April 2018 Power PE Difficultly Level

[BirdGrave]

So I'm recounting some of the problems I wasn't sure about and with the benefit of more than 6 minutes and the internet I'm finding I'm getting about 50% of them right.

I felt reasonably confident with about half of the questions on the test, so if I can get half of that remaining half I'm hoping it puts me around the 75% mark.

Hoping...

 

[14kAIC]

So I'm recounting some of the problems I wasn't sure about and with the benefit of more than 6 minutes and the internet I'm finding I'm getting about 50% of them right.

I felt reasonably confident with about half of the questions on the test, so if I can get half of that remaining half I'm hoping it puts me around the 75% mark.

Hoping...

Haha I've been doing the same thing. Keeping a running count on paper of every problem I remember and if I feel I got it right. I've remembered 68 problems and can count 56 I'm pretty confident on so I feel a lot better about it now. 

 

[BirdGrave]

Haha I've been doing the same thing. Keeping a running count on paper of every problem I remember and if I feel I got it right. I've remembered 68 problems and can count 56 I'm pretty confident on so I feel a lot better about it now. 

You remember 68 problems?  Jeez, your memory could have come in handy.  I only can recall like 5 or 6 now, with the correct numbers.

 

[14kAIC]

You remember 68 problems?  Jeez, your memory could have come in handy.  I only can recall like 5 or 6 now, with the correct numbers.

I don't exactly remember all the numbers for all of them. I just meant I remember what the problem was about and if I was confident in my answer. 

 

[BirdGrave]

I don't exactly remember all the numbers for all of them. I just meant I remember what the problem was about and if I was confident in my answer. 

Oh I see lol.  Yea I only remember specific figures for a select handful.  From what I can recall I'm averaging about 50% on what I'm researching.  I'm hoping that trend coupled with the ones I felt confident about gets me over the event horizon.  I hesitate to say I'm ever absolutely sure of my answers, because I feel that all too often could be a function of me not reading some mitigating detail in the question correctly.

 

[Mem_Elect_Engr]

Oh I see lol.  Yea I only remember specific figures for a select handful.  From what I can recall I'm averaging about 50% on what I'm researching.  I'm hoping that trend coupled with the ones I felt confident about gets me over the event horizon.  I hesitate to say I'm ever absolutely sure of my answers, because I feel that all too often could be a function of me not reading some mitigating detail in the question correctly.

That is true, sometimes they puzzle the questions with extra information and sometimes they tricked us with A reference to B, B reference to C and ask for relationship between A and C. I remember some questions were following that pattern but lot of questions were straight forward.

Yeah, I was surprised too by 68 remembered questions  ! I only remember 5-6 questions which I didn't have clue for. And honestly, I just remember what they were asking about not even what was given.

But, let's hope better, always be positive!

 

[Szar]

Haha I've been doing the same thing. Keeping a running count on paper of every problem I remember and if I feel I got it right. I've remembered 68 problems and can count 56 I'm pretty confident on so I feel a lot better about it now. 

If you could really commit to memory all those questions over such a short time frame (flawlessly so that your at least second guessing yourself using correct figures and answers).... why didn't you just memorize everything prior to the test and ace that beast?   

I'd be careful about your accurate recollection of such a traumatic experience.  

 

[Owism]

Enjoy the spam board my friends. Thats the best way to pass the time until June comes along. Workout to relieve your stress. Eat well. Sleep well. Only have to wait now. 

Goodluck all! You can do it!

 

[Zhina]

Hi all,

Planning to take the P.E ELectrical power exam for the first time on October/2018, need help to find a good online prep review course for P.E. Power?

thanks in advance.

 

[Szar]

Wouldn't waste your money...  Pick up the books mentioned in this forum and just study. 

Edit*

I say that because my experience with them on the FE was poor. 

 

[Reese]

Zhina, not sure if I agree with Szar on this. I found the Electrical PE Review (http://www.electricalpereview.com/) extremely helpful in so many ways. Every topic covered was well developed and easy to understand. Also the Professor was incredible on the detailed response time for every question emailed to him. You may want to consider. 

 

[BirdGrave]

Wouldn't waste your money...  Pick up the books mentioned in this forum and just study. 

Edit*

I say that because my experience with them on the FE was poor. 

I never took a prep course for the FE, and in retrospect, I don't think it was necessary as the practice material was pretty similar to the actual exam.  Plus the notes you're allowed on the exam is the same for everyone, so everyone walks in with the same tools in the tool chest.

However, when it comes to the PE I am glad I took a prep course, if for no other reason that the class notes included things that I needed on the exam that it would have never occurred to me to write down.

 

[Szar]

I never took a prep course for the FE, and in retrospect, I don't think it was necessary as the practice material was pretty similar to the actual exam.  Plus the notes you're allowed on the exam is the same for everyone, so everyone walks in with the same tools in the tool chest.

However, when it comes to the PE I am glad I took a prep course, if for no other reason that the class notes included things that I needed on the exam that it would have never occurred to me to write down.

I took the FE exam 10 years out college.  That material was all foreign to me after that period of time so I thought it <edit> online prep corse </edit> would be helpful.  I was mistaken but overcame none the less.

Whereas taking the PE exam after 10 years of work experience ( / cage fights), I only required studying on my own. 

*WIth that said, my experience was so bad with the FE exam prep course I took that not only did it almost derail me ever taking the FE exam in general, but:

• When the anger wore off a few years later I took the FE exam, determined to pass it without using any outside resources
  
• I swore I would never touch a Online prep course for the PE.
  

Buyer beware.

 

[sayed]

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.

there used to be so many condescending comments on here

glad to see the board members have matured in the past year

 

[Jackal301]

Finally got around to creating an account on here to post. 

First time test taker here, I started studying in January everyday for 2+ hours after work and 5-8 hours a day on the weekends. I took a prep class (School of PE) and thought it was relatively worthless (the instructors were terrible). I also used Graffeo, CI, NCEES Practice Exam, PRM, Wildi, Grainger, Glover/Sarma, NEC Handbook, Tom Henry's (probably most used resource), NESC, other various standards, grad school notes, undergrad notes, standard handbook for EEs, a general Power Electronics book, and a Protective Relaying book. I am 3 years out of grad school, without doing barely a hint of real engineering at my job. I decided to take the Power PE because I focused on Power in Undergrad as well as grad school, however I have had zero experience in the power industry since graduating and had never cracked open the NEC or NESC before studying for the exam. I ultimately decided on the Power exam because I would like to secure a job at a utility or consulting firm someday. 

Prior to the exam: I felt pretty good about the test. I felt comfortable with the NEC and NFPA 70E. I was scoring in the 90's on all the practice exams I was taking. 

Morning exam experience: My initial thoughts were, "what the hell is this garbage"? At least 4 questions I had no idea how to answer and my 10+ reference books contained zero information on said questions. I felt like some of the questions asked were not fair exam questions (additionally the classic: the answer is MOST NEARLY what, with my calculated result being at least 15% from the nearest choice even though I was 100% confident I had calculated it correctly).  I left this section feeling depressed and defeated. I ate lunch in my car and just tried to collect myself. 

Afternoon exam experience: Much better. This is how I was originally expecting the entire exam to go. I finished with an hour remaining and spend that hour trying to find the answers to, again, 3-4ish problems that I had never seen or heard of before. I left this section feeling that I had scored a 90%. 

Overall: I left the exam site that day not knowing how to feel. I did not feel like I had passed, nor did I feel like I had failed. I guess I will find out here in the next few days. Those of you that took the same exam probably remember those few problems that I didn't know how to solve, to this day I am still frustrated and scratching my head over them. Maybe I feel this way because I am used to scoring in the 90's on exams, and when I don't I feel like I failed the exam. So hopefully a 58/80ish score is what I achieved (a passable score) and I feel this way because I simply did not "ace" the exam. 

Looking forward to the results being published in the next few days, good luck to all! 

 

[helphere]

Finally got around to creating an account on here to post. 

First time test taker here, I started studying in January everyday for 2+ hours after work and 5-8 hours a day on the weekends. I took a prep class (School of PE) and thought it was relatively worthless (the instructors were terrible). I also used Graffeo, CI, NCEES Practice Exam, PRM, Wildi, Grainger, Glover/Sarma, NEC Handbook, Tom Henry's (probably most used resource), NESC, other various standards, grad school notes, undergrad notes, standard handbook for EEs, a general Power Electronics book, and a Protective Relaying book. I am 3 years out of grad school, without doing barely a hint of real engineering at my job. I decided to take the Power PE because I focused on Power in Undergrad as well as grad school, however I have had zero experience in the power industry since graduating and had never cracked open the NEC or NESC before studying for the exam. I ultimately decided on the Power exam because I would like to secure a job at a utility or consulting firm someday. 

Prior to the exam: I felt pretty good about the test. I felt comfortable with the NEC and NFPA 70E. I was scoring in the 90's on all the practice exams I was taking. 

Morning exam experience: My initial thoughts were, "what the hell is this garbage"? At least 4 questions I had no idea how to answer and my 10+ reference books contained zero information on said questions. I felt like some of the questions asked were not fair exam questions (additionally the classic: the answer is MOST NEARLY what, with my calculated result being at least 15% from the nearest choice even though I was 100% confident I had calculated it correctly).  I left this section feeling depressed and defeated. I ate lunch in my car and just tried to collect myself. 

Afternoon exam experience: Much better. This is how I was originally expecting the entire exam to go. I finished with an hour remaining and spend that hour trying to find the answers to, again, 3-4ish problems that I had never seen or heard of before. I left this section feeling that I had scored a 90%. 

Overall: I left the exam site that day not knowing how to feel. I did not feel like I had passed, nor did I feel like I had failed. I guess I will find out here in the next few days. Those of you that took the same exam probably remember those few problems that I didn't know how to solve, to this day I am still frustrated and scratching my head over them. Maybe I feel this way because I am used to scoring in the 90's on exams, and when I don't I feel like I failed the exam. So hopefully a 58/80ish score is what I achieved (a passable score) and I feel this way because I simply did not "ace" the exam. 

Looking forward to the results being published in the next few days, good luck to all! 

This is almost exactly how I felt Jackal. Glad to know we're in the same boat!

 

[Vette388]

I feel the same way, afternoon went better than the morning, and there was those problems that I've never seen through out school, work and studying.

 

[14kAIC]

Finally got around to creating an account on here to post. 

First time test taker here, I started studying in January everyday for 2+ hours after work and 5-8 hours a day on the weekends. I took a prep class (School of PE) and thought it was relatively worthless (the instructors were terrible). I also used Graffeo, CI, NCEES Practice Exam, PRM, Wildi, Grainger, Glover/Sarma, NEC Handbook, Tom Henry's (probably most used resource), NESC, other various standards, grad school notes, undergrad notes, standard handbook for EEs, a general Power Electronics book, and a Protective Relaying book. I am 3 years out of grad school, without doing barely a hint of real engineering at my job. I decided to take the Power PE because I focused on Power in Undergrad as well as grad school, however I have had zero experience in the power industry since graduating and had never cracked open the NEC or NESC before studying for the exam. I ultimately decided on the Power exam because I would like to secure a job at a utility or consulting firm someday. 

Prior to the exam: I felt pretty good about the test. I felt comfortable with the NEC and NFPA 70E. I was scoring in the 90's on all the practice exams I was taking. 

Morning exam experience: My initial thoughts were, "what the hell is this garbage"? At least 4 questions I had no idea how to answer and my 10+ reference books contained zero information on said questions. I felt like some of the questions asked were not fair exam questions (additionally the classic: the answer is MOST NEARLY what, with my calculated result being at least 15% from the nearest choice even though I was 100% confident I had calculated it correctly).  I left this section feeling depressed and defeated. I ate lunch in my car and just tried to collect myself. 

Afternoon exam experience: Much better. This is how I was originally expecting the entire exam to go. I finished with an hour remaining and spend that hour trying to find the answers to, again, 3-4ish problems that I had never seen or heard of before. I left this section feeling that I had scored a 90%. 

Overall: I left the exam site that day not knowing how to feel. I did not feel like I had passed, nor did I feel like I had failed. I guess I will find out here in the next few days. Those of you that took the same exam probably remember those few problems that I didn't know how to solve, to this day I am still frustrated and scratching my head over them. Maybe I feel this way because I am used to scoring in the 90's on exams, and when I don't I feel like I failed the exam. So hopefully a 58/80ish score is what I achieved (a passable score) and I feel this way because I simply did not "ace" the exam. 

Looking forward to the results being published in the next few days, good luck to all! 

This was almost exactly my feelings as well. 

 

[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!!!)

Finally got around to creating an account on here to post. 

First time test taker here, I started studying in January everyday for 2+ hours after work and 5-8 hours a day on the weekends. I took a prep class (School of PE) and thought it was relatively worthless (the instructors were terrible). I also used Graffeo, CI, NCEES Practice Exam, PRM, Wildi, Grainger, Glover/Sarma, NEC Handbook, Tom Henry's (probably most used resource), NESC, other various standards, grad school notes, undergrad notes, standard handbook for EEs, a general Power Electronics book, and a Protective Relaying book. I am 3 years out of grad school, without doing barely a hint of real engineering at my job. I decided to take the Power PE because I focused on Power in Undergrad as well as grad school, however I have had zero experience in the power industry since graduating and had never cracked open the NEC or NESC before studying for the exam. I ultimately decided on the Power exam because I would like to secure a job at a utility or consulting firm someday. 

Prior to the exam: I felt pretty good about the test. I felt comfortable with the NEC and NFPA 70E. I was scoring in the 90's on all the practice exams I was taking. 

Morning exam experience: My initial thoughts were, "what the hell is this garbage"? At least 4 questions I had no idea how to answer and my 10+ reference books contained zero information on said questions. I felt like some of the questions asked were not fair exam questions (additionally the classic: the answer is MOST NEARLY what, with my calculated result being at least 15% from the nearest choice even though I was 100% confident I had calculated it correctly).  I left this section feeling depressed and defeated. I ate lunch in my car and just tried to collect myself. 

Afternoon exam experience: Much better. This is how I was originally expecting the entire exam to go. I finished with an hour remaining and spend that hour trying to find the answers to, again, 3-4ish problems that I had never seen or heard of before. I left this section feeling that I had scored a 90%. 

Overall: I left the exam site that day not knowing how to feel. I did not feel like I had passed, nor did I feel like I had failed. I guess I will find out here in the next few days. Those of you that took the same exam probably remember those few problems that I didn't know how to solve, to this day I am still frustrated and scratching my head over them. Maybe I feel this way because I am used to scoring in the 90's on exams, and when I don't I feel like I failed the exam. So hopefully a 58/80ish score is what I achieved (a passable score) and I feel this way because I simply did not "ace" the exam. 

Looking forward to the results being published in the next few days, good luck to all! 

My EXACT experience!

 

[PE-Apr2018-Power]

Hiiii everyone, just found out I passed!!!! Good luck to you all.