Path to Licensure, Part 2b

This is an addendum to my previous post (part 2a) about the PE exam. In this part, I will describe specific information about the exam subject that I was tested in: Electrical and Computer: Computer Engineering.

DISCLAIMERS:
  1. Past examinees are not allowed to reveal information about specific questions or content presented on the exam per the NCEES Candidate Agreement. This means that I'm not allowed to answer questions or reveal any information about the content of the exam itself.
  2. I do not work for or officially endorse any of the companies or organizations mentioned in this blog post.
  3. As I passed the exam I am hoping that this information will be useful for you, but I make no guarantee that doing exactly what I did will get you a passing grade. Everyone is different; this is just my way of having gone about it.



I regularly work in three distinct engineering disciplines: Electrical, Control Systems, and Software. This made it difficult to decide which exam to take; do I take one of the three Electrical exams, do I take the Control Systems exam, or do I take the Software exam?

Ultimately I decided that it would probably be most beneficial for my career to receive my endorsement in an Electrical discipline, for the following reasons:
  • My state doesn't offer the Software PE exam (in fact, it's being discontinued in April 2019)
  • Several of my colleagues already have their endorsement in Control Systems (probably not a good reason, but certainly one of my considerations anyway)
  • The Electrical endorsement is the most prominently used of the three
So after this, I had to decide which of the three electrical exams I should take: "Computer Engineering", "Electronics, Controls and Communications", or "Power".

By far the most commonly-taken of the three is Power, so I would have had more resources available to me if I had decided to go that route. Unfortunately, I don't work enough in the power field to feel confident in taking such an exam. I have the same concerns with the Electronics, Controls, and Communications exam, which is primarily focused on low-level electronic circuits, which I also do not regularly practice in.

This left the Computer Engineering exam, which for me was a great choice since it focused on both hardware and software concepts, as well as communication protocols and languages, which I DO regularly practice in. I therefore decided that this would be the exam I would purchase resources for and commit to for the October 2018 administration.

What I very quickly discovered was that there are not a lot of resources out there for this particular exam subject; I wanted to take a review course if I could, but no one offered one from what I could tell. According to the NCEES pass rates, only 29 people (first-time- and re-takers) took the Computer Engineering exam in the entire US and US territories in April 2018, and only 12 of them passed. This is a very small number of examinees for this particular subject, and part of the reason for this small number is probably that most Computer Engineers who design processors and computers don't really require a P.E. license to perform their job function. Ergo, fewer resources.

Despite this lack of information, I decided to take the challenge; it was a matter of pride and accomplishment for me.

I am writing this blog post because I want to provide some comprehensive information about this particular subject so that you don't have to feel quite as in the dark as I did if you decide to pursue this particular subject.



After committing to the Computer Engineering exam, the first thing I did was go to PPI's website and purchased their Computer Engineering Exam Bundle. This included a lot of material and I was hoping that it would prove sufficient for my studying.

After this, I looked at the NCEES exam specification for the computer engineering exam and printed a hard copy for my records. You can find the most recent specification on NCEES' web site, but for my examination, the specifications were as follows (this is a screenshot of the specification effective April 2018):


From the above specification I gleaned that I would need to concentrate most of my efforts on computer architecture (30% of exam Q's) and hardware (30% of exam Q's), and touch up on software (20% of exam Q's) and networks (20% of exam Q's).

Next, I created a study plan using a spreadsheet, which included a week-by-week plan of which chapters in the Computer Engineering Reference Manual (CERM) I would study, as well as spaces to record how many hours I studied on each day of the week. I compared it with my weekly goal, which amounted to about 11 hours per week.

I began studying in April 2018 for the exam, and my goal was to study for a total of 300 hours. If you read my previous post, I definitely did not meet that. I will display exactly what my final numbers looked like later in this post.

I studied the CERM for about a month, and worked all the practice problems in the practice problems book that went with it. Surprisingly, I got through to the end of the technical subjects. There were about 4.5 months left before my exam, and I thought it would be good to look for more info. As I looked, I started realizing that the CERM was not going to be enough for me to pass the exam, based on others' past experiences. I specifically read the forums and blog posts from the following links:
Based on the opinions presented in these blogs, I added significantly to my list of reference materials and slightly changed how I was going about studying.



I ended up collecting the following reference materials over the course of my study time (in order of most useful):
  1. Digital Design and Computer Architecture (2nd ed.) - David Money Harris & Sarah L. Harris
  2. Data and Computer Communications (8th ed.) - William Stallings
  3. Modern Operating Systems (4th ed.) - Andrew S. Tanenbaum & Herbert Bos
  4. Computer Engineering Reference Manual for the Electrical and Computer PE Exam (1st ed.) - John A. Camara
  5. Software Engineering (9th ed.) - Ian Sommerville (mostly for software definitions)
  6. Computer Organization And Design - The Hardware/Software Interface (3rd ed.) - David A. Patterson & John L. Hennessy
  7. PE Electrical and Computer - Computer Engineering Practice Exam (Nov. 2017) - NCEES
  8. Computer Engineering Practice Problems for the Electrical and Computer PE Exam - John A. Camara
  9. Electric Circuits (9th ed.) - James W. Nilsson & Susan A. Riedel
  10. Computer Engineering Sample Exam for the Electrical and Computer PE Exam - John A. Camara
  11. Introduction to Wireless Systems - Bruce A. Black et. al.
  12. Engineering Unit Conversions (4th ed.) - Michael R. Lindeburg
  13. Ugly's Electrical References (2011 ed.) - George V. Hart and Sammie Hart
Allow me to break down each reference individually.

Digital Design and Computer Architecture (2nd ed.) - David Money Harris & Sarah L. Harris
ISBN: 978-0123944245

This book was absolutely invaluable, and I'd recommend it as your primary resource in preparing for this exam. Referring to the above specifications, this book covered the majority of the concepts from I. (Computer Systems) and II. (Hardware), which is expected to be approximately 60% of the entire exam. This was the first of my three "core" references.

The nice thing about this book is it gave me a very good review of processor design and of computer memory systems. I had used a different textbook for these subjects when I was in college (see "Computer Organization and Design" below), and I found that it was much harder to pick up and re-learn these concepts from it. David Harris and Sarah Harris break the designs and concepts into manageable pieces that are easy to understand, and I was able to pick up these concepts again very quickly.

The book also has one chapter dedicated specifically to Hardware Description Languages (HDL's), which is another important topic from the specification. Since I'm not actually working in the computer engineering industry, I didn't have a good grasp on the subject, and I feel that the book gives a very comprehensive introduction to how to use them and how they apply to computer systems. Incidentally, the book uses both Verilog and VHDL, which are two of the most commonly-used HDLs in the industry; I would recommend getting familiar with both.

Finally, the book gives some excellent practice problems for each of its 8 chapters, and I recommend going through as many of them as you possibly can. They provide the odd-numbered solutions online for your reference, and many of the questions are duplicates with different values, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out if you're on the right track or not.

I purchased this book mainly because of how highly it was recommended by other bloggers who took the Computer Engineering exam. I was not disappointed. Drs. Harris and Harris, if you're reading this, thank you, thank you, thank you for this book.

ISBN: 978-0132433109

This book was my main reference for several of the data encoding and encryption concepts from I. (Computer Systems), and most of the concepts from IV. (Computer Networks). I had this book from when I was in college, and thought it would prove useful. This was my second of my three "core" references.

I mainly read through this book during my study time instead of doing practice problems; I didn't find them to be quite as useful since they were mostly essay questions. The PE exam is multiple choice and I expected most of the questions to be computational in nature. At any rate, I found that it was more useful for me just to know where everything was and just find the reference when I needed it.

This is an older edition of the book (I think it's at 10th ed. now), but I didn't feel like I was disadvantaged because of it. Nevertheless, you would probably be better off getting the most recent edition of this book as it contains updated content based on industry changes.

Modern Operating Systems (4th ed.) - Andrew S. Tanenbaum & Herbert Bos
ISBN: 978-9332575776

I purchased this book at the recommendation of one of the blog posts listed at the beginning of this article, and I found it to be surprisingly useful.

This book was mainly for looking up definitions regarding III. (Embedded System Software) from the specification. I did not read through every page of the book during my study period, and I don't think it's necessary. The index is pretty good and the book is well-written enough that it's not difficult to find a clear explanation or definition for most of the problems you need an answer to. Definitely recommended.

ISBN: 978-1591261704

Affectionately abbreviated "CERM", This was my third and last "core" reference for the exam. It came with the Computer Engineering Exam Bundle from PPI.

Some blog posts that I mentioned earlier would rate this book as useless, and to be sure, it is an incomplete reference manual. The biggest problem with this reference is that it dedicates so little time to several critical elements of the exam specification (the most obvious being Computer Architecture), while dedicating way too much time to subjects that are useful to know, but probably not for the exam (about half the book is good for review, but not directly related to computer engineering at all).

As I stated, the lack of detail in this book required me to seek other references. This was disheartening, since PPI claims that the bundle (including this book) contains EVERYTHING you need to pass the PE Computer exam the first time. Especially after taking the NCEES practice exam (described below), I was about ready to complain to them.

I want to give this book the benefit of a doubt; there is only one version in print at this time, and it was originally written in 2010, so maybe it just needs an update. Still, the fact that PPI is willing to claim that you won't need anything else is astounding. In fact, I found that when I was taking the NCEES practice exam that I hardly used this book at all. I don't know what I would have done had I gotten that far along on my study period and realized that it might not be enough.

Let this be a warning to you; making this your only reference could be risky, and I strongly advise against it.

All that being said, I did not find this book to be completely useless. In fact, it provided a very good review of certain subjects such as Electronics, Transistors, Electronic Theory, etc. This actually proved to be very helpful for me, since I have not touched a good number of these concepts since college, and I wasn't about to thumb through my electronics textbook from college to try to understand all that stuff there again (that thing is like 2000 pages long).

One other thing: this book is expensive. PPI seems to think it's worth a lot more than it actually is. Either find it cheaper on another web site, or forego it entirely if you feel like you have a good handle on a lot of general computer engineering and electronics subjects already (other references listed here can probably fill in most gaps).

ISBN: 978-0137035151

Similar to the Operating Systems book above, this reference was great for software engineering concepts from III. (Embedded System Software) on the specification. I didn't go through this book in detail, but its index was good and it provides a great reference for general software and configuration management concepts.

ISBN: 978-1558606043

This is the book I used in college when I was learning about computer organization and processor design. It's a good book, but in my opinion it's not quite simple enough for me to have picked up on processor concepts from it after several years (which is why I'm glad I invested in Digital Design and Computer Architecture). Anyway, I took it with me because it had some other miscellaneous concepts in it that weren't covered in Drs. Harris and Harris' book. Again, I'd recommend getting the latest version.

ISBN: 978-1932613919

This is NCEES' official practice exam for the Computer Engineering PE exam. The November 1, 2017 version was what I used to simulate real exam conditions for October 2018. It is based on the specification that was available at that time (shown above).

This was the second of two practice exams I simulated during my study period, and I chose to do this one closer to the exam in order to gauge how ready I was for NCEES' real exam. I used only those references mentioned here in order to solve the problems, so I could determine if it was going to be enough for me to pass the real one.

I found that the Digital Design and Computer Architecture book was the most useful for this practice exam, followed by Data and Computer Communications, Modern Operating Systems, Software Engineering, and Computer Engineering Reference Manual. As I said before, I hardly used the Computer Engineering Reference Manual, so that confirmed in my mind that it was smart to go find other references.

After reviewing my score I went through every single problem and wrote out my solutions to all of them (not just the ones I got wrong), and added that to my binder so I could remember how I solved the problems. The hope was that if I ran into a similar problem on the exam, I'd have the thought process I previously used in order to help me. At the bare minimum, I would suggest you also do this if you wish to take this exam.

Two last things on this practice exam:
  1. The solutions that NCEES provides aren't very good and don't really explain how they came up with their particular answer. This is why it's important to work through and describe in your mind each of the problems on your own sheets so you can remember how you actually solved these problems.
  2. This came with the PPI bundle. I sort of regret getting the whole bundle, because NCEES actually offers this exam through their website for about 1/2 the price of what PPI sells it for. Starting to feel a little ripped off here. 
ISBN: 978-1591261728

This book contains practice problems to go with each of the chapters in the CERM. Sadly the problems are a little too simple when compared with the NCEES practice exam, so it may or may not provide you with significant benefit. I actually was glad I had this book, just because it gave me a good set of problems to help me brush up on old concepts. You can probably forego it if you wish.

Electric Circuits (9th ed.) - James W. Nilsson & Susan A. Riedel
ISBN: 978-0136114994

This is the circuit theory book that I used in my freshman college class. I wasn't sure if I would need it or not, but I decided to have it with me anyway, just to be on the safe side. Honestly I think you could do better as far as circuit theory books go; there's a lot of them out there.

Computer Engineering Sample Exam for the Electrical and Computer PE Exam - John A. Camara
ISBN: 978-1591261735

This was the first of my two simulated practice exams that I used; this one was, at one point, sold by PPI, presumably with the Computer Engineering Exam Bundle. Good luck finding it now though, as it seems to have been taken out of print.

In any case, this practice exam seemed to be designed to get you to use the CERM and prove that it was all you needed in order to succeed. Obviously, on that note, the CERM was my most heavily-used resource for this one; however, I was forced to use other resources (like Software Engineering and Digital Design and Computer Architecture), so I was a little encouraged. All in all, as far as practice exams go, I thought it was a pretty good start.

After taking this exam, I did the same thing I did with NCEES' practice exam: worked every problem and documented my thought process for each of the solutions. Looking back, I would say it definitely helped me get prepared for the mental stamina required for the real exam.

Introduction to Wireless Systems - Bruce A. Black et. al.
ISBN: 978-0132782241

This was another one of those books I had from my college textbook collection. I figured it might be useful for wireless networks. I didn't actually end up using this book much, if at all, while I was studying, but I kept it on my person anyway.

Engineering Unit Conversions (4th ed.) - Michael R. Lindeburg
ISBN: 978-1591260998

This was another one of those that came with the Computer Engineering Exam Bundle from PPI. Electrical engineering in general, doesn't use a super large amount of units; computer engineering uses even less, so I didn't use this book much. The humorous unit conversions near the back did give me a pretty good chuckle, though.

Ugly's Electrical References (2011 ed.) - George V. Hart and Sammie Hart
ISBN: 978-0763790998

Computer Engineering still falls under Electrical Engineering (technically), so I figured there may be some need for me to look up basic National Electrical Code (NEC) information. Ultimately I didn't use this reference during my study period, but again I kept it with me anyway.



As I said I began studying about 6 months ahead of the exam (a total of 27 weeks). My study strategy ended up working out as follows (summarized):

Weeks 1 through 11 (April through June):
  • I worked through all of the technical chapters of the CERM, including the early chapters which focus mainly on introductory concepts such as geometry, differential equations, statistics, etc.
    • As I read through each chapter, I did the accompanying practice problems in the companion book. I also did each of the examples in the CERM by hand to make sure I understood what was being explained.
    • Ultimately, I don't think it was actually necessary for me to do all of the introductory concepts, but they did provide a nice review.
    • I skipped the chapters on economics, ethics, and professionalism (in the back of the book) and saved them for later, believing that they probably would not actually appear directly on the exam.
  • After going through the entire CERM, including doing the accompanying practice problems, I began reading my way through the first 3 chapters of the Digital Design and Computer Architecture book, and began doing some practice problems at the end of each chapter.
    • I chose to begin by reading the book, because there are only 8 chapters (I believed I could get through 1 per week), and I had plenty of time before taking the exam.
    • I finished reading a chapter usually by Thursday or Friday of each week, leaving me some time to do a few of the practice problems at the end of the chapter.
  • In addition to Digital Design and Computer Architecture, I began reading the first few chapters of Data and Computer Communications.
  • On the Saturday of Week 11 (July 2), I took my first practice exam (The PPI version, see above).
    • As I stated in my previous article, I simulated the real exam (i.e. I took the morning and afternoon sessions on the same day, an hour apart for a lunch break).
    • I got 35/40 on the morning session, and 28/40 on the afternoon session after taking it blind (as in, I did not know the content of the exam beforehand).
    • After finishing the exam, I wrote down the reason I got each question wrong, so that I would be reminded to work on these specific areas.
Weeks 12 through 19 (July through August):
  • I continued to work through Digital Design and Computer Architecture and Data and Computer Communications, in much the same manner as in weeks 1 through 11.
    • After finishing reading through each of the chapters of Digital Design and Computer Communications, I spent one week specifically working as many of its practice problems as I could, starting at the last chapter and working my way back (I was already strong in the introductory chapters, but needed work in the later ones).
    • I worked up through Chapter 18 of Data and Computer Communications.
  • On the Saturday of Week 19 (September 1), I took my second practice exam (The NCEES version, see above).
    • Again, I simulated real exam conditions.
    • Truthfully, I did not do quite as well on this one as I did on the first practice exam. My scores were 27/40 on the morning session and 33/40 on the afternoon session after going in blind,which I thought was pretty good overall, but I wasn't necessarily settled with it.
    • After finishing, I again wrote down the reason I got each question wrong.
Weeks 20 through 27 (September through October):
  • I finished going through the rest of Digital Design and Computer Architecture and Data and Computer Communications, continuing on the same path as previous weeks.
  • After finishing, I worked through every single problem in each of the practice exams in enough detail that I could remember how I solved each problem.
    • I placed my work in my binder for referential use.
  • Finally, I performed some general review.
    • This involved going through each of the exam specifications and above blog posts to make sure I had all subjects covered.
    • Anywhere that I felt I was lacking, I did some final research and placed additional reference in my three-ring binder.
  • The week of the exam, I dedicated time to reading the chapters in the CERM that I skipped over before; economics, ethics, and professionalism.
    • By this point, I decided I knew what I knew, and further cramming was not going to help me, so my study time was not rigorous.
I kept track of all my hours and what I did each week using a spreadsheet; it evolved over time but ended up as follows:


The two green cells in the schedule are the two practice exams, and the red cell is exam day.



A couple of other tips that I will leave you with:

  • Most of computer engineering involves 1s and 0s, and knowing where they fit in the diagram. With this in mind, any complex diagram can be made much easier to understand by drawing up a truth table.
  • There were a lot of concepts I had trouble understanding on my own. I'd recommend signing up for a textbook solutions service for a few months while you prepare. I used Chegg on the more difficult problems that I didn't know how to do.
  • 6 months ultimately may have been too long for me to allocate for studying for this exam, but I'm glad I did it. I was able to take my time revisiting concepts I have not touched for several years. It is better to be overprepared than underprepared.
  • If you are uncomfortable with the idea of not having too many resources available to you, I'd suggest that this might not be the exam for you. The Power exam has a good many more resources available online and through PPI.
As I come up with more tips and information, I will try to update this article. But for now, I hope this helps you prepare for the Computer Engineering exam a little bit better.

Keep on learning!

Cheers,

-EE

Comments

  1. Thank you for this article! I'll be taking the PE in April and this post is my starting point for studying.

    I'm wondering, during the exam did you feel prepared? Were there any questions where you didn't know where to start, or hadn't seen that problem style before?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, I'm sorry for my very late reply. By the time exam day came, I definitely felt prepared. There are some questions that threw me off guard, but that's going to be true for pretty much any exam. You can take a look at part 2a of my blog to see how I handled some of these problems. Hope your exam experience went well.

      Delete
  2. Taking my exam in 6 weeks. Thanks for all your information. Very helpful given there is really nothing else out there and PPI removed the CE study material.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That doesn't surprise me. With so few examinees, there probably wasn't enough business.

      According to NCEES, there is a reference handbook for the computer PE coming out that should be free for download. My recommendation given that is to know and understand that thing like the back of your hand.

      Delete

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