Don't be scared off by the studying

I’m writing this in the hope that a few people will read it and not be scared off from taking the exam.  I remember coming to this board for the first time and seeing all the accounts of people spending 200, 300, or 400+ hours studying for the exam.  It seemed like such daunting task to fit this much studying on to my already pretty full plate.  The thought of it was pretty overwhelming and I put the exam off for a year because of it.  It certainly may take that many hours for someone to get prepared for the exam.  However, depending on many factors, it may not take that many at all. 

1. Did you graduate from school in the past 10 years?
   
2. Do you do calculations by hand regularly as part of your job?
   
3. Are you a good test taker?
   
4. Is the exam you are taking something you are already familiar with?  Some people work within the discipline/depth of the exam they will be taking.  Others do not.  It will obviously be a bit more difficult if you are testing outside your depth of knowledge.
   

I would say you may be able to cut the estimated study time by 50 hours for each of the questions you answered “yes” to above.

I was fortunate in that I answered yes to all four of these.  If you are in the same position, I would advise that you do not dive in and start studying MERM cover to cover.  I would suggest that you get the reference materials look them over enough to be familiar with them and take a sample exam right away.  By taking a sample exam you get a better idea of the type of questions you will see and it will quickly become apparent what you do and do not need to spend time studying. 

I took, and passed, the Mechanical – Thermal/Fluids exam on the first try and I studied for about 50 hours including taking the sample exam.  So it’s possible, depending on your situation, to get away with studying far less than you will see recommended.

Regardless, I think taking a sample exam early on is a good idea to get a sense of the questions to expect and can help you target what you do and do not need to work on.      

That is some pretty good logic/advice. 

I will say that I'm very impressed about your results.  It took me 23 hours alone to do the first pass of the ncees sample exam and an additional 35 hours to do the first pass of the MSM 6MS.   Although I only fit one of your four criteria (traditionally a good test taker...but that was 12 years prior).   I had 275 prep hours in total.   If I would have cut out the grueling MERM companion problems, it would have saved me 115 hours.   But I know for a fact that I wouldn't have been able to do at least 8 problems on the exam without running thru the MERM companion.  

Looking back, I think I over-studied but the exam itself was still a challenge.  But remember, it's only about 12 weeks.  That is less than a semester in college.   I thought of it this way;  I planned far in advance to devote 3 months for this exam.  I did 'put off the test' as a result, but I knew what I was getting into (thanks to this forum).   My immediate family was involved and on board with the plan which left the only major uncontrollable variables being work and health.  Thankfully health wasn't an issue so that left the day-to-day struggles from work.  In all, it was rough at times but fully doable.  And before you know it, the exam day comes and goes.   As another member here who studied at the same time as I said to me recently; for this exam, "hard work always pays off" 

I agree with what both of you have said.  Hearing people say they failed after studying for 200-300 hours seemed pretty discouraging.  

I probably studied 150 hours and felt before the test that I could have studied more/done things differently.  After I took the test I decided the things I wanted to do differently probably wouldn't have helped that much.  Then I found out I passed.  

How you use the XXX hours is more important then the direct number of hours.  My tips for maximizing the quality of study:

1. Be organized-  Mostly focuses on the MERM.  There are some good guides here on the boards for tabbing the MERM.  I color coded the different subjects and I think that was helpful.  I also tried to make sure any time I referenced something in the MERM during practice, I had a tab for the material referenced (also applies to other reference books).  There are things in the MERM that seem important that you probably won't use.  Reading the MERM cover to cover will increase your total number of hours studied by a lot but for me it would be of marginal value. 

2. Work problems-  Lots of problems. Don't pooh pooh the Mechanical FE problems either.  Many of them will be easier than the PE problems, but particularly early on in the process they can serve as a good concept review (although the easier problems and SI units can certainly make these less valuable to some people).  FE problems are better than just reading review material IMO.    I started off wanting to keep a log of all the problems I worked in the different subjects, but it became too tedious.  I think the number of unique problems that you work probably has a bigger impact on chance of passing than number of hours studied.  Also don't get to hung up on a problem you don't know.  If you can't solve it in 10 minutes, look up the solution and try to understand it.  Take some timed practice tests though to see how you are doing when you can't immediately jump to the solutions.  Analyze the ones you missed or skipped afterwards though.  

3. Prioritize- goes along with 1 and 2, but make a plan for how you will progress through the material.  As starquest said above, the MERM companion problems would be one of the last things on my list and I would probably just work through them while flipping back and forth to the solutions.  The Lindberg practice test would also be one of the last things I did just because the problems are harder than the real thing.  It can be discouraging if you take it too early.  

Quality > quantity

This may be a really dumb question, but what is the difference between the problems found in the actual MERM and the MERM "companion problems"? Are those the same things or is there another book of problems?

cornsnicker3 said:

This may be a really dumb question, but what is the difference between the problems found in the actual MERM and the MERM "companion problems"? Are those the same things or is there another book of problems?

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It's another book of problems.  It helped me pass. 

P-E said:

It's another book of problems.  It helped me pass. 

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I am assuming it is this book I found on amazon: 

Practice Problems for the Mechanical Engineering PE Exam, 13th Ed 

that's correct

tbova said:

I took, and passed, the Mechanical – Thermal/Fluids exam on the first try and I studied for about 50 hours including taking the sample exam.  So it’s possible, depending on your situation, to get away with studying far less than you will see recommended.

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Congratulations.  Studying for 50 hours would get me a "failed" result and this would apply to many others.  Not everyone is as good at taking exams, have the greatest memory or knowledge of the topics on the exam as you.  For the non-outlier exam takers like me, I would encourage those that want to pass the exam to take it seriously.     

So, I know this is an exhausting question, but are these two books sufficient? It seems like there are two main camps of opinions: One camp believes in buying all of the bells and whistles (MERM, SMS, Index, Appendix, etc.) and other camp is very minimalistic (Pretty much just the MERM). It seems that an exhaustive review of the MERM, its problems, and the companion problem would probably suffice. I am stressed out just thinking about what I need to bring.

Also, I keep reading about the Shaggy tabbing, but I can't find the link to the pictures. They seem to be block on the forum page.

cornsnicker3 said:

So, I know this is an exhausting question, but are these two books sufficient? It seems like there are two main camps of opinions: One camp believes in buying all of the bells and whistles (MERM, SMS, Index, Appendix, etc.) and other camp is very minimalistic (Pretty much just the MERM). It seems that an exhaustive review of the MERM, its problems, and the companion problem would probably suffice. I am stressed out just thinking about what I need to bring.

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I've completed 90% of the problems from the MERM companion book and I can honestly say they helped me pass the exam.  To answer your question about buying all the bells and whistle: yes, all the bells and whistles will help you pass the exam.    

• Practice Problems for the Mechanical Engineering PE Exam (Lindeburg) (13th Edition)
  
• Mechanical PE Practice Examination (Lindeburg 3rd Edition)
  
• 101 Solved Mechanical Engineering Problems (Lindeburg)
  
• NCEES Practice Exam - HVAC and Refrigeration
  
• NCEES Practice Exam - Thermal and Fluid Systems
  
• NCEES Practice Exam - Mechanical Systems and Materials
  
• Six Minute Solutions (Elder) (2nd Edition)
  
• Mechanical PE Exam - How to Pass On Your First Try (Shepherd)
  
• Study Guide for the HVAC and Refrigeration Portion of the Exam
  
• Mechanical Engineering 175 Problems and Solutions (Pefley) (6th Edition)
  

The more problems you do, even if they are the old school 1 hour long problems, will help you pass the exam.  Also, do problems from textbooks and manuals, not just specialized practice exams.  Also, take any useful charts and graphs that might be better (or might not even exist) than those found in the MERM and put them in your binders.  Don't expect all the answers to be found in MERM --- you should bring other textbooks, codes, and standards that literally have the answers that are nowhere to be found in MERM.        

cornsnicker3 said:

So, I know this is an exhausting question, but are these two books sufficient? It seems like there are two main camps of opinions: One camp believes in buying all of the bells and whistles (MERM, SMS, Index, Appendix, etc.) and other camp is very minimalistic (Pretty much just the MERM). It seems that an exhaustive review of the MERM, its problems, and the companion problem would probably suffice. I am stressed out just thinking about what I need to bring.

Also, I keep reading about the Shaggy tabbing, but I can't find the link to the pictures. They seem to be block on the forum page.

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I would say yes on just those two books if you are taking TFS.   Prob HVAC too.  You'll never have enough time to comb through a pile of references during the exam.               I brought about six and used three. Having a copy of the merm index makes like easier in the exam  

Also I barely could finish all the practice problems in the companion book in the 5 months.  Good luck. 

Im one of those who studied 400+ hours and not taking it in mydiscipline. I am at my 4th attempt this April... my issues...

First two times I just didnt study enough, newborn kid and heavy workload. During this time I took Dr Toms and School of PE for each attempt. Problem was that I was like "oh yeah i got that concept"... well that was not good enough. I only dedicated last 50 or so hours on unique problems. I eventually blazed through practice exams, but partially because i memorized the techniques.

My Oct 16 attempt was seemingly smooth sailing, morning was a breeze... afternoon was unexpectingly hard. Concepts VS Applications can get tricky as hell, especially in a time crunch when you dont have time to flip through the references. I failed with a 68 which is worse to me than failing with a 50.

This round I am carefully going down the list of New Ncees specs for TFS and concentrating on those starting with MERM (read, work examples, and working chapter problems without looking at answers). Last two times I would just jump to practice problems, look up answers if I didnt know approach and say "oh i got it now"... when really all I got was working that particular problem instead of understanding it. 

TLDR quality Vs quantity

landolakes said:

I failed with a 68 which is worse to me than failing with a 50.

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Landolakes, I would disagree.  You nearly passed and have most likely increased your score with each attempt.    

landolakes said:

Im one of those who studied 400+ hours and not taking it in mydiscipline. I am at my 4th attempt this April... my issues...

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Those 400+ hours are probably cumulative over the few times you've attempted at the exam.  I too have spent a lot of hours studying and preparing for the exam (over 450), but a majority of those hours occurred within 5 months of the exam in October.  I have spent a good number of hours studying on/off for the exam in the couple years prior to finally taking it.   

What is your discipline?

I can back up not being scared away by the studying. I spent probably a total of 50 hours over 2 exam trials. Passed on my second try. Not that I would recommend being a slacker like me, but I just suck at studying. It's easier for me to go through resources and organize / tab, and approach the exam with the system that worked for me. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to figure out how to study because I have vertical and lateral SE exams up next. Figure out what works for you, lay out a plan, do your best to stick with it, be organized and aware of what information your resources hold, and do as many practice problems as you can.

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Mr_Duct said:

Landolakes, I would disagree.  You nearly passed and have most likely increased your score with each attempt.    

Those 400+ hours are probably cumulative over the few times you've attempted at the exam.  I too have spent a lot of hours studying and preparing for the exam (over 450), but a majority of those hours occurred within 5 months of the exam in October.  I have spent a good number of hours studying on/off for the exam in the couple years prior to finally taking it.   

What is your discipline?

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Im EE but my work involves ME stuff... TFS

The other thing thats eating me up is the specification changes to the exam. Sure my last attempt was close but now some of that material is gone and replaced by new stuff. BTW anyone notice the morning is now 32 questions and afternoon is 48?

I'm impressed that you almost passed TFS.  I doubt I'd ever pass any EE exam.  Why not just get your PE in EE?   Would you feel comfortable stamping as a Mech E?

My career after college started at a gas pipeline/utility company (current company). My focus was intended to be in electrical... but changed few times from that to working under reservoiring engineering to mechanical (failures, rotating machines, etc). Really my role is in operations so day to day work can vary quite a bit. So when I tried going for EE PE, the study material was not applicable and not interesting as the ME stuff.

P-E said:

I would say yes on just those two books if you are taking TFS.   Prob HVAC too.  You'll never have enough time to comb through a pile of references during the exam.               I brought about six and used three. Having a copy of the merm index makes like easier in the exam  

Also I barely could finish all the practice problems in the companion book in the 5 months.  Good luck. 

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I am taking Thermal Fluids. I am also curious how the "new" 80 question depth format with affect the amount I will need to know. It is nice not needing to review statics/dynamics as much, but I imagine the intensity of the thermal fluids will be pretty rough.

After I work through the book problems, I will switch to the companion. After that I will do the practice tests.