NEWBY Starting Preparation Process

[CASADOCS]

Hello fellow mental pain seekers!

Well, it's been a while since graduation (1991) and now, after kids, career, and withdrawal, I now feel that I need the PE after my name to move forward career wise. I'd like to take the 2011 October exam.

I was a good student in college and studied in both theoretical and applicative schools for my BS. I have briefly looked at some study material that my friend loaned me and some of it comes back readily but I know some will require review. I am doing the MD depth. A few questions:

1. In a nutshell, what study and reference material do you all recommend for review (please list editions)?

2. What reference material should I take to the exam (please list editions)?

3. Any study methods/recommendations?

4. I do have a 1989 Edition of Shigley and Mischke's Mechanical Design book from college, what happened to "Mischke" in the current editions and can I use my book?

5. What Mark's Handbook edition do you recommend?

6. What units should I focus on?

Thanks!

 

[RobertR]

Your situation is quite similar to mine. Get the latest edition (the 11th Edition is ok) of the Lindeburg Reference book (MERM). I also got things such as a steam table book and large versions of the Mollier and Psychometric charts. These reduced the need for interpolation (TIME is precious during the exam).

Get Lindeburg’s Practice Problems book. Do the problems. Don’t just look at the solution(s) and say “yeah, that’s how I would have done it”. If you prove to yourself that you know how to do a type of problem by getting the right answer, move on to the next topic. If you have the feeling that you just wanted to “get through” the chapter, and had to look at the solutions, return to that chapter at a later date and do the problems over again from scratch. You may hate doing it, but do it anyway, until you KNOW you can handle such a problem. What you want to think when taking the exam is “oh yeah, THAT type of problem. I know how to handle that!”, instead of “OMG, I always struggled with that!” DON’T think you can skip a topic (unless you KNOW you’re good at it), thinking it won’t be addressed on the exam. NCEES could very well put problems on the exam to trip up people who think that way.

Know your English units (MERM has a chapter on units). Whenever you look at an equation, fully understand the units in it. Write out the units in the equation and see how they work out. Have a unit conversion reference handy. Getting the units right is extremely important. Know how to deal with or convert SI Units “just in case”.

Since MERM is a reference book, KNOW it. Know it inside and out. Be able to access what you need from it FAST. I put color coded tabs all over mine.

Get a copy of the NCEES sample exam, but don’t work it until you’ve studied and done the practice problems. What you want is to get comfortable with the exam format.

I don’t have recommendations on Shigley and Marks, since I did Thermal and Fluids, but you can certainly bring them. You can bring any book you want. IMO, It’s a big mistake to bring a LOT of books, though. That’s a lot of stuff to wade through. It wastes TIME. Better to KNOW the material you bring with you thoroughly.

Good luck!

 

[Chris B]

4. I do have a 1989 Edition of Shigley and Mischke's Mechanical Design book from college, what happened to "Mischke" in the current editions and can I use my book?
5. What Mark's Handbook edition do you recommend?

Thanks!

4. I took the MD exam this past Oct and I used that exact version of Shigley/Mischke (5th). I graduated with my BS in 2000.

5. I have Mark's 8th, but decided against bringing it to the exam. I'm not as familiar with it and my bag was already full enough. There were people with suitcases or wagons full of books.

 

[DynaMechEng]

Your situation is quite similar to mine. Get the latest edition (the 11th Edition is ok) of the Lindeburg Reference book (MERM). I also got things such as a steam table book and large versions of the Mollier and Psychometric charts. These reduced the need for interpolation (TIME is precious during the exam).
Get Lindeburg’s Practice Problems book. Do the problems. Don’t just look at the solution(s) and say “yeah, that’s how I would have done it”. If you prove to yourself that you know how to do a type of problem by getting the right answer, move on to the next topic. If you have the feeling that you just wanted to “get through” the chapter, and had to look at the solutions, return to that chapter at a later date and do the problems over again from scratch. You may hate doing it, but do it anyway, until you KNOW you can handle such a problem. What you want to think when taking the exam is “oh yeah, THAT type of problem. I know how to handle that!”, instead of “OMG, I always struggled with that!” DON’T think you can skip a topic (unless you KNOW you’re good at it), thinking it won’t be addressed on the exam. NCEES could very well put problems on the exam to trip up people who think that way.

Know your English units (MERM has a chapter on units). Whenever you look at an equation, fully understand the units in it. Write out the units in the equation and see how they work out. Have a unit conversion reference handy. Getting the units right is extremely important. Know how to deal with or convert SI Units “just in case”.

Since MERM is a reference book, KNOW it. Know it inside and out. Be able to access what you need from it FAST. I put color coded tabs all over mine.

Get a copy of the NCEES sample exam, but don’t work it until you’ve studied and done the practice problems. What you want is to get comfortable with the exam format.

I don’t have recommendations on Shigley and Marks, since I did Thermal and Fluids, but you can certainly bring them. You can bring any book you want. IMO, It’s a big mistake to bring a LOT of books, though. That’s a lot of stuff to wade through. It wastes TIME. Better to KNOW the material you bring with you thoroughly.

Good luck!

I took this exam in October 2010 (also MD) and passed (first try). Here's what I did...

1) Reference Material: Bought MERM (purchased an older edition because it was cheaper), pulled out my Mark's Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers (8th edition), and bought an old version of Shigley (even older than the version I had sold after undergrad in 2004).

2) Problem Books: Bought all three modules of the Six Minute Solutions for Mechanical PE exam. Even though MD was my depth portion, the other two books have breadth section problems for Thermal & Fluids / Refrigeration and HVAC. Also bought the NCEES sample exam.

I studied for three months working all the relevant Six Minute Solutions problems and NCEES Exam. The closer I got to the exam date, the more I focused on time. I bet I ended up working each problem 7 or 8 times until it got to be, well, mechanical (probably 250 individual problems).

A tip which has been alluded to already: This exam is as much about time management as knowing the material. You have to be able to do these problems quickly and can't waste time thumbing through the MERM.

 

[CASADOCS]

Thanks for the replies. I am frantically trying to gather the study material. Anyone have the following for sale (for MD Depth)?

-2008 NCEES Practice Exam

-Six minute solution

-Quick Reference for the ME PE

-Mechanical engineering dictionary

 

[CASADOCS]

What is the difference between the three SMS books? Do they all have the same breadth section and only differ with regards to the depth sections? What about compared to the NCEES current separate editions vs. the, say, 2008/2001 editions?

 

[Shaggy]

The 6MS books are dedicated to a specific topic. So the TF book has only TF morning and afternoon problems. The MD has only morning and afternoon MD problems. The recommendation to get all three is to do the morning from all of the books and the afternoon for your depth only. This method also helps those that are on the fence for the afternoon by giving them the opportunity to work the other problems.

 

[CASADOCS]

The 6MS books are dedicated to a specific topic. So the TF book has only TF morning and afternoon problems. The MD has only morning and afternoon MD problems. The recommendation to get all three is to do the morning from all of the books and the afternoon for your depth only. This method also helps those that are on the fence for the afternoon by giving them the opportunity to work the other problems.

Darn, two more books to buy! Any one have SMS TF and HVAC for a decent sale?