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chipper544

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I have come across the "Chemical Engineering: PE Sample Exam, 2nd Edition" published by Kaplan. Has anyone purchased this? Would you recommend it & why or why not?

Also- besides the above, the NCEES-published practice exam, and the PPI-published practice exams (2 in one book), are there any other practice exams out there that anyone knows about?

Final question- has anyone who has previously taken the test used the PPI Quick Reference? Did you find it valuable? I have most of the PPI materials except for the Quick Reference. I assume it is just a chopped version of the full CERM but expect that it could save some searching time during the exam. Please let me know your opinion.

 
I used Kaplan's PE exam and only had time to work a few of the problems. It was useful because it offered me more new problems to work on since by my third and final time I had already worked out the PPI and NCEES exams.

The only ones I found were the Kaplan, NCEES, and PPI.

The first couple of pages, with the conversion tables, were useful, especially since it is important to keep an eye on the given units and units in the solution choices. I also added more conversions as I practiced problems. You can find the conversions in the CHERM, but having the tables saved me time.

 
I sincerly hope that the questions on the actual exam are very close to the practice exam questions or other practice problems. Even on a second pass it is taking me longer than 6 min to do these questions and I am noticeing very few problems that take me less than 6 min. The only saving grace will be if I can use pre-solved problems as go-bys but if the actual exam problems are in another solar system im hosed. To actually go through the thought process of figuring out what the problem is asking, setting up the equations and pulling any references consistantly takes me longer than 6 min, if they are in another solar system I can do as many as I can and hope that I can guess correct answers for the ones I dont have time for and hope I pass. I guess IF I have to retake it a few times I will figure it out.

 
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http://www.mo-media.com/pe/?gclid=COyMgvH_8ZwCFRZeagodbkxojQ

What are peoples opinion of this resource I found? What I am really looking for is the % similarity between practice questions and the actual exam that way I will know what I am getting into, either I will be able to work through most questions succesfully or I will have to solve original problems I have not seen in any of the practice questions and end up flipping a coin on 1/4 of the questions when I run out of time. The questions on the NCEES 2004 exam are not that easy espeically questions on the NTU method and some of the heat transfer questions were fairly involved. Just knowing what im up against will help nerves and knowing if I will have to flip a coin on a non trivial # of problems before I go into it will help alot. I will probably bring a few quarters with me no matter what, just in case.

 
I sincerly hope that the questions on the actual exam are very close to the practice exam questions or other practice problems. Even on a second pass it is taking me longer than 6 min to do these questions and I am noticeing very few problems that take me less than 6 min. The only saving grace will be if I can use pre-solved problems as go-bys but if the actual exam problems are in another solar system im hosed. To actually go through the thought process of figuring out what the problem is asking, setting up the equations and pulling any references consistantly takes me longer than 6 min, if they are in another solar system I can do as many as I can and hope that I can guess correct answers for the ones I dont have time for and hope I pass. I guess IF I have to retake it a few times I will figure it out.
One of the things that helped me was going thru the exam first and marking each question as E (for easy), M (for medium), and H (for hard). I worked the E ones first, then the M ones, and left the H ones for last. I had heard of this, but though it would take to much time away. Needless to say, I finally gave in and did this my third (and final) time. Ended up having a few minutes left over.

Once you get thru enough practice problems, you will be able to identify most of them. You'll really only need to identify the tough ones so that you can know which references to use. The easy ones... you will be able to answer without having to go thru references... because by that time you will have practiced quite a bit.

 
http://www.mo-media.com/pe/?gclid=COyMgvH_8ZwCFRZeagodbkxojQ
What are peoples opinion of this resource I found? What I am really looking for is the % similarity between practice questions and the actual exam that way I will know what I am getting into, either I will be able to work through most questions succesfully or I will have to solve original problems I have not seen in any of the practice questions and end up flipping a coin on 1/4 of the questions when I run out of time. The questions on the NCEES 2004 exam are not that easy espeically questions on the NTU method and some of the heat transfer questions were fairly involved. Just knowing what im up against will help nerves and knowing if I will have to flip a coin on a non trivial # of problems before I go into it will help alot. I will probably bring a few quarters with me no matter what, just in case.
I had posted a similar question awhile back about that link. No one answered, and the people I knew that passed didn't even know what the link was about. So I didn't bother with it.

It's scary not knowing exactly what to expect the first time you take the exam. One of the more difficult things is that we cannot discuss the contents of the exam. So we cannot give details about it without getting into trouble. But, I can say this... if you are looking for similarity, refer to the NCEES exam. If you are still anxious, practice problems that only fall into the NCEES Che Exam topics.

 
I had posted a similar question awhile back about that link. No one answered, and the people I knew that passed didn't even know what the link was about. So I didn't bother with it.
It's scary not knowing exactly what to expect the first time you take the exam. One of the more difficult things is that we cannot discuss the contents of the exam. So we cannot give details about it without getting into trouble. But, I can say this... if you are looking for similarity, refer to the NCEES exam. If you are still anxious, practice problems that only fall into the NCEES Che Exam topics.
I did a first pass at the NCEES 2004 exam for time to see what I could get right and did not do so hot, I then went back and did all the Nandagopal problems and am now going back through the NCEES exam and writing out the answers very neatly as some of the solutions in the back are kind of kryptic. I did a few of the 6 min solution problems as well but need to go back and do more of thoes. The thing that worries me the most is the randomness of like half the after noon questions in the NCEES 2004 exam, its like they picked random facts in perrys and made a question out of it and thats spooky because digging anything up out of perrys is a chore especially if you dont already know where it is. Another thing in the NCEES questions in the morning they were not always straight forward like asking what Q is or Solve for U it was like solve for the ratio which did not boil down to concepts but just algebraic manipulation, also knowing when to use a fouling factor and when not to, unless you know all the possible fluids that can cause fouling this is kinda a crap shoot (plus I have a standard value for F when I need to use it but if I was not sure and had to calculate it the calculation for F is computationally involved just for one factor in the equation). I like the idea of going through and labeling easy medium and hard, I did that with the EIT and it worked then. As far as being selective about the questions that I work, I did most every question out of the thicker practice problem book when I started studying a few years ago and realized there was some irrelavant stuff on that so in the plant design part I stopped after phycometrics. I probably should spend a weekend here on engineering economics as I have kind of glossed over that topic and it could be on the test.

I guess its the luck part of the exam that makes me uneasy like knowing off the back of my hand about the graph for multicomponent flash so I can just circle the answer (like when I answered question 510 on the NCEES exam, I just happened to see that graph and remembered it flipping through perrys a year ago at work, but that was a fluke) or do I need to take the full 6 min to dig it out of perrys.

I probably ought to just knock it off or im going to phyce myself out lol.

Also how soon in the mail did you get all the information about where to go and what to bring/not bring, it is about a month out and I still have not got anything, I would like to go check out the exam site during hours that I can actually go in and im suspecting its a church downtown like where they have the EIT and the last set of PE exams but am not sure.

Anyways I have done umpteen hours of study and have all the advice and once I neatly work out the last of the practice questions that will be all she wrote, then its in God's hands after that, it would be so embarasing if I failed not to mention in this economy I feel like the bottom wrungs of the carrer ladder are falling off below me as I climb so I dont feel like I can afford to stall my climb. I feel like I need every qualification and licence an engineer can get and be willing to work for 10-20K less than im worth just to stay out from under a bridge.

Kind of like the pursut of happieness with will smith, only he did fall off the colapsing wrungs of the ladder and had to climb a rope, I dont want to climb the rope lol. Sorry now im just venting.

 
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I need help with NCEES exam 517, stociometry is pretty easy but im not sure how they came up with the solution on 517 for the mole fractions.

Thank you for the help

 
I finally got a straight answer out of a co worker that just took the exam and the NCEES practice exam is made up of questions that were removed from actual tests and deemed to hard or were removed because the solutions required the use of obscure equations and that the questions on the exam were more straight forward.

I have another question and how much of engineering economics is on the exam the NCEES practice exam has only one econ question and I have not touched econ at all so I am wondering how many econ questions are on the real exam, I cant imagine there are more than one or 2 at the most.

 
I need help with NCEES exam 517, stociometry is pretty easy but im not sure how they came up with the solution on 517 for the mole fractions.
Thank you for the help
This was one of those questions, for me, that I just took the solutions with me, hoping that nothing this weird would show up on the test. Wish I could be of more help. I just kept working as many different types of problems that were on the ChE topics list.

 
I finally got a straight answer out of a co worker that just took the exam and the NCEES practice exam is made up of questions that were removed from actual tests and deemed to hard or were removed because the solutions required the use of obscure equations and that the questions on the exam were more straight forward.
Really? Some of the NCEES practice exam questions are weird. But not all of them. The NCEES exam will give you an idea of the actual exam.

I have another question and how much of engineering economics is on the exam the NCEES practice exam has only one econ question and I have not touched econ at all so I am wondering how many econ questions are on the real exam, I cant imagine there are more than one or 2 at the most.
Whatever % is on the ChE exam topics list... that is what will be on the exam. The ChE topics list has economics as 2%. So, 2% of 80 is 1.6 question. So, you are right, 1 to 2 questions (1.6 is between 1 and 2). Don't mean to make it sound so methodical... but I want to make sure the NCEES police see information can be obtained from the information they put out on their website, without getting into trouble, when they lurk the forum.

 
1 or 2 is about right for econ questions. be prepared for both qualitative and quantitative type econ questions.

 
Yea I did the 2 in the NCEES practice test and they were not to bad, my econ book has a really straight forward way of doing thoes P/F type questions and the reference section in the back of the lindberg book has all the factors (which I manually made copies of each page and had them spiral bound so I had all the steam tables and such without leafing through the hard back book although i will still bring it). I have neatly worked out all the NCEES questions except 517 which is the only one I have not figured out yet and one chemical reaction problem which I just wrote down the equation in my reference book that is spiral bound. I have done all of the Nandagopal problems and some of the 6 min solutions and in the next few weeks will do as many 6 min solutions questions as I can. I had all the practice problems books binding chopped and put in a 3 ring binder with my own worked out solutions and the printed solutions in the back, I have got quicker at pulling random information out of perrys so hopefully that will buy me a few points on the exam. I think I have done everything I possibly can at this point so I think I just need to review the admin stuff to make sure I dont make an error filling out my information etc. Hopefully I pass it and never have to worry about this again lol, I will probably post a few more times between now and a week or so before the exam and then again after I get my test results.

 
I need help with NCEES exam 517, stociometry is pretty easy but im not sure how they came up with the solution on 517 for the mole fractions.
Thank you for the help
Trying to upload the scanned image of my solution to 517. Maybe this will work.

 
Several people have mentioned chopping and binding the practice problems material. What is the reason for this? Do some states not allow the softback (PPI practice problems) books in? I was planning on bringing in that and several other softback books instead of doing a lot of chopping and binding.

 
Chopping and binding allows you to combine multipule practice tests into one binder along with hand worked out solutions all together and it cuts down on questions from proctors as I dobut they will check each individaul reference you have and having the practice exams is not explicitly banned but they may not allow it right then and there and are you really going to argue with them right there in the test site, its just best to make you least visible as possible. Also it allows you to open things up quickly and the book does not fold back up on itself, I had the reference manual chopped and spiral bound as well as individually copying the reference section out of the hard back lindberg book and spiral binding it (for steam tables, econ info, material properties that are not in the problem statement, etc), as I worked problems I penciled in equations and information I needed in the reference manual. I basicly want to be able to use one thumb motion to get to the exact page I need to to do the problem, if the problem is of sufficient difficulty that I cant pull the appropriate equations from the page (or pages) then I will skip it and move on and hope that I only find myself doing this on like 2 or 3 problems out of 40, problems involving stociometry I will refer to the practice problems I have already worked but hopefully i can just do them from the top of my head. Dagget, thank you for the solution I will review it when I get home, the solution you provided looks alot more similar to my chemistry class than the solution given in the book, the solutions in the book are kind of kryptic but that is probabaly a good thing as it makes you really think about the problem so you arent just copying stuff. I probalby will not get through all the 6 min solution problems as there are like 100 of them and I only have a few weeks left and they seem be quite a bit harder than the ncees problems but I am going to get through as many as I can.

 
Several people have mentioned chopping and binding the practice problems material. What is the reason for this? Do some states not allow the softback (PPI practice problems) books in? I was planning on bringing in that and several other softback books instead of doing a lot of chopping and binding.
really need to check with your state board on if they allow such things...some proctors are real PITAs. I wouldn't risk if they don't allow.

 
Trying to upload the scanned image of my solution to 517. Maybe this will work.
I dont understand how you got the mols of N2 and moles of O2 equations? Maybe im just having an incredible brain fart right now, but its incredibly frustrating.

 
Who actually proctors the exam? Its NCEES, right? I cannot get a straight answer from anyone. NCEES says to check with the state board, state board says to check with NCEES. Both have referred me to the generic information on the NCEES website (like I didn't already know that was there...really? Gee, thanks!!). Typical bureaucratic do-nothingness. They can't seem to answer this simple question: ARE SAMPLE EXAMS AND COLLECTIONS OF PRACTICE PROBLEMS SPECIFICALLY BANNED? Jeezz!! For organizations supposedly run by engineers, ... (insert comment). Thanks for letting me vent.

 
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