9 replies to this topic

[Nickarus]

***Thread is in progress - this is gonna take a while!***

Hey everyone! I passed, and just got my stamp and new business cards in the mail .

Since there's so little out there regarding experiences with the Architectural Engineering (AE) PE exam, I knew from the get-go that I would want to share what did/didn't work for me, regardless of the outcome.

MY BACKGROUND:

I got my bachelors and masters in Kansas State's Architectural Engineering program. That education was a cross-discipline engineering education (electrical, structural, mechanical), with many building-industry specific classes (power, lighting, fire protection, LRFD, HVAC, plumbing, energy codes, estimating, project management and so forth).

After school, I began working for an MEP consulting firm who permitted me to practice cross-discipline design and CA. My day-to-day prior to the PE exam involved mechanical, plumbing, power and lighting design; energy modeling under various contexts(LEED, commissioning, calibration), and project management from start to finish.

The only parts of the exam material which haven't been part of my day-to-day life in my career are the structural topics and rated fire constructions. Everything else I either do on a regular basis or have at least have dabbled in.

STUDY MATERIALS:

Primary study material was the 2nd edition of the Principles and Practice of Engineering - Architectural Engineering practice exam. I also ordered the first edition hoping to double the amount of practice questions to work from, but was dissapointed to find they are largely the same. My advice is to just get the latest edition. Also grab the errata and work those in from the AEI site below, and peruse the forums here for further corrections to the practice exam solutions .

Useful Websites:

• This forum: http://engineerboards.com/
• Sign up for your test here: http://www.ncees.org/
• Read this in entirety: http://content.aeins...ng/pe_exam.html
• Bookmark your state board's site: http://content.aeins...ring/state.html
• Tons of useful fundamentals explained simply and with pictures - great source for reference materials to bind: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/

HOW I STUDIED:

I resolved to photocopy each problem from the practice exam onto a separate sheet. I then wrote out a full solution (and sometimes multiple approaches to the same problem), with references as necessary, on engineering paper. Answers were stapled to each problem, then each problem was sorted by discipline for easy reference in my PE exam binder (i.e. lighting, plumbing, power, HVAC).

Along the way, every time a problem referenced something, even if I didn't need to look it up, I tabbed that reference.

Every time a concept or "fundamentals" came up that I didn't know or was fuzzy on, I hopped onto google and found a good resource illustrating and explaining the topic thoroughly, printed it off, and filed it in my PE binder.

I recognized pretty quickly that if I was weak in any area of the exam, it was definitely structural. I resolved to study all the other topics first, assemble my notes/tabs and complete all the non-structural exam questions before touching anything structural. Then with about a month to go before exam day, I crammed structural solely. I found these forums and google to be my friends in finding problems and solutions similar to each the practice exam brought up. I made sure I was capable of solving each problem on my own, and identified where to look in my structural references for each subtopic. I thoroughly skimmed the contents and retabbed all structural references. There are a LOT of gems that can save much time in the AISC manual for example... more than I remember!

REFERENCES USED ON TEST DAY:

See uploaded picture below - that's the large suitcase I use for international travel... so full I couldn't close the zipper! I referenced all but a few items through the test however:

1. 3-ring binder of PE reference materials - following post will provide another picture/discussion of its contents
2. "Nick's Plumbing Handbook" is a continuation of my college notes from plumbing/fire protection classes that I've added to and often referenced in practice. It contains code snippets and journal/manufacturers guidelines for sizing and designing water/waste/steam/gas/vent/medical and other related plumbing systems.
3. This Binder's title is pretty self-explanatory. I took the full NFPA sections 14, 101, 99, 13 and 72 from our office's loose-leaf reference set. It could mean the difference between a right and wrong answer to bring the right year for each, by the way! Refer to the practice exam's suggested reference list.
4. The Acoustic Systems is a notebook from a college elective of the same name. Covers various noise criteria, construction acoustic properties, and related formulae.
5. Generic Engineering Economics text with all the usual formulae
6. 6
7. NCEES Principles and Practice of Engineering Structural Engineering I Sample Questions & Solutions
8. IBC 2003
9. IPC 2006
10. ASCE 7-02 : Minimum Design Loads for Building and Other Structures
11. NFPA 72 - 2002: National Fire Alarm Code. Brought this as this is the version I studied in school, and it has all my tabs/margin notes.
12. ASHRAE Principles of Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning (Red cover, based on 2001 Fundamentals)
13. The four ASHRAE Handbooks: Fundamentals, Refrigeration, Applications, Systems
14. (see above)
15. (see above... and I cannot count to 4 apparently... to lazy to fire up mspaint again!)
16. IESNA Lighting Handbook 9th ed.
17. NEC 2008
18. ASHRAE/IESNA/ANSI Standard 90.1-2007
19. ACI 318-05: Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete and commentary
20. ANSI/AF&PA NDS-1997: National Design Specification for wood construction, and supplement
21. Text: Structural Design in Wood, 2nd edition, Stalnaker
22. "Engineering Dictionary" a colleague suggested I borrow - I didn't need it
23. AISC Steel Manual (13th edition)
    
    WHAT ELSE DID I BRING ON TEST DAY?:
    
    Straight edge, approved calculator, orange Gatorade, Chex Mix, lunch box (though a surprise lunch was provided), light jacket, wallet with ID, google map of directions to the testing center.
    
    WHAT DID I LEAVE IN MY CAR?:
    
    Cell phone, coffee... emptied my pockets, and kept only my car keys and wallet/ID.
    
    HOW DID IT GO?
    
    I finished the last problem of the morning portion in a little over 2 hours... lots of time to spare. I used another hour to review dog-eared problems where I felt I could use a confirmation from one of my references, and to re-work all problems that involved a calculation... just to double check for user-error - this resulted in a few changed answers. With an hour left to go, and feeling hungry for lunch, I think I was the 2nd person out the door.
    
    The afternoon session was rougher, with more than a few problems requiring some "reference perusal." I used all 4 hours in the afternoon, until it was called for pencils to drop, but I had time to at least attempt to work all problems. Ultimately, I think there no more than 3 or 4 problems where I had to fall back to an educated guess (trying to eliminating one or more options first).
    
    Opening the letter that arrived was dreadful... I really no longer cared about passing - I just wanted to never take that test again! Fortunately the results provided some much needed relief!
    
    ***Thread is in progress - this is gonna take a while!***

Attached Files

•  AEPE_References.JPG   97.63K   48 downloads

Edited by Nickarus, 09 June 2011 - 11:40 PM.

[Nickarus]

**reserving post #2 for a continuation with another snapshot of my PE binder's contents**

[Nickarus]

...Well I can't seem to edit my 2nd post - must be b/c i waited so long? If any moderators can move these contents up one or 'unlock' those posts for editing that'd be nice =).

Moving on: Attached is a snapshot of my bound reference binder. Creating this was part of my prep for the exam, and in practice I turned to this reference as often as any other resource during the test.

It's hard to capture everything in a single photo, but here's a description of its final contents, front to back:

• NCEES notice letter with information needed to enter and take the exam.
• The first row of green tabs is a "filtered" set of topics from the current FE reference handbook (accessible as a large PDF on the NCEES website). This was included as an afterthought almost, to potentially fill in any gaps in the fundamentals I didn't think to include in my studies. If you're going to include this, you'll save time doing it later as you probably won't be familiar with what is/isn't really going to be covered in the exam until you've studied the PPE practice exam thoroughly.
• After that are select AIA contract documents: A201, G701, C141, & B141. Don't recall actually using these much, but seemed relevant material from the practice exam.
• Following are a set of tabs that organize notes, collections of equations/diagrams, highlighted articles, and basically anything I had to google along the way studying the practice exam. The topics are organized as: Electrical, Mechanical, Structural, PM/CA/Other. Examples include reference sheets for college course finals for select topics, wikipedia articles, a collection of economics equations/tables, and fully worked examples of lighting/HVAC/power problems that weren't included in the practice exam (college notebooks were invaluable in this dept).
• The next tab was not really used at all, but was the result of planning around 'the worst case' for testing day. This contains copies of every piece of correspondence regarding applying for the exam, exam specifications, forms submitted to my state's board, definitions in the state bylaws concerning eligibility/experience... basically trying to cover any possibility of my eligibility or ability to take the exam coming under question. I wish I could advise to not worry about this, but mistakes do happen and I expect it's a possibility that someone could be stopped at the door because a number-cruncher somewhere typed a letter of your name wrong into the system. Better to be prepared just in case!
• Finally, the last section of this binder contains the most useful and pertinent thing I did to prep for the test. Here's what I did:

1. Found a good block of time with a copier, then copied/cut/paste/copied each problem from the practice exam onto an individual, separate page (using canary colored paper for clarity).
2. Then, I went through each problem, skimmed it, and sorted the canary pages by topic. The categories are M, E, P, S and Misc.
3. Worked each problem by topic as a group COMPLETELY and neatly. I worked on engineering paper and stapled any work to the problem at hand.
4. Anytime a reference was necessary for me to complete something, I made notes of what I looked up and where to solve the problem, on the problem.
5. Anytime I recognized a problem could be solved by more than one approach, I solved it EACH way. This helped me remember on test day when a "fast" approach would be appropriate, and when an alternate approach is handy for checking your answer.
6. I later went back - there were a number of problems I simply "knew" the answers to, but I tried to put myself into the shoes of someone clueless and identified a reference so I might know where to look for similar info.

During the test, these worked problems were REALLY handy. Many actual exam questions were very similar to the practice problems in content/procedure, just with different numbers, and organizing them by subject matter meant I wasn't wasting time flipping around the practice exam booklet trying to confirm things I was 90% sure of.

As a generalization, for "worked" problems involving multiple steps to find an answer, I would characterize many (but not all) of the practice exam questions as slightly more complex than their actual exam counterparts. I hesitate to even write that, because there were certainly some complex problems to be found (for me mainly in the afternoon session), but keeping your nerves in check is an important part of test taking and it may help some keep their cool while studying and waiting for the clock to start. What I'd take away from this is, if you can get to a point where you feel 100% comfortable understanding and solving any particular problem, you may well be 110% confident on test day when you see the same sort of problem, so I'd move on to the next topic/problem once you're comfy and avoid "over studying" any specific problem.

Hmm can't seem to 'attach' like the first post either... wonder what's up? Anyway here's the image uploaded to postimage.org - hopefully this doesn't expire before someone needs it:

[Wildsoldier PE]

OH MY GOD, all that reference material...you even took an Scale with you!

...Well I can't seem to edit my 2nd post - must be b/c i waited so long? If any moderators can move these contents up one or 'unlock' those posts for editing that'd be nice =).

Moving on: Attached is a snapshot of my bound reference binder. Creating this was part of my prep for the exam, and in practice I turned to this reference as often as any other resource during the test.

It's hard to capture everything in a single photo, but here's a description of its final contents, front to back:

• NCEES notice letter with information needed to enter and take the exam.
• The first row of green tabs is a "filtered" set of topics from the current FE reference handbook (accessible as a large PDF on the NCEES website). This was included as an afterthought almost, to potentially fill in any gaps in the fundamentals I didn't think to include in my studies. If you're going to include this, you'll save time doing it later as you probably won't be familiar with what is/isn't really going to be covered in the exam until you've studied the PPE practice exam thoroughly.
• After that are select AIA contract documents: A201, G701, C141, & B141. Don't recall actually using these much, but seemed relevant material from the practice exam.
• Following are a set of tabs that organize notes, collections of equations/diagrams, highlighted articles, and basically anything I had to google along the way studying the practice exam. The topics are organized as: Electrical, Mechanical, Structural, PM/CA/Other. Examples include reference sheets for college course finals for select topics, wikipedia articles, a collection of economics equations/tables, and fully worked examples of lighting/HVAC/power problems that weren't included in the practice exam (college notebooks were invaluable in this dept).
• The next tab was not really used at all, but was the result of planning around 'the worst case' for testing day. This contains copies of every piece of correspondence regarding applying for the exam, exam specifications, forms submitted to my state's board, definitions in the state bylaws concerning eligibility/experience... basically trying to cover any possibility of my eligibility or ability to take the exam coming under question. I wish I could advise to not worry about this, but mistakes do happen and I expect it's a possibility that someone could be stopped at the door because a number-cruncher somewhere typed a letter of your name wrong into the system. Better to be prepared just in case!
• Finally, the last section of this binder contains the most useful and pertinent thing I did to prep for the test. Here's what I did:

1. Found a good block of time with a copier, then copied/cut/paste/copied each problem from the practice exam onto an individual, separate page (using canary colored paper for clarity).
2. Then, I went through each problem, skimmed it, and sorted the canary pages by topic. The categories are M, E, P, S and Misc.
3. Worked each problem by topic as a group COMPLETELY and neatly. I worked on engineering paper and stapled any work to the problem at hand.
4. Anytime a reference was necessary for me to complete something, I made notes of what I looked up and where to solve the problem, on the problem.
5. Anytime I recognized a problem could be solved by more than one approach, I solved it EACH way. This helped me remember on test day when a "fast" approach would be appropriate, and when an alternate approach is handy for checking your answer.
6. I later went back - there were a number of problems I simply "knew" the answers to, but I tried to put myself into the shoes of someone clueless and identified a reference so I might know where to look for similar info.

During the test, these worked problems were REALLY handy. Many actual exam questions were very similar to the practice problems in content/procedure, just with different numbers, and organizing them by subject matter meant I wasn't wasting time flipping around the practice exam booklet trying to confirm things I was 90% sure of.

As a generalization, for "worked" problems involving multiple steps to find an answer, I would characterize many (but not all) of the practice exam questions as slightly more complex than their actual exam counterparts. I hesitate to even write that, because there were certainly some complex problems to be found (for me mainly in the afternoon session), but keeping your nerves in check is an important part of test taking and it may help some keep their cool while studying and waiting for the clock to start. What I'd take away from this is, if you can get to a point where you feel 100% comfortable understanding and solving any particular problem, you may well be 110% confident on test day when you see the same sort of problem, so I'd move on to the next topic/problem once you're comfy and avoid "over studying" any specific problem.

Hmm can't seem to 'attach' like the first post either... wonder what's up? Anyway here's the image uploaded to postimage.org - hopefully this doesn't expire before someone needs it:

[Nickarus]

OH MY GOD, all that reference material...you even took an Scale with you!

I even used that scale solving a problem adding power triangles to avoid the trig calcs !

What I found funny is - I really did use almost everything at least once, and you could pretty easily tell who was taking the AE PE in the crowd because we were the pack mules carrying crates/shelves/mini-libraries around in some form or fashion. I was shocked to see most other disciplines only came with a small backpack or box with fraction of the reference materials... I guess it illustrates the AE PE is very much focused on breadth? I didn't even bring the full list of recommended references in the PPofE exam booklet =).

Hope all this helps others since there's so little real materials to go off of !

[Nickarus]

Following is the tail-end of a PM conversation I had recently... probably might help someone else out there and Brian agreed he'd be okay with posting this publicly :

Nickarus,

Thanks for your quick and informative reply.

Quick question, did you have to make much use of "Nick's Plumbing Book"? Were there many plumbing questions on the exam? I thought that was a good idea to make your own book based on college notes, but I don't have such a background. Nor do I have experience practicing plumbing.

I have bought the PP&E study guide and I will study it as close as you recommend. I do want to get the majority of reference materials as well. So did you buy all of the reference materials that you mentioned on your list? Wasn't that expensive? I am hoping to find some at the library and to photocopy crucial sections. What do you think?

Thanks again!

Brian

Hey Brian,

"Nick's Plumbing Book" is something I didn't use much in the exam, though much of its contents are in my day-to-day memory. What I did use I think could be found in the IPC/IMC as well.

The distribution of the exam you'll take so far as subject matter goes is probably a toss up, but like the practice exam I think mine was pretty evenly divided between HVAC, plumbing, electrical power/lighting, structural, envelope construction, and construction practices/miscellaneous stuff. No one discipline or area of subject matter stood out as dominant.

I bought a number of these texts back in college, but didn't buy much in preparation for the PE... I borrowed all of the wood structural references from a friend, and much of the NFPA/International code series/ASHRAE texts were simply borrowed from colleagues at work and our code library at work.

Photocopying key sections for each reference sounds great and is better than nothing, but my impression is that the exam is set up in part to test your familiarity with what's covered in the recommended references... sometimes the trick is not to know a 20 step process to determine the flow rate through a pipe given tons of pertinent/irrelevant variables, but rather to know there's a table in the IPC that makes it a 1-step process.

[Atlasflasher]

Great information! Thank you very much!

[wheatmaster]

What did you do to study for the structural portion of the exam? It's my weakest area so I'd like to focus on that.

Has anyone looked into purchasing the NCEES Civil Structural Practice problems?

This is what I get for specializing in Environmental when I studied my AE degree....haha.

[andyrich]

I think he mentioned in the post that he used what was formerly the Structural I NCEES sample exam. The NCEES civil/ structural depth sample exam will give you the same effect, though, and it will be current with codes.

Also, this was a great post that Nick put together summarizing what works in terms of preparing for the PE Exam. Thanks!

[Nickarus]

What did you do to study for the structural portion of the exam? It's my weakest area so I'd like to focus on that.

Has anyone looked into purchasing the NCEES Civil Structural Practice problems?

This is what I get for specializing in Environmental when I studied my AE degree....haha.

 

 

Sorry to be responding so late (I'm sure you've passed by now!), but I chanced across this thread again today after hearing from an old friend on the boards!  Maybe I can fill in a little more...

 

For those looking at the AE PE today, to the best of my recollection, I studied "hardest" for the structural portion as well, as structural design was not and continues to not be a part of my day-to-day.  I've already outlined above how I separated all the practice exam questions by subject matter, then methodically solved and documented the solution to each problem as a group.  That is probably the best study advice I can offer.  As might be expected, I spent the longest time going through the "structural" stack of questions, because I did need to identify and look up appropriate references for many of the problems. 

 

In addition to studying this way, I recall recognizing the AISC Steel construction manual itself has a lot of great reference charts (much of which we did not explicitly cover in class), so I took some time to run through that text, re-tab everything I thought was important in college, and scanned for additional useful-looking textual explanations and tables/charts.  I'm not certain that did much for me on test day, but I recall some of the hardest structural questions had me grabbing my steel manual to confirm equations.

 

I cannot recall purchasing any additional study materials I haven't already mentioned/listed.  When I was looking for additional questions similar to what was in the practice exam, I found quite a bit just googling around, and within discussions on these boards as well.  Usually searching for a specific formula or concept used in a problem will lead you to example problems using that idea.

 

Also, this is a while later but I see at least one of my photos above is no longer working (and I still can't see an option to edit old posts - would like to trim out that "temporary text" in the first few if possible), so here again are the photos I posted of my suitcase/references (numbered), and the contents of my test binder:

Attached Files

•  2011-04-05 19.16.06 edited.JPG   59.46K   14 downloads