October 2019 P.E. ELECTRICAL POWER

[RBHeadge PE]

It was both in the PM section. Question 38 and question 40. I emailed NCEES. The response email was they will forward my comments to the committee of SME’s for review. Any changes resulting from this review will be applied to all affected examinees.

Oh wow, they really messed that up!

Worst case: no change to anyones' score or the cut score, best case: everyone who filled in a bubble on those questions get full credit for those questions and not change to the cut score.

 

[DLD PE]

Best case:  Throw out the entire afternoon session with no change to the cut score %.

 

[Takk90]

Best case:  Throw out the entire afternoon session with no change to the cut score %.

haha I'd love that! I am sure most of us would.

 

[Vette388]

haha I'd love that! I am sure most of us would.

Lets throw out the morning session

 

[mjcii]

Lets throw out the morning session

Throw out the entire afternoon session

Let's throw out the whole test. If you signed your name for the AM and PM, you passed.

 

[Saul Good]

@LyceeFruit  I clicked on the question mark at the top of the screen when you login to your myncees account and followed the instructions.

 

[Takk90]

Lets throw out the morning session

I will fail for sure if the morning session is thrown out.

 

[UKEE PE]

I will fail for sure if the morning session is thrown out.

Me too.

 

[Toby-Wan]

I'm feeling pretty good about the exam altogether. Compared to the practice exams, I noticed it was taking me longer to work through calculations, but I was consistently getting answers that made sense to me. I had a good grasp about 66% of the theoretical questions, and could get an educated guess on a few more, so hopefully there's a low enough cut off to make room for most of us  First time taking the exam, and I'm OK with taking it again next October if I need to.

I used @Zach Stone, P.E.'s full and final exam, as well as Testmasters exam prep. I brought in Graffeo, Testmasters, all the code books, and most of the printouts from Engineering Pro Guides, as well as the NCEES practice exams. I didn't use practice problems very much (one NCEES problem was familiar), but I'm hearing the same impression from others that questions similar to practice exams didn't feature prominently. NEC Keywords was really helpful. I also tabbed everything that I brought in.

A buddy of mine told me to take a week or two and put together a comprehensive index of subject material and sample exam questions, and I can't stress enough how much it helped for the more common questions. If I have to take the exam again, I'll spend more time on the subject index for less common terminology.

 

[Wow_PE!]

I feel that my performance was mediocre and it’s possible that I will be taking the test again.  I was well prepared for about 50 problems before I had to resort to educated guesses.  I’m trying to view it as a challenging project just like any big project on my desk.

tldr stage 4 Doubt!

 

[UKEE PE]

I took the exam in October 2018 and did not pass. I felt this exam was about the same in level of difficulty. It felt like there were slightly more code problems this cycle. I studied a ton this time around felt very confident going in to the exam. 

I felt like the morning session went very well. I was able to finish about 30 minutes or so early and was feeling good about all but three questions. Went in to the lunch break feeling cautiously optimistic. 

The afternoon was tough in my opinion. Code problems returned with a vengeance. There were also a lot of confusing qualitative problems and a couple that I was completely unprepared for. Not to mention the duplicate problem that temporarily derailed me towards the end and cost me several minutes that I could have used checking my answers on other problems. I felt less than certain on at least 10-15 problems in the afternoon. I do take some small comfort in the fact that I was able to narrow to at least two possible choices in each case.  

I feel a lot less confident about the exam after the afternoon session. I really do not know what to expect, but I fear the worst. I know from experience how trap answers can instill false confidence. I just hope I did not fall for as many this time.

 

[Ithougtthiswasitthistime]

Not to mention the duplicate problem that temporarily derailed me towards the end and costed me several minutes that I could have used checking my answers on other problems. 

This is my biggest issue with the exam.  Sure, there are going to be problems that are tricky or are difficult to reason through, but allowing duplicate questions is troublesome to say the least.  

Most people on this board use the tactic of skimming the questions before attempting to solve problems and the fact that this was placed at the very end of the PM session made me overly critical of every question on the exam.  

I cannot image a licensing board with such high regard allowing something like this outside of some kind of weird psychological ploy to disrupt the flow of the exam.

 

[THRILLHO]

I'm not trying to sound like a turd or anything, but I think that people are overreacting to one of the easiest questions on the exam being duplicated. I wish they had the same question 80 times. Like others have mentioned, I spent some (unnecessary) time flipping back and forth between the questions trying to find a difference. It was a pair of ~2 minute questions that likely resulted in an extra ~5 minutes comparing the two. I don't think it's that big of a deal. 

 

[mjcii]

I agree that I don't believe the duplicated question was difficult - I actually see it as "oh cool, I got that correct twice."

But I understand, and am on the side of the majority in here - I think purposely asking a question twice is a bit disingenuous. And I truly question/doubt that it was a mistake due to the way they weren't EXACTLY identical. (Won't go into specifics for obvious reasons)

 

[bdhlphcdh]

Yes, the problem was not inherently difficult but it was still disappointing to see a question twice.

 

[UKEE PE]

Yes, the problem was not inherently difficult but it was still disappointing to see a question twice.

Exactly.

 

[roy167]

Yes, the problem was not inherently difficult but it was still disappointing to see a question twice.

If the repeat question was way too difficult then it wouldn't matter. if the repeat question was way too easy then it wouldn't matter either. It would matter if it was mid level, those who got it right got it right twice and those we got it wrong got it wrong twice and this can be beneficial and harmful. Regardless, a lot of people put a lot of hours, so this shouldn't happen. I believe they might just throw this question out and people will be curved based on 78 questions, that should make it fair. Fortunately there is easy way to fix this goof up and that is to throw the two questions out. A lot of times, you don't even have that option. 

 

[DilutedAr18_PE]

If the repeat question was way too difficult then it wouldn't matter. if the repeat question was way too easy then it wouldn't matter either. It would matter if it was mid level, those who got it right got it right twice and those we got it wrong got it wrong twice and this can be beneficial and harmful. Regardless, a lot of people put a lot of hours, so this shouldn't happen. I believe they might just throw this question out and people will be curved based on 78 questions, that should make it fair. Fortunately there is easy way to fix this goof up and that is to throw the two questions out. A lot of times, you don't even have that option. 

I think it would be more fair to only throw out one of the two. Having the question once wasn’t the issue. Having it twice was. Selfishly I would like them to keep both as I’m sure I got them right. 

 

[bdhlphcdh]

Just got the survey!

 

[Zach Stone P.E.]

I used @Zach Stone, P.E.'s full and final exam

Glad you found our practice exam useful for the exam