My Power PE Experience

[a4u2fear]

I wanted to post my experience with the exam as I hope it will help someone in the future in a similar situation.

I graduated in 2007 with a BS in EE and have been working since then in many different fields/jobs.  I got into the electrical utility industry in 2016.  I took the Electrical FE in December of 2017 and passed on my first try (studied off and on starting in August 2017).  I didn’t have an issue submitting the paperwork to NY in order to sit for the PE exam, and was approved.  The process of filling it out was not fun, but it’s hard to document your experience sometimes.

I was going to be deployed to Puerto Rico to help with restoration efforts in middle to late January of 2018, so I didn’t sign up for the exam or study for it immediately.  This deployment was later cancelled, and all of a sudden it was a full go for the PE exam in April with study efforts beginning in February.  I was told to take the exam even if I wasn’t ready for it so I could maybe pass it; or at least get a good feel for what would be on the exam.  This is still great advice in my book.  It helped work paid for it as well.

I prepared for the April 2018 exam with the NCEES practice exam, Graffeo, and Complex Imaginary 1-5.  I worked through each and every problem in these books.  After that I studied each book open to close over and over until the exam.  I studied for maybe an hour or two a day and a little extra on weekends.  I have two young children so the time I spent studying before work or during lunch was much better than the time I spent at home.  I brought those three books along with the NEC and NESC to the exam.  I finished the morning and afternoon sessions both an hour early and left thinking “I did my best and if I sit here longer, I won’t get anything more accomplished.”  I failed with a 48, which I think was only a few questions away from passing.  My weakest categories were electric power devices and protection; followed by an 8/12 on the Codes section.   It was obvious that just practicing those simple problems over and over wasn’t going to be enough, and I felt I did really poorly on analytical questions.  And even worse, I didn’t even have anything that would’ve helped me with answering those.

Immediately following the failing result, I felt invigorated and thought, how can I do better?  I needed more books to learn the material, or be able to reference for screwball questions during the exam.  I bought, Camara’s Spin Up, Engineering Pro Guides, Wildi’s Electric Machines, Electric Machine Fundamentals, Power System Analysis, and finally a month subscription to ElectricalPEReview.com


Exams



 


 


"Books"/Study Guides



 


Probs Close to Exam Style?



Camara



Easy



 


Graffeo



Meh



 


Camara



No



Complex Imaginary



Easy



 


Eng Pro Guides



Meh



 


Complex Imaginary



No



Graffeo



Easy



 


Elec PE Review



Loved



 


Graffeo



No



NCEES



Easy



 


Wildi



Loved



 


NCEES



Yes



Eng Pro Guides



Hard



 


Elec Machine Fund



Meh



 


Eng Pro Guides



Yes



Elec PE Review



Hard



 


Pwr Sys Analysis



Not Like



 


Elec PE Review



Yes



 


 


 


 


 


 


Wildi



Yes



 


 


 


 


 


 


Elec Machine Fund



No



 


 


 


 


 


 


Pwr Sys Analysis



No




I tried to give an overview of them above.  Obviously, it is vague.  Of course some of the books that had easy questions were good to study for the exam, but my analysis is an overall take.  During the last few weeks before the exam I found myself solely studying with Wildi and Electrical PE Review and Engineering Pro Guides.  My only complaint with Electrical PE Review is that it is very math heavy.  I found myself at times getting caught up in it.  Nearly every problem and solution contains a square root of 3 or +/- sign error.  While this is important to study and on the exam, the math on the exam is fairly simple.  Electrical PE Review is a little too math heavy in my opinion (compared to the exam).

During my studying I used Engineering Pro Guides cheat sheet - And added to it every day all day as I found fit. 

Everyone is different, but I generally did not study by reading material.  It was all basically doing sample problems.  As many as I could find wherever I could find them.  I did internet searches with “Power PE exam and .edu”.  So colleges who had problems would pop up and I would look at them.  I also liked to study a certain subject for a  week or more then go to a new one instead of being all over the place.

(more to come)

 

[DLD PE]

Thanks for writing all this!

Comment:  I know I've shared this before (maybe not to you directly but in other posts I've made), but it's becoming apparent to me that I should work more problems and take even more practice exams than I did the first time (I took 3-4 actual timed practice exams.  I say "3-4" because the first one I didn't even finish, I was so bummed lol).  I'm wondering if I go back and re-take ALL the quiz problems from Elec PE Review (if I'm allowed to re-take the course since I didn't pass), go back through all my practice exams (I have CI 1-4, NCEES, Eng Proguides and Graffeo), would it be enough to get me over the fence?

I'm also wondering if I should take the time and really go through and read both my protection books (The free one downloaded from GE and Blackburns).  I really didn't find them much helpful and I was relying on the Elec PE Review to learn protection and obviously I did way worse on protection (31%) than anything else.  I did not score worse than 43% on any other topic, so I at least have some clue to build on in all other areas and I think I can fill in the gaps with extra problem solving.  Thoughts?

 

[BirdGrave]

As a test taker for both the April and October 2018 exams, I am curious as to your thoughts about which exam you found more difficult?  Or if each exam placed emphases in unique ways that made certain sections more difficult?  

 

[a4u2fear]

As a test taker for both the April and October 2018 exams, I am curious as to your thoughts about which exam you found more difficult?  Or if each exam placed emphases in unique ways that made certain sections more difficult?  

I would've scored them the same, though my preparation and knowledge were better.  I think the April 18 exam was the first with the new material changes?  Passing rates dropped from 60+ to now 57 and 54% over the last two.  And, 1711 people took the Power Exam, only 741 passed (repeat and 1st time)

 

[Drewism]

Thanks for writing all this!

Comment:  I know I've shared this before (maybe not to you directly but in other posts I've made), but it's becoming apparent to me that I should work more problems and take even more practice exams than I did the first time (I took 3-4 actual timed practice exams.  I say "3-4" because the first one I didn't even finish, I was so bummed lol).  I'm wondering if I go back and re-take ALL the quiz problems from Elec PE Review (if I'm allowed to re-take the course since I didn't pass), go back through all my practice exams (I have CI 1-4, NCEES, Eng Proguides and Graffeo), would it be enough to get me over the fence?

I'm also wondering if I should take the time and really go through and read both my protection books (The free one downloaded from GE and Blackburns).  I really didn't find them much helpful and I was relying on the Elec PE Review to learn protection and obviously I did way worse on protection (31%) than anything else.  I did not score worse than 43% on any other topic, so I at least have some clue to build on in all other areas and I think I can fill in the gaps with extra problem solving.  Thoughts?

Protection seems the worst for most people. Not so much for me. I did the worst on power electronics. I would get an overall protection book and not just relaying. Protection can mean fuses, circuit breakers, fault current calcs,  CT and VT connections, etc. Go through it more than anything else. Also, check out the IEEE books. Brown, Buff and Green. They're extremely helpful.

Practice exams only help so much. A lot of them are very simple compared to the actual exam. My approach now is to write down concepts in my reference book and use that as a "map" for any problems on the future exams. This goes for all subjects. If I had a firm grasp on the concepts for electronics, transmission and protection then I would have been good.

 

[a4u2fear]

I bought the electrical pe review in August, so I could take it for a month, and then study it for a month.  It was a great roundout to my studying.  His site does a great job of covering everything, and creating different types of quizzes and problems to help you see multiple angles of questions.  I also enjoyed his live videos with additional solved problems.

In each book on studying it, if I found it made for a great analytical question – I put it into a word document for referencing during exam (not having to look through 3 books to find it).  I had a 8-10 page word document containing all these “analytical” type questions I thought may be on the exam.  I guess I could provide this if someone wanted.  It’s not very well organized, so if you organized it, it could be of great use.

In preparing for the second exam.  I made a book for each type of question.  I wasn’t sure this would work, but in the end I liked it.  And when I say book I meant binder.  One for protection, one for NEC/NESC, one for 3PH circuits, etc.  You get it.  In each binder, the first part of it was solved problems, the second part of it would be reading type of material to teach or explain things.  I also had a binder of my cheat sheets, including all of the reference cheat sheets from electrical pe review.  One binder was also specifically just for electrical PE reviews exam problems that they had after each section they taught.  In the binders, I used tabs with a main tab at the front saying what was in each tab.  This really worked well during the exam.  My last few days before the exam I spent time going through each binder so I knew exactly what was in it.  This was KEY for me.  I likely had more material than everyone else, but I knew where everything was, and it helped me solve some really bizarre questions I normally wouldn’t have found.  I was the test taker who was constantly flipping through material and book by book.

Second exam:

I carried a medium sized suitcase to the exam.  No joke, probably 70-80 lbs of stuff.  I had a hard time getting it in and out of the trunk.  But I wasn’t going to be short on material.  I had stuff spread all over the floor, the counter, and underneath my chair.  I needed to access my references, and I needed to do it fast.

I found the morning to be “not too bad”.  I’m a test taker who likes to find a question they know and start with that; so I will flip by a few till I find one before starting.  I finished with maybe an hour left.  I then checked my answers, which I didn’t do the first time I took it.  I found two mistakes that I fixed (lucky).

The afternoon was more difficult.  I didn’t have time to go back and check.  Only time to stress over ones I hadn’t filled in.  There was one that I spent maybe a half hour on.  Nothing worked but I knew I had seen it before.  Proctor says 10 mins left.  Can’t figure it out.  Proctor says 5 mins.  Nothing working.  I take a break, open one last book.  Proctor says 1 min.  I find it, I’m going so fast I don’t have time to put anything in my calculator wrong and boom, the answer, it matches exactly a multiple choice, and I end my exam thinking, you know what, I’m proud I stayed with that one and figured it out, because it was a *****.  And it was such a rare question I’m sure most people missed it, so I was happy I got it right.

 

[a4u2fear]

I think my breakdown for questions is as follows

Very Easy 5

Easy 10 

Medium 50

Hard 10

Very Hard 5 (no clue/straight guesses)

 

[chaosNJ]

Very similar story to yours. Graduated in '08 with a BS in EE. I took and passed the FE in Dec 17, then took and passed PE Power in Oct 18.

Overall, I found Graffeo to be a very good book to study from but ultimately unhelpful in the exam. I probably referenced it for approximately 5 questions (asked the dude next to me and he said it didn't help him much either).

I work with the NEC very often so, even though many of the questions were new to me, knowing where to go was ultimately very helpful.

The NCEES practice exam was also unhelpful. I took it with me and didn't even open it during the exam. I had an old Camara practice test as well (my manager gave it to me) and that was pretty useless.

I took a risk not taking any code books other than the NEC (I had Graffeo, NEC, FE Handbook, NCEES practice exam, & Camara practice exam). We didn't have them in my office and I didn't want to pay for them. I was confident after doing really well on Graffeo, NCEES, and Camara practice tests so I thought I could give up a few questions (big mistake). I came out of the exam feeling like I totally bombed it.

My studying approach was to wake up 2.5 hours earlier every weekday morning (to have 2 hours to study) and to study 6ish/4ish hours on Saturday/Sunday respectively. I can't study at the end of the day (and go to the gym after work). I'm not single but having an amazingly accommodating/encouraging SO was really helpful. Total study time was 4 months.

My test taking approach is pretty simple; I go through and answer all the non-code questions I can (skipping and noting down the code questions and ones I can't immediately solve on the back sheet). Then go through and answer the NEC/Code questions, take a bathroom/water break, then tackle the ones I couldn't get on the first pass.

 

[Mercy]

I've been following some of your discussions and plan on adjusting my study schedule due to your input.

For those of you who didn't make it, so sorry. Don't be discouraged, keep studying and you will pass the next exam. As for the lucky ones who passed, congrats.

Honestly, I was initially intimidated by the volume of material I'll need to review. It has been about a decade since I graduated. I now convinced myself not to stress and to just take one step at a time. By 4/5th, I will know way more than I do today (pass or fail). 

 

[chart94 PE]

Good luck to everyone taking the April exam! You guys can do it!!

 

[rmsg]

Good luck to everyone taking the April exam! You guys can do it!!

I had also passed. I do feel for some of common bloggers who could not make it. The exam was indeed very tough and even I was fearful till Wednesday when I got some good news. Please do not loose heart and try it again in April and I wish the one's who could not make all the best.

Two cents worth of my experience in preparation and in exams

• Pay extra attention to Protection and Coordination, Although I did not read it, but I recommend Fundamental of Power System Protection by Y.G. Paithankar. Practice Numerical type problems on Distance and Differential Protection systems.
  
• Pay extra attention to per unit analysis.
  
• Pay extra focus on Variable Frequency Drive section in Motors
  
• Pay extra focus on Batteries, specially the batteries to be used in solar power applications.
  
• Practice a lot of Code Questions. Justin Kauwale has a separate 40 question test just on code questions. I did practice those. I believe I did really good on code questions and probably that is why I passed.
  
• I recommend join PE Electrical review course. Zach has  done a commendable job in preparing that course. Very detailed and a lot of practice problems
  
• Also take Graffeo book in exam. I did buy book by Camara, but I did not like it and returned it as it covers a lot of insignificant areas which are not laser focused for PE Power exam
  

Cheers..

 

[Nashi]

I had also passed. I do feel for some of common bloggers who could not make it. The exam was indeed very tough and even I was fearful till Wednesday when I got some good news. Please do not loose heart and try it again in April and I wish the one's who could not make all the best.

Two cents worth of my experience in preparation and in exams

• Pay extra attention to Protection and Coordination, Although I did not read it, but I recommend Fundamental of Power System Protection by Y.G. Paithankar. Practice Numerical type problems on Distance and Differential Protection systems.
  
• Pay extra attention to per unit analysis.
  
• Pay extra focus on Variable Frequency Drive section in Motors
  
• Pay extra focus on Batteries, specially the batteries to be used in solar power applications.
  
• Practice a lot of Code Questions. Justin Kauwale has a separate 40 question test just on code questions. I did practice those. I believe I did really good on code questions and probably that is why I passed.
  
• I recommend join PE Electrical review course. Zach has  done a commendable job in preparing that course. Very detailed and a lot of practice problems
  
• Also take Graffeo book in exam. I did buy book by Camara, but I did not like it and returned it as it covers a lot of insignificant areas which are not laser focused for PE Power exam
  

Cheers..

Thank you for your advice. I got the "Fundamentals of Power System Protection" book but late in my studying...I did a few problems out of the book but wish I had more time. I definitely will spend more time on studying the book. I don't have any work experience with relay protection, can suggest any other references that might help? Zach's course was very helpful learning the basics for sure.

I did well on the Code Questions.

Do you have reference suggestions for batteries?

Thanks again

 

[tpkjr2006]

For code questions try the complex imaginary drill book