Changes to Electrical PE Exam
From Licensure Exchange - June 2008 (volume 12 issue 3) - Published by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES)
NCEES announces changes to Electrical and Computer PE exam
The Principles and Practice (PE) examination in electrical and computer engineering will have a different look beginning in April 2009.
According to a memo distributed April 18 to Member Board administrators and representatives of several testing services, the Electrical and Computer PE exam will no longer be a breadth and depth exam beginning with the spring 2009 exam administration. The announcement was provided one year in advance as required by NCEES policy.
Most notably, the exam will become three separate exams divided by subdiscipline. The three exams within the Electrical and Computer PE exam will be referred to as the Power Examination, the Computer Examination, and the Electrical and Electronics Examination.
Electrical and computer candidates to declare subdiscipline
Consequently, as of the April 2009 administration, candidates for the Electrical and Computer PE exam will be required to specify during registration which one of these exams they wish to take.
The current Electrical and Computer PE exam consists of a morning breadth exam and an afternoon depth exam made up of three separate modules. The changes to the specifications resulted from feedback received from a Professional Activities and Knowledge Study (PAKS) conducted by the NCEES subcommittee responsible for overseeing the Electrical and Computer PE exam.
“The results of the PAKS did not support the breadth examination in its current form,” said Frank Loudon, P.E., the chair of the electrical exam subcommittee. “The majority of respondents indicated that the breadth knowledges presently examined are not important for engineers in the computer and power fields of practice. However, many of the breadth knowledges were rated as important for those in the other areas of electrical engineering.”
