October 2016 PE exam - Change in difficulty in response to pass/fail rates 1

[jmbelectrical]

I'll be sitting for the Power PE exam in two weeks, and I just read the following claim (From [URL unfurl="true"]http://engineerboards.com/index.php?/topic/27218-cut-scores/[/url], if it's of interest to anyone):

Just heard back from a buddy on the NCEES Power Society, said the exam is harder this time because the pass rate was too high in April. He mentioned cut score was going to be 59/80.

Can anyone comment on this? Looking at the pass/fail rates for the April 2016 exam, posted at [URL unfurl="true"]http://ncees.org/engineering/pe/[/url], the rates for the Power PE exam are fairly middle-of-the-road. It seems unusual that NCEES would modify the exam content in response to this.

And isn't the cut score defined after the exams are taken, not before?

 

[zdas04]

"Hard" is in the eye of the beholder. It could be harder in that the pass rate may be down, but they do that by adding questions (that are no harder than the rest) in areas where people have historically been weaker statistically. If you've studied all the areas then you'll do fine. If you've blown off the area that everyone blows off then maybe not so good.

[bold]David Simpson, PE[/bold]
MuleShoe Engineering

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist

 

[jpankask]

Can't speak to the electrical PE exam, but in general, if you have properly prepared yourself for the exam, it doesn't matter how "hard" the questions are. They can't invent new concepts for the exam. Either you can solve a problem the proper way, or you get distracted by the extraneous information that could mislead you. If you know how to use your resources, set up the solution to the problem correctly and then solve it methodically, you will do fine. Part of the PE exam is the head-game...if you go into it thinking it will be hard and you won't do well, then you will probably meet your expectations. Make sure you are prepared, make sure you know what you need, what you're taking, where you're going, etc. By now you should have taken at least one practice exam, which will tell you where you are weak...but more importantly which references you will use the most. Spend the next 2 weeks polishing your weak areas and making sure you know how to use and what information is in your most-used references. You will realistically only have 3-4 references that you will use for most of the exam, so don't go in with 20 references, you will waste valuable time looking through a reference you don't know well trying to find out how to do a problem you're not familiar with...skip it and come back if you have time.

As to cut score, it's not really determined until after the exam is graded and they determine whether any questions need to be thrown out...but in reality it doesn't matter during the exam what the cut score it. You're not going to quit taking the exam once you've answered the "cut score" number of questions. Just relax, take a deep breath and focus...get a plan for what to do with the last two weeks and do your best. Good luck!

 

[GregLocock]

Since you can't go back in time to take it before you were ready, what on earth difference does it make?

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[EQguys]

I agree with jpankask. I would also like to add that make sure you highlight and understand the footnotes below a table. There will be some questions on the exam where this little titbit will change the answer.

 

[HamburgerHelper]

The biggest problem I have with the exam is that all the prep material is overkill. Testmasters and PPI's (PPI is the worst) study material is way harder than the actual exam questions. Which I suppose is good if you can answer those questions, but the questions on the exam are all 5 min questions and you don't have time to do any hard calculation. If you spend a lot of time studying some goofy transformer problem, you probably wasted a lot of time that could have better been spent on general concepts or the NEC. Complex Imaginary study material is a pretty good representation of the difficulty of the exam. So, yeah the exam isn't that bad. I have had undergrad exams that were a lot harder though not as long. But yeah, there is a lot of bad prep material that doesn't do a lot more in my opinion than stress anyone going into the exam.

 

[wroggent]

I took the Power PE this past April. I did the practice exams from NCEES and PPI over the course of the three our four Saturdays prior to the exam; overall I think I averaged about 85% on those. I have a lot of experience working with the NEC in a previous job, though. That said, I thought the exam was really easy. I only needed about 2 hours for the morning and afternoon portions each, with time to check over my answers. Will be out of school 4 years this December.

 

[jmbelectrical]

I've purchased and taken all four practice exams by Complex Imaginary and the one practice exam by NCEES. On the Complex Imaginary exams, I averaged between 80% and 85%. The NCEES practice exam was a bit more challenging for me. I scored a 78% as of a few days ago when I last took it.

It looks like I need to just focus on studying and practicing without thinking about how "difficult" the actual exam may or may not be.

 

[djs]

I believe that all of the PE exams are graded "one the curve". Not so much as to maintain a certain percentage passing, but the test is sent out to a select group of university professors who then grade the difficulty of the test.

 

[spieng89]

No curve is placed on the exam. This is documented and referenced in numerous reference manuals (specifically civil in my case) and to my knowledge always has a 59-60/80 cut off. Variation only comes into play if a question is seen as ambiguos and large amounts of people got the answer wrong, which may shift the cut score down.

Though overall nobody really knows NCEES standards. Study to answer at least 60/80 correct and you are guaranteed to pass.