POWER PE SURVEY RESULTS

Past Survey Results

2022 Survey 2020 Survey 2019 Survey 2018 Survey 2017 Survey

LATEST SURVEY FEEDBACK
FOR THE POWER PE CBT EXAM
Updated in May 2021

Key Takeaways from the 2021 Power PE CBT Version

After every PE exam, I conduct an online survey with as many PE exam test takers that I can find. I primarily ask people who take the Enigneering Pro Guides course, but I will also ask people who have purchased just the Engineering Pro Guides books. The survey provides insight into an estimated passing score, how well test takers do based on experience and number of hours studied, which areas of the exam are difficult or easy. The raw results of the survey are shown on the link below.

2020-2022 Survey Results Link

The current pass rate for EPG is 93% (Updated in May 2021). Please see below for a review from a recent Power PE examinee from our course. For more information on pass rates, please see thePower FAQs webpage.

"The Engineering Pro Guides material was mainly what I used to study and I think I would have been lost without it! The course structure was great to keep me on top of my learning and I liked the combination of methods - live class, reading the textbook, watching videos, and practice exams - all working together to reinforce the concepts. Justin is great at explaining everything and very attentive when we have questions. I would definitely recommend the full 16-week course to get the full benefit of his materials and to go over each subject a second time. I appreciated how he allowed me to continue to access everything after the 16 weeks due to the exam being cancelled, up until my CBT exam was scheduled." -Jacinda, PE [Passed February 2021]

What do you wish you knew before you started studying?

The most mentioned answer is that the exam had 1. a lot of conceptual type problems. Sometimes people focus on using equations to solve problems, without understanding the underlying concept behind the equation. The PE exam does not have many simple problems where you can just find the correct equation and plug-in values. The next common thread is the 2. huge amount of required study time. Many engineers wait till a couple of weeks before the PE exam and are overwhelmed by the amount of material required to learn. This is because the Power PE exam covers a huge range of material. The Power PE exam covers from the generator, to the transformer, t&d, substation, utilty meter and finally the NEC within the building. You need to know not only utility side of electricity but also the customer side. The typical electrical engineer only works in one area (t&d, power plant, substation, customer side consultant, protection, etc.). For this exam, you must know the basic concepts and even some practical information on all areas of work.

John, PE [Passed December 2020, 400 study hours]

Don't just be automatic about knowing how to solve the problems, make sure you have a decent understanding of what is going on.

With the test format changing, the questions that will be asked are different than all of the practice test materials that you have access to from years past. There will still be a good amount of calculation problems, but there are also more broad theory questions. That being said, the way I studied (and passed) was by doing a lot of practice problems and understanding why the answer is correct. I think that will help with the theory questions. During the test I was able to logic my way through them based I what I knew about autotransformers or whatever. So don't just be automatic about knowing how to solve the problems, make sure you have a decent understanding of what is going on.

Matt [Did not Pass in December 2020, Passed in March 2021, 300 study hours]

Study concepts too!

I wish I knew to focus on theory/conceptual information, not only problem solving.

Jacob, P.E. [Passed December 2020, 200 study hours]

Qualitative questions, less math.

I wish I knew the amount of qualitative questions that would be asked. I could of studied concepts more than the math to get specific variables.

Sagar, P.E. [Passed January 2021, 200 study hours]

Study concepts again.

I wish I knew that the exam would ask a lot of application based word problems. So try to read some theory on topics like motors, generators, electronic devices and protection.

Dave [Did not pass in February 2021, 300 study hours]

More concepts and theory

I wish I knew more concepts and theory on motors, generators, NEC, Protection and economics.

Raphael, P.E. [Passed February 2021, 400 study hours]

More theory than calculations

I wish I knew that CBT exams are more theory based with less calculations compared to the pen and paper exams.

Mike, P.E. [Passed March 2021, 300 study hours]

More practice exam problems

I wish I knew I should have primarily just done practice questions over and over.

Matt, P.E. [Passed March 2021, 300 study hours]

More theory than calculations

I wish I knew not to focus on calculations so much, I was ignoring the theory/concepts early in my studying.

Mikhail, P.E. [Passed April 2021, 400 study hours]

Modularize learning and gain experience

I wish I knew how to modularize my learning better and learn each section. But, also know that there is a point where you just need to do practice problems for experience....I wish I knew about Justins materials sooner

Jacob, P.E. [Passed April 2021, 200 study hours]

Power flow, generation, transformers

I wish I would have known more about power flow and generation, transformer theory and that the exam would be more conceptual than calculation intensive.

Tom [Did not pass May 2021, 200 study hours]

Know the reference handbook.

I wish I knew to focus on concepts and I wish I knew to understand how to use the reference handbook.

Nicholas, P.E. [Passed May 2021, 400 study hours]

Know the context.

I wish I knew to read the context portions of the practice books I purchased and not to just flip straight to the practice problems.

Buy Engineering Pro Guides Products for the Power PE

On-Demand Power PE Course Power Code Exam Power Full Exam Power Final Exam

What do you wish you practiced or studied more?

The most mentioned answer is that people wished they studied more on (1) Protection. Protection is a very large topic and can also at the same time be very detailed. Engineering consultatns rarely practice different protection schemes outside of sizing circuit breakers in accordance with the NEC. This topic is also very practical, meaning that engineers rarely study the protection concepts tested on the PE exam in college. The next most mentioned answer is (2) Codes & Standards. The codes and standards topic is well known by consulting engineers, but you need a lot of experience to be able to quickly navigate the codes & standards to get the correct answers. Lastly, the Applications/Measurement & Instrumentation topics. These topics cover a wide range of smaller topics like engineering economics, grounding, insulation testing, illumination, lightning protection, ground testing and reliability. The large amount of small topics makes this area of study difficult.

Nathan, P.E. [Passed January 2021, 300 study hours]

Engineering Pro Guides covers everything.

I think that this course really covers everything that you need to know in order to pass the exam. I would say that studying and memorizing how to derive the voltage/current formulas for the different transformer primary-secondary arrangements (delta-wye, wye-wye, etc.) would have been helpful - the provided NCEES formula sheet doesn't have anything close to what is provided in the EPG transformer section for this topic. I'd add that Justin really covers everything I saw on my exam regarding the NEC. I would recommend skimming the first 4 chapters to understand where everything is located but there's no way to memorize the contents by reading. It's much more important to complete all the practice problems to understand how to apply the code.

Peter, P.E. [Passed December 2020, 100 study hours]

Protection, Protection & Protection

I wish I studied protection more.

John, P.E. [Passed December 2020, 400 study hours]

Study the handbook and the codes.

The test is very broad, so make sure you touch on everything. It's all on there. I didn't really look at the NFPA or NESC much when I was studying, but I was able to use the search function and figure them out. Maybe I'd look at those a little more to become more familiar with their content. I would definitely recommend you become very comfortable with the handbook they give you and know where everything is in there.

Dave [Did not pass February 2021, 300 study hours]

Protection & NEC

I wish I studied protection and the NEC.

Additional comments or words of advice for future test takers?

The most common words of advice from past test takers are as follows, (1) Use the PDF versions of your codes during studying. It is important to get used to using the code version and not the handbook version. You want to be able to quickly navigate through the PDF codes. You also want to be familiar with the locations for the key articles and not rely on using the search function for the typical code problems. But you still need to be skilled with using the search function. Next, (2) do as many practice exam problems as you can. It is very important to not look at the solutions, but to really struggle with each practice exam problem. You need to develop the skills of interpreting the problem, analyzing and narrowing down the solutions and finally making sound decisions with your understanding of the concept. (3) Lastly, have sufficient amount of time to study. Many people spend hundreds of hours studying the vast amount of topics on the power pe exam.

Patricio, P.E. [Passed December 2020, 200 study hours]

Go through all of the Engineering Pro Guides class materials.

Pay attention to each video and topic. I felt that almost every single topic was addressed during the exam. Something that I learned while preparing for this test is that there is no shortcut. You have to watch every single video and work all the practice problems. I also did the reading.

Juan, P.E. [Passed December 2020, 300 study hours]

Codes & Standards

Focus on codes and standards and do as many practice problems as you can. Keep notes of the problems you get wrong and focus on fixing those mistakes

Tyler, P.E. [Passed December 2020, 300 study hours]

Understand the concept behind the NCEES formulas

Spend more time understanding how the formulas are derived rather than how to use them.

Peter, P.E. [Did not pass February 2021, 300 study hours]

Flashcards

For each of the practice exams you take, create a few dozen notecards that test theoretical knowledge of topics.

Arianna, P.E. [Passed December 2020, 500+ study hours]

Be solid in your understanding

The test is more theory than calculations. Be solid in understanding the main concepts on Grounding, Protections, CTs and . With the NEC be familiar with the main chapters (conductors, grounding, transformers..). Check code 70E and be familiar with the chapters. Read the questions more than one time, the questions are tricky and sometimes the answer of a question is in another question ahead. Don't trust in the easy questions, be solid in your response checking all possible solutions.

Nawfal, P.E. [Passed January 2021, 100+ study hours]

Why & How?

Understand the concept of material and try to know why and how of things

Andrew, P.E. [Passed January 2021, 500+ study hours]

Rotating machines and Protection!

Do as many practice exams and problems as you can, to better solidify your understanding of the required concepts needed to pass the exam. The biggest topics are rotating machines (synchronous and induction machines) and electrical protection. Read up on these topics, and try to do as many practice problems as you can on these 2 main topics so that you can solidify your understanding on these topics.

Jacinda, P.E. [Passed February 2021, 200+ study hours]

Codes & Standards

Get the pdf versions of the codes and practice navigating them. Become familiar with the NCEES handbook and understand the equations, especially relationships between the variables.

Past Survey Results

2020 Survey 2019 Survey 2018 Survey 2017 Survey

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