Over It

Well, here we are a week and a half away from the test. I've probably studied, in total, about 200 hours, and I can safely say I'm over it. I'm over doing problems, looking stuff up in MERM and getting frustrated when I have trouble even starting a problem.

Anybody have any sage advice for those of us about to sit for the exam, especially those like me who are almost ready to stop studying, go in and take their best shot at the test and walk out with the attitude "If I failed, big deal?"

I would spend the rest of the week preparing yourself and mind for the exam. Organize your books/tabs, gather the comfort items (ear plugs, seat cushion etc) figure out a game plan for the test day. Hotel, parking, food situation etc. Then just RELAX. give your mind a break for a day or tow so it can recharge before the big day and remember it is just a test. You can always take it again.

I hit the stage you're in at about the same time you did. What did I do? I kept working problems. I knew that it would all be over in a week's time. The day before the test, I watched stupid movies.

I hit that point on Sunday night about 5:00. I just started staring out the kitchen window after I couldn't remember the Cp of water is 1.0. So last night I spent playing with my son and then after his bed time I started to looking for a new job. (Which I'm hoping passing the test helps with.)

In the last 2 weeks I hit the wall and just flipped through the MERM and looked at worked problems every night while watching TV.

Make sure to run a practice test a week before the exam to figure out what you need some extra attention devoted to.

From here on out, just practice locating subjects in MERM very quickly. Go through many problems and practice locating the material you would need to use. You don't have to work the problems, just work the approach. This will also let you know if you are lacking on your tabbing of MERM or are lacking on other resources you are going to use. Remember, you must be quick. Stumbling on a series of questions can end it all very quick.

I would get the NCEES sample test right away.

If you cannot do this and need to stick to MERMS, don't stick with just one subject. Do one problem from a certain subject and then jump to another.

I would just keep cranking away and then rest a few days before the test. You would be surprised how much you can cover between now and then.

Which depth are you taking?

I'm taking the HVAC depth. I plan on taking the NCEES sample exam this Saturday and then will use next week for any last minute studying that I may need after that. Like everybody else who is taking it, I'm just ready for it be over.

I'm just about there myself. I'm closing in on 200 hours. Over 175 for sure.

I took a practice test last weekend. Identified that I have a couple problem areas. But with a bit more studying I'm confident I'll make it. If not. There is always October.

My plan for this week and the coming weekend is to focus on my problem areas and not much else. I'm re-reading those chapters and working a bunch of problems. After this weekend I'm going to be pretty much done.

I'll probably spend a bit more time tabbing after the weekend but no heavy studying.

I hit my wall a couple of weeks ago right after taking the practice exam. Been pushing through doing problems, mostly redoing the NCEES exam, organizing tabs, inking my in-text notes.

Tonight I went back and was reworking Lindberg practice exam problems. Talk about a confidence shaker. Think I'll do a few more tomorrow, then stick with NCEES and SMS review the rest of the way.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets shaken by the Lindeburg problems. I spent early this week working through SMS and was actually feeling decent. Then I sat down last night to do some of the Lindeburg practice exam problems, and felt like I knew nothing. I'm hoping for a minor confidence boost when doing the NCEES practice exam on Saturday.

Jamo said:

I hit my wall a couple of weeks ago right after taking the practice exam. Been pushing through doing problems, mostly redoing the NCEES exam, organizing tabs, inking my in-text notes.
Tonight I went back and was reworking Lindberg practice exam problems. Talk about a confidence shaker. Think I'll do a few more tomorrow, then stick with NCEES and SMS review the rest of the way.

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MechMark said:

I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets shaken by the Lindeburg problems. I spent early this week working through SMS and was actually feeling decent. Then I sat down last night to do some of the Lindeburg practice exam problems, and felt like I knew nothing. I'm hoping for a minor confidence boost when doing the NCEES practice exam on Saturday.

Jamo said:

I hit my wall a couple of weeks ago right after taking the practice exam. Been pushing through doing problems, mostly redoing the NCEES exam, organizing tabs, inking my in-text notes.
Tonight I went back and was reworking Lindberg practice exam problems. Talk about a confidence shaker. Think I'll do a few more tomorrow, then stick with NCEES and SMS review the rest of the way.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

SMS is quite a bit harder than NCEES (not to mention full of errors depending on which subject). The Lindeburg test is supposed to be an AM test, but the difficulty level of those problems I would say match more PM difficulty problems.

But after NCEES problems, I would say the Lingburg sample test is the next best thing out there.

The AM portion of the test is not hard. It is the PM portion you need to worry about.

You should get quite a confidence boost from the NCEES problems. If they are the closest to real test problems as I've read, I'm very confident in the morning session. The afternoon session I had to grind it out, but still had enough time to come to an answer for each question. Not always right, but in reviewing where you went wrong it's a great help to avoid traps on test day.

MechMark said:

I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets shaken by the Lindeburg problems. I spent early this week working through SMS and was actually feeling decent. Then I sat down last night to do some of the Lindeburg practice exam problems, and felt like I knew nothing. I'm hoping for a minor confidence boost when doing the NCEES practice exam on Saturday.

Jamo said:

I hit my wall a couple of weeks ago right after taking the practice exam. Been pushing through doing problems, mostly redoing the NCEES exam, organizing tabs, inking my in-text notes.
Tonight I went back and was reworking Lindberg practice exam problems. Talk about a confidence shaker. Think I'll do a few more tomorrow, then stick with NCEES and SMS review the rest of the way.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I passed in IL in Oct. I remember I had some equations in a bound notebook, such as ideal gas equation, or Bernoulli's in a form such that i can deal with the numbers easily with no conversion, such as pressure given in psi, and lengths given in feet. Saved me a lot of time. Equations are nice, but the conversions suck.