Power PE Review Course: GA Tech, TestMaster, or School of PE?

[lisfs]

I failed my first try on the Power PE going it alone, but I don't want to have this awful feeling again.  I'm considering a review courses and based on some of the discussions on EB, it's hard to pick one that would fit me.  I've been out of school for over 20 years and even that I've not done Power at all in all my jobs since college.  I have a full-time busy job and a family with school-age kid so studying & absorbing is not as easy as it used to be :-(

I've been using Graffeo, Complex Imaginary 1-4, and Complex Imaginary Code Drill, Tom Henry's index.  I spent about 2.5 months studying for the Oct. 2015 and failed it.  I came into the exam confident, but it shattered me.  I found that I was very weak in the code section so I need to improve on that.  Some of the questions were phrased in a way that caused major confusion for me, so I'll need to work on that too.   Anyway, please provide your feedback if you've taken review courses for Power PE.  Thanks.

 

[knight1fox3]

I took the GA Tech course and it was excellent.  Furthermore, the instructor is top-notch at answering questions and providing additional examples in a timely manner.  It's pricey, but worth it overall in my opinion.  The binder of information that is provided with the course was my primary resource during the power PE exam.  There a good number of threads that already exist on this particular topic.  Below are just a few that you can read through at your leisure.  

And I feel your pain on the whole trying to prepare with life going on around you.  I have (2) jobs (in engineering I might add), run a small business, have a home and a family with a 2-year old, while trying to complete my MSEE degree.  It is the single-most difficult endeavor I've ever embarked on in my academic engineering career.  But stay focused and determined, you will get there. :thumbs:

http://engineerboards.com/index.php?/topic/24556-best-review-course/

http://engineerboards.com/index.php?/topic/24044-best-review-class-for-power-exam/

http://engineerboards.com/index.php?/topic/21929-failed-the-first-time-around-help/

 

[Owism]

Hello.

Had a few questions about the GA tech course:

1. How many hours of instruction is it?
   
2. Is it all recordings online? Using what? Downloadable vidoes or browser based streaming? Just seeing if it will be a firewall issue anywhere
   
3. Do the notes have an index? Hated organizing school of pe notes. no index provided. 
   
4. How is contacting the instructor? 24 hour reply? Email? Phone? School of PE stopped accepting questions 1 week before the exam.. which kind of sucked since I was going through sample problems I had questions about still. 
   

Really dont want to do another course though. Might just repeat the last half of School of PE course since I didnt have time to watch the recordings before the live class started. Not really wanting to buy more books either like the Grainger and Wildi, etc. but everyone always mentions it... 

Thanks for your time.

Regards

 

[Phatso86]

Hello.

Had a few questions about the GA tech course:

1. How many hours of instruction is it?
   
2. Is it all recordings online? Using what? Downloadable vidoes or browser based streaming? Just seeing if it will be a firewall issue anywhere
   
3. Do the notes have an index? Hated organizing school of pe notes. no index provided. 
   
4. How is contacting the instructor? 24 hour reply? Email? Phone? School of PE stopped accepting questions 1 week before the exam.. which kind of sucked since I was going through sample problems I had questions about still. 
   

Really dont want to do another course though. Might just repeat the last half of School of PE course since I didnt have time to watch the recordings before the live class started. Not really wanting to buy more books either like the Grainger and Wildi, etc. but everyone always mentions it... 

Thanks for your time.

Regards

i'd actually like to know the OP's situation.  this thread is a year old!

ga course is same old, same old. if you compare the notes between that and testmasters, its virtually the same crap. PPI seems to have less material.

i think villa nova is the best one, but it goes over the general electrical... for the older exams  (diodes, transistors, bjt, etc.)

villa nova is the cheapest and most in depth. just skip the electronics module and focus on power

 

[Mikeviti]

i'd actually like to know the OP's situation.  this thread is a year old!

ga course is same old, same old. if you compare the notes between that and testmasters, its virtually the same crap. PPI seems to have less material.

i think villa nova is the best one, but it goes over the general electrical... for the older exams  (diodes, transistors, bjt, etc.)

villa nova is the cheapest and most in depth. just skip the electronics module and focus on power

Cannot disagree more. I took Villanova the first time i took the test. It is a great course on electrical engineering but not a test prep course. It had tons of information that I honestly believe wasted valuable studying time for me. The GA Tech course on the other hand I believe was very good. It focused on mostly what was important and the professor was very accessible. Also, the binder was very good.

 

[Phatso86]

Cannot disagree more. I took Villanova the first time i took the test. It is a great course on electrical engineering but not a test prep course. It had tons of information that I honestly believe wasted valuable studying time for me. The GA Tech course on the other hand I believe was very good. It focused on mostly what was important and the professor was very accessible. Also, the binder was very good.

i suppose you didn't understand what i meant by "  same old, same old "

also don't think you understand the use of the word "but" in the clause " but it goes over the general electrical... for the older exams "

you and I are completely agreeing on the issue, but you don't seem to figure that out

 

[Zach Stone P.E.]

Hi Guys

I would most certainly like to welcome you to enroll and start taking the online course for the Electrical Power PE Exam that I have helped to develop.  

It is brand new and offers a fresh new perspective to studying for the PE exam. 

All of the content is 100% original and the plans are to have it completed by the up coming April 2017 exam. 

There are currently about 100 practice problems, with step by step solutions, and probably something like 50 HD videos. 

The course layout looks like this:

When I was studying for the exam I absolutely hated getting lost trying to follow the "solutions" to the practice problems.

The solutions were usually just a single formula with lots of steps missing.

Although I did pass the first time, I really wasted a lot of time studying this way and I got hung up on some of the more major topics because the solutions were cumbersome to follow, or done in hand writing that was just plain hard to read. 

Another drawback of some of the material I studied with, is that the videos were SO LONG.  

Hours long. It was impossible to sit through a 3 hour lecture style video when I was really just looking for a quick overview of a specific topic followed by some quick worked out examples so I could be on my way continue to practice solving exam style questions. 

To help with that we've designed each of our videos to be 5 to 20 minutes long and focus on one topic or worked out example. 

You can also speed up the playback of each video to watch it at 1.5x or 2.0x the speed. I find this REALLY helps. Especailly when re-watching videos you've already covered in the past. 

This really helps with time and effort since you don't have to waste time watching content that is not focused on helping you solve the set of problems you are currently working on, and it helps you learn only the topics that you need at that moment.

The videos appear in each chapter right next to the relevant formulas and diagrams.

They look like this and are in 720p HD:

The course was built so that it is a great reference.  

The structure of each topic is:

Introduction and what to expect on the exam

List of Key definitions

All Key Concepts - Includes Video Examples, Video Demonstrations, formulas, explanations, examples, then ends with every single formula used in the chapter in a table for quick reference. 

The chapter is then followed by a quiz with the solutions given after each attempt.

The quiz and sample problems look like this:

\

You can take the quizzes as many times as you like and you get instant feedback with results. Very neat. 

The overall look and feel of the online course, including the navigation of it is quite simple and very easy to use with an amazing user interface. 

I am currently getting Emails from students that used it to supplement their material for the October 2016 exam with great success, lots of happy "I passed" Emails have been showing up in my inbox:

I registered on these boards after years of lurking because I wanted to give back to the community that really helped me when I was studying. 

No way could I have passed without engineerboards.com with just the resources I had at the time. 

I will continue to post on here where I think I have the best chance to really help clear up any confusion and continue to post helpful example problems or diagrams from our course that people ask for.

In the meantime, if you want to sign up and try out our online course, you can go directly to it at: www.electricalPEreview.com

I think everyone here will really like it, and greatly appreciate the time and effort that went into building it.

Best of all, it is free to sign up

I am active on here, but I only stop by once a day or so. My Email address is the best way to get in touch with me. You can find it on the course website and I also believe it is in my user profile (click my user name). 

If you have any questions let me know, I would be happy to help. 

Good luck studying and get that P.E. !

-Zach Stone, P.E.

P.S. you may also want to check out our youtube channel that currently offers about 40 videos straight from our course here:  Electrical PE Review Youtube Channel

 

[Owism]

thanks, free doesn't hurt as supplementary I suppose. Thanks again  :thankyou:

 

[KatyLied P.E.]

Hello.

Had a few questions about the GA tech course:

1. How many hours of instruction is it?
   
2. Is it all recordings online? Using what? Downloadable vidoes or browser based streaming? Just seeing if it will be a firewall issue anywhere
   
3. Do the notes have an index? Hated organizing school of pe notes. no index provided. 
   
4. How is contacting the instructor? 24 hour reply? Email? Phone? School of PE stopped accepting questions 1 week before the exam.. which kind of sucked since I was going through sample problems I had questions about still. 
   

Really dont want to do another course though. Might just repeat the last half of School of PE course since I didnt have time to watch the recordings before the live class started. Not really wanting to buy more books either like the Grainger and Wildi, etc. but everyone always mentions it... 

Thanks for your time.

Regards

1.  I seem to remember it being at least 50 hours(?) but less than 100 (Wide range. I know. Memory is the second thing to go.)   I allotted myself myself two months just to go through the course.  I'd supplement the course work with other materials which might clarify some points.  I'd been out of school almost 25 years at that point and wanted to make sure I was fully refreshed on the material. 

2.  In order to take the course you pay the fee and gain access to prerecorded material through the GA Tech portal.  Firewalls weren't an issue for me but if you're using a workplace computer it would be wise to check with your IT department.  By the way my company pay the fee for me.  Maybe something worth checking out where you work.  Also, in Alabama, since I completed the course the same year I took the test I was able to PDH's to meet my PE continuing education requirements. 

3..I don't recall the notes having an index but they are well organized.  It's a big 3 ring binder.  I actually broke it up in to two separate binders so that I'd I have room to add supplementary material from the internet.  I then cross-referenced each section with sample problems from Complex Imaginary, Spinup, etc.  That way if I had to look through my notes on the test I could quickly find the comparable material along with the appropriate sample problem.

4.  Dr. Callen is very accessible.  I contacted him via email 2-3 times during my studies and each time he responded within 24 hours.  Obviously there may be holiday periods where he doesn't respond as quickly but I found him to be very helpful and supportive. I don't recall that there was a cutoff date where he'd stop asking questions

 

[Owism]

Thanks for your input. 

So far I purchased the books, Grainger, Chapman, Wildi, Complex/Imaginary, NESC. I've been doing practice problems and just referencing materials and fully understanding my weak points. I feel this is the best method for me now since there are only 3 months left  :reading: :facepalm:

 

[trainrider]

Hello.

Had a few questions about the GA tech course:

1. How many hours of instruction is it?
   
2. Is it all recordings online? Using what? Downloadable vidoes or browser based streaming? Just seeing if it will be a firewall issue anywhere
   
3. Do the notes have an index? Hated organizing school of pe notes. no index provided. 
   
4. How is contacting the instructor? 24 hour reply? Email? Phone? School of PE stopped accepting questions 1 week before the exam.. which kind of sucked since I was going through sample problems I had questions about still. 
   

Really dont want to do another course though. Might just repeat the last half of School of PE course since I didnt have time to watch the recordings before the live class started. Not really wanting to buy more books either like the Grainger and Wildi, etc. but everyone always mentions it... 

Thanks for your time.

Regards

Hello Owism,

Can you please mention where the SoPE lacked in providing sufficient subject information that you saw in the exam? Without getting into exam questions specifics, of course. Also, did the SoPE problem sets help you at all?

Thank you

 

[Owism]

I'd say 50% of what was on the exam was covered in SOPE, hence my score of 38/80, Thats also how I felt as I went through my first pass of the exam, I was able to confidently lookup and workout 1/2 the problems. The part where I think I was weak in was that i was not doing more self study to gain understanding of subject matter beyond what SOPE gave me.  SOPE lacks an index of notes. I dont recall saying it lacks sufficient subject info. For a guy who isn't practiciing power as a career, its a good first timer of material. I agree the professor just reads off the slides, but if i had enough time to pause and research the topics, i would probably be well off. 

The SOPE problem sets were decent but very similar of NCEES practice exam, So far doing complex/imaginary problem set, I feel more confident that will help me with real exam like questions.  Also its the way you tackle the problem, Try it out, if you fail it, research it like crazy until you fully understand it. I'm taking that approach now after seeing how vast of a knowledge pool the exam pulls questions from. Tabbing solved problems is not a technique... 

 

[KatyLied P.E.]

Thanks for your input. 

So far I purchased the books, Grainger, Chapman, Wildi, Complex/Imaginary, NESC. I've been doing practice problems and just referencing materials and fully understanding my weak points. I feel this is the best method for me now since there are only 3 months left  :reading: :facepalm:

Do you also have the Complex Imaginary NEC Drill book.  Great resource!! I felt very good about my Code problems as a result of working through just a third of the book.  GA Tech also had a good general information about the NEC portion.

 

[Zach Stone P.E.]

For those that are interested in review courses, this is what the Electrical PE Review course looks like and how to sign up: