Practice exam

[Surf and Snow]

Obviously not, i will be surprised as well. Obviously anyone needs to know the underlying theories very well to pass it. 

I do understand CI, Spin-Up and Graffeo practice problems are good for drilling in concepts but the difficulty level of these problems are not close to the real thing. Everyone says NCEES and especially engproguides exam are closest to the real thing. So i was just wondering, what if I practice NCESS and engproguides exams repeatedly (like 5/6 times) and know the underlying theories to solve those problems like back of my hand? This might just help me to pass.

interesting statement. Anyone who has passed can you please shed some light into this 

Negative. You need to diversify. I took 16.5 full practice exams before I took the PE in April 2018. Passed the first try. I’d seen so many different problems it was VERY helpful. 

Theres no point in memorizing problems. Doing the same exam 10 times is pointless. Someone posted before the April exam that they would read the first sentence of the problem and be able to answer the question. Whats the point? You aren't going to get questions you've seen before on the exam.

Exactly. I think if all I focused on was the NCEES practice exam and eng pro guides, I would not have passed. Simply memorizing a small set of problems is not a good recipe imo. The actual exam covered many topics and problems that were not in that small set. You want to be ready for a broader range of problems. But that’s just my experience. 

Ymmv

Nonethess, good luck to you all. Hope you nail it! Keep focused. Keep working as many problems as you can. You’re in the home stretch! Plan a relaxing weekend afterward! You’ll have earned it!

 

[Nashi]

I did much better on the afternoon session of the Engineering Pro Guide Practice Exam so I felt hopeful.

I keep doing more and more problems. When I reviewed the second half of the exam I found myself marking most of the question with a one knowing I can answer them pretty quickly. I need to go back over the first half and conquer those problems.

 

[Drewism]

The practice exams are supposed to provide you with an idea of the concepts and what to consider in a problem given. I guess we'll see on Friday if the concepts have stuck with me. Just got to know where to apply them. If you get stuck on a problem then just revert back to your references.

To expedite the exam process, I have memorized some key equations and how they're applied to a problem. Kind of like muscle memory. I'm only going to use my references if I need to. Hopefully that works...

 

[DLD PE]

As I do more practice exams, I realize I'm not looking up equations as I've started to remember most of them, given all the problems I've worked on.  I used to keep the equations I used most organized by section in the front of one of my binders along with the Eng Pro Guides cheat sheet.  Now I'm not looking at equations, but instead going more to references to see different ways of approaching problems, and I'm making sure I tab key areas that help me the most.

 

[Drewism]

As I do more practice exams, I realize I'm not looking up equations as I've started to remember most of them, given all the problems I've worked on.  I used to keep the equations I used most organized by section in the front of one of my binders along with the Eng Pro Guides cheat sheet.  Now I'm not looking at equations, but instead going more to references to see different ways of approaching problems, and I'm making sure I tab key areas that help me the most.

Sounds like a good approach. You definitely don't want to spend time looking up the smallest formula that can be easily remembered. My binder is setup the same way. Equations and index at the front, then the Eng Pro Guide study guide. The equations are from the EngProGuide cheat sheet and from Graffeo. I think it's a good compilation of equations. At the end of each section I have printouts of the recommended references given by EngProGuides. It's tabbed with numbers and colors according to section. I'm only only trying to use my references for the really insane questions. The basic stuff for each subject is pretty much memorized at this point.

 

[DLD PE]

I have class notes in one binder, and started a second binder with example problems arranged by topic.  I'm grouping all my worked out example problems from the NCEES practice exam, Eng Pro Guides, online quiz and homework problems, ALL grouped together by topic so I have a place to go if I get stuck.  

Since NEC and protection are weighted so heavily I put them in separate binders.  NEC because during my practice runs I do the "easy" problems in the first run, the NEC problems in the second run, and the medium then hard ones on a 3rd and 4th pass.  If I have any time left over I check or guess on questions I have no clue on or guess between 1-2 problems after eliminating any obvious incorrect choices.  

I have all my NEC example problems in a separate binder since I'll be going through the NEC problems in a single pass (that's the plan anyway).  

I just found out my supervisor will be out all next week and since we have no pending projects going out or "fires" to put out, that will give me extra study time to review, do a couple more practice exams and organize!  I had already planned on being out Thursday and Friday but this gives me an extra day or two so I'm excited!