I also made a quick references table with all of these resources listed. Note that all amazon links are ‘affiliate links’ (paid links) to help me pay for the site.
I have listed every reference book I took to the Electrical Power PE Exam, and my thoughts on each. I also add PE Exam Resources at the bottom of this list if I hear enough good things from friends/colleagues about a reference that I didn’t use.
NCEES Practice Exam
You need, need, need to get this. They are literally offering you an exam written by the people who will write the one you actually have to take. There is no better resources out there than something provided by the Devil themselves. Seal this puppy shut until it is time to use it.
Engineering Pro Guides
I called this guy ‘Eng Pro Bro’ throughout my studying. I found his stuff later in my studying time and wish I had found him on day one. His products are all PDFs instead of physical books. I have listed the specific products I used below, but recommend his PE Exam Resource material for whatever exam you are preparing for!
Power PE Technical Study Guide – Textbook – by Engineering Pro Guides
This guy’s book was my ‘keystone’ for passing. He has revised it to a ‘textbook’ now and it has been updated for CBT. I printed his book (ask nicely at your job if you can print it there, because color printing is expensive). I printed it in a way that I could ‘chop it up’ into sections to put into my 4’’ reference binder. His ‘formula sheets’ made up the beginning of each section, and then the relevant portions of his chapters were next in each section. I found his writing to be the most useful. I actually understood the chapters and his focus is on how to pass versus complex theory and understanding. To be clear, I don’t know this guy, I just really used the shit out of his book. I will note that there were several errors in his book, but he was prompt in addressing them when I emailed, and he provided an errata sheet addressing all the errors. This tells me that his book is actually going to get better with each iteration of the exam.
Power PE Full Exam – by Engineering Pro Guides
He also wrote a practice exam. His was actually the hardest exam for me even though it comes with a companion handbook. You’ll see below that I call out some of the practice exam writers for using their handbook examples directly in their practice exams. Justin’s exam didn’t do that, and it was legitimately hard. I would recommend purchasing this exam as well.
I recently discovered that he has also put out a ‘‘References Exam‘ for NEC and NESC related question practice. This would have been very useful for me! A large quantity of exam-style, code related questions!
He also now has a ‘Final Exam‘ which provides even more exam-simulation options. Yay!
Additionally, he has created an online review course. Review the description under the ‘courses’ tab on his website, or click here to register. I veered away from review courses, but I think if this one was available at the time, I would have signed up! Also, with the format change to CBT, a review course would be MUCH more compelling!
—
The Electrical Engineer’s Guide to Passing the Power PE Exam – by Alexander S. Graffeo, PE
This book is definitely a good companion book with the ‘Camera Reference Manual’ (below) that everyone talks about. Where one book fails to cover a topic, the other tends to have information on it. I think that if you already have a really good understanding of Electrical Engineering at a high level, this book is useful to you. It is the ‘meat only’ – every single line is packed with information. There is no ‘fluff’ in this book. This book stonewalled me until I was further into studying. I couldn’t follow any of the examples, and the text was over my head. However, after a few weeks of studying, I was able to think on Alex’s level, and use the book to learn about topics that Camera does not cover well. The index at the back of this book is basically useless though. I read some criticism about this book that it is ‘not well organized and is hard to find information during a test setting’ and I would say that is fair criticism. You need to tab the portions of this book yourself if you want to be able to use it. I actually made my own table of contents for this book. Click the next two links to download both pages. (I was recently informed there’s a new edition of this book, so this TOC no longer lines up. Sorry! I can send the excel files of these pages if you contact me, and you can edit/revise it yourself if you have the newer book.)
Table of Contents for ‘Ultimate Guide’ page 1
Table of Contents for ‘Ultimate Guide’ page 2
The practice exam at the back of this book enlightened me on a few problems ‘types’ I had previously been completely lost on, so it was useful in that way. However, the ‘score’ from this exam was not really representative of my knowledge at the time, as several of the questions on the exam are direct copies of the examples from the book. It doesn’t matter how little you know about a topic, anyone can copy an example and get the right answer. That was disappointing.
—
[ Note: for the next 3 books, they have given me a tagged link – you get 15% off if you buy and eligible products from the PPi website using these tagged links. It only works on some products though.]
Power Reference Manual for the Electrical and Computer PE Exam, 3rd Edition – by John A Camera, PE
The feedback I could find about this book while preparing was that it was the ‘be all end all’ PE Exam Resource book that you ‘must have’ with you. I can see why people say that…it is the biggest book out there. The index is unparalleled, which is actually pretty crucial when you come to a question you’ve never heard of. It also has all of the appendices with conversion tables, economics tables, etc. I think it would be unwise not to have this book. That being said, I didn’t find the content of the book to be that great. If there was a concept I didn’t understand, reading it in this book did not help me understand it more. I did not love this book, but I would not have gone without it. (Amazon Link).
Power Practice Exams for the Electrical and Computer PE Exam, 3rd Edition
This is a book containing two practice exams. One of these was the first ‘diagnostic’ exam that I took. You need to keep in mind that PPi isn’t going to write an exam question who’s topic isn’t covered in their reference manual – so ‘miraculously finding a matching example for the question’ won’t be as common on the real exam. I did use both exams from this book during preparation, and they were both fine. I would recommend trying a different pair of practice exams (there were several out there I did not buy because I did not need more exams). You may find that a practice exam written by someone who did not write a companion ‘handbook’ is more valuable and realistic as a diagnostic tool for your preparedness. (Amazon Link).
Power Practice Problems for the Electrical and Computer PE Exam 3rd Edition
This is one of the only books I bought that I would actually recommend against purchasing. I have pretty steep criticism for this book. Basically, you open up a ‘chapter’ of questions, and the questions just march you through the reference manual paragraphs…in order. They are not all multiple-choice questions, which means that often their ‘solution’ is method-specific, which is unrealistic. For example, it was literally say ‘use blank method to solve the question from the previous problem.’ The solution is then about a specific method for doing, say, circuit analysis. This was not what I was looking for. I wanted exam-type problems. (Amazon Link).
PE Exam Resources – Code Books:
National Electric Code (NEC) – HANDBOOK!
I recommend getting the handbook, not just the codebook. The handbook has worked examples and ‘plain English’ explanations. It is 1000 times more useful than the standard code book. You must have this code in your PE exam resources to pass the exam. You will have to look at the NCEES website for which ‘version’ of the code is current for the exam (2017 is linked above). I used NEC 2014 the year I took it. I also recommend you get the ‘EZ Tabs‘ for quicker code navigation.
National Electric Safety Code (NESC)
I was really frustrated about this book because, on average, there were like two questions per exam that required this book. It is not useful for any other questions, or for any learning. It is entirely isolated to the questions that say ‘’according to the NESC, blah blah blah.’’ Obviously, some Engineers need this book for their job, but if you don’t, buying it for the exam is frustrating. Try to borrow this one. Again, check the NCEES website for which year of this code is ‘current’ for the exam.
NFPA 70E Standard for Electric Safety in the Workplace
I had a copy of this (borrowed from work) because I believe it was listed by NCEES as ‘required’ for the exam. I never once cracked it for any reason. However, they may decide to throw a question on there since they list it specifically as a required resource, so I recommend obtaining a copy.
Ugly’s Electrical References
I was looking for a ‘quick reference guide’ for formula’s, trying to find time savings from having to look them up in different chapters of different books. What I eventually realized, though, was that my method of creating your 4’’ binder with tons of worked solutions overrides the need for a quick reference guide (for me at least). I would turn to a previously worked (similar) solution before cracking a formula book. I did not end up using this book with my other PE Exam Resources. I am listing it here for full disclosure of everything I brought with me to the exam.
I wish I had brought…
PE Exam Resources I did not use but have heard very good things about:
Electrical Machines, Drives, and Power Systems – Wildi
This come comes up regularly as very useful for people. Sounds like I should have had it with me!
Spin-Up for the Electrical and Computer Engineering PE Exam (Power): Five Sample Exams
I wish I had had more exams from different authors than my handbooks – wish I had bought these!
Protective Relaying: Principles and Applications, 4th ed. – by Lewis Blackburn
In the time since I completed the exam, I have heard that the section on protection has increased in ‘weight’ – I did some research and found that this book is heavily recommended by current test-takers.
Protective Relay Principles – by Sleva
Another PE exam resources book recommended for protection-related questions.
Just a side note, if you aren’t familiar with Amazon Prime but you are about to order a bunch of books from Amazon, consider the Free Trial of Amazon Prime to speed up arrival of your books!
Long after creating this website, I created amazon affiliate links for all the products I used, because I just learned that you can do that! I’m hopeful that it can help me cover the (relatively small) costs of hosting, and renewing this domain every year (and keeping it ad-free). All in it costs me ~$85 per year. This is the language they asked me to use; ” As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.”
Let me know if you have questions!