I just took the Mechanical PE last October and did not pass. Now I am trying to decide which exam to take come this April. I practice MEP engineering on a daily basis, but I have not touched Structural since school approx 5 years ago. I have all the study material for the ME (obviously it did not help), but I cannot find a whole lot for the Arch E. I have heard the Arch E test is not easy and wonder if I would be better off taking the ME test again. Anyone have any thoughts or have ever talked to someone that has taken both tests? Thanks
Finding resources/study materials for the AE exam is one of the toughest things, I went through all of this myself. I also debated what exam to take (AE or EE-power). If you work on MEP on a daily basis, I think you really need to give taking it serious consideration. Finding references/books is difficult, I will try to help, but in general just remember you need to find books that cover the subjects of the AE exam even though they were not written for the AE exam (Ask coworkers/engineering friends/etc what books they have so you don't have to buy as many). Here are few things by the four major sections of the test:
Structural (27%):
This was by far the toughest portion of the test for me, I think the same will be true for you. I basically used two references/books for this, one was the Structural portion of the Civil Engineering Review Manual, and the other was a book called "Architecture Exam Review: Volume 1 - Structural Topics". Neither book was written for the exam I took but the content is so similar it worked. I went though both of them in their entirety, it took a lot of time but it was my weakest subject. I did also use the LRFD Steel Manual quite a bit which I was not familiar with at all until studying for the exam, there are tables with information in them that may become useful. I did also have the ACI 318 book I borrowed from someone which while not as helpful as the other books was ok, I didn't have any prior experience with this. My friend who took the AE exam a year earlier has a Civil Engineering/Construction Management degree found it quite useful (I am sure their score on the structural portion was way higher than mine, we both passed but you can make the points us in Mech/Elec as I did). My theory on this section was to try and get some right, but knew it was never my strong point.
Construction Management/General Knowledge (27%):
These are two separate subjects in exam breakdown but I combine them as I look at the test as only have 4 major sections. If you work in MEP, the General Knowledge part should be pretty easy – not a lot you can study for here in my opinion. (BTW: KSWildCats what is your college degree in?) As for construction management, the 2 most important things to you need to know how to do are schedules and engineering economics. If you don’t have one, get an engineering economics book – the book I have is small, I went over it briefly to understand how to use the tables in the back (you’ll need it for the tables). The IBC (International Building Code) book was also helpful to bring.
Mechanical (23%):
Since you attempted the ME exam, I assume this is your strong point and you have all the references you need (What ME Depth did you attempt KSWildCats?) Here is what I used: I had a book called “Mechanical & Electrical Systems in Buildings” by Tao/Janis from college (read the entire mechanical section – There books like this from other authors that are as good or better). I bought the “Six Minute Solutions for PE Exam – HVAC & Refrigeration Problems” book and solved all of those problems for practice as they are very similar to the exam. My friend had used a ‘Ductilator’ quite a bit, I didn’t use it but it would be worth bringing. I also bought the NFPA Pocket Guide to Sprinkler Installation. Mechanical was stuff I hadn’t really used a lot since college but it all came back to me as I reviewed it.
Electrical (23%):
This was a strong point for me being an electrical guy, here is what I used: I used the NEC Handbook (I prefer the handbook over the code book) a lot on the exam, its essential to have one of them. I am familiar with the book, but if I wasn’t I would maybe copy some of the common stuff out of it and have it in a binder (ex: 310.16, 430.52, 430.250, conduit fill tables, etc.) or at least tab it. I used ‘Uglys Electrical Reference’ as well, the book is short/small but has a lot of good stuff (I like their shortcut way of doing powerfactor correction – I used it to check my longhand way. Also has some items tables I listed to copy from the code book). I also brought my SquareD (GE also has one) motor calculator slide rule, it has FLC for motors, conductor ampacities, conduit fill (for EMT only), etc (quicker than looking it up in the codebook sometimes). I also had used some stuff out of the ME Systems book I mentioned above under mechanical, mainly used it for lighting – know how to do lighting calculations.
Other Info/Thoughts:
Advice that is in other areas of this board for general preparation applies to this exam as well, but I’ll repeat a few things anyway. FE formula book may be worth bringing. Tab/Highlight while going through the references. I copied/transferred formulas onto several sheets that I brought in my binder to have quick access to them – with units and some unit conversions. You don’t need to know the exact answer, just approximate answer (or just knowing what answer isn’t right). Read the questions carefully to be sure you know what they are looking for (ex: when you end up with 4.5 do you choose 4 or 5).
Overall on most subjects I think the questions are more general about the specific topic instead of extremely deep/complicated.
There is a list of references/books issued by NCEES or someone who worked on writing the exam, if you don’t have a copy of it or can’t find it let me know.
You MUST get the AE Practice Exam & Solutions. I sat down and took it as an 8hr test (just like the real one) one day, its most helpful to simulate the real exam. Take the practice exam at least 1 month before the test! This is important because taking the practice exam will give you a good feel of what will be on the actual exam while having enough time work on some weak spots (My friend & I failed the practice exam by the way). I got through the Mech/Elec/CM/General sections of the actual exam in 2 hrs which left me 2 hrs to try to figure out the structural portion.
Hope this helps you (and others) out – I know it’s a bit long. Please feel free to ask other questions and best of luck to you! Let me know what exam you decide to take. ~Ritchie
