Hi everyone, I took the Power PE exam last April for the first time and I failed regardless I thought I was prepared for it. I studied intensively for 3 months and I used most of the materials previous exam takers recommended me. Based on my results I know I was very close with almost 50 questions right but I did poorly in two topics: "Devices and Power Electronics" and "Protection". I did several practice exams like NCEES, Camara, Complex Imaginary, Spin Up and more and still i got no luck. Did I miss something? Is there any book you can recommend me? I really don't know any other resource that may help me pass in October. Any help is really appreciated. Thank you all.
Practice Problems Materials for Power Exam
- Thread starter Edu
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Help Support Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum:
Have you taken a prep course? I took School of PE and while their lectures were a coin flip, I answered probably 10 questions correctly because of their very thorough notes that I would have otherwise gotten wrong trying to compile things on my own. That and the Engineer Pro Guide Power notes from engproguides.com are the sources I credit for my success.
People who have taken Georgia Tech's course also vouch for its helpfulness.
Also, take the FE Handbook with you. I answered correctly (I think) 3-4 questions I would have missed entirely had I not had the information from the FE book at my disposal.
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Surf and Snow
PE Power Engineer
No wasted money on expensive prep courses for me.
Graffeo was my #1 best reference.
#2 was Engineering Pro guides tech study guide and full exam. Those 2 sources were 10x more useful than my other dozen references by far.
Get both of them.
Studied 3 months. Took 16 full 8-hr practice exams. Passed first try April 2018.
Good luck! You can do it!
here are the practice exams I worked in full in 8-hr days at the library:
1x 2011 Ncees practice exam in Jan
1x Graffeo
5x Spin Up
2x Camara/PPI practice exams
4x Complex Imaginary
1x Engineering Pro Guides full exam
.5x 45-problems in Eng Pro Guide tech study guide
1x Camara/PPI practice problems book
1x 2018 NCEES practice exam on Weds
Graffeo was my #1 best reference.
#2 was Engineering Pro guides tech study guide and full exam. Those 2 sources were 10x more useful than my other dozen references by far.
Get both of them.
Studied 3 months. Took 16 full 8-hr practice exams. Passed first try April 2018.
Good luck! You can do it!
here are the practice exams I worked in full in 8-hr days at the library:
1x 2011 Ncees practice exam in Jan
1x Graffeo
5x Spin Up
2x Camara/PPI practice exams
4x Complex Imaginary
1x Engineering Pro Guides full exam
.5x 45-problems in Eng Pro Guide tech study guide
1x Camara/PPI practice problems book
1x 2018 NCEES practice exam on Weds
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While I don't think anything that helps you get through the exam is a waste because it will pay for itself many times over I agree that Graffeo is the single best book you can bring with you into the exam for aid with conceptual questions. Its pithy nature allows you to seek out the vital information you need while at the same time not waste precious minutes doing a lot of flipping through pages.
A combination of Graffeo + Engineer Pro Guides Formula Sheet + School of PE notes + Tom Henry NEC keyword index was my winning combination. I barely even looked at any of my other resources throughout the exam, save for the actual NEC.
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Szar
Commander of the Legion of the Unholy Pear
Honestly, if you prepared enough almost all your notes will go unused save for specific odd ball problems or code lookups.
By test day... all the math and formula should be memorized if you've practiced enough.
Owism
PE
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I practiced all those books but did all of them three times over, made a cheat sheet of commonly used equations and referenced my books as if I'm taking the exam and timing myself. The first time i did the practice exams i made sure I understood the full solution, the second and third times I did in a single seating to emulate the challenge of sitting for 4 hour sessions.
Thank you all for your recommendations. Does any of you can recommend me a particular material for protection relaying? I noticed that was my biggest weakness during the exam. Please pm me with any digital materials you may want to share, specially practice problems. Best regards!
Jackal301
Nuclear Engineer
Besides the references I used below (for sale) plus Graffeo, NEC and my 2 personal binders, I used The Art and Science of Protective Relaying (GE) and IEEE Buff Books. These references helped me answer a few questions which may have contributed to passing this past exam. I also watched hours of YouTube videos to help solidify the concepts that I had read. For me, video explanations made the difference. Good luck!!
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Szar
Commander of the Legion of the Unholy Pear
This. Also ask questions. Relaying is unfortunately only really learned by doing it though.
Surf and Snow
PE Power Engineer
I used the Blackburn Book.
and GE Art & Science of Protective Relaying book: http://www.gegridsolutions.com/multilin/notes/artsci/
Used the printer at work to print, then brought the printed pages to Office Depot and paid like $4 to have it spiral bound and covered.
Those two are big books that go deep for those hard to get conceptual questions are available above for FREE. Now for the math equations and basics, this little Power Engineers Protective Relaying Quick Reference costs $25 but IS WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD! This was my 3rd most used book out of ALL my references both in study and on the exam. I HIGHLY recommend it. https://www.powereng.com/news-publications/quick-reference/
Here's a thread about this topic:
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Owism
PE
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I printed this one out and put it in a binder. Found good explanations for some questions using the index: http://www.gegridsolutions.com/multilin/notes/artsci/artsci.pdf
Owism
PE
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Szar
Commander of the Legion of the Unholy Pear
Keep in mind the Blackburn book has copyright protection.
It grinds my gears to keep seeing people post a link to a copy right resource to print it...
It grinds my gears to keep seeing people post a link to a copy right resource to print it...
justin-hawaii
Justin PE
@Surf and Snow thank you for the feedback and glad I could be of help. Just to ditto @Szar i think you should remove that blackburn link. I am very paranoid about copyright infringement ever since that article from NCEES came out. So just watch out. https://ncees.org/ncees-reaches-settlement/
@Edu I really like these Danfoss tutorials that focus on variable speed drives. http://drives.danfoss.us/knowledge-center/training/#/
@Edu I really like these Danfoss tutorials that focus on variable speed drives. http://drives.danfoss.us/knowledge-center/training/#/
Surf and Snow
PE Power Engineer
Link redacted. FWIW, I didn’t personally use the PDF. I used a hardback copy we have in my work library. As for the GE book, the link is direct to GEs website where they themselves have it posted as free open source.
Szar
Commander of the Legion of the Unholy Pear
Understood. Its not the first time ive seen that link. Someone was also providing prints of these books on rhe yard sale section too... idk.
knight1fox3
Jedi MASTER & Friend of Capt. Solo
This is similar to when I see people selling their private review course material. The disclaimer on my GA Tech binder was essentially "do not distribute". :dunno:
