A Change in Stradegy?!?!?!

I have gone back over the NCEES sample exams and the solutions to those. I've noticed that since I'm running out of time and guessing on a few at the end that sometimes those few I don't get to are really easy. So I'm thinking about changing my strategy a little. I was just working the problems straight through and struggling with some and spending a lot of time on those forcing me to guess at the end on the problems left over. Now I'm thinking about skipping a lot of problems and going back to work on those.

I'm really good at the HVAC problems since that is my depth area. Also, 30% of the problems in the morning are "Basic Engineering Practice" which are real easy problems. I also expect about 2 non-quantitative (quick) problems outside of the HVAC and basic eng practice. So between the basic engineering practice, HVAC and non-quantitative problems that's around 21 problems. So I'm thinking about going through the morning section and only working those ~21 problems first. This should built confidence since I'll get most of those right and they shouldn't take 6 minutes each. I would expect to be finished with these problems (about half of the 40) in way less than 2 hours. This will give me more time to work the problems I'm not as good at.

As I go through the problems the first time I will be skipping all the other problems (thermal, fluids and MS problems) which I will mark as T, F, or M. Personally, my worst area is the Mechanical Systems so my 2nd time through the morning section I would just work the T and F problems. I'm sure I'll still be guessing on some problems at the end of the morning but this way all guessing at the end will be on problems I'm not that good at anyways...some of the ~8 MS problems.

I'm wondering if this is a good plan? Did you (or are you) doing it this way or something similar? Maybe this is how most of you did it (or will do it) and I'm just the last one to figure this out.

I'm good enough with the HVAC that the afternoon should require me to only get ~28 in the morning...and I'm thinking this plan may be the best way to get to that 28.

Any thoughts? Are you going to employ a similar strategy or just work them straight through....keep in mind, I'm not finishing the morning section.

Thanks for your input guys! :thumbs:

Sounds like a reasonable strategy to me. After all, you know best your own strengths and weaknesses. If you fly through those HVAC probs you can go back and do the others.

I'd just keep an eye out for any real easy problem in the morning that might not fall into the "HVAC" category. Hopefully, during the quick read through to categorize the problem you will notice any obvious "low lying fruit."

What worked for me on my 2nd try around, I read through the question, if I didnt immediatly know how to get to the answer (or where to start looking) I skipped it & came back after I did all the ones I was familiar with, I ended up with a decent amount of time to go back and look for information after I did the low hanging fruit.

I heard some people recommend ranking them 1- easy 2- Moderate 3- hard, to me thats spending more time than justified, so I just mentally ranked mine (1) and (2)..

When I took the exam my strategy was to read every problem and see if I could solve it relatively easily. Usually this involved looking up some info in a reference. If it became obvious that the problem was not one I knew how to solve right away I would write down the page number and the reference I had already looked up and then I would move on to the next problem. Employing this strategy I was able to get through that section of the exam (AM or PM) at about the halfway mark having answered all the problems that I thought were straightforward. This allowed me to take the next two hours to go back and answer the more difficult problems. I found this strategy allowed me to relax a lot more since I had already gone through the entire exam once. There were no surprises and I didn't feel like I had missed out on opportunities to get "easy" points.

The only thing to be careful of when skipping around like that is to make sure you fill in the correct line on your answer sheet.

The method I use is similar, I read the problem and if I can solve it right away I work the problem, If I think I know how to work the problem but worried about the time, I put a + on the answere sheet next to the number, If I have not Idea what they are talking about I put a -.

If I have time I go back and work through the +s, and if more time work though the -s.

Road Guy said:

What worked for me on my 2nd try around, I read through the question, if I didnt immediatly know how to get to the answer (or where to start looking) I skipped it & came back after I did all the ones I was familiar with, I ended up with a decent amount of time to go back and look for information after I did the low hanging fruit.
I heard some people recommend ranking them 1- easy 2- Moderate 3- hard, to me thats spending more time than justified, so I just mentally ranked mine (1) and (2)..

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Ditto for me.

Great info guys!

Work them straight through but skip to the next one at the first sign of trouble. That way at the end when you have to make some random guesses, you're at least guessing on ones that gave you trouble anyway. Worked for me.

I think the rating system at the beginning of the exam wastes valuable time. Plus at first glance, a problem may appear easy when in reality it is not. Just my thoughts.

I worked it straight thru, both morning and afternoon this was o.k., but in the afternoon portion I really wish I had "cherry picked"

I felt the afternoon was harder than the morning, I finished the morning with ~1 hour to spare, but the afternoon I "hit the wall" at about 6.5 hours and was having trouble solving even easy problems.

If I had to take again, I would have worked straight thru the morning, skipping anything that gave me trouble, but I would have definitely skimmed the afternoon for the easiest problems and worked those while my brain was still fresh.

Yes, you should have a feeling for if you know the problem well or not.

If you happen to hit a snag, or don't think it will be straightforward. Then skip on and leave it on the backburner for awhile. Often what i found is that while i was working other problems i'd have a "eureka" moment and come back and solve the problem easily.

It doesn't pay to run out of time and miss an easy one at the end.

dastuff said:

Yes, you should have a feeling for if you know the problem well or not.
If you happen to hit a snag, or don't think it will be straightforward. Then skip on and leave it on the backburner for awhile. Often what i found is that while i was working other problems i'd have a "eureka" moment and come back and solve the problem easily.

It doesn't pay to run out of time and miss an easy one at the end.

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This is what happened to me, except I didn't run out of time in the afternoon I ran out of brainpower.

Yes, there will be a wall that quickly builds about 2.5 hours into the afternoon session. Be prepared for it. It can be tall.

I skimmed the test and ranked each problem (easy, medium, hard) and started with the easy ones first. I skipped around, a lot, during both the morning and afternoon sections. I felt it gave me lots of confidence, and both sessions, I had lots of extra time at the end to check my work. I was afraid I could get stuck on a problem and miss easy problems at the end.

I ranked them on my third try and it worked for me. If I could get it immediately I did it. If I knew how to do it but would have to dig for formulas, it would get a 1. If I thought it was reasonable for me to be able to figure it out, it received a 2. If I thought that it was batsh!t crazy, it got a three. At the end of the day, the only ones that I was not able to get were maybe a couple of the 3's. It is just a good confidence boost when you have 50% of the test done in an hour. Good luck. Hope whatever you do works for you.

EnvEngineer said:

The method I use is similar, I read the problem and if I can solve it right away I work the problem, If I think I know how to work the problem but worried about the time, I put a + on the answere sheet next to the number, If I have not Idea what they are talking about I put a -.
If I have time I go back and work through the +s, and if more time work though the -s.

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I think I may employ this strategy. It's a ranking system of sorts but it will also help ensure I'm filling in the correct circle if/when I skip over some.

Thanks for all of the helpful tips, guys!

I've been trying to figure out how I'm going to work the exam. I don't see myself reading through the entire exam and ranking the problems before doing anything because I will feel like I'm wasting time. On the same token, I don't want to spin my wheels trying to figure out a problem and end up wasting 15 minutes on it. I guess I'll work it out on Friday. Thanks for all the tips everyone!

Matt-NM said:

Yes, there will be a wall that quickly builds about 2.5 hours into the afternoon session. Be prepared for it. It can be tall.

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It wasn't so much that I was exhausted, I just had a hard time concentrating after all the time. Kept thinking about what to do after the exam.

My advice:

# Do spend up to a minute (some suggest just 30 seconds) on each problem before deciding to, either

* Move on because you've already solved it.

* Decide you can finish the problem in another two to three minutes and continue working.

* Stop working the problem, grade it as either 1 (you know how to solve it but it will take some time), 2 (you think you have an idea on how to approach the problem, but the process isn't yet clear), or 3 (you have no idea how to solve the problem)

# Do finish all the "1" problems before moving on to the "2s" and then on to the "3s. Using this strategy will maximize your chances of getting the most questions absolutely correct and it should allow you to work the uncertain problems with greater calm knowing you've already made good progress towards the magic 56 correct and you'll have more than six minutes (probably more than ten minutes!) to answer the 2s and 3s.