Test Taking Strategy

I was wondering what test taking strategies you guys recommend.

Is it best to skim all problems and then take on the ones you feel most comfortable with? Or just start from the first problem and go from there?

If you get bogged down one one specific problem should you move on after a certain amount of time?

you will hear a variety of methods here. I started with 1 and worked them in order. If I was spending too much time on a problem I would write down the page numbers I was looking and move on to the next problem.

I never have done the process I used prior to the exam, but it sure worked. I took about 10-15 minutes to skim every problem and rank it from 1 (easy) to 4 (hail mary). I then performed 4 passes of the test answering the 1's, then 2's, and so on. I can't recall how long I dwelled on each problem before approaching the next one, though.

I skimmed and rated all problems, then worked them from easiest to hardest. Some that I thought were easy turned out to take longer, so I skipped and went back to them. The important thing is not to get stuck on any one. You have to keep moving.

I looked at all 40 problems before starting. I wrote a 1 through 4 next to each problem after a quick glance, with 1 being "I can do this one quickly" and 4 being "this one looks like it's going to take a while". I solved all the 1's first, then the 2's, etc.

I feel like doing this helped my nerves subside and put me in my happy place. Solve some 1's, calm me down, go on to the 2's, and then do the crunching on the 3's and 4's.

Wow it seems like a lot of people like ranking them. I can understand doing this, but taking 15 minutes out on the PM session for this seems like a lot. The AM session if well prepared should only take 3 hours to get through (from my prep work). The PM session is a different story.

Also it is very hard to tell with some problems what is easy and what is not. For example that nuclear reactor problem (on the NCEES sample test), it takes a while to read through but the reality is that it is a very simple ideal gas and mass fraction problem.

Does it matter what depth portion you are taking? On the TF side they seem to love giving a big system that looks overwhelming at first. The reality is that the actual calculation boils down to a small portion of the cycle. But it can seem very overwhelming at first glance.

I took each problem one at a time. If I didn't understand it right away I went to the next problem. I panicked at first because the first few problems threw me off but then once I got to the MD problems they were easy for me and i settled into a groove. Then at the end I came back to the ones I skipped. Whatever you do, don't get too hung up on any one problem unless you have the time to spare. If you prepared you will do well and walk out of there feeling relieved.

One at a time, in order. I kept an eye on the clock and if I hit the 5 minute mark before I felt reasonable close to an answer, I wrote down page numbers and a quick thought or two and would move on. I think I ended up skipping over about 6-8 in each session, but then went back and reworked them in round 2 while double checking calcs for the other ones. For many of them, the calcs for one gave me ideas to go back and work some previously skipped. Overall I think I just bubbled in a guess on 2-3 total.

Nathan Satter said:

Wow it seems like a lot of people like ranking them. I can understand doing this, but taking 15 minutes out on the PM session for this seems like a lot. The AM session if well prepared should only take 3 hours to get through (from my prep work). The PM session is a different story.
Also it is very hard to tell with some problems what is easy and what is not. For example that nuclear reactor problem (on the NCEES sample test), it takes a while to read through but the reality is that it is a very simple ideal gas and mass fraction problem.

Does it matter what depth portion you are taking? On the TF side they seem to love giving a big system that looks overwhelming at first. The reality is that the actual calculation boils down to a small portion of the cycle. But it can seem very overwhelming at first glance.

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exactly the point of the test. Can you block out the nonessential info and figure out what they are looking for.

I just started at prob 1. If I got hung up or didn't "know" how to start... I skipped it (and returned later of course). While ranking the problems seems interesting... it sounds like a potential time killer.

I just looked at each problem as it came along. If I knew I could answer it right away, I did so. If the next one looked hard and/or time consuming, I skipped it. When I reached the end of the test, I went back and looked at the ones I skipped. It saved having to skim the whole thing, while not getting bogged down.

Taking 10-15 minutes to rank them may sound like a long time, BUT think about it. If you rank 15 of those problems as "1" and blast those out, you'll have a relative confidence boost at the beginning of the 4-hour marathon. Worked for me, at least.

I just started with the first one and went in order. If I was taking too long, I circled the number and wrote down the page number and moved on. I went back and attacked the ones I didn't get in the first go round. Then I repeated the process until I ran out of time.

Ranking the difficulty seems like a waste of time to me, especially since I ran up aganst the clock in both sessions.

I went in order. If it was something that on first read looked harder than I felt like working at that second, I skipped it. I also had a mental time limit of about 2 minutes. If I started a problem and wasn't on the right path to a solution in 2 minutes, I went on to the next one. The morning session I think I only had about 5 after the first pass that I hadn't finished with 2 hours to go, and on the afternoon I think I probably had about half of them I hadn't finished with about an hour and a half to go. I think the afternoon there were about 5 that I just straight up guessed, 5 that weren't correct but looked close enough for government work, then 10 I figured about again with a little more time in between looks.

The problems that are frustrating are the areas you know really well but are not getting an answer that matches the 4 options. At some point you have to move on.

For me the biggest problem can be stupid mistakes. I often times will forget a squared term or something like that. Mistakes like this are not always easy to find.

Also when I am calm I write clearly and precisely, but my penmanship deteriorates with stress.

Hopefully I will be okay once I am well rested. I know some of the dumb mistakes are due to being tired.

Units can be a killer too. Sometimes you might feel like rushing and not carrying through the units, but this can often times really burn you. That time unit in gc can be the difference!

One thing I found very useful for those problems I was struggling with, was to do a simple unit analysis. It was surprising how many problems were made simple by doing this. At the very least, it can also help reveal the correct equations.

Dexman PE said:

One thing I found very useful for those problems I was struggling with, was to do a simple unit analysis. It was surprising how many problems were made simple by doing this. At the very least, it can also help reveal the correct equations.

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Yes this can be absolutely crucial. Curse you English system!

I found that when I did problems, I didn't screw up units if I kept my finger in the front page of the chapter where it has all the variables and units listed. It forced me to go back and double check to make sure that things were in inches instead of feet since they vary depending on the chapter and application. This is especially true for vibrations.

navyasw02 said:

I found that when I did problems, I didn't screw up units if I kept my finger in the front page of the chapter where it has all the variables and units listed. It forced me to go back and double check to make sure that things were in inches instead of feet since they vary depending on the chapter and application. This is especially true for vibrations.

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This works well. From my practice problems I would highly recommend the PPI "Engineering Unit Conversions" book. I really like having an extra book for this (and steam tables). Also it is cross referenced really well both ways (and has the crazy obscure units that NCEES likes on occation).

Also my MERMs book is not doing great. I think with much more use it could start loosing pages.

I will be taking the test with a similar strategy to Navyasw02. Straight through, if not on track after a coupe of minutes, mark it and move on. I finished my 2008 NCEES practice test with loads of time in the morning, but went to the wire in the afternoon. I think this strategy will help me out a lot in the afternoon by making sure I have the time to get the correct answer for all of the ones that I know how to do. Losing 15 minutes in the afternoon or my practice test would have been killer for me.