National Professional Practice Exam - APEGGA

[Frequitude]

So I'm writing the NPPE for my P.Eng in October. I just received the study material and its more than I expected...a collection 4-5 stapled guides, 4-5 longish papers/by-laws/guidelines and two textbooks.

Any tips from some recent P.Eng's around here? I thought there would be a study guide or more detailed exam outline. I'm kind of overwhelmed and not sure where to start.

[Rathji]

I had a PEng once, had to get the doctor to lance it and I couldn't sit for a week.

[jonesy]

Best start cracking the books. Read that law book, lots of interest in liability on my exam.

[Ashartus]

The exam isn't super hard, but there is stuff covering pretty much all the material. It was several years ago that I wrote it, but I'm pretty sure I recall questions on stuff like intellectual property law, the free trade agreement, etc. Most of the actual "ethics" stuff is fairly common sense. So long as you are at least reasonably familiar with the material and have some understanding of professional ethics, passing it shouldn't be a problem. I don't actually know anyone who has failed it (or at least no one that will admit to having failed it).

[SeeGeeWhy]

PM sent

[me_dennis]

our ethics and the engineering profession prof told us that the final exam for that course was similar to the P.Eng ethics exam

i'm studying for my statute law exam to become an alberta land surveyor.. i've got less than a month and i've got so much more to learn

[Teh_Bandwagoner]

I wrote mine last November, and got my P.Eng in April. So I guess I passed it :P

I would say about 60% of my test questions were "ethics" type questions. So they give you a scenario, and you give them the best course of action. Those were the worst because there were always two answers that were clearly wrong, and two that were very grey.

Then I'd give it 10% on OH&S, 10% patent/copyright/trademarks and about 30% Contract Law.

Read relevant parts of the small purple book with all the case laws and know the gist of them. Try to memorize some definitions. There might be one or two of them on the test, but it's kind of a crap shoot which ones. For instance mine asked me for the definition of "frustration", which I happen to memorize by total chance lol. Just so you know, I personally didn't read the larger textbook at all.

Read those free handouts on patents/copyright/trademarks/ID. They're short and easy enough to understand. Also read that RBC letter they give you.

READ THE CODE OF ETHICS. Memorize that one page with the code on it. Skim the rest.

Read the OH&S stuff. The stupid outline said that there wouldn't be that many on the test regarding it, but there were a few questions on my test.

Hopefully that helps you get started.

[Frequitude]

^^^
This is what I'm talking about. Thanks bandwagoner. Same to you SGW for the PM.

Bandwagoner, did it take that long to grade your exam? Or did you write it in November, then not apply for PEng status until the new year?

[ZDogg]

Took the test in February and passed it. They don't give results other than pass or fail so I have no clue how I did.

I basically studied for an afternoon and then reviewed some notes the morning before the test. It was fairly simple and straight forward. The ones I wasn't too familiar with were the OH&S stuff.

I have the two documents I studied off. One 16 page summary and one more in depth 61 page guide. I basically just read the 16 page thing and then if something was too vague I would read further in depth on the 61 page document.

As for timelines I think it was 2 months to get results on the test. The long process seems to be the collection of info from references and then the review by the board of examiners.... i'm still waiting 5 months after I submitted my documentation at the end of April. Make sure you follow up with your references cause I had one that missed the email and only got his paperwork in 2 months ago.

[V]

I just couldn't get around to studying until the night before, so I spent a couple hours that night, and about an hour the morning of the exam and I did just fine. You shouldn't sweat it, as long as you have a decent grasp of the English language. Based on the folks I know, the exam is very difficult for ESL folks.

[MaxPower]

Originally Posted by Teh_Bandwagoner

I wrote mine last November, and got my P.Eng in April. So I guess I passed it :P

I would say about 60% of my test questions were "ethics" type questions. So they give you a scenario, and you give them the best course of action. Those were the worst because there were always two answers that were clearly wrong, and two that were very grey.

Then I'd give it 10% on OH&S, 10% patent/copyright/trademarks and about 30% Contract Law.

Read relevant parts of the small purple book with all the case laws and know the gist of them. Try to memorize some definitions. There might be one or two of them on the test, but it's kind of a crap shoot which ones. For instance mine asked me for the definition of "frustration", which I happen to memorize by total chance lol. Just so you know, I personally didn't read the larger textbook at all.

Read those free handouts on patents/copyright/trademarks/ID. They're short and easy enough to understand. Also read that RBC letter they give you.

READ THE CODE OF ETHICS. Memorize that one page with the code on it. Skim the rest.

Read the OH&S stuff. The stupid outline said that there wouldn't be that many on the test regarding it, but there were a few questions on my test.

Hopefully that helps you get started.

Wow. Sounds like you had to give 110% on that one.

[Beefcake]

If it helps with any benchmarking for yourself, I'm a slow reader, can't memorize anything worth a crap, and I was able to pass the exam with two long days of reading/skimming. I pretty much spent the weekend before the test covering as much of the information as I could, but didn't get to read everything.

I was pretty sure I'd failed, but I must have just made that minimum grade to get the pass (I think 60%?).

I'd also agree with Bandwagoner, read through the smaller booklets first, as they're fairly easy to get through. You're definitely going to get questions from them, which are less easy to guess right than most of the ethics questions.

My approach is that worst case scenario is that I'd fail, but know what I had to focus on for a re-write. My free time is more valuable to me than the cost of writing the test, and I wasn't willing to spend weeks/months going through and memorizing the material like some of the people I talked to at the exam had done. A fail doesn't impact your resume or Apegga status in any way, so its nothing to stress about.

[Phaneuf3]

Originally Posted by MaxPower

Wow. Sounds like you had to give 110% on that one.

Beat me to it!

[Marvelous]

Everyone I know that crammed the night before had to rewrite that exam.

Everyones experiences will be different but I read the papers and a chapter out of that textbooks everynight for 6 weeks before the exam. Then skimmed through all of it for a couple hours the night before. Seemed to work for me.

[HappyInCanada]

Hi Everybody,
Thank you so much for the advices
I wrote the exam NPPE two times. The first I didn't read anything and the second time I worked so hard but unfortunately I failed .... I didn't give up. I will write it again. I agree that reading the material is so important but I think the most important thing from my experience is English.

[Ramadoss]

Hi Everybody,

Are there Preparatory seminar available for NPPE?

[Bill Bumface]

Didn't put much preparation into it besides reviewing the trademark/copyright crap and tort/liability and that stuff. The test itself seems intentionally vague and often 2 answers seem like the same damn thing. I think it's on purpose to try get as many rewrites as possible so they can collect more money. I passed.. probably not by much.

[kermitology]

In my opinion.. you can pass it without much studying.

[mojofone]

Review classes available in Calgary:

http://www.gic-edu.com/coursedetail.aspx?id=370

[calgarybuck]

nm