April/October 2020 Power PE Exam Prep

[Orchid PE]

I think I'm allowed to say this.

The NCEES sample exam is much easier.

 

[DLD PE]

Yeah I went the Zach way of each section being by the NCEES Specifications page. I made 2 binders A-Z There are 48 total sections so 26 letters x 2 binders means 52 tabs. SO each section has its own tab. I have an index at the start of each binder that labels those sections. 

So if its a illumination or an engineering economy I'm there in 5 seconds. What hurts is when its a small subsection, and its hidden in those 2 binders. I'm trying to add important subsections to my index

Some practice exam problems (NCEES, Graffeo, etc) seem to "blend" 1 or 2 topics, in which case I would make copies and put them in both sections.

 

[DLD PE]

Took the graffeo practice exam at the end of his book earlier today and got 74/80 with timed test. I finished 2 hrs in the morning session and 2.5 hrs in the afternoon session.
I was thinking that the problems in the actual exam is much harder( but I can’t really tell because this is my first time taking the PE exam) than the graffeo problems. I just based the problems from the NCEES practice exam since I only got 62/80 and used all the full 8hours. 
 

I didn’t really used up all of my other reference books since most of its problem can just be referenced to its own book. 
 

nevertheless, it was a good practice!    

Those are pretty good scores for those exams, especially with the exam 2-1/2 months away.  That should be encouraging for you. Keep it up!

 

[BebeshKing PE]

Yeah I went the Zach way of each section being by the NCEES Specifications page. I made 2 binders A-Z There are 48 total sections so 26 letters x 2 binders means 52 tabs. SO each section has its own tab. I have an index at the start of each binder that labels those sections. 

So if its a illumination or an engineering economy I'm there in 5 seconds. What hurts is when its a small subsection, and its hidden in those 2 binders. I'm trying to add important subsections to my index

What I typically do is to put  sticky flags inside the body of the pages(not on the edges of the reference binder) and then write the subsection or topic so that I can easily see it. 
i do also have two separate binders but the other one is all sample exams so that if I see a problem that is bizarre to me,  I will go to the binder with the sample exams and check if maybe there is a similar one.

 

[Zach Stone P.E.]

Took the NCEES practice exam today! 59/80. First one i've taken timed, ended up running out of time on the afternoon session with 7 blank (oops! - some poor time management, some getting stuck on certain problems, some just didn't want to be doing this anymore)

Need to work on transformer testing, NEC stuff, and symmetrical components (sym. comp. problems were not worded anywhere close to the practice problems I've done).

Also realized I don't like my formula binder and need to tab my notebooks. I used my notes from Zach's course a LOT, the Cram book was helpful, Wildi was helpful, Glover was helpful, used Graffeo a little, and I used the cover of the Ugly's book a lot  

I see why you wanted that Power Electronics book now, @SparkyBill, there was WAY more power electronics than I expected on that practice exam. I just found a pdf of an older version online, so I'll probably just print it at work.

Great advice from @Zach Stone, P.E. to take full length, timed tests. I wanted to quit with 1:30 left to go. Got to train for the marathon.

How did everyone else do this weekend?

@speakeelsy Great job! You'll find yourself scoring higher and higher on practice exams the closer you get to the actual PE exam date. It's good to get used to the "shock factor" of attempting to solve questions that you are unfamiliar with now, and learning to use your references as tools. 

 

[Orchid PE]

What exams are you guys taking this weekend, if any?

What topics are giving you the most trouble at this point?

 

[Sparky Bill PE]

What exams are you guys taking this weekend, if any?

What topics are giving you the most trouble at this point?

I took 2 spin ups 3 weeks ago, the white book the week before, and CI AM/PM (test 1) this past weekend. I don't think I can narrow down too much of a weak point, it looks like I am doing good at getting low hanging fruit, but the harder problems in a lot of sections I'm not able to connect the dots. 

I am noticing that Spinsups/CI that I took will not get u prepared for protection (which is the biggest section) which scares me. So I'm trying to do extra work in protection/NEC as much as possible. 

 

[Swift Fox]

What exams are you guys taking this weekend, if any?

What topics are giving you the most trouble at this point?

I have taken 4 practice exams already. Started out doing pretty bad on the NCEES one and been working my way through 3 others after. My scores have improved a ton each test although some are easier than others. 

My biggest issue has been reading the problem and understanding exactly what they are asking for. For a majority of my missed points I have either just forgot a last step because I was going to fast or misread the question. There have been a couple tough problems that I probably wouldn't get correct no matter what. For the most part these problems are all attainable.

For me, it is all about problem recognition, find the formula, plug and chug. 

 

[DLD PE]

I was supposed to take Graffeo this past weekend, but took a break and instead studied the "Electronic Power Devices" for Justin's Week 2 course (batteries, rectifiers, diodes, etc), a section I'm weak on.  I took his end of Week 1 practice exam and scored 70%.  

This weekend I'm scheduled to take "Cram for the Exam 1".  

 

[speakeelsy PE]

What exams are you guys taking this weekend, if any?

What topics are giving you the most trouble at this point?

I'm planning on taking a Cram exam this weekend.

This week I retook the circuits quiz to prep for class tonight - I'm still having some issues remembering the phase shift. I need to complete the Code section of class - I have done fairly poorly on these questions.

 

[LyceeFruit PE]

I was supposed to take Graffeo this past weekend, but took a break and instead studied the "Electronic Power Devices" for Justin's Week 2 course (batteries, rectifiers, diodes, etc), a section I'm weak on.  I took his end of Week 1 practice exam and scored 70%.  

This weekend I'm scheduled to take "Cram for the Exam 1".  

I feel like you did yourself a solid by not doing Graffeo as a timed test. 

 

[DLD PE]

I feel like you did yourself a solid by not doing Graffeo as a timed test. 

How so?

 

[LyceeFruit PE]

How so?

Based on the questions I've seen posted from Graffeo, they're leagues below the actual difficulty of the exam. Plus the book was written to an old exam spec anyway. 

 

[DLD PE]

Based on the questions I've seen posted from Graffeo, they're leagues below the actual difficulty of the exam. Plus the book was written to an old exam spec anyway. 

Yes that's true. I worked through those exam problems a year ago and they're currently dispersed throughout my binder in their pertinent sections.  I took those exam questions with a grain of salt.  Some were super easy because you can just find them within the same book (not realistic) and a few of the questions were just outright weird.  It was also weak on a few sections, but still there were some good challenging problems.

 

[speakeelsy PE]

I feel like you did yourself a solid by not doing Graffeo as a timed test. 

Thanks for this! I felt kinda bad that I didn't take it timed. Everyone says it's a great place to start, and I needed something to get started since I've been out of school for a while, and don't do a lot of this stuff at work. It was a great review, and I took the exam over a week doing a 10 problems or so a night to get used to doing math and solving problems again.

 

[Orchid PE]

Graffeo is definitely a waste of time. The book as a reference is good, the sample exam is crap. It may have been relevant back in 2011 when he got licensed, but things have changed.

 

[speakeelsy PE]

Does anyone else have the Fundamentals of Power System Protection by Paithankar and Bhide and think the quizzes in the back of the book are worth looking at?

 

[Sparky Bill PE]

Graffeo is definitely a waste of time. The book as a reference is good, the sample exam is crap. It may have been relevant back in 2011 when he got licensed, but things have changed.

Good to know. Thank you so much for helping us with resources so we don't spin our wheels on wasteful material!

 

[LyceeFruit PE]

Does anyone else have the Fundamentals of Power System Protection by Paithankar and Bhide and think the quizzes in the back of the book are worth looking at?

I have it but havent looked at the quizzes yet.

 

[LyceeFruit PE]

At a quick glance, without spending time in the chapters, if you're weaker in protection, it may be worthwhile to go thru the problems. Some of the questions are below the level of the exam but I think they may help you in the long run