Study Schedules

[jtucker]

I am planning on taking the electrical (power) PE test (Georgia) in October. I have begun studying but wonder some of the times if I am just spinning my wheels. I am unsure of how "deep" to go in each subject. Don't won't to waste a lot of time learning material that won't be tested, but want to make sure that I learn enough to pass.

I have been out of school for ~14 years an am weak in electronics and ontrol theory. Pretty fair knowledge of power systems so I feel better about the afternoon session than morning. What level of detail can I expect in the A.M for problems that involve transistors, Laplace transforms, etc...

Also, I would be interested to see if anyone can post copies of the schedules that they used to study by. I have tried to create one but would be interested in seeing what worked for others.

Lastly, I appreciate all the comments on this board. I stumbled across it and am thankful for it. Look forward to being with you guys for the forseeable future.

 

[Techie_Junkie_PE_LEED_AP]

You are in almost exactly the same boat I was for the PE Power in April 07. I graduated in 1993 BSEE, and took the FE in 1995 and passed. I took no Power in school, all Electronics and Digital, but I've worked in Power. I wound up studying 2 months not counting 2 weeks wasted on Calc that wasn't needed.

It's more important to study the basics for AM Breadth in different topics. Only go deep for the Depth PM (hence, the name Depth). The AM stuff was straight forward, no "tricks", but you could easily read into them too much and kill yoourself.

My schedule was roughly:

Week 1: Meters, Meshes and Bridges

Week 2: Transients

Week 3: Generators & Motors

Week 4: Power, kVA, kVAR and NEC

Week 5: Transformers

Week 6: Polyphase Systems & Economics

Week 7: Electronics - Transistors

Week 8: Electronics - Amplifiers, ServoMechs & Digital Logic & Controls

I basicly followed the MGI PE Readiness course, but compressed it at the end because I ran out of time.

Since I passed, I have to say it worked out OK, but more time would have made it more relaxing.

I would change the order somewhat and allow more time as follows:

Week 1: Meters, Meshes and Bridges

Week 2: Transients

Week 3: Electronics - Transistors & Amplifiers

Week 4: Electronics - Controls, Servos & Digital (Logic & computers)

Week 5: Power, kVA, kVAR

Week 6: Polyphase Systems

Week 7: Economics & NEC (to break the pace a little)

Week 8: Generators & Motors

Week 9: Transformers

Week 10: Review meters, Meshes, Brdiges, AC & DC stuff, Transients (Inductance & Caps, filters etc.)

Week 11: Review Electronics

Week 12: Review Power Depth (Power, kVA, kVAR, Polyphase, Generators, Motors, Transformers)

(I would keep the Power Depth stuff closer to the end as long as you know you'll have enough time)

If you have time, dedicate a week to review Economics and NEC, if not, don't. You can spend some spare hours familiarizing yourself with the layout of the NEC, like which Sections deal with overcurrent protection, etc.

Leave a week to relax and look through your references to familiarize yourself with them for Exam day and to make sure NO loose pages will fall out at exam (gets you kicked out) and also to preapre your gear (book crates, dolly, snacks, gum, aspirin, change for machines, etc)

A day or two before, take walks, excercise lightly, drink lots of water for two days to hydrate your body and keep you thinking clearly under pressure. This is IMPORTANT, more so than you think. Just take my word and DO it, so you pee a lot for a few days.

Not to preach too much, but eat healthy for a least a week before. Cut down on junk food, sugar, and junk carbs. If you can, do this the whole time you study and you'll remember more and things will click better. (I went on a junk food binge for the whole w weekend after the exam and felt like crap, that showed me the difference what you eat makes!) I had lots of coffee the whole time though, right up to exam day! Matter of fact, I was the last one to sign in exam day because I was at Dunkin' Donuts getting coffee! (no donuts though)

I've preached enough.

Good luck!

PS, I'm a llifetime HP calculator man, but STAY AWAY from the HP33S!! So my posts on it, other HP people agree, it ain't no friggin HP! I used the Casio 115MS and it was sweet! I put my HP33S on eBay the day after the PE. HP33s=$50, Casio 115MS=$15, so get two, one for a backup.

 

[jtucker]

I am planning on taking the electrical (power) PE test (Georgia) in October. I have begun studying but wonder some of the times if I am just spinning my wheels. I am unsure of how "deep" to go in each subject. Don't won't to waste a lot of time learning material that won't be tested, but want to make sure that I learn enough to pass.
I have been out of school for ~14 years an am weak in electronics and ontrol theory. Pretty fair knowledge of power systems so I feel better about the afternoon session than morning. What level of detail can I expect in the A.M for problems that involve transistors, Laplace transforms, etc...

Also, I would be interested to see if anyone can post copies of the schedules that they used to study by. I have tried to create one but would be interested in seeing what worked for others.

Lastly, I appreciate all the comments on this board. I stumbled across it and am thankful for it. Look forward to being with you guys for the forseeable future.

Thanks a lot Techie. My schedule is similar. The past week or so I have been concentrating on supposedly simple stuff like mesh, nodal analysis, thevin/norton, etc.. just to get used to cranking out caculations. It is amazing how much I have forgotten. Also, I find myself making "careless" errors when working problem. Hopefully that will improve as i keep practicing. I graduated in 1994 and took the FE in 1995 as well. BTW you are absolutely right about the HP33. Unfortunately I purchased one several months ago so that I could get used to it. Did you ever try to manipulate complex numbers on that thing? Talk about a joke. I consider myself somewhat of a "master" of the HP48SX and felt like that if nothing else I could crank out calculations faster than anyone else that showed up for the test. I was pretty upset when I found out they were no longer allowed. ANyway, I may look into the casio. For $15 it is certainly worth a try.

Also, another question concerning studying... As I stated earlier I am somewhat weak in electronics and VERY weak in control theory. I can probably come up to speed in the electronics area but control theory will be a challenge. What are your (or any others) thoughts on just forgetting about the controls portion of the exam (not studying and guessing on test day) and using this time to sharpen up in other areas. I am concerned that if I re-teach myself Laplace transforme, stability, etc... I am going to eat up tons of time that might be better spent in other areas? Hopefully the only controls questions I will see will be in the AM and maybe there want be many. Thoughts?

 

[benbo]

I found the AM control problems to be a gimme. But then again, I took the ECC afternoon, I am lousy in power. If you are taking the power PM then likely the only control problem you will see will be in the AM and they will be pretty simple. A little basic review, just about definitions, and what things look like on various plots (Bode, root locus) would be helpful. Also, you are going to be doing some stuff in circuit analysis that comes pretty close to generating transfer functions. So some control problems on the AM you may actually think are circuit problems. Some AM control problems will probably be so simple that you could answer them just out of your memory banks. But you still have lots of time, so IMHO a brief review of real basic control might get you 2 to 4 points, which can be a big deal on this test.

 

[jdd18vm]

Good question JT and good reply Techie.

I too have been out of school WAY longer than that JT, and its a struggle. I never took any real Engineering courses. But have been doing Electrical Engineering for over 20 years (reason I became eligible to sit for the exam)

I actually had intentions of taking the April exam and joined this board way back. Had some personal issues, and had it changed to Oct. So here less than 15 weeks to go and I have been feeling just like you JT.

Good schedule Techie. I repurchased the books from "the other board" and they give you a schedule that you can modify. But it seemed to broad.

im struggling with some of the basics (Norton, Thevenin) I cant seem to get out of Chapters 26 and 27 in the EERM let alone Lapace and Fourier (those are just foreign words to me now).

I'm committed though, 2-3 hours a night 5-8 hours weekends and a full time demanding job...ugh

I am seriously considering the Testmasters 3 day Workshop in Houston, nothing here in NC at all.

GL JT, congrats Techie.

JD

 

[Techie_Junkie_PE_LEED_AP]

JT,

DON'T skip controls and just guess. Spend at least a little time with that stuff. For AM controls, if you have a LaPlace table showing Laplace and Inverse LaPlace, you should be set. I don't think you'll need to memorize them or know how to do long derivations. If you have time and the review goes well, dive into it, otherwise don't. I did and I didn't need to, like Benbo said.

JDD,

Thanks. If you're having trouble with Norton and Thevinin, try different books. I found EERM is a great refresher and reference, not a great learning tool! Not enough detail. A good book for that is Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering (by L. Bobrow), this book has so much detail, you'll wish it didn't. For good basic Norton and Thev, try basic Electrical Tech books, no calculus and basic, easy to understand. Also Schaum's has good Norton, Thev and mesh stuff. Don't worry about being able to break down a huge complex network, just know the basic rules and current source to voltage source stuff.

Good luck guys!

(Check out my book list post if you're taking Power)