Taking 09 Oct exam

[rppearso]

I am getting ready to take the 09 Oct Chemical PE exam and I have spiral bound the lindberg quick reference, plus scanned all the reference material out of the hard back lindberg and had it spiral bound so I would have steam tables and other material constants as well as integral tables (of which I need to add derivitive tables for quick reference). I also have the crane manual and had the unit conversions hand book chopped and spiral bound. I have gone through most of the lindberg practice problems out of the thicker practice problems book and am hitting the NCEES sample exam and the morning questions are pretty straight forward (other than the NTU method of solving heat exchanger question which I need to brush up on) but I got to the after noon questions and hit stuff I did not even have a reference for (it was not super kryptic ie the clayperon equation for heats of vaporization) but I was kinda paniced when I did not have a single reference to that equation without digging in my perrys which is usually is a kryptic (not readily usable) format so I wrote it down the equation in the answers section of the NCEES book in my quick reference.

I plan on going through the 6 min solutions as well but my fear is there will be a question that I did not have a reference for or the reference is buryed in a book that did not make it into my quick reference.

Did anyone find that the actual exam was very close to the NCEES practice exam or was it totally different with totally unrelated sets of questions? I am also finding that alot of the questions I can answer but takes me longer than 6 min, my hope is that the questions in the exam are VERY similar to cut down the "thinking about it" time because if you have already seen the question in study you can immediatly start writing down the applicable equations and start crunching the numbers (just flipping through a few pages and writing down the equation and running the number in the calculator can take several min). I very much only want to take this exam once but if the practice exams are not a significant representation of the actual exam I fear it will be a total crap shoot because if I have to sit and think about each question like I am having to do for the practice exam I will majory blow the 6 min per problem. I have been anticipating getting my PE sometime now and have been doing ALOT of problems. I have also found myself making common calculation mistakes and falling for the wrong answer that seems right but thats just a matter of being more careful, I just worry about the ones that catch me blind sided.

 

[snickerd3]

Some problems are going to take you a little longer than 6 minutes while others will barely take you 2 minutes. They tend to average out to about 6 minutes a problem. For the actual test: Honestly if the way you are approaching the problem will take longer than about 6 minutes you are doing the problem wrong. And don't forget, the problems are written based on a scientific calculator, if you can't solve it using the basic math, you are doing something wrong.

However when studying and working practice problems, they will take longer than 6 minutes and will include math more difficult than a scientific calculator.

It's good to know your references well, but it will be immpossible to have a reference for every type of question as there are several questions that will be based on experience type kowledge. I also found they gave me all the information i needed to solve the problem 98-99% of the time. They overload the information, often times with stuff you don't need to confuse you. Understand what they are looking for and don't get distracted by the extra fluff.

Biggest thing to watch for are units. I found a couple of the problems just boiled down to literally just unit conversions. i found it very useful to underline/circle what the units they wanted the answer in so no mistakes would be made.

just remember not to stress. It is just a test and you can always take it again.

 

[rppearso]

Thank you for the advice, I am going through and filling in what ever information that I find is missing in my quick reference because if I have to dig around perrys I will blow my time (I figure I will bring perrys and if I am down to a couple problems in the afternoon that require it and I have the time left over I will dig around if not I will flip a coin, I have noticed there are usually 2 absurd answers and a trick answer and I can usually find the absurd answers). I also very much noticed the fluff information and was able to sort it out (struggled with a few of the combustion problems but with enough practice I should work thoes out as well), im pretty good with the unit conversion hand book as well. My biggest fear is when I came to a problem in the after noon section and was like shoot I dont even have a reference for that I did not even know what equation to start with. The trick is to go slow enough not to fall for the trick answer but not so slow you burn up time. I will probably be on here more as time progresses as I study.

You are correct I can always retake it in april for 50$

 

[rppearso]

wow as I go through the after noon section I am getting perpetually more lost they ask things like containment heights around tank farms (I have no idea) and tons of stuff on strippers and columns I think i need to brush up alot more on my mass transfer like big time. I saw a reference to some better mass transfer references maybe I will buy thoes since I do have about 3 months left. Wow the after noon section was a rude awakening, I may have to cancel and take the April exam. I guess its only 50$ to retake but that is a huge hit to ones moral to fail it even if you knew you were unprepared.

 

[Guest]

I think you will find one of your key pieces to preparing and passing this exam is organization and references because it is difficult to gauge the questions you will have to answer. As far as demoralizing if you have to make a second trip to the big dance - IF that happens, you are in pretty good company. For many people, it really stings the ego but most just resolve to get it done and take the lessons learned from the difficulties and cultivate that into a successful retake!

Good luck!

JR

 

[rudy]

I plan on going through the 6 min solutions as well but my fear is there will be a question that I did not have a reference for or the reference is buryed in a book that did not make it into my quick reference.

I encountered that -- not having the right reference book for at least one question -- the first two times I took the exam. I had no idea what the question was asking for. For my third try, I made some notes based on the NCEES exam topics list. As I filled out information for each topic, I came across additional books -- including my college Plant Operations book. Here's a link to the notes I used.

http://engineerboards.com/index.php?showtopic=5458

Did anyone find that the actual exam was very close to the NCEES practice exam or was it totally different with totally unrelated sets of questions?

It was similar. The questions are always different, but they are totally related to the NCEES ChE exam topics list.

Hope your studying is going along well and good luck on the exam.

 

[snickerd3]

wow as I go through the after noon section I am getting perpetually more lost they ask things like containment heights around tank farms (I have no idea) and tons of stuff on strippers and columns I think i need to brush up alot more on my mass transfer like big time. I saw a reference to some better mass transfer references maybe I will buy thoes since I do have about 3 months left. Wow the after noon section was a rude awakening, I may have to cancel and take the April exam. I guess its only 50$ to retake but that is a huge hit to ones moral to fail it even if you knew you were unprepared.

3 months on top of what you have been doing is probably more than enough to prepare for the test. It really is more of a mental exercise. relax and try not to stress about the whole thing...and this isn't a hindsight is 20/20 type of advice. While studying I forced myself not to stress about the test and stay calm. It is a just a test and I can take it again was the mentality i took...people thought I was nuts that i was essentially planning on taking it again, but it worked. Lindburg and the 6 minute solutions do overprepare you for the test.

 

[rppearso]

That is good to know, I am going through the Nagu something or other right now basicly 2 additional practice exams to the NCEES practice exam, I hope to get to the white 6 min solutions book before the exam, the blue book with the 2 practice exams has alot of good chemical reaction information in it so I am beefing up my chem eng reference manual with additional equations. I am also finding I am getting a bit bogged down with calculation of molar enthalpy of different components in a reaction that almost seems over the top for an exam question, I think I am going to write out a standard solution to a combustion/reaction problem (more or less solution method) so I dont take up time having to rethink it in the exam. I wish I could go into this exam with the same mentality I went into the EIT with, which was hey I decided to take this exam instead of buying a trunk full of beer so I might as well sit for it lol and I still passed it.