October 2014 Electrical Power Exam was Tough

[maverickPEPower]

Thanks @Ken 2.0 that helps.

 

[Ken PE 3.1]

Just trying to be helpful, in case you were unfamiliar with the grading styles and complexities of the format.

 

[iwire]

I agree with you all. Friday's exam was very tough and will cause a certain level of stress for me over the next 8 weeks. I have a buddy who sat for the exam April and October 2014, and he agreed that the October exam was more difficult. I'm torn as to whether or not I should pull out my books (in preparation for April 2015) and continue studying as if Friday never happened!

Any suggestions for getting through the next 8 weeks would be greatly appreciated! Good luck to all.

Don't...regardless what's the results..you need to take a break mentally and physically. It's a very draining process....take a couple weeks off then come back again if you feel like it

 

[Powergirl]

Thanks for the advice..you guys are right! I traveled for work today and it honestly feels great to not have to drag around the NEC Handbook in my luggage!

 

[brandzimm]

Wow. What a test. It was my first time taking the PE and it was the first test in a long time I wasn't nervous going into because I felt so prepared. I like other skimmed through the first 12 problems before getting to one I knew easily to get my confidence going. The AM was brutal. While I never had to make a blind guess, I felt alot of my answers were very educated guesses. The PM was almost the exact opposite. I finished the first 12 problems in about 25 minutes and finished the PM section about an hour early. Not sure if it will be enough to offset the AM but I hope it is. What a mentally draining exam.

There were certainly a few things mentioned in the NCEES Sample exam that weren't discussed much in any course given or on any sample exams that I saw a TON on the actual exam. Was thrown off by that. If you took the exam, you know what type of problems I'm talking about. I feel confident I didn't get any of the calculated problems wrong but there were few of them. Majority of the test was theory based.

I also had one question that I had an exact example from the GT course and I worked it exactly the way the course did and the answer wasn't an available choice.

 

[Kovz]

If anyone would like a free copy of the NFPA 70E, I can email it to them. I have the PDF that is 3.23MB. You're on your own for printing and binding it though.

I also have the NESC 2012 in PDF form (free download). It is 7.5MB though so probably too large to email. I have uploaded both files to dropbox so if anyone messages me, I can provide the link to one or both. Several have already messaged me and I emailed them the NFPA 70E.

 

[iwire]

If anyone would like a free copy of the NFPA 70E, I can email it to them. I have the PDF that is 3.23MB. You're on your own for printing and binding it though.

I also have the NESC 2012 in PDF form (free download). It is 7.5MB though so probably too large to email. I have uploaded both files to dropbox so if anyone messages me, I can provide the link to one or both. Several have already messaged me and I emailed them the NFPA 70E.

That was I did when i took it back in April, printed it out 4 pages per page double sided..you can reduced the thickness!

 

[J-Dubbs]

I'm glad to see I'm not alone in thinking this exam was a monster. This was my first time taking the PE exam. I had taken the Testmasters course (about 75 hours of classroom training) and studied probably an extra 100 hours on my own. Despite all this, I did not feel at all prepared for this test. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself, or maybe my memory is only recalling the questions I had a tough time with, but it feels like I was only 100% positive on maybe 25% of the total number of questions. The rest of them I either got an answer I wasn't confident with, or I was unsure if I was taking the right approach, or I just had no clue and had to take a guess.

I know I was prepared enough based on all indicators before. I saved the official NCEES practice exam until about two days before just to gauge where I was, and I ended up getting something like 68/80 questions right on it using only the study materials I would bring into the exam with me. But the exam felt absolutely nothing like the sample exam or any of the other practice problems from the course or various books that I worked through. I know we can't go into details on specific questions, but I was astounded at the number of esoteric and obscure questions that were on there.

I'm not dumb. I know how to do this stuff. But I do feel a bit cheated in terms of what we were led to believe would be on the exam and what was actually there. But anyway, enough ranting, I know it won't matter anyway. Time to just suck it up like a man and prepare myself for the April exam.

By the way, I've heard from several mechanical and civil discipline people who took those exams say that the morning session was more general and that the afternoon was harder because it was more specific. Does the Power exam not follow this same principle? The types of questions we saw seemed to be pretty evenly distributed across the morning and afternoon sessions in terms of scope and difficulty. Is there not a "general" session for Power like there is for other disciplines?

 

[KatyLied P.E.]

It's my understanding, and my experience, that the Power PE is not divided up between general and specific. Years ago, when the exam was "show your work" I recall it being "breadth and depth" but no more currently.

 

[yccyccy]

First time exam taker. Started to prepare for the exam from beginning of September, after kids back to school from crazy summer. Skimmed through EERM (borrowed from coworker who took test long time ago) and did NCEES/CI twice. no review course.

At test, saw other people have recent Power Reference Manual from PPI first time and wish I had one. I only printed out table of content of NESC and hope I have brought the whole code. That is a easy point to lose.

Totally astonished by the contents for the exam, the CI practice exam is not even close to the real test. How should we know what to prepare? Finished first round of morning test in 2 hours and did it again in the remaining 2 hours, find some easy miss points. In the afternoon, finished first round in 2.5 hours and reviewed the answers in the remaining time. Quite a lot of guess on questions have no clue at all. Hope I can reach the pass score.

If I need to take it again, will put more time on the motors and generators.

There is a guy in my place bring a iPad in his box, although he did not use it during the test, he take it out during lunch break. Then he is not allowed to come back in afternoon test.

 

[panna1]

I don't know what to expect, but my buddy who took the exam back in april and got 52 marks and failed is saying that October exam was very easy to him. he is very confident that he is going to score no less than 68 and he is already started celebrating. I have no idea how to react to him, when I am expecting to score around 56 and barely pass the exam.

 

[maverickPEPower]

@J-Dudds exactly what feel like. I did solve ncees two days before. Scored the same and don't feel that confident if I will pass.

 

[Kovz]

It's my understanding, and my experience, that the Power PE is not divided up between general and specific. Years ago, when the exam was "show your work" I recall it being "breadth and depth" but no more currently.

You're correct. Straight from NCEES website:

If you are taking either the PE Civil or PE Mechanical exam, you will be asked to select an afternoon module during registration. Your answer sheet will be scored based on the module you selected when registering.

 

[J-Dubbs]

Well that's interesting, I guess I never noticed that. Everyone I've talked to that has a "general" morning session (Civil or Mechanical apparently) has said that the morning portion was fairly easy. Kind of bums me out that we don't get a similarly easy morning session. I feel like we just got two difficult afternoon sessions instead.

Oh well, so is life. Best we can hope for is a low cut score I suppose.

 

[brianbui]

Hi Kovz,

Can you kindly email me the NESC 2012 for my next exam reference.

Thank in advance.

Brian

[email protected]

 

[Kovz]

Hi Kovz,

Can you kindly email me the NESC 2012 for my next exam reference.

Thank in advance.

Brian

[email protected]

I will PM you the dropbox links. Check your inbox.

 

[Captain America]

Did anyone out there feel good about the power exam for October 2014. If so, can you please explain how you prepared because I'm kinda confused on how to prepare for the next test.I only say that because I spent over 500 hours studying, plus I took a prep course. I don't want a handout, I just want to know how to prepare enough to pass

 

[grant]

I didn't it was the small oddities that got me that I thought I was above/too smart to learning ...IMO I would go back and tab out each of the the 40 or so exam sections and google each item and do basic search for basic theory, fundamentals and applications even though most of leg work is already done with prep course..(of course this will take a lot time if your working full time so get started now)..the prep courses is assuming you understand majority of theory and small basic info that you wouldn't need know to pass but helps out in long run to answer problems. the prep course doesn't start at beginning they start at midway point.... Oct exam was based heavily of theory and basic industry stuff that the average young engineer wouldn't know off top of the head or should I say make you think twice. Plus when your studying you kinda get lost in doing problems every which way you forget to understand the fundamentals first over the long transmission line equations for example.......if that make any sense just my five cents I will be doing the same for april exam....the trick will be trying to understand year one 1 theory stuff vs remember how to do various calculation

 

[panna1]

Hi Grant,

did you do any silly/dumb mistakes like me? I did 5 dumb mistakes.

I talked to couple of friends who were in the utilities industry and for them oct 2014 power exam was very easy. one of the friend is confident that he got more than 68 correct and the other one who is taking the exam for the first time is confident that he will get more than 70. the second person started preparing from mid September only, but he mentioned that he came across the majority of the theoretical questions on job, and he uses NEC almost every week for design. I am praying god that somehow I pass the exam.

thanks,

Panna

 

[Captain America]

Thanks Grant. I'll follow that strategy. The only thing is that those are the hardest text to prepare for.I did go through every sample problem for the ncees exam and tried to research each question. Maybe I'll do it again. I started back in wildi's machinery book Saturday. Two weeks is enough of a break for me.