its the same NEC for the PE exam as the contractor exam.
as my first post said, lack of the NEC knowledge would have been the reason I failed the PE exam in October. guessed on most of the questions and there were a lot
Yes, there were lots of code questions but IMO they were easy look ups and not too involved, at least on the October round. I don't recall having to flip between two sections to find the answer and I honestly don't remember whether or not I had to pick up a calculator for any of the questions. I saw more difficult questions in the CI drill book and the questions in the sample tests. The key is to familiarize yourself with the contents and how and where to find the information. Easier said than done, but with practice you can figure out which articles will contain the information you're looking for.
For future test-takers: to reiterate what has been said about NESC, you need the whole book and not just the index. The questions on the NESC required some serious look up; I don't use NESC often so it took longer to find the answers but it was still a simple search.
I use NEC almost daily so I was already familiar with it. The CI drill book was really helpful in teaching me how to quickly find the information. I didn't use Tom Henry's, I found it faster to use the index in the back of the NEC. I also used the tabs from amazon and had my own tabs on important sections. I hi-lited what I thought were important sections from articles like 210, 215, 230, 240, 250, 300, 310, 314, 400, 410, 430, 450 and 500. I also hi-lited the major articles in the TOC for quick reference when needed. I didn't concentrate much on the articles beyond 500 but I familiarized myself with their contents. Most of those articles I hadn't even looked at before the PE prep.
Lastly, I think the amount of time spent on code-related questions is worth it when compared to the percentage of questions on the exam.
