be a struggle for most of you, if you think are not ready to take the practice exam, JUST DO IT. It took me 4 tries to figure this out. The more practice problems that you do, even if you memorized it, the better you will perform on the test. I took 1 month doing nothing but practice tests in this order
   • NCEES Practice Test
   • Graffeo The Electrical Engineer's Guide (outdated, easy, and won't discourage you Don't focus too much on this test)
   • Complex Imaginary 1-4 Exam (Excellent in hitting all subject slightly harder)
   • Zach's Stone online practice problem generator (highly recommended for more practice questions)
   • Zach's Stone Practice Test (hard- It will discourage you but will point out your common mistakes)
   • Engineering Pro Final (hard- It will discourage you but will point out your common mistakes)
   • Cram Volume 1 (Hard- very good for transmission & fault problems and NEC codes)

Run through 2-3 practice tests. Review your wrong answers and you will see what subject you are weak on. You will noticed that there is a pattern on the type of problems that you are constantly making the same mistakes throughout the 2-3 practice tests. After you narrowed down your weak subjects, return to Zach's lectures and review that section, take the practice test again, and repeat the process.

One last advice. Please please please....do not try to be an "expert" on all subject. Watch Zach's intro lecture videos and he will say the same thing. You are trying to pass this exam not be the expert in the subjects.

I hoped that this is helpful and encourage current and future Power PE test takers.

 

[no_concentrate]

Congratulations!!!

 

[Zach Stone P.E.]

Congrats @Tokoyoshi!

Thanks for being a student in our online class for the new CBT format of Power PE Exam at www.electricalpereview.com.

Always happy to hear when we are able to help engineers with a different engineering background like mechanical pass the power PE exam.

 

[COJeff]

To all the future test takers out there I hope you all see the recurring theme?

Zach Stone

 

[Zach Stone P.E.]

Thanks @COJeff !

 

[RayAl]

Agree! I passed the exam using Zach's course. Future exam takers here is my experience:
Zach Stone course helped me to learn many thinks I already forget. Note, I have PhD in electrical engineering, but to be honest, some questions I couldn't tackle. Zach's course showed me how to deal with such questions.
Also, In my exam I got a lot of NEC questions regarding EGC, this is something you need to work on by yourself, Zach's course will not help much here.
On CBT they provide a copy of NEC and other code books. though it has search feature but navigation to other pages is not easy. you need to write down page number so you can go back to it. Not sure if NCEES can add page number navigation to the tool since going back and forth between pages will take long time and increase your stress in the exam.
just wanted to share my experience. Good Luck!