I took the electrical power PE (15+ years design experience in electrical design/consulting, but with a BS in mechanical engineering). My results vs how I felt:
October 2018: 6 months of preparation and took a class. Felt like and told everyone I had a 50-50 chance of passing. Failed with a 43/80 score. I felt like I did my best though and figured I would pass it on my next attempt.
October 2019: We seriously considered moving in the spring and put our house on the market. Changed our minds, but under circumstances decided not to take the April exam. Took October exam and studied 5 months before the course. Didn't take a class, tried an alternate strategy taking tons of multiple different practice exams. Definitely put in tons of effort. After the exam, I felt I definitely did better than last time and felt I had a 60-75% of passing. Turns out I did WORSE, 40/80. Felt completely dejected. Felt bad for my wife and son since I spent so much time away from them. Questioned if I should even continue my pursuit. One of my supervisors even questioned my dedication/study habits. Really pissed me off. I left the company. In hindsight, it was a good decision. A few people on here helped keep my head up and encouraged me to keep going.
December 1, 2020 (1st CBT date offered): Took a different class this time. It was really the same class from the April 2020 P/P exam, but of course the exam got cancelled, re-scheduled for October 2020, then THAT one got cancelled, then the P/P got cancelled and only CBT offered. So I took the first available date and felt completely thrown off by many of the questions. Still felt like I had a decent chance of passing, but no, I failed with a roughly 50% score, so basically no improvement. I had gone through a lot of personal hell in that year, including a shoulder injury, the whole Covid stuff (including getting Covid in September), experiencing unethical practices from my new employer and quitting that company for my current employer (which has been a wonderful experience I'm happy to report). If it weren't for several people here on EB and my circle of friends on here who got me through 2020, I might have quit the PE pursuit. I tried not to beat myself up about it too much.
March 2021 (2nd CBT attempt): After first half of the exam, I almost quit and went home. Many of the exam question types seemed to have change a lot. I felt like I was trying to hit a moving target at this point. I vented to my wife during lunch and she calmed me down and talked me into going back in. Felt like I did a lot worse, but in fact I did better, over 60% but still failed. This felt encouraging, and my wife was my biggest cheerleader. My new company was so supportivev. Also, my course instructor had a 100% guarantee to re-take the course if I didn't pass, so I kept my head in it full bore. NEVER GIVE UP!
June 10, 2021 (3rd CBT attempt): I basically kicked the exam in the nuts. Every time I clicked on an answer and felt sure about it, I envisioned kicking someone in the nuts. Click. Nuts. Next question. Repeat. Nothing can stop a person who doesn't quit. Looking back, sometimes I'm not sure how I did it. How I had the mental strength to keep going back upstairs to my man-cave (which started out as my man-cave, but I ended up calling "hell", but now it's my man-cave again
) to study over and over and over again. I felt like I passed, but I was so cautiously negative about it I think myself and my family were so pleasantly surprised when I got the results. I yelled in excitement at work and pretty much scared the **** out of the entire office. June 16th, 2021, the day I found out I PASSED! I will never forget!
