My Method, what I did to study and pass

What was your study regimen?

My study method

I write this in hopes that someone will take away some small jewel of wisdom. If one sentence or thought in my ramblings helps someone, then I’ve done what I set out to do. I’m not saying I done it the right way, but I did it nonetheless. I passed the first time. I don’t consider myself overly smart or intelligent, but I was devoted.

“Buy In”

You have to have the support of family and friends. It is a long and drawn out process. It’s not something to go into halfhearted, you have to commit to do it, they (your family friends, and loved ones) need to make the commitment along with you and allow you the time you need to do it. You need their support and understanding. Sit down and explain to the ones that matter what is involved and what it means for all of you. You’re going to have to devote a good bit of time to this. Better to over exaggerate the time required than have them thinking it’s just going to be a minor inconvenience for a short time. I basically put my life on hold for almost 4 months to do this. You also have to be realistic. All study and no play..well, that just won’t work either. I studied each night, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, most Thursdays for three hours each night. Friday night I took off and spent time with my family. Saturday and Sunday, it was back to the books again at least for four hours with the remainder of the days spent with them enjoying one another’s company.

Quality, not quantity

Make sure you spend quality time studying. Just because you spend a ton of time “studying” doesn’t mean you will do well. Put down the phone, quit texting, and get at it! I started halfheartedly studying in October or November for the April exam. Once I registered and ponied up the money, I knew I had lit the fuse and it was time to get at it. From Christmas on, I followed the above regimen religiously. Find a good place to study without interruptions. Go to the library, a school, or a spare room at home, but seclude yourself. This allows you to develop uninterrupted thoughts and think things all the way through without distractions. Locking yourself in the bedroom only to be interrupted for dinner, by the baby, by the dog, by the phone, or any other distraction won’t work! YOU DON’T WANT TO DO THIS AGAIN! TRUST ME!

Ear Plugs

Start early with ear plugs. I know this is weird, but try it. I used them in the exam room and was glad I did. The ear plugs will allow you to develop more focus and concentration, or at least it did me. It cut out the distractions of the library and allowed me to become engrossed in the subject matter. I wished I had started earlier than I had with them. Also, by starting early, you will be used to them once exam time rolls around. I wouldn’t try them the week before only to realize you don’t like them or that you have uncomfortable ones.

Plan the work, Work the plan

Follow a program. Either go by the MERM study guide and review schedule or develop your own. When I started earlier in October and November, I was making an assessment of my skills and weaknesses. I started by reviewing an exam and seeing what I knew and didn’t know and developed a study guide from my assessment. I can’t say what I did was right or wrong, but this worked for me. I realized that I lacked in every area but HVAC. I focused heavily on Fluids and Thermodynamics with HVAC since I planned on taking the HVAC and Refrigeration afternoon exam. I spent well over a month on Fluids, well over a month of Thermo and spent the remainder of the time equally devoted to statics, dynamics, Strengths of Materials. AGAIN! I am not saying this is the right way to do it. Remember I started in October or November for the April exam, even though somewhat halfheartedly. Make a schedule of your expected study days including a subject to study. Eventually I found that I was spending too much time on certain subjects and would force myself to move on. Remember you need to be somewhat well rounded. Knowing one subject like the back of your hand won’t do you any good. You need to know two or three if possible like the back of your hand and the rest to a “good level of comfort”. The average time to solve a problem is 6 minutes. Six minutes. I can’t say whether you would benefit from trying a sample test early on or not, maybe so. Sit down and try it and see how you do and to get an idea of how quick six minutes goes by, then put the test aside and don’t come back to it until a week or so before the test…forget about it.

Time to put the lead to the paper. Get some!

In addition to the 500 problems in the sample problems book, and the two sample exams, I bought 1000 problems in thermo, 2500 problems in fluids, 800 in statics, 700 in dynamics. I worked my way through the MERM pretty much on schedule. I would review a chapter and start on the problems. Work the problems. Work the problems! Work the problems!! While you’re working the problems, be tabbing your MERM. Us the MERM, know the MERM, you should be married to the MERM by now! You should be familiar with every reference you take to the exam, but especially you should know the MERM frontward and backward. I think Shaggy on here has an excellent picture of his tabbing method, follow his method. Back to the problems, did I say work the problems? Yes, work problems. I worked everyone in the sample problem book, probably twice! I also worked tons of problems out of the other books I had. I even backed up to my school books and worked problems out of the physics book to build a foundation, then moved up to the fluids, then thermo. The more problems you work, the more methodical/mechanical you become at doing them to build the speed you need...remember, six minutes. See the problem, attack it. Take the given, find the state points, find the enthalpy, the entropy, calculate the work, calculate the capacity, etc. Bang, bang, bang. You see the problem and know exactly what needs to be done, no hesitation, pound it out! The more problems you work, the more the process becomes ingrained in your brain.

Putting it all together

The two weeks before the exam, I increased my study time. Seven hours on Saturday and Sunday, I also bumped it up to 4 hours per night during the week. You’re getting tired, but push through it, almost there. I took the last couple of weekends to simulate taking the exam. By this time, I had gotten my cart that I planned on using to take my books in and packed it up to take with me to the library to simulate. I did this for three reasons. I wanted to get used to sitting there for 4 hours at a time and depriving myself of water and the bathroom, get my bladder used to the long wait. I also wanted to, at this point; get a better sense of where I was with my timing. Six minutes! I also wanted to get used to using my references under duress to see where the “cracks” were so to speak. What things I needed to add more tabs to, how to manipulate them efficiently and if I thought I even needed the reference at all. There is limited space on the table top, there’s no sense in having something with you and not using it. If you think you need to take something, you can take all you want, just leave it on the floor. One thing to think about, the more references you have the more likely you might be to just start thumbing through them looking for an answer. This wastes time you don’t have! Put it on the floor and come back to the problem if you have time later! Back to the simulation, at this time, if I had looked at my sample exams, I had forgotten them. It was all fresh to me. I worked through the Lindeburgh sample exam one day, then the NCEES exam the next. I timed myself and kept to the time limit. I went back and checked my answers and made a list of where I needed extra help. I still had time to polish on some of my weak spots. I repeated the same thing the weekend before, then by Wednesday of the exam week, I was shot.

References

These are the references I used. I took several others, but truly did not have time to use them.

MERM

Crane TP410

Cameron Hydraulic Data

ASHRAE books

Steam tables

Some various school books

I bought a spiral binder so I could bind things that I could fold double. I made a small “goto” binder that had items I felt were used on a regular basis. All at hand. It had some electrical calcs, thermo, psychrometric stuff, odds and ends I thought I kept going back to problem after problem.

I hope this helps someone.

Thanks

Kelly

Thank you for sharing. I took and passed Power. Your advice is sound for all exams (though studying MERM for Power might not work well

I agree. If you would follow what you listed, I think most people would pass. I would only add one thing that was told to me by my boss. Take the last week off from studying to help clear your mind and help relieve some of the stress. I didn't do that the first time, and i was stressed all the way to the test. This time I started studying a week earlier and took the week of the test off. I had a clearer head and less stress going into the test and this time I passed!

Excellent write-up Kelly. I'm glad you did this so I can just comment on it instead of writing up everything I did. :biggrin:

I think the only thing I will add as a supplement to what you've already stated is some of the specifics to my plan. I started studying about 12 weeks out from exam day. My process was to look at chapters 16-59 in the MERM. I would quickly breeze through a chapter and try to pick up on major concepts and then work the associated practice problems before moving onto another chapter. I happened to do this in chronological order, but you could also follow the suggested schedule in the front of the MERM. I spent 2-3 hrs every weeknight (Mon-Thurs) and then 4-8 hrs on the weekend. I shot for 16-20 hrs per week (16 towards the beginning, 20 as test day got closer). Depending on how in-depth the chapter was, I either completed the chapter and problems in one night, or split them up. Basically, I shot for 3 hrs and got done what I could and pushed off for the next day what I couldn't. Also, I used the shaggy method to tabbing and added a few tabs as I breezed the text, but mostly let the practice tests and practice problems guide me on what to mark as important. As Kelly said, work those practice problems. The MERM ones are difficult, but they will teach you concepts that are very beneficial.

My overall goal was to finish chapters 16-59 and their problems by 3 to 4 weeks out from the exam day. Then, I did as many practice tests as I could. I attempted the Lindeburg practice test, Kaplan, NCEES 2001 and 2008/2010. The Lindeburg was the only test I did once. I cannot stress enough the importance of making yourself sit in a real test taking scenario. I saved the 2008/2010 NCEES test as my simulation. The two weekends before the exam I sat in a spare bedroom in my house in 4 hr increments (4 hr morning, 1 hr lunch, 4 hr afternoon) to simulate the exam. Nothing will teach you time constraints and the pressures that you will see on test day like this. I strongly believe that doing this helped me finish the morning in 2:15 and the afternoon in 3:15, which allowed me to go back and review my answers. If I had to pick one point of advice, that would be it. Do those **** practice tests until you feel like you're cheating by knowing what the answer is before you even start reading the problem.

I did not do anything the last few days before the exam, other than arranging my test day kit and bags.

I took and passed the Thermal and Fluids Systems PE exam in Missouri. Below are the references I used:

MERM

Steam tables book

Practice Tests (MERM, Kaplan, NCEES 2001 & 2008/2010)

Binder with practice problems, psych charts, MERM appendix, MERM index, conversion charts

Ruler

I also brought, but did not use (but did use as a reference to study) some books from college:

Machine design

Heat transfer

Fluids

Thermo

FE equation book

(side note; use what you are comfortable with. Some would rather reference their fluids book than the MERM. By all means, use what allows you to find the answer in less than 6 mins.)

And lastly, use this forum. Lots of willing, able, and successful individuals who are here to help. Chances are, everything you are thinking has been thought of from others who were in your position in the past. Ask and/or search the threads and you can get an excellent idea of what others have done. I'm sure there's stuff I'm forgetting.

Be consistent. Be persistent. One and done.

I would recommend using the MERM and Shigley's machine design book.

Here are some great advice from other Mechanical PE test takers which i read before taking my exam:

http://ppi2pass.com/advice/from-mechanical-pe-examinees

I studied about 2 hours a night for 2 - 2 1/2 months, taking Saturday's off.

I used James Kamm's CDs. So I'd watch the lesson, take notes, and do his practice problems. Then I would go through the applicable MERM sections and do those practice problems. It took a few days for each topic. As I was doing the problems, I'd flag any questions that I had trouble with. Once I finished up with the CDs, I went over those troublesome questions.

At this point, I'm about 3 weeks away from the exam. Now I start tabbing the MERM and a couple other references and I put together a couple sheets of commonly used formulas and conversions that I thought would be helpful. I know that the sequence is a little different than other peoples', but it just worked out better for me. I found it a lot easier to just do problems without stopping to tab a page. When I devoted a couple of hours only to tabbing the book, it was a breeze. I knew which sections I refered to often and what was important to tab out.

2 weeks before the exam I did an 8 hour practice exam (2001 NCEES). I spent the week going through any answers I had trouble with and I started organizing my 3-ring binder and references. 1 week before the exam, I took another practice exam (2008). The key is I took the week of the exam off from work. So I took the second practice exam on Saturday, and went over the answers on Sunday through Monday. Tuesday & Wednesday was just some minor organizing and some final touch ups to my binder (no real studying). And then Thursday I didn't crack a book open.

I'm happy with the way my study schedule worked out. Over the last 3 weeks I eased up a bit so I wouldn't get burnt out and was still able to get in the practice exams. I ended up passing the exam on my first try.

PE Exam: Thermal & Fluid Systems

References:

MERM

ASME Steam Tables

Engineering Unit Conversions (http://www.amazon.com/Engineering-Unit-Conversions-Michael-Lindeburg/dp/159126099X)

3 Ring Binder (3 pages of notes, a few mollier diagrams, psychrometric chart)

Those were my most used references by far. I also brought ASHRAE Fundamentals, Cameron Hydraulic Data, Crane Flow of Fluids, and the NCEES sample exams. But I don't think I got any answers from these, or even really opened them.

Good thread and great advice Kelly.

I will say the things that helped me the most were the MERM (know it, tab it, work its sample problems) and the NCEES practice tests. The last couple weeks, I did nothing but work and rework these tests, building speed and confidence. Using the weekends to take both tests (twice) in the full 8 hours with and hour lunch (the second time through the test sessions will most likely not take you 4 hours each, but take the extra time to recheck your work). Sitting for the full 8 hours is tough (at least it was for myself) and practicing that I think was a great benefit to me. It is amazing how fast 8 hours can go!

How fast? its like i blinked and was 11.... then blinked and they calling half hour left in the afternoon. haha. I used up the full 8 hours but passed first try. Shigleys and MERM should get you through fine.

But one book i took that got me out of a jam on 1 problem was a machinery handbook. it had some info that I simply didnt have access to in any other book. Its a wealth of knowledge too just too much to go through.

I as well studied about 3 months 10-20 hours a week. maybe 20 stretching it but.... more like 10 i guess haha. few nights a week 3 hours a whack in the office. couple saturdays doing practice exams.

I did do one of them Online courses but only used a third of it (the ME specific part). i didnt think it was worth the money but thats my opinion.

I've been wanting to post my process for a while now...

I started studying in December for the April HVAC exam. I only studied a few hours a week at this point since I wasn't ready to delve into the material. I read through the first few chapters and tackled the problems and then skipped to economics and the problems.

Starting January, I really dug into the material by reading each chapter and doing the sample problems. At this point I think I was studying 2-3 hours a night. I got pretty frustrated with the problem sets though. I would only get a handful of questions right while having no clue how to tackle the other ones. If I didn't know how to get started, I would quickly glance at the solution and then try to work the problem myself.

By the end of January, I was getting worried. I was barely past the fluids portion (the problems were taking me forever) and didn't think I had a good grasp on the sections I went through. At this point I switched modes to only problem solving and just skimming through the chapters. The problems were still frustrating, but I kept on.

I developed a schedule where I studied each major section for two to three weeks. I spent most of my time on fluids, heat transfer, thermo, and HVAC. Then I spent about a week or two on springs, machine design, etc. In the middle of March, I took a week off of work to study. I got about 60 hours of study time in that week and that really helped. It also helped that my office wasn't too busy in the couple of weeks leading to the exam so they didn't mind me taking some time to study.

These boards were also an excellent resource and everyone was extremely helpful. I also spent a lot of time just going through the old threads to get a feel for how everybody's experience was.

My thoughts on the exam are in this thread:

http://engineerboards.com/index.php?showtopic=18924

Good luck to all the new examinees!

Perfect advise.

I would add a very complete unit conversion book and an exam week schedule of light review Tuesday, packing Wednesday and a nice dinner with your signifcant other Thursday.

If you don't know it by Monday, it is too late. Plan on 3 months and 300 hrs.

Great advice.

I'll add that during all of this, you have to be disciplined to take care of yourself physically and emotionally. Eat right - nutritious meals and snacks. Get as much rest as possible - don't lose sleep time to watch TV. Try not to expose yourself to germs - having a cold for a few days can hurt your schedule. Try to find stress relief - short walks or laughing with friends or family for a few minutes. Believe in yourself - you can do it.

I used the 12th MERM, MERM Qwik reference guide, and my own prepared quick reference guide with formulas and charts in it (three ring binder). These are the only three references that I used. I used James Kamm CD-Romm review package and watched it several times and worked all the problems two or three times as well as reviewing my EIT practice problems for good measure. I used the NCEES sample exams and worked it several times for timing. I did not get hung up on a problem. I also took the last week off to prepare and reviewed all of the material one last time. I think that the last week off helped me greatly. Also, I studied all three afternoon topics for this test preparation and worked problems from all three areas. I passed this time, but did not the first time. I think that the difference was taking the week off prior to the exam, preparing for all three afternoon topics and preparing my own personal quick reference three ring binder as well as changing to the Thermal/Fluids specialty. To me, the HVAC had too many over complicated AHRAE questions and was mostly Thermal/Fluids anyway.

A Note on my experience with the exam:

I took ME (Mechanical Systems) exam for the first time in Oct. 12. I was overwhelmed with work during that time and did not get a chance to prepare much at all. I was able to review MERM (for vibrations) and a Thermodynamics text (Moran and Shapiro) only on the day before the day of the exam; however, I can confidently say that I am very comfortable with fundamentals of Mechanics (statics/mechanics of matls./dynamics) and basics of thermofluids/thermodynamics (not the HVAC depth, just the basics). Further, I use the Mechanical Design parts of MERM (not including vibrations) as a reference some times (say once a month) as a short cut for Shigley for preliminary checks of mechanical design in my design work, so am fairly familiar with where different things in that book are. I was fortunate to pass.

I took four text books with me (no other texts or notes): MERM, Mark's ME Handbook, Heat Transfer by Incropera and Dewitt, and Moran and Shapiro with me to the test.

I found that I was able to answer many of the problems and questions from the fundamentals I knew well (rigid body motion (rolling wheel), friction, etc.), i.e., without using a reference and using the information given on the problem - possibly for 40-50% of the test. I had to use MERM on a couple of occasions, for example, for deflections, springs, etc. I did use ME Handbook (for bearings etc) and Moran Shapiro and Incropera (for Thermo tables and properties).

I may have gotten to about 60 out of the 80 questions through the above (with a 10% chance of making errors or understanding the problem statement incorrectly, would have gotten about 54 correct) and ran out of time for most of the others and ended up making educated guesses. I did think I would have to take it next time and this time with solid preparation. I got lucky.

I am not sure if the above helps and if this was very specific to the exam this time only, but being thorough in mechanics parts helped my greatly. I have Hibbeler's statics, mechanics, and dynamics texts, which helped me develop those skills over the years. That, along with basics in thermofluids/thermodynamics, helped me greatly.

Hope this helps some one. Good luck with your efforts!