Refining Studying Topics

[Szar]

I am preparing to take the April exam and was looking to confirm how in depth I need to study a few topics. 

Particularly I am reviewing the Power System Analysis book by Grainger and have just step foot into the Admittance model network calculation section.

Are problems like these on the test or is my time best spent else where?  They seem fairly complicated for a 6 min problem.   I'm guessing this is heavy transmission \ utility mostly? 

Thanks. 

 

[Zach Stone P.E.]

I am preparing to take the April exam and was looking to confirm how in depth I need to study a few topics. 

Particularly I am reviewing the Power System Analysis book by Grainger and have just step foot into the Admittance model network calculation section.

Are problems like these on the test or is my time best spent else where?  They seem fairly complicated for a 6 min problem.   I'm guessing this is heavy transmission \ utility mostly? 

Thanks. 

Hi Szar,

My best advice that I give for using reference textbooks as a source of practice problems is to work the in chapter examples the most and focus only on topics that are listed on the exam specs.  When it comes to depth and complexity it is not unusual for a reference textbook example to have many steps in the answer and to solve for many different variables within the same problem.  To solve every single variable the example question asks for would be not as accurate as what to expect on the PE exam, however, you may see a similar question on the same topic but asking for one variable instead. 

I'd suggest working the NCEES practice exam first to get a better feel for the depth and complexity that NCEES typically uses for their questions, then compare to third-party questions. 

 

[Szar]

Zach,

Thank you for responding.  I understand the point you are making (and also the line you are walking) however I do have a followup question.

The specific section of the text I am referring to has the reader create bus admittance matrices.  The concept is not particularly difficult at this point, however the calculators we are allowed to use on the exam (Ti-36 pro in my case) can only resolve 3 x 3 Matrices and smaller.  The example problems to date are very simplistic but yet still start with 4 bus matrices, resulting in a larger matrix then my calculator can solve.  Without the fourth bus, there is no (or perhaps significantly diminished, to be more exact) reason to use these advanced techniques.  

Part A of the followup question is: "Will I be solving matrices by hand due to larger matrices"?   

I purchased the book on the recommendations I have been reading from this website, however there is a large amount of material in these texts that do not appear to track with the Exam specific study materials (nor my own decade of experience in the profession).  I will continue looking through the forum, but is there a list of sections to study / not study that is generally accepted as the useful PE exam related material vs "good to know" material?   (Part B of my followup question)

Thanks!

 

[Stephen2awesome]

Zach,

Thank you for responding.  I understand the point you are making (and also the line you are walking) however I do have a followup question.

The specific section of the text I am referring to has the reader create bus admittance matrices.  The concept is not particularly difficult at this point, however the calculators we are allowed to use on the exam (Ti-36 pro in my case) can only resolve 3 x 3 Matrices and smaller.  The example problems to date are very simplistic but yet still start with 4 bus matrices, resulting in a larger matrix then my calculator can solve.  Without the fourth bus, there is no (or perhaps significantly diminished, to be more exact) reason to use these advanced techniques.  

Part A of the followup question is: "Will I be solving matrices by hand due to larger matrices"?   

I purchased the book on the recommendations I have been reading from this website, however there is a large amount of material in these texts that do not appear to track with the Exam specific study materials (nor my own decade of experience in the profession).  I will continue looking through the forum, but is there a list of sections to study / not study that is generally accepted as the useful PE exam related material vs "good to know" material?   (Part B of my followup question)

Thanks!

I wouldn't go too deep into the matrices if you can not do it by hand and within the 6 min threshold. It will take longer to input into the calculator and attempt to solve, than to follow simple formulas in the Grainger book to solve.

Look at the NCEES provided topics to study for. Google is also your friend.

 

[Szar]

Understood.   I had not reached the later sections which provide all the simplified methods for large matrix simplification and solution.   

The NCEES sample exams,  which i have just ordered, will most likely also address some of my concerns.