Mechanical PE

I thought the board will be flooded with posts when it comes back online...looks like y'all are busy celebrating already or may be mourning like me.....the morning was breeze for me and I believe I did well on it but my depth (MD) was somewhat brutal for me...for sure tougher than NCEES sample exam. I find my last attempt to be easier (and yet I failed), so not much hopeful for this time....too early to say if I am ready for my third attempt yet...

Everyone I spoke with told me the sample exams were right on. I used the 2001 nad 2008 sample exams as a guide and I thought the PE was much, much harder!

I am 100% sure I did not pass. I'm going to take a break for a few weeks and then back to the books!

Yup. I think the morning portion was on par with the ncees sample exam. But the thermal fluids depth in the afternoon (in my opinion) was way difficult and time consuming (compare to ncees sample). I did expect it to be difficult but still shocked on doing it on actual. Did'nt have time to finish in the afternoon and guessed about 6. Hour before afternoon deadline, ive already have headache and dragging myself to continue solving..I feel 50/50 on it (passing/failing).

gaidox said:

Yup. I think the morning portion was on par with the ncees sample exam. But the thermal fluids depth in the afternoon (in my opinion) was way difficult and time consuming (compare to ncees sample). I did expect it to be difficult but still shocked on doing it on actual. Did'nt have time to finish in the afternoon and guessed about 6. Hour before afternoon deadline, ive already have headache and dragging myself to continue solving..I feel 50/50 on it (passing/failing).

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Yes I am in the same boat. took (Thermal and Fluid) could not finish in time. let's wait and watch.

Morning was a breeze. I'm not sure about the afternoon. It was harder then the AM for sure, but I may have pulled it off. Not sure. The vibration stuff gave me trouble since I didn't study it as much as I should have. I found the NCEES prep material pretty accurate and useful. I don't want to wait for results for the next 2 months.

I thought the actual exam was definitely similar in difficulty to the practice exams...but it did seem a bit more difficult - I don't remember any "freebie" answers...I had to look up something on each question. I flew through the practice exam morning session and I had just enough time to finish the actual morning exam. In the afternoon I took the HVAC - it wasn't terrible, but it was no walk in the park, either. I hate to speculate so I'll just keep holding my breath until I get my results. Overall - it's just hard to be prepared for absolutely everything and, of course, they always find the stuff you aren't totally comfortable with!

Heath014 - The depth (MD) in October 2009 was pretty well in-line with NCEES sample exam ...I guess that's why everyone agreed that NCEES is a good comparison...well not this time....I was pounding with headache in morning exam but that aspirin helped and I managed to finish AM 30minutes early and I was able to get the answer for about 3-4 problems....but for PM, getting the right answer was a problem, which for whatever reason I didn't get for quite a few problems...unfortunately in a few I didn't have any clue....

I finished the morning with an hour to spare, which was about the same rate on the sample exam. Machine design is my weakest subject and that hit me pretty hard, but I still felt like I got the correct answers. I felt pretty confident and had that hour to review my work. The afternoon was much harder, just because I was so pressed for time. I think I skipped 2-3 problems during the test, and finished w/ about a half hour left to go finish those problems. I realized at the end that I hadn't filled in an answer circle, so I was checking that question and filling in the answer during the last minute. I certainly didn't have a block of time to review work.

For pass or fail, I think it could go either way. When I left the exam, I thought I'd failed, but the more I think of it, the more I think "I could have passed, after all I can miss at least 20 problems." I did feel pretty good about a lot of the questions. When I came home that night, I wrote down what I could remember (won't share!) so I could reference it to study again. I'm glad I did that right away, because now I can't remember much from the test.

I'm in a pretty small town. There less than 20 test-takers. I think about 15. I was the only mechanical, and I don't think there were any electrical. The rest were pretty evenly split between civil and structural. I heard several folks saying that they had taken the test before, some multiple times. OH, I really hope I don't have to take it again!

Spent this weekend organizing and spring cleaning. This week, I'm leaving to go on a shopping vacation w/ my Mom. When I get back, I think I"ll spend a few hours on Saturdays keeping things fresh, just in case.

I thought the morning went alright, I wouldn't call it a breeze, but I think I did alright. The afternoon HVAC was a lot more difficult than the sample or the SMS in my opinion.... I was sure I failed when I left, but after thinking about it I felt a little better, at this point I think it could go either way..... I'm not going to study at all until I find out I failed, I need some time off to relax if I end up having to retake it.

I felt the opposite to you mechgirl..the more I think about it, the more I feel less on passing..

I've already discovered two mistakes in the morning.

I'm hoping also not to take this thing again so I'm hoping what I've did was enough to make it through. My boss expected me to pass this one so I hope I do.

I've finished the morning with more than 1 hour and used it all to re-check all and tried to work on two un-answered q's. I feel good on 32, 50/50 on 6 (with 2 mistakes already discovered), and 2 educated guess.

I'm actually expecting the afternoon to be hard so my focus during lunchbreak is to at least solve and feel good with 20 or more. The afternoon was indeed tough..after doing 28 problems and 1 hour before deadline, I've already have headache but continued to solve more. I feel good on 22, 50/50 on 12, and guessed on 6.

Overall, I feel 50/50 on passing. I think have a shot if my afternoon really did 22+..

I feel it could go either way..

Right now, I'm planning not to think about it much (just like I did in EIT).

Afterall, 13 weeks of wait here in california will wear me down if I do.

Same here with regards to MD depth. Was struggling with the clock not to far out of the gate, got a bit flustered (although I swore I wouldn't...), finished pretty much right on time and had no time to look back at my "best guess for now and return later" questions, for which there were many. Not feeling good about my chances. Morning was not too bad, however. Perhaps that'll save me.

My biggest problem was not being physically prepared. I was way behind my study schedule due to travel for work (and yes, MERM has logged some serious frequent flyer miles over the past few months). Took the week prior to the exam off work to catch up, all 12 hour days, minimum for 7 striaght, including Thrus the 15th (maybe 8 hrs) - I was mentally and physically drained come 8 am the 16th. In fact I was having difficulty reading and filling out the answer sheet before starting the afternoon session I was so wasted. I found it very difficult to focus and was getting frantic way too early. Despite my own problems, I found it very challanging in general, but certainly doable, although I dont think I did it. Fingers crossed though. Gonna take a month off and start preparing for Oct (and hopefully stop preparing come July!!)

Good luck everyone! I know the waiting sucks but it will be worth it!

gaidox said:

morning portion was on par with the ncees sample exam. But the thermal fluids depth in the afternoon (in my opinion) was way difficult and time consuming (compare to ncees sample).

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+1

I'll be interested in the results

Looks like everyone else is about the same as me. To help you get an idea where I'm coming from...I took T&F Depth.

I felt like the morning was very representative of the 2008 sample. I even recognized "the traps". I finished an hour early (same as sample) went to the RR and relaxed for a couple of minutes. Came back and knocked out a couple I had questions on. I felt very good about the morning.

Since I felt good about the AM, I knew I was going to get it once the PM started. I underestimated. I worked the problems I could do in about 2 hours (20 of them). I came back and knocked out another 6 or so. The last 15 or so, I didn't feel good about. I probably guessed on 8.

Felt terrible about PM, but (misery loves company) it appears that I am the same as most of y'all!

Thanks again for the help, a huge weight has been lifted. I'm celebrating by going to Tampa to watch Jimmy Buffett on Saturday!!!

i agree with most of you, i thought the morning went really well and had lots of time to check my answers. was feeling good going into the afternoon (HVAC)....and WHAM. i don't know why, but i felt like i was knocked totally off-guard by most of the questions. i was expecting a few bizarre questions, but it seemed like a majority were asking strange things that i had never heard of before. i think i ended up finding most the answers (used my ashrae reference books a lot), but overall i felt very defeated by the end. i really don't want to go through that again :-\

cammies said:

i agree with most of you, i thought the morning went really well and had lots of time to check my answers. was feeling good going into the afternoon (HVAC)....and WHAM. i don't know why, but i felt like i was knocked totally off-guard by most of the questions. i was expecting a few bizarre questions, but it seemed like a majority were asking strange things that i had never heard of before. i think i ended up finding most the answers (used my ashrae reference books a lot), but overall i felt very defeated by the end. i really don't want to go through that again :-\

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I would agree with this. I felt like the questions in the afternoon were a lot more complex than any of the practice questions I had worked including the SMS and 2008 NCEES exam. Some of the questions I thought I knew how to solve, but I just couldn't get a correct answer. On a couple questions I was coming out right in the middle of two answers, so I just had to make an educated guess as to which was right. I also thought I was prepared enough to weed through the given information to find what I needed to solve the problems, but there was a lot more info given on the test than I had seen in the practice problems, so I found myself doubting that the problem was so simple as to only need say 2 of 10 pieces of given information... I'm glad its over for now! At this point, I am hoping for the best, but expecting the worst...

I passed the exam last Fall but I took the exam three times and I felt the last three exams were progressively harder starting in the Fall of 2008. For most, the morning is easier but for me (MD) it was about a wash. It seam the ones that report the morning was easy were those that took the fluids/thermal/HVAC depth vs. the MD depth as there is not as much in the way of MD in the morning.

I just missed my second attempt last spring with a 68 (65 was my first attempt) and I passed the exam last Fall and I think the afternoon saved me. I studied about 300 hours for each attempt so you would think I would gain more than a few points each time so I truly believe the exam is getting harder.

Note: I think the NCEES practice exams are a good test for the morning but the real deal is usually somewhat harder for the afternoon. That is why for the last attempt I did not work the NCEES problems and just worked the longer Lindeburg problems as they maybe longer but step you through the process better that those of the NCEES. In addition they are not going to throw 100% cookbook type problems at you so you have to think out of the box when studying, i.e. what if they changed the problem in this way.

Yup. I did expect it to be really hard on afternoon since everybody I know keep telling me its harder than ncees for depth portion (for T&F).

I did focus my depth portion more on Lindeburg and SMS but I felt that the afternoon was harder than those. Most of the problems are upgrades or more complicated of what I normally encounter and I think encountering it the first time (there) was time consuming since I try to figured it out what to do.

Some I came up with the answer and some the answer is in the middle of choices or bit far from it..Did'nt have time to redo or recheck or even finish..so I just hope for the best..but in the meantime, need to relax and enjoy the break.

buick455 said:

I passed the exam last Fall but I took the exam three times and I felt the last three exams were progressively harder starting in the Fall of 2008. For most, the morning is easier but for me (MD) it was about a wash. It seam the ones that report the morning was easy were those that took the fluids/thermal/HVAC depth vs. the MD depth as there is not as much in the way of MD in the morning.

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I agree. I appeared in Fall 2009 and felt MD depth was tougher. The morning wasn't easy either for me last time because most of the questions were from HVAC and T&F. I realized my weakness area and worked on those along with my strength. I believe that made a lot of difference and morning didn't take much toll this time. Though it looks like I wasn't prepared enough for my (MD) Depth. If I don't pass then my focus will be more on depth than breadth with a pray that morning doesn't get any tougher!

buick455 said:

I passed the exam last Fall but I took the exam three times and I felt the last three exams were progressively harder starting in the Fall of 2008. For most, the morning is easier but for me (MD) it was about a wash. It seam the ones that report the morning was easy were those that took the fluids/thermal/HVAC depth vs. the MD depth as there is not as much in the way of MD in the morning.
I just missed my second attempt last spring with a 68 (65 was my first attempt) and I passed the exam last Fall and I think the afternoon saved me. I studied about 300 hours for each attempt so you would think I would gain more than a few points each time so I truly believe the exam is getting harder.

Note: I think the NCEES practice exams are a good test for the morning but the real deal is usually somewhat harder for the afternoon. That is why for the last attempt I did not work the NCEES problems and just worked the longer Lindeburg problems as they maybe longer but step you through the process better that those of the NCEES. In addition they are not going to throw 100% cookbook type problems at you so you have to think out of the box when studying, i.e. what if they changed the problem in this way.

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Not to get off topic here, but I have seen a few of you mention in this thread and others that "I just missed passing and got a 68, 69 or 65"...etc. This was my first time taking the exam in April, but I was just wondering what exactly that means when you say you didn't pass and got a 68. A 68 is 54 correct questions (which is pretty good...) Does your failure notice tell you what the passing score was for that test, or do you always need 56 or more correct answers to pass?

Thanks-