Electrical PE Exam - Oct. 2013

[knight1fox3]

For those who took one of the versions of the electrical PE exam this past weekend, how'd it go? Easier or more difficult than expected? What color was the pencil?

Also, as a friendly reminder, please be aware that you signed an agreement with NCEES not to discuss any specific content on the exam. NCEES monitors this forum regularly around exam time. Note a previous post below where one test-taker was close to revealing too much information. Don't let that happen to you. When in doubt, keep it to yourself. :thumbs:

As a reminder, when you took the NCEES examination you signed an agreement that included the statement that you agreed you will not reveal in whole or part any exam questions, answers, problems, or solutions to anyone during or after the exam, whether orally, in writing, or any internet chat rooms, or otherwise. This agreement also stated that failure to comply with this could invalidate your exam results.

I was just reviewing a borderline post from this website with my Manager of Compliance and Security when it was edited by the poster. Please do not share exam content - we do not wish to invalidate your results.

 

[Ship Wreck PE]

The Morning was good, but the afternoon was Brutal!

I am pretty sure I got like 80 to 85% correct in the morning, but the afternoon maybe 50 to 60%.

I think my pencil was red??

 

[knight1fox3]

Bummer! At least it's over and done with. Now begins the worrying/waiting on results! Oh and when I took the exam, a member on this board (electrical) posted his exam experience. And it was absolutely hilarious. I generally try to share it each exam cycle to try and help lighten the mood some. See below :lmao: :

EE - Power. "You sunk my battleship."

Preparation Time/Materials: 250 total hours. 5 textbooks, prep coursework notebook, 2 notebooks of graduate class material, calculators, snacks, rolling suitcase.

Money: ~$1,550.

General Observations: Arrived at my site 30 minutes prior to report time. Noticed that many others had literally libraries and libraries of books. Someone had a giant wagon with bungie cords holding all of the books together. Others just had a single piece of paper. Wild. I randomly started thinking of a national geographic special with narration by Morgan Freeman on PE test taking habits. I needed that laugh to clear my head.

AM Session: Felt the AM session was great. Only ended up with 6-7 that I didn't have a single solid answer or couldn't find it in my reference. I finished slightly early and checked only some of my work.

PM Session: Total unadulterated bloodbath. Couldn't seem to concentrate enough to find the equations I needed. Calculator was spitting out answers that were out of this world. Saw stuff that I barely covered in droves. About 2-3 hours into the afternoon, my brain felt like it had been through a dishwasher and I started hopping around from question to question. Not good. I will be lucky if I got a quarter to half right. I might as well have taken another discipline in the afternoon or gone to work. A monkey may have been able to do better.

Final Thoughts: As I left the exam area, I felt numb, dumb, and a little crushed. I felt like I blew the morning session out of the water. Then the PE got off a torpedo as I was heading to collect my stamp, promotion, and better life. I'm not very good at guessing and doing the math in my head all weekend I kept envisioning a percentage score in the upper 60s with an afternoon diagnostic that simply says "monkey". 6 months of neglecting my wife and family might be for nothing in the end except doing it all over again. I know the pass rate for repeaters is low, but what is the divorce rate?

Oh well. If I recall from a coworker, last years results were released in around 45-50 days following the exam. I think he got his in late May. We shall see. I guess the ultimate decision is now do I crack open another book....or another beer?

 

[Blink]

The Morning was good, but the afternoon was Brutal!

I am pretty sure I got like 80 to 85% correct in the morning, but the afternoon maybe 50 to 60%.

I think my pencil was red??

This exactly!!!! The afternoon was a completely different animal.

I got a red pencil that they made us turn in with out exams.

 

[knight1fox3]

I got a red pencil that they made us turn in with out exams.

Ya, when I took the exam, they tried telling us the same thing. I laughed to myself and quietly tucked the pencil in my book bag. I invested too much time, money and effort to be told I couldn't take my "trophy" home with me.

 

[Jabert]

I feel the same way... I had my way with the morning session, but the afternoon had its way with me!

Glad I wasn't the only one that found the afternoon brutal!

I found on some of the problems that once I figured out what the hell they were asking, I was ok... But I spent a lot of time deciphering what they were really asking for

 

[daw4888]

$265 isnt enough to cover buying the pencil, you only get to rent it.

I agree, the afternoon was a pain. Wish we could discuss content, because some of it is totally stupid and a waste of an Engineers time, mining information that any modern day engineer would PDF or google search to find in less then 5 seconds.

 

[user 26087]

I didn't feel too bad after the AM but by the time the PM was over with my mind was pure mush. I actually saw a pebble flying at my before it hit my windshield on the way home. The part I hate is the next work day and everyone asking you if you passed and how it went. In all honesty I would be surprised if I passed the exam.

BTW, red pencil that I will use to study for April as shame for not passing the first time.

 

[iahim]

The afternoon was harder than the morning part, but I didn't think it was brutal. Maybe the nap I took during the last hour of the morning exam helped.

 

[danadiva81]

What I found interesting was the whole “rank your question” strategy. It took me 15 minutes to read through the whole exam, ranking the problems in difficulty from 1 to 4, plus the NEC’s. Well, with the 1’s, I was spot on…But what was interesting was some of the 2’s and 3’s were actually 4’s….and some of the questions I originally ranked as 4’s---after cutting through the fluff---were actually only 1’s and 2’s. LOL. Talk about frustration!!!!!! :mad2:

 

[jimee]

I actually felt the afternoon session to be easier than the morning session.

I am not an early morning person and maybe that had something to do with it. I had the same experience with the EIT. The morning was brutal and the afternoon seemed much simpler. Now I am wondering...if the afternoon was harder, maybe I completely blew it

 

[shsweet28]

I thought the morning was pretty easy and that the afternoon was more difficult. I spent a lot of time on some of the NEC problems!

 

[eBreak]

Afternoon was brutal. Would be lucky if I got 50% correct in the PM. However, I felt really good about the morning session. My confidence was way up after the AM, however after 30 minutes into the PM session, I was feeling frustrated and probably wasted a lot of time looking in my references for that "magic" formula.

Also, 45 - 60 minutes into the exam; I noticed a fellow Power exam taker (saw his big red NEC 2011 handbook) packed his stuff and left the exam room. Not sure if he aced it or he just left out of frustration?

 

[shsweet28]

These posts have helped me out a bunch. I too had a ton of confidence after the morning session only to lose most of it 30 minutes into the afternoon one.

 

[PE_2_Be]

For those that took the Electrical & Electronics exam, did you need to reference the NEC or NESC codes? What about Engineering Economics? The exam specs on NCEES doesn't specifically say these things will be on the Electronics exam, but PPI says different.

 

[floridamose]

Man, what a relief to hear all of you say the afternoon was brutal. I feel like I absolutely crushed the morning exam. I was done in under three hours and was able to review all of my answers and check my work for those dumb mistakes I constantly made on practice exams. The afternoon was some kind of disaster!!! I was feeling great until I got about three questions into the afternoon section. The wheels COMPLETELY came off and my anxiety went through the roof! How can they make a test so DRASTICALLY different than any review material that has been produced?! OUCH! I seriously feel like I knew less than half of the afternoon material. Depressing! You spend five months preparing and still don't feel good about it. I am just hoping that the sun was shining on me that day and I guessed extremely well. My baby is due about the time that the results are to be posted, so it could be a really, really happy time, or a jumble of mixed emotions. I am hoping for the really, really happy time! Good luck, everyone!

 

[daw4888]

For those that took the Electrical & Electronics exam, did you need to reference the NEC or NESC codes? What about Engineering Economics? The exam specs on NCEES doesn't specifically say these things will be on the Electronics exam, but PPI says different.

If you didnt have the NEC...You most likely didnt pass... I didnt take the NESC, only the table of contents, and I was fine.

After seeing a large number of a certain type of problems in the morning, I thought we were done with them. Then I opened the afternoon, and read the first question, and let out a quiet F bomb.. the Proctor laughed at me.

 

[daw4888]

For those that took the Electrical & Electronics exam, did you need to reference the NEC or NESC codes? What about Engineering Economics? The exam specs on NCEES doesn't specifically say these things will be on the Electronics exam, but PPI says different.

Econ is included on the General Power Engineering, Special Applications Part of the Test which NCEES shows as being 10% of the test. Reference Below.


I. General Power Engineering 30%
A. Measurement and Instrumentation 7.5%
1. Instrument transformers
2. Wattmeters
3. VOM metering
4. Insulation testing
5. Ground resistance testing
B. Special Applications 10%
1. Lightning and surge protection
2. Reliability
3. Illumination engineering
4. Demand and energy management/calculations
5. Engineering economics

 

[rynan_4]

I was shocked to see in a room of 30 I was the only person taking any form of the Electrical PE. I also took home my beautiful white/red pencil as a souvenir after neglecting my wife and kids for the past few months...

We had to wait for the afternoon session to start because some guy was stuck on the toilet letting out his frustrations...proctor was almost going to shut the doors but when they found he where he was - we waited...

congrats floridamose on your baby and hope you have great news on both fronts!

 

[fetaker]

Morning session was good, but afternoon was something else! Nothing that I could have expected. I am starting to think that the afternoon session is going to drag down my score below the threshold. It is frustrating to go through all this after all those months of dedication.

But question becomes: if I need to sit for next round of preparation, and go through this once again what preparation materials should I be using? I’m thinking of taking one of the preparation courses PPI or GA Tech. What do you guys suggest?

How did people do the test who took PPI class vs. the ones who took the GA tech courses? Which one is test oriented?

Thanks.