I took the 2008 NCEES sample exam yesterday

Well I took the morning section and was really gaining confidence as I worked through it. I thought I really smoked it! Before I graded it I guessed at what I thought my score was...I guessed it was at least a 33. Turns out I only got a 29 out of the 40.

Then I started the afternoon HVAC section only to find out 21 of those problems are the exact same as the 2001 NCEES sample HVAC afternoon problems. Since I had worked those 21 problems a few times each I really can't count those. I was disappointed that those were the same!

Of the 19 new problems I got 15 of them right but since 21 was a breeze (some I knew the answer without working the problem just from memory), I had more time to work those 19. I bet I would have only got about 12 of the 19 if I only had 6 minutes each. That would give me an estimated 25 out of 40 for the afternoon section.

So I'm disappointed about 2 things....first, I got an estimated 54 out of 80 and if 56 is passing I'm going to be in trouble here in 12 days. This is the same score I got on the 2001 NCEES sample exam 3 weeks ago. Secondly, I'm disappointed that 21 of those problems were the same and I have to come up with a way to estimate my score.

I got 12 days to try to get my score up just a few more points.

It is hard to tell how you will do on the actual exam but if you know how to work a problem and just messed something up I wouldn't worry about those. Re-work the ones you did not have a clue on. I have 19 more PPI problems to go and then I want to re-work the NCEES problems as I have not worked them in about 6 months. There have been a few PPI problems I just could not get and after looking at the solution I felt better because there would be no way I would have got it and I knew that type of problem would not be on the exam anyway. I have added allot of markup in the MERM from working these problems. If you have not worked some of them I would take a look at them, that is if you have the exam.

I have the exam but I don't think I will get to it. I'm still working the 6 minute solution problems. I think the 6 minute problems are better and more representative anyways. I'm running out of time.

I also need to re-review electrical, combustion, and heat transfer in the MERM. I also want to rework the example problems in Crane (these are very good problems) and I need to get better at enthalpy wheels in ASHRAE. I need about 1 more month.

I know the feeling. I studied 350 hours for the Spring 2008 exam and got a 65. I studied another 350 hours for the fall 2008 exam and got a 68. I have put in another 350 hours or more since July for this attempt. I am going through the PPI problems and still making notes in my MERM so how much do you need to study? I know I did not fail the last exam because I could not work the problems. I know I missed some due to being stressed and some due to just screwing up the equation some how. There was only a couple that I remember I just did not understand how to approach and one of these was in my opinion the way it was worded. I guess my point is, be prepared technically but also be very organized as time is not in your favor and just be real careful when your working the problems so not to make a stupid mistake as it is easy to do.

I think you are right on track. I think your afternoon performance will probably be closer to the 15/19 than 12/19. You are probably overestimating the benefit you got from the little extra time. So just keep pluggin’ up to the test and try to stay calm.

If you're taking the ME PE with the HVAC afternoon, I wouldn't even look at any more electrical or combustion. You probably didn't need to look at those at all in the first place (I took the machine design depth so you may want to double check the combustion comment for HVAC). Practice locating subjects quickly. Take many references, even if you havent used them to study. You may get an easy look-up question by having them. I got an extra one or two right by having references that I never used during the study process. That may have made the difference.

Matt-NM said:

If you're taking the ME PE with the HVAC afternoon, I wouldn't even look at any more electrical or combustion. You probably didn't need to look at those at all in the first place (I took the machine design depth so you may want to double check the combustion comment for HVAC). Practice locating subjects quickly. Take many references, even if you havent used them to study. You may get an easy look-up question by having them. I got an extra one or two right by having references that I never used during the study process. That may have made the difference.

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I wouldn't rank combustion as a primary topic that you'll get drilled with tons of questions on during the exam. Stick with power cycles, fluid flow problems, shear & moment diagrams, psychrometrics, etc., and you should pass just on those "meat and potato" type topics. There are are quite a few secondary topics that seem to rotate in and out of the exams such as pressure vessels, combustion, etc., that may not show up at all or you might get 2-3 questions on it. During my studying, I chose to spend my time becoming an expert on the fundamental stuff and just barely touch the other stuff.

^^^

Agreed. Use the provided percentage breakdown as a good guide.

I am not sure that I did much better on the NCEES Sample Exams and I passed the PE Exam.

I think it is most important to look at the problems that you had the right process down, but made silly errors. Those are the ones you can (and will) get correct on the real thing.

That is basically what I did. I spent some time on the ones I had no clue on, but if I didn't think I could solve it even after looking at the solution and fiddling with it for 1/2 hour, I just left it and looked for the low hanging fruit.

I think I got around a 58 on the sample exam, then when going back over the problems there were about 5-7 problems where I did the problem right, I just made a dumb error or used the wrong value somehow. I went back and re-evaluated my references after this as well. Basically there are usually 2-3 different places you can find the same info, so I tried to make better decisions about what reference I would use for each type of problems. This kept me from making silly unit conversion errors etc.

Plus I worked the exam as 2, 4 hour sessions, I didn't do the full 8 hours like it sounds like you did, I wish I had, cause I was smoked after 6 hours and really fumbled for the last 10 questions.

I took this yesterday and am very disappointed. I ended up only getting 40 questions right. I felt good about the morning, but still missed a bunch. I plan to work through them all and hopefully find that I made stupid mistakes...but at this point, I'm bummed out.

Firefly said:

I took this yesterday and am very disappointed. I ended up only getting 40 questions right. I felt good about the morning, but still missed a bunch. I plan to work through them all and hopefully find that I made stupid mistakes...but at this point, I'm bummed out.

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I took it today. I felt very confident on the morning section, but I missed 13. I felt much worse about the afternoon (HVAC), after struggling for an hour on the first five problems. I did finish in time, and I'm surprised that I missed less than the morning, with only 11 wrong because I got frustrated and started guessing. But 24 wrong total would maybe just pass the real thing. I'm trying not to get too depressed, and will just have to really focus on refrigeration tomorrow... and coil bypass... and the psych problems. Before, I was quite confident on psych, but these seemed quite hard. And several of the morning problems I missed were mechanics/mach design... that bolt problem, oh and the steel diagram w/ pearlite and ferrite. I ended up with carbon of .3%, I think. But I couldn't find a chart with the carbon content for steel types. Anyone know if there's one in MERM?

Anyway, we have 19 days, and now I have a better idea of my weaknesses.

It seems like you are doing well. You're right, at this point concentrate on weak areas. However, you still need to keep reviewing older material as well. It's amazing how much we forget when we don't use it even for a few weeks.

A couple other suggestions: Make sure you have your MERM and other references tabbed, all materials in one area (box), and are working at an area comparable in size to what you will get on test day. If you aren't sure what size the desk will be, assume it will be small, wobbly, and squeaky. Basically simulate test day as much as possible from here on out. It makes a huge difference. If you can, take a drive to the test location and get an early look.

Study engineering economics! When I took the exam in April 2008, there was a significant amount. Good luck.

Good Job Mech Girl. Although, I still feel like a D.A. haha. Hope to get that fixed quickly. I found that I made stupid mistakes, so there's nothing like getting the mistakes out on a practice test.

Sounds like you're both doing alright. We've still got almost three weeks to study our weak areas before exam time, so I wouldn't get too discouraged just yet. I was planning on taking it over the weekend too, but decided to push it until this coming weekend. I got really frustrated/disappointed going through the MD Six Minute Solutions book, this is by far my weakest area... I figure I will spend a few days trying to shore this up before I take the practice exam. This still gives me almost two weeks to focus on weak areas before the exam too.

Same goes with me. I did push it to this weekend.

I did redo my merm practice prob for my mistakes and did refresh the whole merm by solving few problems (all areas) every day. I'm doing this to avoid forgetting and plan to do it till exam week . I'm about to finish the 6 mins and some probs that i've got too.

You guys are doing just fine. We have plenty of time to cover our weakness and strengthen it.

Solve problems in all areas everyday, note your mistakes and do some reminder list or something. If you've finished all your available problems, rework the problems that you did'nt solve correctly and try to quick refresh those subjects in MERM or your other references. At least allocate more time now

for your depth since this will be the big chunk of our exam. That's what I'm doing right now and plan to do till exam.

I bet ya'll will be fine.

What practice exams are you working? The NCEES Mechanical Sample Questions & Solutions or something else? I'm ready to do a trial run, but I want to use something that is representative of what the actual exam will be like.

PassItFirst said:

What practice exams are you working? The NCEES Mechanical Sample Questions & Solutions or something else? I'm ready to do a trial run, but I want to use something that is representative of what the actual exam will be like.

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Yes, you probably have the 2008 and they call it sample problems, but it's set up in exam format with 40 morning questions then 40 for each depth. That is what I have. I saw in previous posts that NCEES had an earlier version that was called "sample exam" but the poster said that many of the problems are the same as those on the new one.

There is errata for the exam. Someone added it to the post a few back that I made asking about the exam gear problem. Sorry, I don't know how to add links in here.

Thanks! I will just work the problems again then. You have had some great posts. I've read a few of your posts - all great information. Thank you.

PassItFirst said:

Thanks! I will just work the problems again then. You have had some great posts. I've read a few of your posts - all great information. Thank you.

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You're welcome. I hope you saw my edit. Looks like we posted at the same time. The name of the post I referred to is "Please clarify this gear problem"