(Belated) Passed PE Power!
Hi everyone, been meaning to share my journey to passing the PE Power for a while now, but kept forgetting to do so till now, so here it is:
I started studying for the PE Power on January 24th of this year, using Wasim's PE Power course as I had taken him for the FE and there was a discount. Across four months all I did was watch lectures, takes notes, and take the mini-exams. All told it took me a recorded 121.7 hours to go through everything that I saw - although there is was probably another 50 or so hours of homework that I didn't record.
My general approach was to watch the lectures, take the quizzes/mini-exams, and then move on to the next section. After I had finished watching everything, then I started working on the homework to help solidify it in my brain. Finished all of that around late May / early June, then started running the official NCEES practice exam - consistently got around a ~65 to 70 score on it, so I was a little worried but not too much. I also picked up Justin Kauwale's exam bundle, although I only ever made it through one of his exams as - visually - it was too distinct from the NCEES practice exams.
Took my exam on June 24th, and failed. Hoo boy, man does that suck bad - especially when your coworkers and boss are all asking how you did and now you've gotta tell them you didn't make the cut. But, one of my coworkers encouraged me that I should give it another go before giving up, and so I went for it again - signed up for the second next earliest exam date and went straight back into the study grind. What followed was one of the arguably hardest three months of study I've ever had.
Over the next three months, I sat back down and watched all of Wasim's MasterClass lectures (something I was not aware was available to me when I first attempted the PE) as well as watching some of the pre-recorded live lectures. For anyone taking his course, I strongly advise to watch the live lectures (either during attendance or the recorded ones), as this is where the bulk of the content began to make sense to me.
I also started watching some of the free courses that Zack Stone has generously uploaded to YouTube, especially his videos on Autotransformers which were incredibly helpful in finally understanding how to deal with them.
While I didn't keep a full record of how many hours I spent on my second attempt, but it's probably close to another 100 or so hours of study, practicing exams, and going over notes. During this time, for both my first and second attempts, I was also working full time - so most of my studying was done after dinner before bed.
I can't tell you how many times I just wanted to give up on this exam and, wanting to see if anyone else was in the same boat, how many times I found older reddit posts of people encouraging to keep on going until the end.
On September 10th, I went in and took my second attempt. Walked out of the test center feeling pretty down; not a single thing of what I had spent the last four months reviewing was on my exam and I was certain that I had failed. But praise God, He parted the sea for me and I got a pass!
Roughly 300 hours over seven months of study. A big thanks to Wasim for his review course, Zach Stone for his free lectures on YouTube, most importantly to God for carrying me through it, but also to everyone who's ever written a word of encouragement to someone struggling to keep going.
There's probably more that I'm missing, thanks for reading this far. To anyone who's going through that same struggle, keep on pushing and don't give up till you reach the goal! If someone like me can do it, then I know you can do it too.