Passed! First Attempt! (Qi Wu - Oct 2023)

I got email notification that my result was released at 3am pacific time. Surprisingly, I passed! Like I mentioned in my last post, I found the exam very difficult. I only had enough time to finish it, but not double check each question.

My study journey:

I started studying after my maternity leave when my baby was 6 months. With a full time job, a baby, I wasn’t sure how much time I could commit each day to study, so I wanted to give myself plenty of time. First 3 months, I was self studying, mostly based on Engineering Pro Guide. It exposed me the topics covered, and the surface level of the material. Then I signed up for Zach’s course, this was when these knowledge really came together and hammered into my brain.

Practice exams:

  • Zach’s Practice Exam

  • AIT

  • Engineering Pro exam bundle (5 exams + 1 code exams)

  • NCEES Practice exam

I don’t know my first attempt scores for these exam, since I used them as a study tool from pretty early on. But towards the end, I was getting 80-95% on all of them except AIT, I only used it as a study guide. I worked on one exam, flagged all the ones either I got wrong, or I wasn’t 100% sure. Then I reviewed the answers thoroughly. Then I moved on to a different exam. I would only come back to the flagged ones after a while, when I completed forgot their answers.

Study Tips:

  • With any Zach’s exam, even if you get a question right, read its answer from head to toe. His answers are often a summary of one type of questions. For example, question 24 of his study guide, is basically a summary of different types of motor start method.

  • Zach’s code cheat sheet, get very familiar with it. The motor chapter can be confusing, that summarizes it.

  • Make flashcards. I made flashcards for the points that I really need to memorize, and often one small topics. For example, how shunt/series capacitor affect the power system. I read them about once a day. I basically have them memorized towards the end.

Exam Tips:

I think the exam questions can be categorized into 3 types:

  1. Easy ones (~30%). These ones you would spend less than a minute on, calculations no more than 2 steps. After Zach’s course, they would be a piece of cake to you.

  2. Code questions (~25%). No shortcut to this, just get really familiar with NEC. The chapters I would really focus on are: 220, 250, 310, 430, 500. These tend to get cross referenced a lot.

  3. The naughty ones. These will be asked in a way you have never seen, taking some serious brain power. However, most of them I could identify one or two incorrect ones, that left me with 50/50 change of guessing.


Lastly, a big thank you to Zach! The course is phenomenal. It really helps get the basics down for me, I think that’s what ultimately helped me pass the exam. Also thanks to this community and your support!