Power PE
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I took a course at School of PE. The weekend only schedule worked best for me - the 8-9 hour classes were tough though. The notes and workshop problems were very helpful during the exam. And also the NCEES sample questions were also a huge help. I also have the Chelapati book, but it was hard for me to follow. And of course the Camara book. But really between the NEC, School of PE Notes and Workshop Problems, NCEES sample questions and a litle bit of the Camara book (mostly for economics) was what I used. I hear the Wildi - Electrical Machines Drives and Power Systems is great reference as well.
solomonb
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The issue is NOT the books-- the issue is how and what you are studying. If you have failed 4 times, you have spent in excess of $2500 and have nothing to show for it, other than being out that much money, frustration and anxt.
You really need to learn and understand the material. The questions are not hard or difficult IF YOU KNOW the material. Obviously, you don't have a clear comprehension of the material-- or you think that you do and you obviously do not.
Go to NCEES and review the elements of examination on their website. Really understand what is going to be on the test. When you have mastered that, then develop your study plan, covering those topics.
The test is designed to identify the minimally competent engineer. If you passed an ABET accredited program, you have had all this material. The exam questions are designed to be 6 min each in length-- some are less, some are more. Some questions you should be able to answer by inspection, assuming of course, that you recognize and know the material. The questions are not deigned to be tricky-- they are designed to see if you possess minimal competency as an engineer.
I realize that you are frustrated, impatient and mad. However, LEARN the material, really understand it. In some jurisdictions, if you have failed 3 or more times, the board will require you to take 12-15 additional undergraduate hours before you are allowed to retest. I suspect that is probably in order here. I don't know how long you have been out of school or where you went to school, however, I would strongly suggest some additional stem work at the undergraduate level. Your board will probably require you to do this before being admitted to testing again.
You can do this-- this is not impossible. You obviously have some study deficiencies and fail to comprehend the basic concepts that are being examined.
This is NOT MEANT to be spiteful or demeaning. It is NOT. However, getting more books is not the answer either if you don't really know and understand the material. You cannot teach yourself the test by reviewing the books on test day. That sounds like maybe what you are trying to do. It will NOT work-- you will run out of time. You have to have a basic minimal competency in the subject matter before you walk into the test site.
It may be easier to take another year of undergraduate material, maybe just audit the material, but do all the work, homework and projects so that you really understand the test material.
You really need to learn and understand the material. The questions are not hard or difficult IF YOU KNOW the material. Obviously, you don't have a clear comprehension of the material-- or you think that you do and you obviously do not.
Go to NCEES and review the elements of examination on their website. Really understand what is going to be on the test. When you have mastered that, then develop your study plan, covering those topics.
The test is designed to identify the minimally competent engineer. If you passed an ABET accredited program, you have had all this material. The exam questions are designed to be 6 min each in length-- some are less, some are more. Some questions you should be able to answer by inspection, assuming of course, that you recognize and know the material. The questions are not deigned to be tricky-- they are designed to see if you possess minimal competency as an engineer.
I realize that you are frustrated, impatient and mad. However, LEARN the material, really understand it. In some jurisdictions, if you have failed 3 or more times, the board will require you to take 12-15 additional undergraduate hours before you are allowed to retest. I suspect that is probably in order here. I don't know how long you have been out of school or where you went to school, however, I would strongly suggest some additional stem work at the undergraduate level. Your board will probably require you to do this before being admitted to testing again.
You can do this-- this is not impossible. You obviously have some study deficiencies and fail to comprehend the basic concepts that are being examined.
This is NOT MEANT to be spiteful or demeaning. It is NOT. However, getting more books is not the answer either if you don't really know and understand the material. You cannot teach yourself the test by reviewing the books on test day. That sounds like maybe what you are trying to do. It will NOT work-- you will run out of time. You have to have a basic minimal competency in the subject matter before you walk into the test site.
It may be easier to take another year of undergraduate material, maybe just audit the material, but do all the work, homework and projects so that you really understand the test material.
PEoct
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ok here is the thing, i have failed my exam first time, but trust me its not HARD, AT ALL if i fail me exam its merely because of my carelessness and not putting much efforts toward hard work. though i had all the resources.
all u need is first of all good reference material.
practice problems and lots of hard work.
there is no way u can fail your exam, its not rocket science,
just ask to your self, one question that "have i studied hard enough , have i gotten all the material really required to study " you will get your answer itself.
so get up , get back on track study hard.
u have to get it going
good luck and follow this forum regularly ok
FIGHT ON !
I passed the PE power on my first try thankfully.
I only brought with me the NEC 2011, Complex Imaginary Vol 1-4, and a 3 ring binder of reference materials.
The biggest thing was how I studied. I did the complex imaginary practice exams several times in order to get use to solving those types of problems. I also did the problems in the NCEES practice booklet.
Post #9 gave good advice on how to make the reference binder, and is how I made it as well. This thread in general gave good advice on how to study for the exam.
http://engineerboards.com/index.php?showtopic=20863&p=7013364
I only brought with me the NEC 2011, Complex Imaginary Vol 1-4, and a 3 ring binder of reference materials.
The biggest thing was how I studied. I did the complex imaginary practice exams several times in order to get use to solving those types of problems. I also did the problems in the NCEES practice booklet.
Post #9 gave good advice on how to make the reference binder, and is how I made it as well. This thread in general gave good advice on how to study for the exam.
http://engineerboards.com/index.php?showtopic=20863&p=7013364
KatyLied P.E.
The Alchemist.
GA Tech is a great course and is a great value. I studied for 4 months and spent the first two streaming GA Tech lectures and cramming to understand the example problems. The instructor is accessible by email and will usually respond back within 2 days. the last two months I worked through about 9 sample tests (one each weekend) and if I had any problems I'd review that material throughout the week. Complex/Imaginary, Spinup, NCEES sample exams were invaluable. I explained my process more thoroughly in another thread. I will post a link to that thread shortly.
KatyLied P.E.
The Alchemist.
http://engineerboards.com/index.php?showtopic=23348
Post 12,14, 18 give you an idea of how I approached things.
Post 12,14, 18 give you an idea of how I approached things.
Ouch..I felt you pain buddy...but Don't give up...you already invested alot in it
When I first took the test, I have all the materials I needed but I did not properly organized the materials and understand all the materials I should....on the rerun, I organized all the materials, understand as much as possible and work on practice exams as much as possible until i scored an average of 94%+ each
Having a boatload of stuffs not going to help you if you can't find where is it and understand enough to even know where to began.
When I first took the test, I have all the materials I needed but I did not properly organized the materials and understand all the materials I should....on the rerun, I organized all the materials, understand as much as possible and work on practice exams as much as possible until i scored an average of 94%+ each
Having a boatload of stuffs not going to help you if you can't find where is it and understand enough to even know where to began.
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One word from a 3-striker like myself....discpline.
Take it from me, I recently passed on my 4th try here in April 2014 and here's break down of my short comings/oversights.
1st try - Didn't take it seriously, got slammed with work and just went for it with less than 2 weeks studying
2nd try - Spent most of my time gathering practice problems, backwards solving them from the solutions (i.e. college style) and shocker when the concepts didn't prevail for when they tweaked stuff on the teest
3rd try - Spent even more money on sample exams, studied randomly on topics that i thought i was weak on, ended up doing the worst out of the 3 test.
--- took 2 year hiatus until work literally forced me to attempt again ---
4th try - Bit the bullet and threw down the $900 (which happily company reimbursed me for) the Georgia tech PE prep class which was I KNOW was the reason i passed. Plain and simple, the professor starts the class by calling you out for your bad habits from college of partial credit and backwards engineering problems, and starts in a logical, well thought out manner that helps you build your understanding as you go.
It's not rocket science but for me, again, discipline was everything. If you're like me and are have mild ADD when it comes to preparation for this gut-punch of a test and you know you're going to have issues with having time to lock down and study with work, outside of work, or just the fact that you're not a good studier (not saying direct correlation of GPA to PE exam results but those who are good 'students' are always going to do better at preparing for these types of test) just committ to the class and everything else should fall into place with some hard work.
The binder that the GA Tech class starts with DC circuits, then DC machines, AC machines, transformers, etc...it really helps you organize your material in a logical way which is to be honest the hardest part with all the subject matter. I always used to bounce around randomly from topic to topic and forget half of it reguarlly. The camara book is notorious for that with material spread out and split between multiple chapters.
In addition to the binder defintely get an older used copy of Wildi, Stevenson off amazon/used book store and make sure you have all the random topics that the NCEES outline covers with some good supplemental resources. Lots of white papers online from some google searches helped get those random questions on the test this last go round.
In the end, as hard as it is to lock down and pay money/sacrifice time, you gotta commit 110% or else you'll find yourself with similar results.
Good luck as this test is a soul-sucking force in itself but take the time and really KNOW that you know the concepts and you'll be fine. Having a study partner too helps, if you can teach someone else the material, it'll help reinforce your concepts and poke holes in your theory.
Stay strong and keep the course, you can do it....
Take it from me, I recently passed on my 4th try here in April 2014 and here's break down of my short comings/oversights.
1st try - Didn't take it seriously, got slammed with work and just went for it with less than 2 weeks studying
2nd try - Spent most of my time gathering practice problems, backwards solving them from the solutions (i.e. college style) and shocker when the concepts didn't prevail for when they tweaked stuff on the teest
3rd try - Spent even more money on sample exams, studied randomly on topics that i thought i was weak on, ended up doing the worst out of the 3 test.
--- took 2 year hiatus until work literally forced me to attempt again ---
4th try - Bit the bullet and threw down the $900 (which happily company reimbursed me for) the Georgia tech PE prep class which was I KNOW was the reason i passed. Plain and simple, the professor starts the class by calling you out for your bad habits from college of partial credit and backwards engineering problems, and starts in a logical, well thought out manner that helps you build your understanding as you go.
It's not rocket science but for me, again, discipline was everything. If you're like me and are have mild ADD when it comes to preparation for this gut-punch of a test and you know you're going to have issues with having time to lock down and study with work, outside of work, or just the fact that you're not a good studier (not saying direct correlation of GPA to PE exam results but those who are good 'students' are always going to do better at preparing for these types of test) just committ to the class and everything else should fall into place with some hard work.
The binder that the GA Tech class starts with DC circuits, then DC machines, AC machines, transformers, etc...it really helps you organize your material in a logical way which is to be honest the hardest part with all the subject matter. I always used to bounce around randomly from topic to topic and forget half of it reguarlly. The camara book is notorious for that with material spread out and split between multiple chapters.
In addition to the binder defintely get an older used copy of Wildi, Stevenson off amazon/used book store and make sure you have all the random topics that the NCEES outline covers with some good supplemental resources. Lots of white papers online from some google searches helped get those random questions on the test this last go round.
In the end, as hard as it is to lock down and pay money/sacrifice time, you gotta commit 110% or else you'll find yourself with similar results.
Good luck as this test is a soul-sucking force in itself but take the time and really KNOW that you know the concepts and you'll be fine. Having a study partner too helps, if you can teach someone else the material, it'll help reinforce your concepts and poke holes in your theory.
Stay strong and keep the course, you can do it....
Again its not about books and materials but understanding of the work. I worked on 1/2 of the problems without book reference just formula reference...
Also, you must know where to find the materials when in hurry...
If you must ..
1) Create your own formula note books by topics
2) Georgia Tech Binder (sold)
3) Wildi Machinery Book (keeping this)
4) Power Analysis ( I have this for sale..cheaply)
5) Camara as hail mary book lol
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^^^^
Very good advice above.
I solved 75% of the Chemical AM questions with my own formula note book
Each formula made it to the notebook because I worked/practiced a question on it . Meaning, I had experience with 75% of those questions beforehand. Probably the most useful thing for study time/exam day.
Very good advice above.
I solved 75% of the Chemical AM questions with my own formula note book
Each formula made it to the notebook because I worked/practiced a question on it . Meaning, I had experience with 75% of those questions beforehand. Probably the most useful thing for study time/exam day.
exactly...the book is a living document until the day I stop studying (like 2 days before the test)...I keep adding craps into it...I will take a picture when I get back to show how crazy I went
KatyLied P.E.
The Alchemist.
I agree with this but I would also add the Complex Imaginary Tests 1-4 (bound in one volume), Spin-up book, and NCEES sample test. I combined the GA Tech material with supplemental info from the internet into 2 new 3-ring binders. I divided the topics similar to what G Tech had done. In each section I also cross referenced the pertinent C&I, Spinup, and NCEES problems. Aas a result of doing that, I was able to quickly locate several sample test problems that were on the exam. Also include Graffeo's Guide to Passing the PE. I know that's more books than you asked for but if you organize and cross-reference you will be very efficient as you consult the references. also really search the internet on topics such as VFD's, PLC's, harmonics,etc. Make the copies and include them in the binders. That Wildi book is really good. I actually ordered it after the exam. I passed but If I had used it to prep my post test confidence would have been through the roof.
I was going to include those too but he was asking bare bone..so i give him bare bone
KatyLied P.E.
The Alchemist.
One more thing. iwire made a good point about really knowing the material. Invariably there will be a test problem(s) that you swear you are working correctly but you just don't get an answer listed. Most likely a math error, incorrect reading, etc. Chalk it up to nerves. there were several problems like that for me. In those cases by really knowing the material, I was able to reason through and weed out incorrect answers. Sometimes that led me to the correct answer but even if I had to guess my odds of getting the right answer increased. That can only happen if you know the material. Oh, and don't be discouraged. This was my third time taking it. I took it twice in '97. Got gun shy but finally decided to buckle down and get after it in April 2014. You can do it too. You've already proved your smarts by having your engineering degree.
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KatyLied P.E.
The Alchemist.
I understand. I attribute my ramblings to still being on a high from actually passing. I keep thinking I'm going to wake up and it will be 5:00 AM, April 11, 2014.
