my experience with school of pe electrical prep for CBT so far.....

[canyiah]

They seemed to have not changed the format of the course for the CBT since the 8hr courses are the general topics which in my opinion is a waste the CBT is based on your topic so the 8 hr courses should be your topic not general. The main CBT topics in my case electrical are covered in 3hrs per topic(circuits, controls, electonics, etc) which as you can image is not enough time. I have sent an email to sope to see if they will add extra time for more coverage I have not heard a reply from them yet. Ill keep you guys/gals updated as to what happens.

 

[canyiah]

well the class is over. The incomplete electronics course that wasnt completed I'm assuming they wont because I haven’t heard back from customer support. I WILL NOT be using school of pe for my PE prep customer service doesn’t respond to emails on real issues it seems. I emailed them twice about whether they will be issuing a redo for the electronics class that didn’t go over anything except diodes. I had to learn the rest of the stuff on my own. To the instructors credit his notes were really good so I was able to learn it myself although i had to go online to get a strategy of how to solve transistors using KVL around the base emitter gate source etc which im sure he would have shown us if he had enough time to get to transistors. but I paid for the video to be spoon feed what i needed to remember for the FE exam. The course playback videos have been crashing while being played. I emailed them about this as well and haven’t heard back from them. Apart for this as I have stated before the structure for discipline specific exams was horrible they just pieced together a course from the old exam which would have been fine if they focused on the disciplines I had 5 course that was sitting ideal since im electrical and those courses didnt apply to me. the general course prep was 8hrs per class so 5 general courses at 8hrs thats 40hrs of potential instruction that was lost. The discipline specific courses were only 3 hrs per course anybody else confused by this logic? The instructors were all good and are extremely knowledgeable. Asking questions via email takes days for a response(expected for part time instructors but a bit annoying). Dont pay for the taped CBT course from Feb 2014 you will be disappointed.

 

[DanHalen]

It sounds like they need to overhaul their notes to fall in line with the new FE exam format. I took their prep class back in 2011 and it was all I needed to pass the FE Exam. They couldn't have done a better job for the FE exam. It's troubling to hear they're not providing good customer service, tech support, and their curriculum seems to be outdated. I hope they will take constructive criticism well and overhaul/reorganize their notes for the new exam format. I was so impressed with their FE class I signed up for their PE prep class and thought that would be all I needed to take and pass the exam. Really all they do is cover the morning topics and lightly cover a few afternoon topics. I learned the hard way you need to study other material besides their refresher notes and workshop problems. Each instructor at some point in the lecture did mention that we should study other material and work more problems. I didn't heed their advice the first time and that's on me. The second time I got a free repeat, got a lot more out of their class, and worked a ton of problems. You will need to spend a considerable amount of time going over other material besides the SofPE notes if you want to pass the PE. The notes are good, helpful, and will be beneficial on the exam but you will need more than what they give you. If I were taking the FE exam I would probably still take the SofPE's FE review course and treat it just like I did the PE; it's a foundation to build on. From there I would supplement my FE studies with exam guides and work lots of problems.

 

[Adambb]

Thanks canyiah!

Good update.

 

[canyiah]

Asked a question about a problem I saw online but really I just wanted to know how to solve problems with dependent current sources using mesh analysis. the response was that the instructor is prohibited from answering questions no in the school of pe workbook. I definitely wont be using them for my PE prep class.

 

[matt267 PE]

the response was that the instructor is prohibited from answering questions no in the school of pe workbook.

That makes sense to me. I wouldn't expect them to.

 

[moeatwa]

Seems like "School of PE" is falling a bit behind the times- just like you told me Matt. Guess that's one prep course that I can rule out for the time being. For everyone else who's just come into the thread, I've been told to check out TestMasters and PPI. Both of these are supposed to have updated their content for the CBT.

 

[j3nnif3r]

Oh nooo! I just registered.... I really hope that it will help me enough for my exam. I figured I would have to study a lot more supplemental materials, but the syllabus did look like it was lacking. But, to be honest, that was to be expected for a 5 week course. I'm hoping they improve more on the bonus materials for this next session of courses.

 

[matt267 PE]

Oh nooo! I just registered.... I really hope that it will help me enough for my exam. I figured I would have to study a lot more supplemental materials, but the syllabus did look like it was lacking. But, to be honest, that was to be expected for a 5 week course. I'm hoping they improve more on the bonus materials for this next session of courses.

I'm sure you'll be fine. The key to passing is doing practice problems and lots of them. SOPE will help you with that while being there to answer questions. What you get from class will be what you put in. Try to participate a lot during class, and ask questions after class through their website. Get you money's worth. Good luck on the test.

 

[gpoli111]

I wouldn't rely on Testmasters either. I was registered for their Philadelphia course and they cancelled it due to low numbers only a week before it was to start. It really set me back since I was counting on their course to get me prepped so I hadn't started studying (2 months from the exam). Well it worked out for the best because I passed and didn't end up spending the money on the course.

 

[j3nnif3r]

Thanks, Matt! I need all the luck I can get.

As an update to OP, though, SOPE just sent out an email this morning about course attendance and hours. I think they're heeding expressed concerns, and it's understandable that it takes time to make adjustments (OP took the class just when we switched to CBT).

********

ELECTRICAL DISCIPLINE

Some classes in the 60 hour common course are not applicable for which your attendance is not required. Following are the list of classes for which attendance is not required:

Statics and Dynamics Lecture

Strength of Materials Lecture (also called Mechanics of Materials)

Fluids, Ethics, Computational Tools Lecture (Ethics topic is applicable for Electrical discipline. We will provide an online recorded session of Ethics so that you do not have to be in entire lecture of all three topics)

Attendance is required for the remaining lectures. Please see the schedule on your login page and attend the course accordingly. If you would like to attend the above lectures also, please feel free to do so in case you are debating between the General and Electrical discipline exams.

For FE Electrical, Discipline Specific Additional Topics course will be 48 hours instead of 36 hours. Classes will occur from Sept 1st Mon thru Thu for 3 weeks from 7:30 PM to 10:30 PM EST; and Sat Sept 7th/Sun Sept 8th from 11 am to 6:30 pm EST each day with a mid-day lunch break from 2 to 3:30 PM EST.