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Exactly my feelings. I remember how I essentially had no life on the weekends outside of studying for several months. What a great feeling to have loads of free time. The first time I took the test, I knew I hadn't passed as soon as I walked out. But for this time (October 2010), I walked...

Doing the easy problems first is a commonly recommended technique. Another piece of advice is to NOT get stuck on a problem you just don't know how to do. It isn't worth it. Of course, if there are many such problems, you haven't studied enough.

The first time I took the test (T&F), I knew I hadn't passed (I didn't spend enough time studying). But for October 2010, I was so well prepared that I felt confident. That confidence was boosted when I finished the AM portion 45 minutes early. I only needed to guess on 2 or 3 problems in...

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Back in October, I studied up till two days before the exam. That way, I never felt bad about not studying enough. The day before, I relaxed. It worked. :)

I remember being advised to know about fire protection, especially if you're doing T&F. Also, you should know how to deal with electric motors. I wouldn't worry about the rest.

That just emphasizes the extreme importance of getting the units right. You'd better know the units thoroughly.

I just looked at each problem as it came along. If I knew I could answer it right away, I did so. If the next one looked hard and/or time consuming, I skipped it. When I reached the end of the test, I went back and looked at the ones I skipped. It saved having to skim the whole thing, while...

I second that recommendation. You're right, the instructor really knows his stuff in preparing for the exam. I thanked him for his help as soon as I found out I passed.

You need to go in thinking you can get every question (even if you realize that getting 100% is unrealistic). You can't go in thinking "I'll be ok if I miss 25 questions." When I took the exam in October, I only had to guess on perhaps 3 or 4 questions. I'm not saying I got 76 or 77 out of...

I bought an old copy of the Keenan steam tables off Amazon. Small, but loaded with good info. It kept me from having to interpolate.

Skipping Fire Protection is a bit of a gamble, since I was told that some questions related to it do appear on the exam. I would rather study for the exam using MERM than use Shigley. A textbook isn't prepared with the idea of passing the PE.

Definitely skip it. You won't need to worry about it.

The commonly accepted strategy has been to get all or nearly all the problems on the morning portion right, and get "over the top" in the afternoon. That should tell you which is hardest.

You need to get very familiar with MERM so that you aren't overwhelmed by it.

My approach when retaking the exam didn't rely on exam diagnostics. I just needed to answer one question for myself: Do I know how to handle the problems in a given section? If the answer was yes, I moved on, except for a "refresher" look shortly before the exam. If the answer was no, I...

The Lindeburg unit conversion book is nice to have just in case there's some weird/obscure conversion. It saves time. Time is precious on the exam.

Some really good advice in this thread. I'd like to add that when you do the practice problems, you don't want to have a feeling of "ok, I made it through that chapter, but I don't want to see that type of problem on the exam". If you needed to look at the solutions, you're not ready. Do the...

The NCEES web site would tell you the pass rates for Industrial and Mechanical. That would give you an idea.

Automatic 12% for me.