With 10 days to go, what are you focusing on?

My plan is:

-Complete some MERM problems on: Compressible Flow, Heat Exchangers, Engineering Econ, Psychrometrics

-Re-work the depth SMS for T&F

-Re-work the NCEES sample exam (for a confidence boost as I made stupid mistakes while earning a low score).

200 hours of studying should be enough, but I'm burned out at this point.

I'm already burned too..the only things that keeps me going is looking at all the time and effort I've already invested on these..plus i dont want to regret by not doing my best since we still have time..

My plan for remaining days are:

-More Depth (Refresh Merm Depth, Rework SMS TF, Re-work errors on Practice PRob/NCEES/Lindeburg Depth)

-Work on Ncees Sample Other Depth

-Work few problems a day on HVAC/MD/Others.

-If have time work some problems on Lindeburg SAmple exam other depth.

I'll just maximize what I could do (If cant do it all)..but my priority is my depth now

while keeping fresh on others.

I am working through the NCEES exam again as well. I reworked the morning problems last night to see where I went wrong. I'll do the same with the afternoon tonight (if I can finish before Lost comes on...). Then I am going to retake the exam this weekend (I am expecting to get a near perfect score since I will have worked through all of the problems). I am also going to go through the SMS for HVAC again (I've already done this twice) and the breadth SMS problems for MD and T&F. I figure if I know how to work all of the NCEES and SMS problems like the back of my hand I should have a good chance of passing.

I took the civil exam, not mechanical, but in the final week leading up to my exam I stopped working problems and focused on organization. Organizing my notes, references, materials, etc.. I made sure I had a way to transport my materials to and from the exam and devised a method to access them quickly and easily during the test. I set up binders with materials and clearly labeled everything. I put together an exam day "survival kit" with snacks, cough drops, asprin, cold meds, etc (I was suffering from a cold the week leading up to the exam). The only problems I studied at all was a few engineering economics type questions, "simple" subjects that I thought would be good to review, but I ceased all my real studying.

I hope to go through HVAC SMS two more times (like maybe tomorrow, then again in a week), NCEES exam once, and maybe the PPI exam if I have time. Today is mechanics / mach design, and maybe some econ.

roadwreck said:

I took the civil exam, not mechanical, but in the final week leading up to my exam I stopped working problems and focused on organization. Organizing my notes, references, materials, etc.. I made sure I had a way to transport my materials to and from the exam and devised a method to access them quickly and easily during the test. I set up binders with materials and clearly labeled everything. I put together an exam day "survival kit" with snacks, cough drops, asprin, cold meds, etc (I was suffering from a cold the week leading up to the exam). The only problems I studied at all was a few engineering economics type questions, "simple" subjects that I thought would be good to review, but I ceased all my real studying.

Click to expand...

+1. The survival kit is one of the least discussed, but equally important things for the exam. My kit included klenex, some granola bars, hard candy, some drinks, a seat cushon, a wristwatch (I don't normally wear one), some ear plugs (in case the silent shuffling of papers got annoying), a sweatshirt, my reading glasses (I only need them when working on the comp, but just in case), a backup calculator, and about $10 in loose bills & change (vending machines, parking, etc).

I recommend visiting the exam site the day or two before to scope out parking, access, etc. When I did it, I found out that the other half of the building was hosting a home & garden convention and that there would only be 1 reserved parking area for exam takers. Because of the convention, ALL parking had a $5 fee and since I don't normally carry cash I would have been screwed.

Preparing your lunch the day before and bringing it with you would also be recommended. You don't really want to count on being able to just run down the road and hitup a drive thru.

Get to the exam early. The exam starts at 8, but they want you settled into your seats by 7:45 to start going over the rules, which means you really need to be there between 7 and 7:15. I showed up at 7:30 and was scrambling to get ready in time.

Don't change your normal routine. Eat your usual dinner & breakfast, go to bed at your usual time. Try to avoid caffene (coffee, energy drinks, etc) if you don't normally drink them, and if you do, limit yourself to your usual amounts.

You have spent hours and hours preparing yourself for the material on the exam, the last week should be focusing on preparing yourself for the physical ACT of taking the exam. Be ready to sit in one place for two 4-hour stretches with only a 30-45 minute break (they give you 1 hour, but you need to be back in your seat at least 15 minutes before the session begins). Be ready to adjust clothing as the day goes by because the room temp never stays constant, the adrenaline changes how your temp adjusts and how you feel. Be ready to write for 8 hours. I know this sounds simple, but since so many of us use computers for our day-to-day activities, you forget how cramped your hands can get if you have to constantly write for that long.

Biggest help for me: Take the day off before the exam. I mean COMPLETELY off. No work, no studying, no thinking. Go out and do something you find enjoyable and relax. I actually went out and test drove new cars. Nothing is more fun than absolutely raging a car that isn't mine, then just handing the keys back to the salesman, thanking him for his time, and leaving to the next dealership.

That's some **** great advice there, Dex. We should keep that post around for every future exam taker!

MechGuy said:

That's some **** great advice there, Dex. We should keep that post around for every future exam taker!

Click to expand...

Thanks. I just find it amazing that we all focus on the material, but not that much on actually taking the exam. We all automatically return to our college days where the tests were only 1-2 hours long, so you never really think about the physical and mental strain just to sit there and write for 8 hours. I can't even focus long enough at work to go for more than an hour without an eb.com visit...

In my ticket provided by Castle Worldwide, it states No Food and Drink is allowed in the test room. This is NY

I think that is very unfair in that it will be hard for me to get thru without eating anything between Lunch and the end of the day.

Does anyone know if that rule is enforced?

I Should answer the original question before posting one of my own... Sorry.

I took the NCEES sample on about March 15th and made a list of what to go through after that.

What I am doing now:

-- I am out of new problems to do as I have done basically all of MERM, 60MS (MD), Lindberg Sample, NCEES sample (all sections)... Have also done alot of problems in my textbooks.

-- On this Friday I am taking off work and I am going to redo the NCEES test 8 hour simulation to prepare for the physical portion as noted and maintain sharpness.

-- On Sat / Sun, i wlil be redoing some MERM problems in areas of my depth (MD) that I am weakest: Focus Areas: Kinetics (F=MA), Vibrations, the lest common gears (i.e. bevel / worm gears).

-- Would also love to do some more thermal fluids but am probably going to run out of time... Will do here and there in the evenings etc.

John,

Were are you taking the exam? I am taking it in Rochester. I took my FE exam there also and they did enforce the no food or drink. They had some hard candy up at the proctor desk though, so I stocked up so I could keep my blood sugar levels elevated. Hopefully they have some up there again cause I think it helped a little bit.

I'm afraid I spent too much time going thru all the subjects - being a generalist - and not enough time on my chosen depth session (T&F). If there was a general afternoon session like there was on the FE, I would be golden. I'm pretty good at all 3 depths, but not great at any.

I was a little frustrated and doubting myself after finishing MERM and the Practice Problems book because it consistently took more than 6 mins (sometimes 10-15) to work those problems, although I did learn a lot. Then last week I took the NCEES morning part of the sample test and got some confidence by answering about 80% correctly. So now I started working the 10 minute solutions book (as I've re-named it) and have lost some confidence again at not being able to finish most of them quickly enough, not to mention their solutions methods and terminology are often different than MERM.

Someone tell me they have had the same thoughs....alternating between burned out and frustrated here

Finally I got done with all SMS and now I plan on going through Lindeburg sample exam problems until the weekend and then I plan on taking NCEES sample exam on Saturday. Then I plan to re-organize my notes and go through MERM once more on the surface to refresh everything. My exam is in Fort Worth, 3hrs drive from my place, so I plan to take at least Thursday and Friday off.

My admit notice doesn't say explicitly about no foods/drink in exam hall, I agree that's brutal. My last take was in Austin and they never restricted food/drink in the exam hall which for sure helped me a lot.

I agree that get familiar with the center and the exam hall to be specific, you wouldn't know otherwise which side of the building you need to park your car or how far you'll have to haul the cart. If you can get a ride, do it, it was really convenient for me.

Congrats Firefly, you created a winning thread!

Since I have to travel for my exam, I'll get there a day early. The hotel is connected to the exam site, a convention center, so I don't have to worry about driving or parking the day before. The best part is that the hotel will have a lunch buffet set up for the exam takers. They did this for my FE exams too (yeah, I had to take it twice...). I think even if I was taking it locally though, I would stay at the hotel. It's well spent money for the convenience of waking up and walking into the exam, IMO. The only problem I have is that I won't have a crate to bring my reference books in, but I think I will be able to get a box or something from the hotel. If nothing else I will go out and buy something from Target, wallmart, or whatever.

jldavis, remember, the practice problems are practice. I look at it from the perspective that once you work all the practice problems, you should be able to solve them in about 6 minutes average. Some of the quantitative questions and easier qualitative questions will take a lot less then 6 minutes and others will take more. Since you seem to be doing good on the breadth, I would focus on your depth. I think we're all in the same boat at this point, feeling somewhat bipolar; confident one day and freaking out the next..... Just take your time and keep a cool head and I think you'll be fine. Good Luck!

I'm taking it in the Albany area.

I am going to bring a bottle of water and 2 power bars and if the Proctor takes it, so be it.

I too am staying in a hotel but will be driving to the exam since the exam is not in a hotel.

Bman said:

I think we're all in the same boat at this point, feeling somewhat bipolar; confident one day and freaking out the next.....

Click to expand...

I could not agree more! I took the Lindeburg exam on Saturday, thought about quitting entirely, and then started working it through. Turns out I just needed to refresh my memory on the things I studied in January and not automatically assume I don't know how to do something because I see one or two words in the problem. Now I'm working through a lot of the problems in 6 minutes or less (but then 20 minutes or more for some problems, bipolar much?). I'm a morning person, it turns out. If I try to study after I get home from work, I get frustrated. If I get up early and work in the mornings, I'm much more confident. Thank goodness the exam isn't after a day of work.

I'm going to take the NCEES exam this Saturday. I've set up in the guest room with a hard chair. I'm going to put my ear plugs in to make sure I can take the exam with them in without getting a headache. And I plan on trying to go through my full morning routine that I'll do exam day. Same breakfast, same time getting ready, etc. Plus, I'm going to make the same lunch I would have the day of the exam. I'll even practice not reading the problems out loud (I realized when I took the Lindeburg exam I was actually reading some outloud). Yes, overkill, but the unknowing what a lot of this is going to be like is killing me. If I can control some of the variables, I'm much happier.

One of the managers in my office suggested I take all of next week off, so I'm going to do just that. Working through the SMS and going back through the Lindeburg and NCEES exams and making sure I have all of the tabs I want without too many tabs. I'm going to do the drive to the test site in rush hour traffic the day before. Again, controlling the variables.

Now, if I could just get the sheet from EES that tells me all of the important information about where to go and when to be there. They've received my money, charged my credit card, sent me a "you're registered, do we have your info correct" sheet, but I haven't received my admission ticket. But, I'm supposed to wait until Friday before I contact them if I don't have it.

Thanks for the suggestions folks, I appreciate it.

One other question WRT prep: is anyone else using the MERM Quick Ref Guide? At over 100 pages it's almost too much in itself to be a "quick" guide. I can almost find the topic in MERM (i.e. in context) as fast as I can in QRG. In fact, after tabbing my MERM, I actually thought about putting tabs in my QRG because I couldn't immediately find topics.

I don't want to overwhelm myself with tabs here, but at the same time I've seen the benefit of QUICKLY finding a path to a solution in your references.

any suggestions in this area (organization, thought collection, speed tips, etc) would be great!

p.s. don't know that I'll even crack my PPI Sample Exam unless I want to frustrate myself even more, although I do need some practice in a weak area like Heat Transfer. Will be taking the afternoon NCEES (timed) session tomorrow.

For those of you that aren't allowed to have food, How about bubblegum? I'm not a gum chewer, but my nephew insisted on giving me a piece of juicy fruit which I put in my pocket and pulled out right before working my sample exam. The flavor of that stuff dies pretty quickly, but I chewed it the entire morning session because I didn't want to waste any time getting up to throw it away. I had a couple sips of water, but I didn't miss having snacks, I guess because I was chewing gum. I plan to take gum to the real exam. I've recently rediscovered Big League Chew (again from my nephews), and the grape tastes just like it always did, and it helps to keep your mouth moist... so maybe you won't drink as much water, or need snacks. I think I"ll be fine doing this. My state allows quiet snacks, but I don't want to waste time on them. I might have a reserve snack just in case, since I have issues with my blood sugar diving. Anyway, thought I'd suggest the gum, for what it's worth...

Remember, everyone, that you don't have the luxury of giving in to "burn out" at this point. I've been where you are right now and I know it isn't fun. Push through it and focus on your final prep (tabs, formulas, etc...). I took the day prior to the test off to ease the burn out sensation - I watched Baseketball and The Big Lebowski. Continue to focus on what you need to do right now.

jldavis2 said:

Thanks for the suggestions folks, I appreciate it.
One other question WRT prep: is anyone else using the MERM Quick Ref Guide? At over 100 pages it's almost too much in itself to be a "quick" guide. I can almost find the topic in MERM (i.e. in context) as fast as I can in QRG. In fact, after tabbing my MERM, I actually thought about putting tabs in my QRG because I couldn't immediately find topics.

I don't want to overwhelm myself with tabs here, but at the same time I've seen the benefit of QUICKLY finding a path to a solution in your references.

any suggestions in this area (organization, thought collection, speed tips, etc) would be great!

p.s. don't know that I'll even crack my PPI Sample Exam unless I want to frustrate myself even more, although I do need some practice in a weak area like Heat Transfer. Will be taking the afternoon NCEES (timed) session tomorrow.

Click to expand...

I have the QRG but has lots of notes and addtl eqns on it (I did it when still reviewing the merm). I used it for refresh and quick eqn finding and seems beneficial to me now(with those notes).

I'll stick with merm if you've already used it the whole time and already quick with it.

For organization, you could check the effectivity of your tabbing in doing timed sample exams.

Adjust by adding tabs in things that took you long time to find or cant find.

I recommend to list repeated mistakes, take note repeated conversion and constants (if you havent memorized it), and list of

things you will prepare come exam day (as recommended by dexman).

I'm also not quick enough, gaining speed i guess relies on practice/repetition and no. of encountered problems. I'm doing my best to cover what I dont know in my depth (important ones) and keep repeating problems that I already know but still slow on doing. I also have refresh merm on subjects that I've stuck up or get confused.

Have all the indexes of your references (that will brought in exam) in 1 binder starting with merm.

If you dont know where to find the eqn needed in prob, quickly go to indexes. I have photocopied also the merm appendices and impt tables in my index binder. it helps me.

I recommend to do ppi sample exam even untimed, it will be helpful especially for depth. You seems already ok overall..focus now on depth.

These are the things that I'm doing now, might be helpful to share it with you. You could follow if you think it will be useful for you or share what you think you can add for the benefit of other takers.