How is everyone making out?

[jamiecta]

I did not realize Freon 12 and R 12 were the same thing... now im embarrassed =)

not a problem! I didn't realize it until I was out of school and at work. Now you know for the test! Freon is just DuPont's brand name for the refrigerant.

 

[chaocl]

ASHRAE fundamental has more than 40 gas table for different(ammonia,R-11,R-12, R-13, R-14, R-22, R-23, R-32, R-113, R-114...etc). More Qs and Ql in different place! More N,E,W,S Detla Te. More FSHG,More R value that you can find from MERM.

So that is why I think ASHRAE is very important handbook (my edition is old but still good...edition in year 1993)

Forgot to mention, because this book I jump from 50% HVAC in the AM to 100% HVAC in the AM.

The afternoon I still taking the T&F because the ASHRAE fundamental might not be enough for the PM section...you might need more ASHRAEs books in different sections.

 

[gaurav0323]

Just 2 weeks for exam and just want to get over with this. I am day dreaming for result day when I will become a PE and how I am going to celebrate and eat fruits of my hard work. Guess my dreams keep me motivated. But what if I do not make it through. I have already spent more than 2000 greens, burnt midnight oil and prepared more than 400 hrs......O god please get me through. I am a role model and a brave heart in my office who's sitting to become a PE and carrying expectations is becoming really tough. Me and my wife have not gone out on weekends as I am always studying and now even she's getting frustrated, just want watch to tick to 28th.

I have solved lots of MERM problems from parctise book and also solved 6MS solutions 2X. Going to solve NCEES exam this sunday first time and lets see what my score looks like.

Best luck my brothers and god speed us all.

 

[chaocl]

Just 2 weeks for exam and just want to get over with this. I am day dreaming for result day when I will become a PE and how I am going to celebrate and eat fruits of my hard work. Guess my dreams keep me motivated. But what if I do not make it through. I have already spent more than 2000 greens, burnt midnight oil and prepared more than 400 hrs......O god please get me through. I am a role model and a brave heart in my office who's sitting to become a PE and carrying expectations is becoming really tough. Me and my wife have not gone out on weekends as I am always studying and now even she's getting frustrated, just want watch to tick to 28th.

I have solved lots of MERM problems from parctise book and also solved 6MS solutions 2X. Going to solve NCEES exam this sunday first time and lets see what my score looks like.

Best luck my brothers and god speed us all.

I prepare my PE exam road from Dec 2007 to Oct 2010. (close to 4 years)

Passed the PE didn't give me any good thing yet.

 

[eselcen]

working on SMS Hvac and Ncess Sample exam

still making mistakes on questions

 

[jamiecta]

I guess it just depends on how many mistakes at this point. If you are still making mistakes on just a couple problems then I wouldn't stress about it - you don't need to get 100% on the exam. If you are still making mistakes to the tune of >10% of the problems and it is the 3rd or 4th time you have worked through the sample test, I would try and see if there is a common thread among your mistakes. Units? Careless calculator entry? Same types of problems? Chart reading errors?

 

[eselcen]

I guess it just depends on how many mistakes at this point. If you are still making mistakes on just a couple problems then I wouldn't stress about it - you don't need to get 100% on the exam. If you are still making mistakes to the tune of >10% of the problems and it is the 3rd or 4th time you have worked through the sample test, I would try and see if there is a common thread among your mistakes. Units? Careless calculator entry? Same types of problems? Chart reading errors?

for ncees I have dropped to a couple of questions

but for the sms I can not overcome 1/3 of depth part as for today

I am nervous as not much time left anymore

 

[jamiecta]

Do you understand the solutions in the back of the book, and just can't remember them while you do the test?

Or

Do you not understand/follow the solutions in the back of the book?

If you have questions this is the place to ask them!

 

[eselcen]

When I look back to solutions nearly everything is OK I seem to understand

but after a couple weeks I get trapped at the very same question and it makes me sick and have to look back solution again

this became like a cycle and I dont have any "after a couple of weeks" left.

maybe I have to admit that my brain is slowing down after 30s (36 now)

I hope that they will allow solution manuals into the room in MN.

If I cannot find an answer I will look for similar questions.

 

[tmacier]

Eselcen,

I was the same way with the SMS - I would approach a problem completely wrong and not become aware this approach was incorrect until deep into the problem for 20 minutes or until I looked in the back of the book.

Keep at it - tackling the more complex thermo cycles seem to always trick me.

As mentioned above, keep track of your units. Even on the simpliest problem cancel and check units - Example thinking - should the answer be "BTU's" or "BTU's/hour".

Know that conversion table at the front of the MERM in both directions.

Keep going - you are down to days now!

Tim

 

[thwlruss]

I tried again to take the Lindberg Practice Exam this weekend and fell flat on my face. It's not that the exam is conceptually difficult but the number of unit conversions, mathematical operations, iterations, reference items, and the convoluted presentation of the questions, make the exam undoable in 8 hours, IMO. Maybe im just really slow.

 

[eselcen]

jamiecta and tmacier

I thank you very much for your comments.

I guess my pass will depend on my performance on the exam date

Just hope that the questions will be similar to ncess questions not sms

and there will be no problem with my solution manuals

 

[gaurav0323]

Gents,

Last week i.e. Sunday I started working on NCEES practise exam. I adhered to 4 hours each session simulating 1 hour lunch break in between. However my score has really disappointed me. I was hardly able to score 27/40 on morning and 20/40 on evening.

Do you guys think that Ncees practise exam is like real exam or is it easier than real test.

Please advice.

 

[jamiecta]

Gents,

Last week i.e. Sunday I started working on NCEES practise exam. I adhered to 4 hours each session simulating 1 hour lunch break in between. However my score has really disappointed me. I was hardly able to score 27/40 on morning and 20/40 on evening.

Do you guys think that Ncees practise exam is like real exam or is it easier than real test.

Please advice.

How long have you been studying? What is your depth?

 

[tmacier]

Gents,

Last week i.e. Sunday I started working on NCEES practise exam. I adhered to 4 hours each session simulating 1 hour lunch break in between. However my score has really disappointed me. I was hardly able to score 27/40 on morning and 20/40 on evening.

Do you guys think that Ncees practise exam is like real exam or is it easier than real test.

Please advice.

To be brutally honest I do not believe that is going to cut it -

I was able to get 35 on the morning and 25 on the depth and I didnt pass the first time -

Second time I could do the morning in two hours and get 37 correct and the depth 30 in three hours -

I believe you should have been working these problems for over 2 months now - these last two weeks should just be review.

This will be the hardest exam you most likely will ever take.

Good luck

Tim

 

[jamiecta]

Just to be clear Tim, you are saying that during preparation for your 2nd attempt at the PE you scored a 37/40 + 30/40 on the practice exam prior to the real exam correct?

 

[gaurav0323]

Thanks for your reply. I am preparing for MD depth. I have been 2X through SMS and once through Ncees practise exam. I am taking next week complete off from work. I have been preparing for last 6 months 2 hrs a day and 4 hrs roughly on weekends. Comming week I am thinking about reading through Fluids, thermal, HT on Friday thru Sunday and then working on problems from SMS starting Mon thru Wednesday. I will read Economics on thursday for half a day before resting my case.

Please advice/ any strategy you did to pass the exam.

 

[tmacier]

Just to be clear Tim, you are saying that during preparation for your 2nd attempt at the PE you scored a 37/40 + 30/40 on the practice exam prior to the real exam correct?

Correct

 

[jamiecta]

cool. How similar to the real exam was the NCEES practice morning portion in difficulty? I just took the morning portion of the NCEES exam for the 2nd time and got 39 right in 2.5 hours. Of course there were probably 5-6 problems that I got right mainly from remembering studying the answer last time because I missed them so I probably shouldn't count 100% of them (mainly all machine design/materials related problems). Were the Econ problems pretty straight forward like they were on the practice exam? I still struggle with some MD stuff since that is my weak point and I didn't put a ton of emphasis on it but so far it seems like all of those problems I was able to simply look up the sections in the book and figure out how to do them.

At this point I feel like 99% of any thermo, fluids, heat transfer, or HVAC breadth-level problem they could ask on the morning section I will knock out of the park so I'm really just hoping that I can get a lot of those questions and that I'll have relatively easy machine design problems. Electrical and Econ are hit or miss. If they are as easy as the NCEES morning problems I am fine, but the Lindeburg sample exam econ and electrical problems were definitely tougher.

I think I am well-prepared, just freaking out with a week to go

 

[Trev... P.E.]

With only a few days to go, I'm feeling pretty good with where I'm at. Did pretty well on the NCEES 2001 & 2008 tests. Power cycles are getting a lot better and I've got my tabs working well.

I tried out the SMS books, and the breadth questions were okay, but I threw the TF depth aside in frustration. My feeling after taking a few of their questions was that they either picked a whacky obscure subject, or worded a standard problem so poorly that the difficult part was understanding what they were asking. There was almost nothing in the power cycles section which I anticipate will be a big part of the PM exam. Can't believe they charge what they do for these little pamphlets. Definitely not up to the rest of the PPI library's standard IMO.

Anyhow, I think my knowledge is in good shape so I'm just going to try and keep my problem solving pace up there going into the exam. Tonight I'm going to take both NCEES breadth sections back-to-back, then take the two depth sections on Tuesday & Wednesday. Thursday I'll be packing my gear and relaxing.

Good luck everyone!