April 2018 Power PE Difficultly Level

[PE-Apr2018-Power]

Hi everyone,

This was my second time taking the Power PE exam and I thought the test was harder than last time.

I studied for more than 4 months and tried to focus on my weaknesses as much as possible but it didn’t seem to help. 

I wanna hear from other people’s experiences regarding the past exam, if it was your second time did you feel it was harder or easier?

Thank you.

 

[Szar]

First time taking the test.  I'm feeling fairly confident.

With that said... their was a particular question on the exam that I had noooooooooo idea how to be even begin approaching.  Like most others I could imagine how to approach but maybe was missing a reference.  Not that one...       

Edit.   And I have nothing more to say on that.   Lol. 

 

[14kAIC]

I agree, and it felt way harder than the NCEES practice exam. Code questions seemed more complex and some questions were on stuff I had never seen before, despite having studied for 4 months.

All in all, I guessed on about 7 in the AM session and 5 in the PM session. Felt pretty confident about 25 in the AM session and 30 in the PM session so hopefully that puts me at above 56/80...

 

[Phenomenon083]

Thank you guys for sharing your experience. Based on your recent experience what materials do you think would be most helpful to prepare for the exam?

 

[tatyanam]

I felt that i did worst than last time, I left morning session feeling that i did not get one question right.  Afternoon was easier for some reason.   That said, it is not technical difficulties, but lack of clarity in the questions and mixing bunch of topics in one question.

 

[BirdGrave]

I honestly don't know how to feel about the exam.  It's weird, contrary to popular opinion in this thread I felt the morning went better for me than the afternoon, but that could be mistaken perception on my part.  The test itself I thought was much harder than any of my practice material.  All in all I think I completely guessed on about 5-6 questions on the exam.  I don't know if that is reflective of how I did though, as I changed many of my answers upon revisiting questions a second time.

As to whether I passed?  Who knows.  I feel like it could go either way for me.  Some questions I knew like the palm of my hand, and others seemed like a foreign language to me.

 

[tschnepf]

First time taker here. The morning session was a bit brutal for me personally, quite a few questions that threw me for a loop even after ~4 months of study. I felt pretty confident about the afternoon though. Obviously I'm hoping to pass but in reality I wouldn't be surprised either way. I guess we will see how good I am at educated guessing. 

 

[EngrinSF]

I agree. The exam was much harder than the practice exam and some of the questions were topics I had never seen before. I feel like I guessed on many of them. The morning session was terrible and the afternoon was better. I am just hoping for the best at this point.I have a master's degree and it was pretty useless for the exam.

 

[bripgilb]

I think it was harder than the Oct. 27th 2017 Exam.

That said, I'd say there were 3 problems that I had no clue on and probably had 6 in the morning and 6 in the evening that required guessing.

I felt the morning was more difficult than the afternoon.

Just crossing my fingers and praying.

And, also still gonna do one practice problem a day to keep it fresh until I get my results.

 

[14kAIC]

I think it was harder than the Oct. 27th 2017 Exam.

That said, I'd say there were 3 problems that I had no clue on and probably had 6 in the morning and 6 in the evening that required guessing.

I felt the morning was more difficult than the afternoon.

Just crossing my fingers and praying.

And, also still gonna do one practice problem a day to keep it fresh until I get my results.

Do you feel you scored higher than the last time you took it? Even if you missed all the ones you guessed, that's still a solid score of like 65-68. 

 

[BirdGrave]

A harder exam likely means a lower scaled passing score.  Don't assume it's over until it's over, folks.  

 

[KatyLied P.E.]

I think it was harder than the Oct. 27th 2017 Exam.

That said, I'd say there were 3 problems that I had no clue on and probably had 6 in the morning and 6 in the evening that required guessing.

I felt the morning was more difficult than the afternoon.

Just crossing my fingers and praying.

And, also still gonna do one practice problem a day to keep it fresh until I get my results.

By all means do what works best for you regarding daily practice problems.  However, I'd recommend postponing problems until after you get your results.  starting again so soon can lead to second guessing and anxiety.  What's done is done.  Try to clear your ,mind and wait on your results.  I felt like I needed to start studying again the day after my exam.  A friend told me to hold off and I was glad I did.  Even if you don't pass this time the mental and emotional relief from a study break will put you in a better position the next.  Besides, you may have passed.

 

[Trademark04]

I took the test in April 2017 and did not pass... I felt this was perhaps easier than last time and I can confidently say I did not adequately prepare for this exam due to work (like nearly zero studying.) So perhaps I didn't know that I didn't know. 

That being said, I work in the consulting realm and felt perhaps this test leaned itself towards my profession more so than my previous attempt. 

 

[BirdGrave]

So after doing some research, I've come to realize I got one wrong that I really shouldn't have gotten wrong, mostly because I was staring right at the resource that blatantly told me what the correct answer was but I was too fatigued with the exam to think clearly at that point.  Man, am I angry at myself for that.  I really could have used those gimme points.

Fingers crossed that I can keep it under 23 more wrong and make it a sure thing... 

 

[bripgilb]

Do you feel you scored higher than the last time you took it? Even if you missed all the ones you guessed, that's still a solid score of like 65-68. 

I don't know if how I feel.

I feel like the test was more difficult, but I was also more prepared so to me that almost feels like a wash. haha

 

[bripgilb]

By all means do what works best for you regarding daily practice problems.  However, I'd recommend postponing problems until after you get your results.  starting again so soon can lead to second guessing and anxiety.  What's done is done.  Try to clear your ,mind and wait on your results.  I felt like I needed to start studying again the day after my exam.  A friend told me to hold off and I was glad I did.  Even if you don't pass this time the mental and emotional relief from a study break will put you in a better position the next.  Besides, you may have passed.

Thank you for that KL... I think you may be on to something.  At least let my brain cool down for a bit and get back with the family some haha

And like you said... may have passed!!

 

[EngrinSF]

By all means do what works best for you regarding daily practice problems.  However, I'd recommend postponing problems until after you get your results.  starting again so soon can lead to second guessing and anxiety.  What's done is done.  Try to clear your ,mind and wait on your results.  I felt like I needed to start studying again the day after my exam.  A friend told me to hold off and I was glad I did.  Even if you don't pass this time the mental and emotional relief from a study break will put you in a better position the next.  Besides, you may have passed.

Thank you for the encouraging words!

 

[KatyLied P.E.]

Thank you for that KL... I think you may be on to something.  At least let my brain cool down for a bit and get back with the family some haha
And like you said... may have passed!! [emoji14]

Exactly!! I shut myself off from my family for five months while studying. Time that I will never get back but you have to do what you have to do. Getting back in the groove was a welcome relief after all that exam prep.


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[PE-Apr2018-Power]

Wishing everyone good luck! Hopefully we won’t need to worry about the next time... but if we have to, we will try our best next time around!  :B

 

[Surf and Snow]

First time PE exam taker here. Overall I think I survived, but only time will tell.

Been averaging about 85% on last 10 practice exams (I've now taken a total of 16 (SIXTEEN!) full 8-hr practice exams at this point) and logged in somewhere between 200-250 hrs total of study/testing time since I started in January. Sure felt like I had prepared about as well as I could.

As for the exam on Friday, the night and day sessions felt like literally night and day. I feel like I took two completely different tests on Friday. Walked away feeling indifferent.

The Morning Session: I felt like I went 12 rounds with Mike Tyson while he was in his prime, but with my arms like T-rex size shortened, and one of them tied behind my back and with a blindfold on. Several questions were things I never saw a single time in the 16 practice exams I had taken to "prepare". Like I had seen apples and bananas 100 times and suddenly there were pomegranates being thrown at me. I screwed up on my time management and spent way too long on a few of the problems and by the time the 15 minute warning was called, I had 5 questions still that I hadn't even started. fml I had to hurriedly make WAGs and SWAG's on them by at least eliminating clearly wrong choices. Walked out to my truck for lunch feeling dazed and confused like "WTF just happened?" I walked away feeling like if I were only graded on the morning, I either failed or am right on the border.

Spent the lunch hour sitting in my truck clearing my mind. Didnt even want to google any of the things that were just thrown at me. Listened to some hard core rock to pump myself up and get back into the zone.

The Afternoon Session: Complete opposite of the bloodbath that was the morning. I felt great. I knew most of the material. Consistently and quickly arrived at clear answers confidently. Finished all 40 problems in about 3 hours and had an entire hour to go back and double check my work. I walked away feeling like I easily passed the afternoon half. Wish I were only graded on that. The question is when added together, did I make up enough from the morning?

My shakedown assessment: during the test I did what I've always done during my practice exams and assigned a rank to each question 3 = Confident that I have the correct answer,  2 = Pretty sure I'm right, or at least down to only two possible solutions (50/50 odds), and 1 = Total WAG or SWAG, I do not feel confident.

Morning I had: 26x "3", 6x "2", and 8x "1"

Afternoon I had: 30x "3", 9x "2", and only 1x "1"

Based on that breakdown, I think I landed enough points to pass, but not in the 85-90% range that I had been experiencing in the practice exams. Fingers crossed I'm a one and done on this experience. Best luck to us all as we try to remain sane waiting forever to find out....

How did the rest of you who tested on Friday feel about it? (*****Without getting into specifics obviously!!!)