Huge thank you to everyone in this sub for your advice, kind words, encouragement, and support. Absolutely relieved.

I used EET and cannot recommend their program enough. The lecture videos, practice problems, quizzes, simulation exams, all of it is worth every penny. There’s so much material and it’s well worth it. Nazrul is the absolute best!

I would study after work, on weekends, on vacations, on work trips, in the car, really anywhere I could fit in some good studying. I would clock “in” my hours so I could track how much time I actually put into this. I sacrificed countless dinners, family time, outings, and so much.

The biggest thank you to my husband. He took care of the house, meals, our family, and myself all while I was studying. I couldn’t have done this without him by my side the whole way.

Studied for one year using Dr Tom’s, then I had Claude write me a 20 day refresher with a huge prompt that focused on dirty jokes to keep things interesting, then I took the NCEES practice exam timed and everything, then had Claude set up a pedagogy profile on my style of learning and had Claude walk me through each missed or guessed problem using the Socratic Method.

I spit roasted that exam like a suckling pig.

I mostly refrained from alcohol and didn’t have more than one drink in a day for two weeks before the exam. I ate lots of blueberries and cod in the days leading up to the exam and got pretty drunk on exactly 10 Amstel Lights the night before (personal method with proof of concept, you do you).

I recommend this study method except the alcohol part.

Did anyone else get drunk before taking the exam?

I suppose I worried just the right amount. This forum was actually incredibly helpful. Now for the really fun part: justifying my work experience and gathering references.

What a grind! Found out today I passed on my second attempt. To anyone discouraged, hang in there you got this!

After 4 months came up short.

Hi all, looking to see if anyone has any advice on how better to prepare on these topics. Do you all think I was close or pretty far off from passing?

I passed mid June and did the best I possibly could on writing the engagements and got to technical review 2 weeks after submitting. Crossing my fingers now to get approval by September to take at least the seismic in November.

The alternate would be to wait until 2027 and prepare for a whole other exam. If you passed and from CA, what is your next move?

For those who have taken the FE Civil multiple times: did you feel like some attempts were easier or harder than others?
I’m honestly more nervous about my second attempt than my first 😭 What did you study, what resources did you use, and how many hours did you study? And how long after did you schedule another attempt. Any advice for preparing and dealing with exam anxiety would be greatly appreciated!

I received an FE waiver through the California Board and have already passed the NCEES Civil PE exam. I'm hoping to obtain my first PE license in another state before completing California's Surveying and Seismic exams.

Has anyone had experience obtaining an initial PE license in another state and then applying for comity elsewhere? I don't have a preference for which state.

I initially tried Washington, but they required me to take the FE exam. I'd really like to avoid that since it took nearly a year to get my FE waived through the California Board. Any recommendations for states that accept California's FE waiver for initial licensure?

Updated some time yesterday on July 20.

Seismic and surveying exam conceptual guides (PDFs) for sale! Created them myself over the course of my studying/preparation during all my attempts. Each one contains important concepts, topic relationships, and are tailored to help you go faster on the exams. DM for more info!

Trying to work prep problems that apply the USGS culvert discharge equations. I'm not a drainage guy.

I can't get my head around this problem and solution. The culvert diameter is 4ft, the culvert height D is 3ft, the HW depth is 5.5 ft. This is a circular culvert.

The only way I can see this being possible is if you partially bury the culvert. However, if the culvert is partially buried, the active area (that carries flow) will be less than the full area (i.e. less than ...the 4ft dia area). The solution to this problem uses the 3ft spec for D in the equation, then calculates Ao using 4ft.

Is the solution wrong? Or is there an assumption that the inlet is buried a foot deep but the main length of the culvert is fully open and able to carry flow in the full 4ft dia? I'm reasonably sure this book is at least partially AI slop generated, so unsure whether this is my ignorance of drainage practices or nonsensical specs in the problem itself. What say you?

Hi, I am preparing for Refrigeration plant operator B exam. I am looking for PanGlobal Publication books. It’s very difficult to get them from after market. Does anyone have pdf for those books? It would be great help! TIA!

1.5 weeks out from my exam. Pretty comfortable with a lot of the content on EET. What are some of the must know concepts that often go overlooked that I should be focusing on going into the exam?

Hi everyone,

I’m taking the FE Civil exam at the end of this week and was hoping to get some advice on how prepared I seem.

So far, I’ve watched all of Mark Mattson’s videos and have worked through the 2017 and 2020 NCEES FE Civil Practice Exams to the point where I’m very comfortable with the problems. I recently took the NCEES Interactive Exam, though, and scored a 64%.

Based on that, does it seem like I’m on track to pass? Also, do you have any last-minute tips or advice that helped you in the days leading up to the exam?

If you’ve taken the test, how is this handled for the ground loads? Are you usually given these or do you have to look at the map? What if your not particularly good at geography?

Hello everyone,

I passed the PE exam earlier this year! I got a little busy but finally got around to writing up this success story. While studying for the exam I would often read success stories on here so I thought I should share what I did to prepare for the exam.

I bought Zach Stone's Electrical PE Review unlimited package in September of 2025, and started studying by watching and completing all of the videos and homework. I watched all videos at 2x speed, unless there was something that I really didn’t understand I would watch it at 1x.

After completing all of the on-demand and live class videos, I started doing a bunch of practice problems from all different sources, essentially as many practice problems as I could. Then I started adding in timed practice exams, I did a bunch of practice exams.

From September to February I studied everyday for at least 2 hours during the weekdays and at least 8 hours on Saturday and on Sunday. I pretty much didn’t do anything for these 5 months except work, study and go to the gym. Even at the gym I would watch videos related to PE exam material.

Main Study Material

Everything in Zach Stone’s Unlimited Package

Study Guide for PE Electrical and Computer - Asghar

Power Practice Problems for the Electrical and Computer PE Exam - Camara

Reference Material (mostly old books from university, I only used these when I needed clarification on something particular)

Principles of Electrical Machines and Power Electronics - Sen

Electrical Machines, Drives, and Power Systems - Wildi

Electrical Machinery - Fitzgerald, Kingsley 

Fundamentals of Power Electronics - Erickson, Maksimovic

Power Electronics - Hart

Protective Relaying Principles and Applications - Blackburn, Domin

Art and Science of Protective Relaying - Mason

PE Power License Review Study Guide - Kaplan

Electrical Engineering Reference Manual - Camara

Understanding the NEC 2020 - Holt

UGLY’s Electrical References 2020 - Miller

Timed practice exams (did these under simulated exam conditions)

Zach Stone's Technical Study Guide (TSG) - 73.75%

NCEES (2025) - 68.75%

Zach Stone's Alternative Item Type (AIT) - 68.75%

NCEES (2020) - 92.41%

Engineering Pro Guides #1,2,4,5,6 - 74% average

Untimed practice exams (did these as extra practice problems)

Complex Imaginary #1-4

Engineering Pro Guides #3

Zach Stone's 100 Qualitative Practice Problems (QPP)

Zach Stone's End of Class Test

Zach Stone's Random Practice Exam Generator

I did the TSG, AIT, QPP and NCEES practice exams multiple times, I basically memorized the NCEES exams from reviewing them so much.

I think the Electrical PE Review exams are pretty much on par with what I saw on the actual exam, maybe slightly harder. I would say the exam felt like 70% TSG/AIT/QPP and 30% NCEES practice exam in terms of difficulty (to me the NCEES practice exams seemed easier than the actual exam).

The Complex Imaginary exams seemed WAY too easy so I just did them as extra practice problems. I personally wouldn’t recommend them unless you’re able to get them for free.

Engineering Pro Guides was also very good in terms of matching difficulty of actual exam, I would definitely recommend the exam #3 if you’re not comfortable with the code sections. You should expect the actual exam to have a lot of code questions so it’s good to be comfortable with all of the codes and standards.

Out of all the study materials I used, Electrical PE Review was by far the best because it gave me a solid foundation to solve all other problems from third party sources so I’m very glad that I invested in it.

Exam day and after

Going into the exam I felt very confident but it definitely gave me a run for my money and I left feeling it could go either way. The exam honestly felt hard for me, but in retrospect I think it was just because of the testing environment. I took four hours on the first section and four hours on the second section. The first half felt pretty challenging and there were plenty of questions that I wasn’t 100% sure on so I made my best guess and moved on. At the 4 hour mark I reluctantly took my break knowing that I should save a solid 4 hours for the second half. Luckily, the second half seemed much easier to me. I started the second half knowing exactly how to solve almost every question, I felt so much more confident in the second half than the first. There were still some questions that I wasn’t 100% sure about but not nearly as much as the first half. Overall, I left the exam thinking I had a fair shot but then I started checking the answers to a few questions that I guessed on and I realized I got them wrong, so I stopped checking. Another thing I noticed about the exam was that I couldn’t really tell which questions were pretest questions. I took my exam on Monday 2/9 and had to wait until the next Wednesday 2/18 to get my results. During that time I essentially hoped for the best and prepared for the worst, keeping all my study material handy just in case. Thankfully, I received a pass notification!

Based on all the material I used I probably did close to 2,000 practice problems, and probably closer to 3,000 if you count the problems I did more than once. This might seem like overkill and to be honest it probably is but I tried to expose myself to as many different types of problems as possible because I really didn't want to take this exam more than once.

Timeline for PE License (CA BPELSG)

2/9 - PE Exam

2/18 - Pass Results

2/27 - Submitted PE Application

3/4 - Technical Review

3/9 - Final Review

3/13 - License Issued

Hope this information helps you guys, you got this! 

Also here’s a small tip, engineering economics is NOT tested! Read every question carefully!

What was your experience completing the National Evaluation Series (NES) 304? What did you use to prepare? How long did you study for? Did you pass on your first try?

I am scheduled to take the assessment next month. Any advice or suggestions are appreciated. Thank you!

Hi all, I passed my PE exam and am applying for the Texas PE from outside Texas practice. I already have a Texas EIT based on my master's degree in the USA.

Questions: Do I still need to submit my undergraduate degree transcripts?

Also, do I need to transmit my NCEES records, even if I submit all the documents to the Texas board?

Appreciate your help in advance.

Took my exam on 7/10 and passed first go!! I studied using EET and found it to be well worth it. The practice exams were much harder than the actual exam - so I felt very confident on exam day. I have a very busy schedule and found it difficult to watch all the videos. About halfway through the curriculum I pivoted away from watching the videos through and decided to focus on practice problems instead. My biggest suggestion is to run through practice problems and make a mistake log, categorizing the subject matter of your wrong answers and the type of mistake you are making. I have adhd and found it very hard to simulate the day of adrenaline when I was trying to sit down for practice exams so I tried to break my studying up into no more than 20 question per session. I sat down only twice to do 40 question chunks. If you struggle to study 10+ hours a week like some folks on here - it’s okay!! The quality of your studying and consistency is more important than dumping hours and hours into this. And as Nazrul says - you have to make studying enjoyable. So grab a good snack, move your body before hand, and listen to a good pump up playlist before going into it!