Exam Advice

[grover]

At this point, everyone here has studied at length and taken the NCEES practice exam. So you should know what I'm talking about here. It almost goes without saying, but every single question is extremely easy if you know how to solve it! *

The questions are almost invariably written to be trivial if you actually understand the material, but next to impossible if you don't. The exam itself is not a test of how fast you can do calculations, but what you know- most of the questions can be answered VERY quickly just from your knowledge- the truth is that (with a few exceptions), they're not 6 minute problems, they're 30-second problems that only take 6 minutes if you have to figure out how to solve them. Alternately, you're given ample time to brute-force it, if you know your basics and have good references.

Remember- the PE exam is testing your mettle and skills as an engineer- and it's an excellent test for that! So, if it seems too hard or takes you longer than 6 minutes, you're probably doing it the wrong way, or at the very least, the hard way. So, skip that one and come back to it later- next time back through, you might see the trivial way of solving it

* I'm not talking about 3rd party practice exams- many of those are intentionally hard to push you- I'm talking about the actual PE exam questions you'll be faced with come April.

 

[snickerd3]

These things have been mentioned in several old threads but, here they are again:

Understand what the question is asking...smallest diameter pipe, greatest maximum load, minimum cross-sectional area thinking about these things will help decide between two similar solutions.

UNITS, UNITS, UNITS....always check the problem to see what they are asking for. I had a couple problems that boiled down to just properly doing unit conversions.

Don't study the day before the test...if you don't know it by now it is only going to frustrate you.

 

[frazil]

UNITS, UNITS, UNITS....always check the problem to see what they are asking for. I had a couple problems that boiled down to just properly doing unit conversions.

True.

 

[ferryg]

I think Grover sums it up.

The only thing I can add...is go in as relaxed as possible...get a good night's sleep and have a positive attitude. The test is NOT that difficult...but it is designed to eat you alive if you allow it to do so...and fall into the traps.

 

[redrum]

if you get what appears to be an easy read of the chart type question, make sure you look around for footnotes or check the previous page (always use a formula, if given, over a graph)

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

Yeah, graph questions seem a little too easy sometimes. You really need to read what's on the axes and what the question is asking.

The worst graphs I can recall from my studies were Type II wastewater settling and Gaussian atmospheric modeling charts. :happy: