How to pass PE Electrical and Electronics

[PE_Virginia]

I failed twice and passed the 3rd time. How? HOW HOWWWWWW?

Well, I understand how you feel failing. This exam is broad and you just don't know what questions come up. Here is what you should do:

1. Take the NCEES reference manual and take all pages out. Scan the pages and using "Paint" program; copy and paste with answers right below the questions back to "Word". Adjust the clarity and only print 1 question with solution per 1 page (Read #3 WHY)

2. Separate by: (Control, Electrical-Circuits, Electronics, Digital, Antenna/Communication/EM/Signaling). Punch holes in the pages and add in a binder. Now you know where all your references are.

2. Add more examples, notes, comments, topics, references, etc. for every examples on each page. Don't add more than 5-6 examples.

3. When you finish your examples, go back and review one by one. Review as much as you can.

The problem with this exam is that you forget where is what and you loose too much time looking for it; however by doing the above, you should find it quickly. The actual exam may repeat some of the "Reference Manual" questions in different ways and you want to make sure you have the question with solution upfront of you to solve the problem.

The books (listed below) I brought for exam also helped me by using their indexes and finding the keyword. You can buy them cheap on amazon or download some on filecrop(dot)com or filecatch(dot)com. You can also find solutions manual for the books. Once you find the book with solutions, you should be able to get many examples and get yourself familliar with all types of circuits/problems/etc.

I have Electronic books listed below with solution manual and if someone need copies, it will cost you because I invested too much time finding them...

1. Control -- Ogata "Modern Control..."

2. Communication - Frenzel "Communication System..." <---This book is awsome for the types of Communication questions being asked because it is so difficult finding solutions to some of the problems on the exam relating to COMM.

3. Electronics - Sedra, Smith "Semiconductor..."

4. Electrical Circuits - Sadiku "Circuit...." <---awsome book with many solutions.

5. Electromagnetic - the reference manual for PE by PPE (Camara) was very clear and understanding for this topic. I also used William Hayt for "Electromagnetics" only the transmission line examples.

6. Signaling - This topic is addressed in Communication System by Frenzel. Not many references out there.

7. Digital - Brown and Charles Roth books "Fundamental of Digital Logic" and "Fundamental of Digial logic with VHDL"

I also have Kl Kaiser references - some part of it was useful. If you reveiw these books with exampls and copy/paste some examples on the sheets above, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO PASS.

I can be reach at hafiz13(at)yahoo(dot)com

Good luck. Please don't give up. If I did this, you can do it too!!!

 

[Mcgurr]

Those are very good pointers.

I've failed the test the first time as well (pass the second). The trick is to never give up.

 

[vaibhav kapoor]

For passing this exam you have make estimate of changes for clearing exam 

There was 3 types of answers that I was giving on the exam, I figured I could calculate my score by assigning a % to each answer:

1. The problems I’d looked up or worked through and was certain that I’d done correctly: 90% (assuming I’d make a mistake 10% of the time)
   
2. The problems that I’d been able to eliminate at least two of the answers: 50%
   
3. The problems that I had no clue on, and that I couldn’t find in my reference materials: 25%
   

On one of my sheets of paper I put a tally sheet so I could do some quick math when there was 1 hour left in the section.  At that point I’d do some quick math and figure out my percentage for that section, if I’d hit 28 questions right then I’d only focus on those rest of questions I knew I could work out and guess on the rest of the questions.

A sample session could look something like this after 3 hours:

• Correct Answers – 27
  
• Educated Guess – 8
  
• Complete Guess – 0
  

You’ll notice that I did not guess on any questions yet, I’d skip any questions that I’d not seen before and had no knowledge of.  At this point of the exam I’ve taken 35 of 40 questions, and estimated that I’d passed 28 questions.  At this point I would only answer questions I’d seen before and guess on all others.

Not everyone likes this method, but for me, I found it to be beneficial and take a lot of the stress and worry off of my shoulders.

For more information you can follow engineeredpath.com.

All the best!!

 

[Panchito]

I passed the Electrical and Electronics PE exam few years ago.

For all the transmission line topics (Smith chart, impedance matching, reflection coefficient, SWR, etc, etc) I strongly recommend watching the ECE3300 videos, lectures 12 and 13, posted in Youtube. You will become an expert in those topics after watching the videos. I also added a couple of problems from those videos into my PE reference material. It was extremely helpful during the exam. That helped me with 2 or 3 problems during the exam.