I took the Power exam in Oct 09 and failed. I know I bombed the morning session back then but I thought the afternoon went better. Even so, there were a LOT of questions (5-6) in each session I had no idea what they were even asking for.
This time I didn't have any questions where I didn't know what they were asking, and there were only 2 in each session I had to guess on cause I just couldn't get an answer to work out. I don't recall any finance questions on the fall test, but there were quite a few on this one and I consider those kind of the "gimmie" questions cause a multiple choice finance question that isn't too difficult should be a snap, at the very least you can just plug and chug the solutions until you find the one that works. Also, it seemed like there were more NEC questions this time around, and I was always pretty strong there. As was the last time, whoever words some of those questions can kiss my you know what, talk about coming up with the most confusing way to word a question...I also thought there were quite a few questions where if you had the correct reference you were fine, but if you didn't you were toast. I found more than a few helpful hints in the EC&M handbook as well as grainger's power systems (two books I didn't have the first time I took the test...stupid stupid stupid!)
I managed to speak with a couple other Power takers during the lunch break and they didn't seem very confident. They seemed more like me after the first time I took the AM session. Lots of "wow what the heck were they asking for on that question!" kind of remarks.
That being said, was it any easier? Yes...for me. I knew going in the last fall exam there were some things I wasn't strong on and I thought that I would be fine just doing all the stuff I knew how to do. I was SOOOO wrong. So I bought more references, studied all the things I knew I didn't know how to do until I understood them better, and asked a LOT of questions here
Also, it took me one time through the test to realize knowing how to do the sample problems wasn't enough, that you really had to REALLY understand the concept they were testing, and I studied and asked questions with that in mind this time. The problems on the actual test, at least in my eyes at the time, were not a lot like the ones in the same exams. You likely couldn't just flip through the sampe problem and go, oh here's one just like the test problem. You'd be looking for a long time with that kind of strategy. That's the strategy I used in the fall exam.
I hope that was enough becasue if I have to sit again through that I may loose my mind once and for all! Right now I'm feeling very confident I passed. I hope I'm not saying this exact same thing 6 months from now
I honestly can say though, that there were questions I would NOT have been able to answer had it not been for the help of the people on EB. I did not know about the EB prior to my taking the test last fall. Had I been here before then, I would definitely have done better. Thanks guys!