Retaking the Electrical Power in April of 2013

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Aerofrank

AeroFrank
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Unfortunately I was unsuccessful in passing the Apri 2012 Power PE;however with the support of all of you on this site, I'm not going to give up yet. I'm planning on re-taking the Power PE in April of 2013.

My strategy this time around will consist of the following preparation:

1. Chalepati's online seminar on Electrical Power (Includes his 2 volumes).

2. The Complex Imaginary Volumes (1 thru 4, revised editions)

3. Review and go through the NCEES Booklet, at least 4 times. Hopefully they will revise the

booklet to reflect the NEC 2011 code.

4. Obtain some material (any suggestions) on Instrumentation and T&D protection. These wo topics

were my weak areas.

If I start in July of this year, I have approximately 9 months of preparation. Please critique my plan I have mentioned, and add any recommendations as to whether this would be a good approach in passing in April. Again as always congratulations on those who were successful in passing the Power exam. Thank you for your time and patience.

AeroFrank

 
Passed the Elect Power on the 1st try.

My strategy used was:

1. GA Tech class

2. Reference books - PPI, Wildi, and Grainger

3. Sample exams - SpinUp and NCEES

 
Unfortunately I was unsuccessful in passing the Apri 2012 Power PE;however with the support of all of you on this site, I'm not going to give up yet. I'm planning on re-taking the Power PE in April of 2013.

My strategy this time around will consist of the following preparation:

1. Chalepati's online seminar on Electrical Power (Includes his 2 volumes).

2. The Complex Imaginary Volumes (1 thru 4, revised editions)

3. Review and go through the NCEES Booklet, at least 4 times. Hopefully they will revise the

booklet to reflect the NEC 2011 code.

4. Obtain some material (any suggestions) on Instrumentation and T&D protection. These wo topics

were my weak areas.

If I start in July of this year, I have approximately 9 months of preparation. Please critique my plan I have mentioned, and add any recommendations as to whether this would be a good approach in passing in April. Again as always congratulations on those who were successful in passing the Power exam. Thank you for your time and patience.

AeroFrank
I took the PE class on Power from Chevalpti (sp?) last fall (2011). I used that, and the practice exam as my only study aids. I did not pass. When I retook the exam this april, I used the info from that class, along with the "PE readiness" material, Spinup practice exams, and Ugly's electrical reference. I also had the 2011 NEC with the tabs. I passed the second time. I HIGHLY recommend doing as many practice exams/problems as possible!

 
I passed first attempt using the PPI power manual, the PPI online review course (which I felt was over priced but I can't speak for the Chalepati), PPI practice test, NCEES practice test, and the spin up exams.

I worked almost all the problems in the power reference manual, did the NCEES and PPI exams at least twice each making sure to simulate the actual test conditions once for each test and I did 4 of the 5 spin up exams.

I also recommend tabbing your NEC book, that helped a lot.

As far as references for the instrumentation, the PPI/Camara book had some info in it but not enough to warrant the purchase of it if that is what you are mainly interested in.

I think the biggest thing you can do to improve you chances are get as many sample problems as you can, that was my main focus for my studying.

Hope this helps and good luck on your next attempt.

 
I entered my previous post too quickly - but I was going to say, I recommend doing practice problems over and over and over again! I really like the complex imaginary exams and the spin-up exams... This helped with getting the easy exam problems done quickly! And gave me more time on the exam to focus on the more difficult ones. Good luck!

 
This post references "NCEES Booklet" -- is this the same as the sample exams provided by NCEES or is it an additional resource I'm unaware of? Thanks guys.

 
I tried to do many problems while timing myself (try to get under that 6 min. per question). The NCEES book was really good & this site helped with question discussions. I also used:

Wildi - Electrical Machines, Drives and power systems - A great reference

Graffeo - The Electrical Engineer's Guide to Passing the Power PE Exam (also has a practice test for when you get too familiar with the NCEES questions) - Follows the NCEES Subjects

Grainger & Stevenson - Power System Analysis - Good too have for the exam

Chelapati - A Good reference

NEC Code Book - Of course this is needed.

Good Luck on the exam!

 
I forgot to mention, you specifically mentioned Instrumentation and T&D protection. The Wildi book has a good section on CT's & PT's. Also, the Graffeo book has basic T&D info such as CT's, PT's, saturation, relaying and symettrical components. Staying with the topic of T&D it also has pole framing, BIL and a lot of power flow. There is a section on instrumentation. It is not as complex or in depth as the other books, but it covers the NCEES topics in a less complex fashion.

 
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