To all who were bold enough congratulations on taking the 2023 exam!
Any comments you take the time to make can help future test-takers prepare. And of course suggestions for blog/Guidebook/Companion improvements are always welcome and appreciated. I enjoy hearing from all.
Please remember the blog rule: specific prior PE Exam questions cannot be discussed. General topics, resource suggestions, and testing techniques only please. Try not to discuss specific problems from prior exams, such as comments like: "...several of the drilling questions with probability...” it too specific as per the test-writers. Thanks, folk!
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Any thoughts on 2023 exam? I thought it was fairly easy?
ReplyDeleteCommenting again now that there is a thread.
DeleteI thought the test was fairly simple, finished in 5 hours and spent about an hour and change doublechecking and reworking. Left early, confident I’d passed and did. I thought it was fair in terms of reflecting the SPE material and didn’t see anything unexpected.
Study strategy: did the newest SPE practice exam first. Then Olumayowa’s question book. Those gave a decent idea of concepts I was weak on. I then read Well Testing by Lee cover to cover, best book on the subject I’ve ever found…. Then did Bings problems which helped in brushing up on drilling and important petroleum calcs. Ended up reading half the Bourgoyne book during the process. Last thing I did was skim through the L.P. Dake reservoir book for some concepts I wanted to firm up.
Leaning on the reference guide for equations when working practice problems rather than a textbook helped familiarize me with using the reference guide.
I think the study took 40-60 hours total but I didn’t track exactly. My background is ops engineering onshore US, no drilling or reservoir experience.
I'm interested in how everyone felt about the "fairness" of the exam; that is, does SPE resources provide a reasonable source for passing the exam in 2023? Thanks in advance!
ReplyDeleteThis is my second time taking the exam.
DeleteLast year, I used the SPE online class and the Handbooks, and I thought it was not helpful.
This year, I went through the NCEES practice exam, the problems here, School of PE, and Olumayowa Famodimu's Question Bank.
The only resource I did not find as valuable for the cost was School of PE. The Question Bank was helpful for improving my conceptual knowledge and I supplemented it with the Handbooks reading every time it referenced a topic. This turned out to be a really good approach for this year's exam.
I practiced calculation problems using the practice exam and this blog and I thought it was very good to improve the time I took on each question.
Overall, I did not think the test was extremely difficult and I passed, but I also put at least a month of hard studying this time around.
Mostly just common sense questions. Can narrow down choices to just two pretty easily. Weirdly enough, there were fill-in-the blank and drag-and-drop questions. The practices exams on this blog were helpful. Skimming the PE handbooks was super helpful. School of PE is a joke. Asked questions that Bing had said they weren't gonna be on there. Hoping for a pass!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this helpful comment. The fill-in-the-blank & drag-&-drop have been done for years; myself, I think it's a good addition. I agree on the PE Handbooks too. I made a point in the Guidebook to give "money quotes" from the Handbook that could be used to generate questions. Looks like you took Bing's class too?
DeleteUpdate: Passed!
DeleteI took Bing's course, studied the 2004 Practice Exam, the Newest NCEES exam, skimmed the Handbooks, and read full chapters from the Drilling and Well Logging Red textbooks and felt prepared for most everything that showed up. I have primarily done Reservoir engineering, and facilities was the only component where I felt I was guessing in the dark ever (spent very little time on it.)
ReplyDeleteThe New NCEES practice exam had me ready for the multiple selections and drag and drop type questions that showed up.
I went through Bings binder as an initial run through, went into Olumayowa book to target sections in the PE handbooks (very helpful in targeting what to study), worked through 2021 problems here, and worked the 2014/2023 tests the final week prior and felt prepared. Test was more conceptual than anticipated but it seemed like the conceptual questions were a good mix of things you could study as well as targeting experience.
ReplyDeleteHappy to say I passed!
Results came out today and I passed!! I took Bing's course, and used the practice exam he provided along with the one sold by NCEES. Also went through Olumayowa"s question bank for conceptual problems which helped with focusing where to start in the handbooks. Started studying in August and went through everything twice. Felt really good and had time to review all my work twice, still finished 2 hours early.
ReplyDeleteI passed this year first time. I have a few years experience in drilling so the study guides were all very helpful especially for the other sections. I used PE Question Bank to gauge conceptual knowledge of all sections which is a big part of the exam, Bings problems, School of PE was alright they had lots of practice questions as well, and lots of YouTube in trouble areas. I would use every tool at your disposal and piece it all together.
ReplyDeleteIt was a fair test. About half calculations and half conceptual questions. I had plenty of time to work everything twice, so don't rush. The calculation problems were relatively simple but make sure you watch the units. The conceptual questions could at least be narrowed down to 2 choices. Of course the practice tests are helpful. Olumayowa's question bank is also very helpful after studying to find weak areas. So are Dammeyer's question banks on Amazon. His guidebook also has useful information and worked examples. I worked through an old binder from Bing's class and found it useful; I bet the current class designed for the computer based test is even better. I took the School of PE on demand class and did not think it was very good. In general, I spent too much time practicing calculations and not enough reviewing concepts but I still passed.
ReplyDeleteI passed this year first time . I was a civil engineer in undergrad but have worked for a small production company for 5+ years. I had no background in petroleum besides my job experience so I began studying months ago. I felt the exam was fair. I began studying with the School of PE which helped me a lot with practice problems but did not cover much on conceptual problems. I used Olumayowa's question bank and felt it helped a lot with conceptual questions. I also used the questions from here, read through petro wiki on every subject I did not fully understand (highly recommend this free resource), and I took the NCEES practice test about 2 weeks before the exam to gauge what I needed to work on most. The only thing I would say I'd do differently is study less practice problems and more conceptual problems. The school of PE was valuable to me but I think they have alot of excess problems that weren't on the exam.
ReplyDeleteOverall I feel like if you are willing to dedicate 1+ months to studying all of the material mentioned above you should have no trouble passing the exam.