Customer Reviews

Electrical Engineering Reference Manual, for the Electrical and Computer PE Exam, 7th ed.

5 star:		(3)
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2 star:		(2)
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I took the April 07 exam and passed. There's no better reference to have for such a comprehensive exam and many other test-takers I saw had the same book. My study regimen consisted of two months of quality studying. The best way to study - do problems, problems, problems! I used this manual, the NCEES sample questions and solutions, Six-minute solutions, Camara's practice exam, and Prof. Ken's free morning question set. On two saturdays before the exam I set aside 8 hours and took the practice exams to get myself disciplined and prepared, and it really helped.

I took and passed the PE in 2006. I think this reference book is definitely worth having in your possession on the exam (at least for the morning session). It provides a concise overview of most of the important topics on the exam. However, I was NOT satisfied with the many sample exams and additional problem sets available. For this reason, I decided to generate my own sample PE exam and to provide it free-of-charge (at klkaiser).

I just passed the PE exam this spring and highly recommend this as a reference. I picked it up based on the positive reviews from pretty much everyone I talked to who had taken, or was taking the test. It provides a great overview of almost every topic in electrical engineering.

As you know the PE test is 80 questions - 40 in the morning, 40 in the afternoon. Each section takes 4 hrs. - dividing it out, that's only 6 min. per question. Obviously you don't have a lot of time to go searching through a ton of reference material to try and dig for answers. This book is logically laid out, and once you get to know it well, you can easily flip right to the topic you need.

My suggestion for passing the test can be summed up in three words: study, study, study! I would recommend getting this book along with the problems book and the NCEES Sample Test book. Give yourself a few months (I know, sounds ridiculous, but a few times a week studying is better than not passing) to gradually go through all the problems. By that time you'll be in the zone and you probably won't need the book for most of the problems - you'll already know what to do.

Get the 7th ed. Reference Manual and the book of Practice Problems - they will thoroughly prepare you for the morning exam, while you will probably want to get some other reference material for whatever afternoon section you are taking (did you save all those books and notes from college?) The Sample Exam and the NCEES sample exam are pretty similar to the real thing, so I would take a look at those for the afternoon session.

Study hard, and good luck!

Practice Problems for the Electrical Engineering PE Exam: A Companion to the Electrical Engineering Reference Manual, 7th ed.

Electrical And Computer PE Sample Examination, 2nd ed.

PE Sample Questions and Solutions: Electrical and Computer Engineering (Book & CD-ROM)

This is a great reference book, both for electrical engineering in general and the PE exam in particular. I used this book as my primary source while studying and working problems for the exam. It also had all the info I needed during the exam. As a fairly young engineer without loads of experience behind me, I leaned heavily on this book before and during the exam and was very satisfied with it. The sections are concise and to the point, and the formulas are easy to pick out quickly from the text. I've had it about 6 months now and have already used it a few times on the job as well.

If there are any drawbacks, one might be that it has so many sections that it can take a little while to look things up sometimes. While this makes for a good comprehensive reference, one has to be well-versed in it to be able to dig for info quickly during the exam. Also, some of the sections don't go into as much detail as some exam questions. In my experience, these areas gave good overviews but didn't give the formulas, coefficient explanations, etc. necessary to attack some exam problems. These don't detract significantly from my overall opinion of the book though.

During the exam, the only books I used were this one, my NEC Handbook, the practice problems manual that accompanies this book, and the NCEES practice exams manual. I had a few other textbooks and some study course manuals with me during the exam, but never reached for any of them. This and the Code were all the reference materials I used. And I passed! (The practice problems book and NCEES exam book are also highly recommended; some problems mirrored those on the exam and each enabled me to get a precious few more solutions that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise.)

In conclusion, this is a great reference book for electrical engineering as a whole, and I wouldn't recommend stepping into the PE exam room without a copy on hand.

I found that the reference manual was missing many important parts (that were on the test), and most of the materials that are on the Power section of the exam are missing, or lack the depth of information to be of any use for studying.

This book sits on my shelf next to the Physics Handbook and other reference titles. I don't use very often, but then I don't use the others very often either. That's why they are called reference books. This volume is excellent for its overt purpose, which is to help you pass the PE exam. It covers a huge swath of the wide field of electrical engineering, in sufficient detail to provide a working grasp of the terminology and principles, though not so much as to guide detailed design work; there are other books for that. Sections range from reviews of basic material to discussion of reasonably sophisticated topics such as information theory. It can be likened to an electronics oriented version of the World Book encyclopedia, written for the technically literate. As such, it is designed to be concise and accessible, easy to flip open and zero in on any topic. In other words, it is great for an open book exam, and it is handy anytime you might want a fast introduction to or refresher on any given topic. Beyond the comprehensive collection of theory, on a down to earth practical note there are wire tables and a chapter on the national electrical code. There is also a section on professional matters, such as economic analysis, law, and ethics, which might make it the only book on your shelf where you can find this. Because it is very good at what it does, this was one of just four books I took into the exam room, in contrast to one idiot who brought in four *crates* of stuff to waste time looking through. Because it is very good at what it does, it is a permanent addition to my electrical engineering reference library. Would I have purchased it even if I never needed it for exam study material? I think the answer is yes. It is that broad and useful.

I used this as the main refernce material for my PE exam. I liked the layout of material in this book more then the others I looked at.

Excellent technical content is significantly detracted by poor font selection and layout, which makes reading difficult. The typeface is extremely poor, printing is too light, and in general the content is overly hard to read.

I bought this book as it was referred by many others as a good reference for PE exam and as the others say, it's good for morning (bridth) section only.