Would like some studying advice

Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum

Help Support Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
If you're using referencing time in your sinusoid equation then you have to use the max value otherwise you'll use RMS.

Okay so it doesn't matter so the equation they give should work as shown regardless of if it's wye or delta. I guess I have a hard time understanding obtaining a line to neutral voltage in a delta but still having to multiply it by the square root of 3 to get the line to line voltage. I guess I just need to remember that and not let it trip me up

I'm not sure if that answered my question here, unless by "HP conversion" you're implying that what I said about 3 phase was right? Also I don't know what you mean by "minutes part of the RPM if it's underneath the HP." I'm guessing I've just never seen what you've referencing before

Alright, maybe that's just not a thing, which is possible.

Okay good, that's what I thought. I've been mixing that stuff up so much since I started studying I find it hard to trust myself on it anymore. I'll make note of that now that I have confirmation

Alright, so just to make sure, unless it gives the sinusoid equation of the voltage with respect to time you just use the rms voltage it gives? Like a transmission line with a certain line to line voltage, you'd just use the line to line voltage in that equation

Little late for that since I take the exam on the 12th. While I feel like reading the book front to back was primarily a waste of time the two exams from his Power Sample Exams book seem good to me and just looking up specific information got me good results for the manual itself. Maybe about 10 to 15 were questions I don't expect to see anything about on the exam but out of 160 questions that's not that many. I do plan on using ProGuides and Zach Stone's stuff from here to the test though
I apologize. I had you confused with someone else on here who had just started studying.

The HP conversion does work on 3 phase or single phase. I was just talking about using the 33,000 HP to (ft-lbf/min) conversion for the torque equation. Ws is in RPM so you have to cancel out the min. I don't know if that's applicable to your question. It's just something that has tripped me up before.
1612125901963.png
1612126012865.png

The main place that Max vs RMS Vs Average voltage comes up is the power converters, or possibly for inductor and capacitor calculations. I think most other equations in the handbook use RMS. That's just off the top of my head though. Yes most transmission line questions will give you L-L voltages that are RMS.
 
Okay, been a while, been doing more sample exams. This time ProGuides. I took the "Final Exam" one all in one day and treated it like the real exam as best I could. I did absolutely terrible on it. I'm now working on the "Full Exam" one and am about 3/4th done. I am doing better but still terrible. Are the ProGuides exams skewed harder then most practice exams? It certainly feels like they are, and if they are that'd make me feel a bit better, though maybe I don't deserve to.

At any rate I have a lot of questions but I haven't complied them all yet seeing as how I'm still in the process of doing questions. However there is one I just came across that I really want to ask about right now because it's bothering me so much.

In the handbook there is a section on parallel transformers, section 4.3.1.6. There are two equations relating to values for two transformers in parallel. I tried to use both of them for questions in the book and neither worked out correctly the the solution did something entirely different. Are they wrong? Am I using them wrong? The handbook doesn't exactly explain how to use the equations it provides, so user error is probably the issue, but it sure seems wrong to me.

The first one, ratio of transformer 1 current to transformer 2 current seems wrong because if the two transformers have the same rating and Zt1 > Zt2 then I1 > I2. But that's wrong. Higher resistance means less current. If Zt1 > Zt2 then should be I2 > I1.

I used the second equation to try to find what Sl1+Sl2 would be for two transformers in parallel and it didn't work. The solution used an entirely different equation that's not in the handbook unless I'm missing it somehow. I solved for what the ratio of Sl1/Sl2 would be then let one be max to see what the other one would be. Whichever didn't overload the non-maxed transformer was the correct one. Looking at the solution that part is at least right, but the relation between Sl1 and Sl2 was entirely wrong.

Any idea what's up with these two? I really doubt they are just wrong but I don't see what I'm doing to make them not work right either.
 
Okay, been a while, been doing more sample exams. This time ProGuides. I took the "Final Exam" one all in one day and treated it like the real exam as best I could. I did absolutely terrible on it. I'm now working on the "Full Exam" one and am about 3/4th done. I am doing better but still terrible. Are the ProGuides exams skewed harder then most practice exams? It certainly feels like they are, and if they are that'd make me feel a bit better, though maybe I don't deserve to.

At any rate I have a lot of questions but I haven't complied them all yet seeing as how I'm still in the process of doing questions. However there is one I just came across that I really want to ask about right now because it's bothering me so much.

In the handbook there is a section on parallel transformers, section 4.3.1.6. There are two equations relating to values for two transformers in parallel. I tried to use both of them for questions in the book and neither worked out correctly the the solution did something entirely different. Are they wrong? Am I using them wrong? The handbook doesn't exactly explain how to use the equations it provides, so user error is probably the issue, but it sure seems wrong to me.

The first one, ratio of transformer 1 current to transformer 2 current seems wrong because if the two transformers have the same rating and Zt1 > Zt2 then I1 > I2. But that's wrong. Higher resistance means less current. If Zt1 > Zt2 then should be I2 > I1.

I used the second equation to try to find what Sl1+Sl2 would be for two transformers in parallel and it didn't work. The solution used an entirely different equation that's not in the handbook unless I'm missing it somehow. I solved for what the ratio of Sl1/Sl2 would be then let one be max to see what the other one would be. Whichever didn't overload the non-maxed transformer was the correct one. Looking at the solution that part is at least right, but the relation between Sl1 and Sl2 was entirely wrong.

Any idea what's up with these two? I really doubt they are just wrong but I don't see what I'm doing to make them not work right either.
Attached are the formulas that I learned from Zach Stone's Electrical PE Review and use for parallel transformer problems where the 2 transformers have the same turns ratios and connection types (but not necessarily same VA rating or per unit impedance). Basically, you need to first determine which transformer is limiting. Then from there, the other transformer's VA rating is multiplied by the ratio of p.u. impedances as shown in the bottom 2 formulas.

It is possible to derive the top formulas (to determine which transformer is limiting) from the formula provided in the reference handbook by setting either (S1/S1 rated) or (S2/S2 rated) equal to 1. Off the top of my head, I think the handbook presents it as S1/S2, you can simply take the inverse or reciprocal to determine S2 using the limiting transformers formula.
 

Attachments

  • Parallel Transformers Limiting Transformer.jpg
    Parallel Transformers Limiting Transformer.jpg
    53.2 KB
Okay, been a while, been doing more sample exams. This time ProGuides. I took the "Final Exam" one all in one day and treated it like the real exam as best I could. I did absolutely terrible on it. I'm now working on the "Full Exam" one and am about 3/4th done. I am doing better but still terrible. Are the ProGuides exams skewed harder then most practice exams? It certainly feels like they are, and if they are that'd make me feel a bit better, though maybe I don't deserve to.

At any rate I have a lot of questions but I haven't complied them all yet seeing as how I'm still in the process of doing questions. However there is one I just came across that I really want to ask about right now because it's bothering me so much.

In the handbook there is a section on parallel transformers, section 4.3.1.6. There are two equations relating to values for two transformers in parallel. I tried to use both of them for questions in the book and neither worked out correctly the the solution did something entirely different. Are they wrong? Am I using them wrong? The handbook doesn't exactly explain how to use the equations it provides, so user error is probably the issue, but it sure seems wrong to me.

The first one, ratio of transformer 1 current to transformer 2 current seems wrong because if the two transformers have the same rating and Zt1 > Zt2 then I1 > I2. But that's wrong. Higher resistance means less current. If Zt1 > Zt2 then should be I2 > I1.

I used the second equation to try to find what Sl1+Sl2 would be for two transformers in parallel and it didn't work. The solution used an entirely different equation that's not in the handbook unless I'm missing it somehow. I solved for what the ratio of Sl1/Sl2 would be then let one be max to see what the other one would be. Whichever didn't overload the non-maxed transformer was the correct one. Looking at the solution that part is at least right, but the relation between Sl1 and Sl2 was entirely wrong.

Any idea what's up with these two? I really doubt they are just wrong but I don't see what I'm doing to make them not work right either.
I also attached a few more parallel transformers equations I learned from Complex Imaginary, Electrical PE Review, and A.S. Graffeo.
 

Attachments

  • Parallel Transformers Equations.jpg
    Parallel Transformers Equations.jpg
    39.4 KB
Haven't gotten around to looking at those yet because I'm still caught up trying to take all these practice exams. Spent 4 hours today doing the first half of the Electrical PE Review practice exam and then like 3-4 hours trying to go over them, and I even skipped a few that I was having a lot of trouble understanding. I got blindsided by so many questions that I'd never seen before along with a handful of getting tricked by gotcha answers that it really started getting to me , especially since it's taking me so long to go over them too. With how this one has been going and the last ones I did before I just don't know if I'm going to be able to be ready by Friday anymore. With how much I was studying all the time plus all the time I'd be studying the two weeks leading up to the exam I thought I'd be able to be ready for it, but everything I do just keeps reinforcing the the idea that that might not be the case

So now I have to think about just rescheduling it for later. I don't like putting it off, but going in unprepared and failing is a terrible idea when I'm going to pay for the second time, not to mention how upset I'd be if I failed. Since it's 48+ hours before the exam I should be able to reschedule without having to pay a fee so the only thing I really have to worry about is actually forgetting things between now and when I do take the exam. The earliest for the locations near me is in April, which gives me plenty of time to study intermittently between now and then but also a lot of time to forget things as well. It'd also make how long I've been studying for this exam actually be a year instead of nearly a year.

I'll be sleeping on it, but I wanted to at least get this out there, maybe one of you guys has some advice. I could use it. With luck anxiety just got to me really badly today and I'll feel better tomorrow after I sleep, but I'm not really counting on it
 
Haven't gotten around to looking at those yet because I'm still caught up trying to take all these practice exams. Spent 4 hours today doing the first half of the Electrical PE Review practice exam and then like 3-4 hours trying to go over them, and I even skipped a few that I was having a lot of trouble understanding. I got blindsided by so many questions that I'd never seen before along with a handful of getting tricked by gotcha answers that it really started getting to me , especially since it's taking me so long to go over them too. With how this one has been going and the last ones I did before I just don't know if I'm going to be able to be ready by Friday anymore. With how much I was studying all the time plus all the time I'd be studying the two weeks leading up to the exam I thought I'd be able to be ready for it, but everything I do just keeps reinforcing the the idea that that might not be the case

So now I have to think about just rescheduling it for later. I don't like putting it off, but going in unprepared and failing is a terrible idea when I'm going to pay for the second time, not to mention how upset I'd be if I failed. Since it's 48+ hours before the exam I should be able to reschedule without having to pay a fee so the only thing I really have to worry about is actually forgetting things between now and when I do take the exam. The earliest for the locations near me is in April, which gives me plenty of time to study intermittently between now and then but also a lot of time to forget things as well. It'd also make how long I've been studying for this exam actually be a year instead of nearly a year.

I'll be sleeping on it, but I wanted to at least get this out there, maybe one of you guys has some advice. I could use it. With luck anxiety just got to me really badly today and I'll feel better tomorrow after I sleep, but I'm not really counting on it
There's nothing wrong with wanting to reschedule your exam because you still don't feel ready for it. There were previous posters who also contemplated rescheduling, and we encouraged them to do so since it would be much better to take this exam feeling at least 85% to 90% prepared as opposed to feeling 50% ready. Keep in mind that it is pretty close to impossible to feel fully 100% ready. You should expect a few curve balls that you don't see in practice exams.

IMO, my advice is that once you're able to comfortably do the Electrical PE Review and Engineering Pro Guides practice exams without having to rely on looking at their solutions, that's when you should feel adequately ready to take on the actual PE Power exam. Without saying too much/too specific due to the NDA agreement, the general consensus on this board is that the difficulty of the Electrical PE Review and Engineering Pro Guides exams is similar to what you should expect for the actual PE Power exam. So you may want to consider repetitively doing these practice exams and other practice exams until you're fully (or close to 100%) comfortable with doing these questions without having to look at the solutions all that much.

I'm sure that others will chime in on advice for you as well.
 
Haven't gotten around to looking at those yet because I'm still caught up trying to take all these practice exams. Spent 4 hours today doing the first half of the Electrical PE Review practice exam and then like 3-4 hours trying to go over them, and I even skipped a few that I was having a lot of trouble understanding. I got blindsided by so many questions that I'd never seen before along with a handful of getting tricked by gotcha answers that it really started getting to me , especially since it's taking me so long to go over them too. With how this one has been going and the last ones I did before I just don't know if I'm going to be able to be ready by Friday anymore. With how much I was studying all the time plus all the time I'd be studying the two weeks leading up to the exam I thought I'd be able to be ready for it, but everything I do just keeps reinforcing the the idea that that might not be the case

So now I have to think about just rescheduling it for later. I don't like putting it off, but going in unprepared and failing is a terrible idea when I'm going to pay for the second time, not to mention how upset I'd be if I failed. Since it's 48+ hours before the exam I should be able to reschedule without having to pay a fee so the only thing I really have to worry about is actually forgetting things between now and when I do take the exam. The earliest for the locations near me is in April, which gives me plenty of time to study intermittently between now and then but also a lot of time to forget things as well. It'd also make how long I've been studying for this exam actually be a year instead of nearly a year.

I'll be sleeping on it, but I wanted to at least get this out there, maybe one of you guys has some advice. I could use it. With luck anxiety just got to me really badly today and I'll feel better tomorrow after I sleep, but I'm not really counting on it
Don't feel bad about rescheduling if you dont feel ready! I agree with @akyip that youll never feel 100% ready, but you definitely need to get more comfortable and confindent.

From your posts the last few weeks, I think you are absolutely on the right track.
Go through the practice exams youve taken and figure out what youre missing the most. Pick a subject and get good at it, then do another, and another. Break it up into smaller bites.

Definitely do the official NCEES practice exam - i dont remember you mentioning it.

Zach's exam is hard, and it's meant to be a little tricky. If you're struggling with it, check out his course, class, and/or recommended references.

If you're super struggling - walk through the solution and make sure you understand why and how each step in the solution is made. This will help you more than anything.
 
Probably should have responded to this earlier, but studying for 8+ hours every day really takes it out of you. I decided to take the test. While I was freaking out I talked to my parents and boss and they all said if they were in my position they'd try even if they didn't think they were prepared. Best case, actually were and I was just panicking. Worst case, I have to take the exam again later. If you ignore the nonfatal psychic damage that failing will cause me I have effectively nothing to lose from trying and everything to gain. I've been saving so much money working from home that I'm sure that'd cover the cost of taking the exam again and the days without pay I'll need to take.

At any rate, I've literally doubled my initial estimates of studying. I was planning on 4 hours a day each day and well that turned into 8+ as I said. I went over Stone's exam and the NCEES yesterday and the ProGuides Final Exam today. And yes, I've been using the NCEES practice exam, it was the first thing I used to study, actually. Tomorrow I plan to look over the ProGuides Full Exam and then study miscellaneous topics, which I am also doing right now.

Segway into that then, parallel transformers. I appreciate the equations akyip, that second one is like the one in my solution to one of the exams I've used, while I haven't see the first before. I like that first set much better, it's much easier for me to memorize then that second set. I'm sure I'd make a mistake somewhere and I don't really want to waste any more time trying to figure out what good the equations in the handbook are for.

I originally was going to ask about the solution for 125 in the NCEES since it changes the base before it solves for the maximum total load which no other solution I've seen did but since that first set of equations worked on the same problem and is roughly as easy to memorize without having to change bases I'll just go with that.

And while I'm just rambling here, looking over these exams has been much nicer time compared to doing them. Especially the NCEES exam. I took it almost a year ago and got a whole 13 questions right. I didn't know anything about per unit or transmission lines, never did anything with fault currents before, was too out of practice with complex numbers to deal with them most of the time, and plenty of others too. Now I know those pretty well, along with most of what was on that exam. If the actual one is most like it than any of the others I've taken, I might just pass.

Though I fear it might not be. With people saying theory is more prevalent than it was before being computer based I worry that all my studying won't do me much good. Numbers and equations often mask the theory that forms them and while I'm pretty good by now at taking variables and finding a solution I'm not so great when it comes to asking why something happens because of this or that. I also don't really know how to study something as vague as theory, and I don't have time to try to fill my head with random knowledge either. At this point I'll probably just read up on some topics I'm bad with today and tomorrow and hope I get lucky.

Anyway, thanks for the help and encouragement. I have a bit more time to study today, all of tomorrow, and then the test on Friday. I'm still anxious but I just have to remember this isn't life or death, even if it seems like it is.
 
Probably should have responded to this earlier, but studying for 8+ hours every day really takes it out of you. I decided to take the test. While I was freaking out I talked to my parents and boss and they all said if they were in my position they'd try even if they didn't think they were prepared. Best case, actually were and I was just panicking. Worst case, I have to take the exam again later. If you ignore the nonfatal psychic damage that failing will cause me I have effectively nothing to lose from trying and everything to gain. I've been saving so much money working from home that I'm sure that'd cover the cost of taking the exam again and the days without pay I'll need to take.

At any rate, I've literally doubled my initial estimates of studying. I was planning on 4 hours a day each day and well that turned into 8+ as I said. I went over Stone's exam and the NCEES yesterday and the ProGuides Final Exam today. And yes, I've been using the NCEES practice exam, it was the first thing I used to study, actually. Tomorrow I plan to look over the ProGuides Full Exam and then study miscellaneous topics, which I am also doing right now.

Segway into that then, parallel transformers. I appreciate the equations akyip, that second one is like the one in my solution to one of the exams I've used, while I haven't see the first before. I like that first set much better, it's much easier for me to memorize then that second set. I'm sure I'd make a mistake somewhere and I don't really want to waste any more time trying to figure out what good the equations in the handbook are for.

I originally was going to ask about the solution for 125 in the NCEES since it changes the base before it solves for the maximum total load which no other solution I've seen did but since that first set of equations worked on the same problem and is roughly as easy to memorize without having to change bases I'll just go with that.


And while I'm just rambling here, looking over these exams has been much nicer time compared to doing them. Especially the NCEES exam. I took it almost a year ago and got a whole 13 questions right. I didn't know anything about per unit or transmission lines, never did anything with fault currents before, was too out of practice with complex numbers to deal with them most of the time, and plenty of others too. Now I know those pretty well, along with most of what was on that exam. If the actual one is most like it than any of the others I've taken, I might just pass.

Though I fear it might not be. With people saying theory is more prevalent than it was before being computer based I worry that all my studying won't do me much good. Numbers and equations often mask the theory that forms them and while I'm pretty good by now at taking variables and finding a solution I'm not so great when it comes to asking why something happens because of this or that. I also don't really know how to study something as vague as theory, and I don't have time to try to fill my head with random knowledge either. At this point I'll probably just read up on some topics I'm bad with today and tomorrow and hope I get lucky.

Anyway, thanks for the help and encouragement. I have a bit more time to study today, all of tomorrow, and then the test on Friday. I'm still anxious but I just have to remember this isn't life or death, even if it seems like it is.
Ah yes, the NCEES practice exam and A.S. Graffeo practice exam use a solution of converting the p.u. impedances of the 2 parallel transformers to the KVA base of the higher-VA-rated transformer, and then does something along the lines of:

(Load 1/Load 2) = (Z2 pu/Z1 pu)

I do remember seeing that when I was first studying for the PE. Honestly IMO, this solution is harder to remember and understand, compared to Zach's limiting transformers method. I remember trying to use this solution from the NCEES practice and A.S. Graffeo exams on some parallel transformers/generators questions from the Spin-Up sample exams, and that did not work for me. On the other hand, I was able to successfully use the limiting transformers method on those questions from the Spin-Up exams, and all other parallel transformers practice questions.



As for the theory/qualitative stuff, I find that repetitively doing such questions from practice exams, and also thoroughly reading the solutions to these questions, helps drill such qualitative/theory-related concepts into my head. For a topic that I was particularly stumped on (e.g. equal-area criterion, certain power electronic devices), I would take one or multiple reference books covering that topic, read their sections/chapters of that topic, and write down important notes concerning that topic. That further helped me understand the concepts I needed to know.



It's up to you on when you want to take the PE exam. Good luck!
 
It is up to me, though not anymore, it's too late to change it. Was wrapping up my studying today, not doing so well. I don't know if it's nerves or if I'm bleeding knowledge but nothing was really clicking with me today. Now freaking out that I might not understand fault currents very well since I rewatched Stone's videos "Base Change Per Unit and Percent Impedance" and it seems like I was wrong about when the voltage actually changes, but then when looking at a solution in the ProGuides Full Exam it did something that's at least seemingly against what Stone was saying.

Basically, my problem is how to convert impedances to the same base. How I've been doing it is to just ignore the voltage part of the Znew equation and just changing the power base of the impedances that didn't have the same base I was using and then I could add them up to get the combined Z, divide it by the base power to get the short circuit power, then solve for the short circuit power using Ssc=squareroot(3)*Vrated*Isc, where Vrated is the rated voltage of the voltage zone that I want the short circuit current in. The solutions I remember looking at did it like this. Based on the video that's wrong though, I should be changing the voltage base too, so now I'm entirely lost and losing it.

I really don't need this kind of conflicting information right now. It also happened with some of the other solutions to the ProGuides questions. How it solved for currents in a particular phase for the harder faults didn't make sense based on the resources I checked and handbook, but I also can't imagine they're wrong either. So even if I remember how to do something, if it's actually just the wrong way to do it I'm still not going to get the right answer. I'm so screwed unless I somehow get really lucky on the test tomorrow.

I'm going to look over more fault current questions and see what's going on with them. I wanted to do a lot of other things but this is probably more pressing than anything else. Wish me luck for tomorrow if you don't mind, I'll really need it.
 
It is up to me, though not anymore, it's too late to change it. Was wrapping up my studying today, not doing so well. I don't know if it's nerves or if I'm bleeding knowledge but nothing was really clicking with me today. Now freaking out that I might not understand fault currents very well since I rewatched Stone's videos "Base Change Per Unit and Percent Impedance" and it seems like I was wrong about when the voltage actually changes, but then when looking at a solution in the ProGuides Full Exam it did something that's at least seemingly against what Stone was saying.

Basically, my problem is how to convert impedances to the same base. How I've been doing it is to just ignore the voltage part of the Znew equation and just changing the power base of the impedances that didn't have the same base I was using and then I could add them up to get the combined Z, divide it by the base power to get the short circuit power, then solve for the short circuit power using Ssc=squareroot(3)*Vrated*Isc, where Vrated is the rated voltage of the voltage zone that I want the short circuit current in. The solutions I remember looking at did it like this. Based on the video that's wrong though, I should be changing the voltage base too, so now I'm entirely lost and losing it.

I really don't need this kind of conflicting information right now. It also happened with some of the other solutions to the ProGuides questions. How it solved for currents in a particular phase for the harder faults didn't make sense based on the resources I checked and handbook, but I also can't imagine they're wrong either. So even if I remember how to do something, if it's actually just the wrong way to do it I'm still not going to get the right answer. I'm so screwed unless I somehow get really lucky on the test tomorrow.

I'm going to look over more fault current questions and see what's going on with them. I wanted to do a lot of other things but this is probably more pressing than anything else. Wish me luck for tomorrow if you don't mind, I'll really need it.
Good luck!

Which specific questions from the Electrical PE Review exam and the Engineering Pro Guides exam are you having trouble with?
 
Unfortunately I was too busy in the morning to check the board so I missed that post, not that I'd have had a lot of time to try to use the references even if I did. I might look them over later, but not right now, just trying to enjoy my weekend without studying, which hasn't happened for a while.

Test was easier then I feared but was still hard. All I can say is that I'm cautiously optimistic about passing. If I had more time to study I think I would have done better, but I dunno by how much really. Some things I studied and then the exam asked questions about them in ways I hadn't studied them so I wasn't sure of the right answers. Other things I'd never even heard of before. I do know that out of the main topics instrumentation was one I did poorly on. I just didn't have time to study them enough and it showed on the exam.

I really just don't want to think about it though. I wrote down what I remembered for my own use in studying if I do fail so I can just clear my mind of everything for now, but I'm really hoping I passed so I can put this behind me.
 
Unfortunately I was too busy in the morning to check the board so I missed that post, not that I'd have had a lot of time to try to use the references even if I did. I might look them over later, but not right now, just trying to enjoy my weekend without studying, which hasn't happened for a while.

Test was easier then I feared but was still hard. All I can say is that I'm cautiously optimistic about passing. If I had more time to study I think I would have done better, but I dunno by how much really. Some things I studied and then the exam asked questions about them in ways I hadn't studied them so I wasn't sure of the right answers. Other things I'd never even heard of before. I do know that out of the main topics instrumentation was one I did poorly on. I just didn't have time to study them enough and it showed on the exam.

I really just don't want to think about it though. I wrote down what I remembered for my own use in studying if I do fail so I can just clear my mind of everything for now, but I'm really hoping I passed so I can put this behind me.
Take a break for now. It's best not to think at all about the exam after you take it, during the period you're waiting on test results.

Work on other stuff, or take a break. Don't think about the exam now.
 
OK, you have done the best that you know how-- don't worry any more. This exam (the PE exam) is a real challenge, however, it is not impossible. The key to this exam is to have in-depth familiarity with the NCEES Test syllabi-- really know and understand each of the topics in the subject areas-- not only know them, but understand what it is that we are testing for.

The NCEES syllabi material comes from what industry says is important for a PE candidate to know. I have worked on the Industrial and Systems exam for the past 11 years-- having served as a committee member, vice co-chair and now, as the exam committee chair.

Although I don't know the PE Electrical exam, I think that most development committees use a similar philosophy-- the topics on the syllabi are what is fair game for the exam. Develop a good understanding of each topic and you will do fine. Remember, we are testing for the minimally competent engineer, not the A student.

I know that this is frustrating, but you can certainly do this. It is discouraging when you struggle and keep batting your head against the wall, however, you can do it. If you have not signed up for a review course, I would suggest that you do. Often times, having a class setting explains material to you in a way that you did not get on your own. It is always good to have another perspective when you are struggling with a concept.

You can definitely do this-- put the negative doubts out and get back on the horse and ride-- you can do this.
 
I got my results, actually a day earlier then expected. Rolled out of bed and decided to check, just to make sure... and I passed!!!!! I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. I am so happy, but more then anything, relieved. I never want to go through the studying I had to do to pass this exam ever again, but it was entirely worth it in the end. I have to do some other stuff after this but that can wait until Monday, I'm just going to rest on it for now.

Thanks for all the help and support guys, I really don't know what I would have done without this forum. It might not have been a whole lot, but it really helped when I was at my low points during the process.
 
I got my results, actually a day earlier then expected. Rolled out of bed and decided to check, just to make sure... and I passed!!!!! I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. I am so happy, but more then anything, relieved. I never want to go through the studying I had to do to pass this exam ever again, but it was entirely worth it in the end. I have to do some other stuff after this but that can wait until Monday, I'm just going to rest on it for now.

Thanks for all the help and support guys, I really don't know what I would have done without this forum. It might not have been a whole lot, but it really helped when I was at my low points during the process.
Nice Job!
To be honest I went through the same thing you did.

If fact I have been checking this post the last couple of days looking for your update.

Nice work again!
 
I got my results, actually a day earlier then expected. Rolled out of bed and decided to check, just to make sure... and I passed!!!!! I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. I am so happy, but more then anything, relieved. I never want to go through the studying I had to do to pass this exam ever again, but it was entirely worth it in the end. I have to do some other stuff after this but that can wait until Monday, I'm just going to rest on it for now.

Thanks for all the help and support guys, I really don't know what I would have done without this forum. It might not have been a whole lot, but it really helped when I was at my low points during the process.
Congrats on passing!!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top