^^^If they only tested how good you were at doing your job, then 99% of people would pass! That is not the point! By that rationale, if you were to switch jobs/industries, you should loose your PE license because you have not proven you are competent outside of your specific field! For the electrical PE, it is the only discipline for which they eliminated the breadth section. You have Power AM and Power PM.... no more computer or electronics questions. They have already done you a tremendous favor in that regard. What more could you ask for? They can't practically individualize a test for everyone.
Most engineers do not know everything they run into on a daily basis of the top of their head... a non-licensed, non-degreed designer can handle that. Even if you are not intimately familiar with a code, you should be able to know how to navigate it and find information using the index and reasonably be able to apply it. NCEES wasn't throwing you a curve ball. They list the NESC as one of the references on their power exam specifications. The more useful stuff out of that code is summarized in the "Power Reference Manual."
Of course if you switch industries, you should lose your license. You are no longer an experienced professional in the field you got your experience in. If it was just about knowing the material, they would have you take the exam straight out of college. They can't individualize the test for everyone but they can individualize it for every field that actually uses the license to, you know, sign things as an engineer.
No, I didn't think the NESC was one of the 2 curveball questions I got. I would say what I thought those questions were but I think I'm not alllowed to even mention concepts of material that was on the exam.
BTW, I wish I had computer or electronics questions. That is what I knew well in college so may be it would be more like riding a bicycle than trying to learn all new infomation over the course of a few night classes (I don't learn crap by reading a book).
