Interpretation of CBT Diagnostic Report

Hello everyone. New member here.

I just received the results of the FE Mechanical I took a few days ago. Unfortunately, I didn't pass, even though I felt like I had done well. I already scheduled my next attempt. Still in disbelief though!

I'm trying to determine my next (and hopefully much better) study strategy. To do this, I'm trying to get a good feel for how to interpret this nearly useless diagnostic report. Obviously, there's a few areas that I must do more problems in. However, some of the areas near the average are more vague. If its somewhat near or above the average, I assume that means a passing knowledge.

Anyone with a similar experience want to chime in about how they restudied? My report is attached to this post.

Thanks for your help !

"Nearly useless report" you say? I beg to differ. Your weaknesses and strengths are clearly shown. You need moderate improvement in most areas and significant improvement in 3 areas. Ideally, you want to be average or better in every category to pass, but that's not really feasible. Pick the subjects that count the most (ie Thermodynamics, Math, Statics), and the subjects you excel in most, and nail those down. Then as time allows, study the other subjects based on % of test and your strengths. If you take this approach, you'll do well in most subjects and can afford to let your least favorite subjects slide and be below average.

Good luck. How soon are you planning to take the exam again?

You're right, useless was the wrong description. I have all the info I need to work from. I suppose it'd be nice to have a numerical average is all. Thanks for your advice.

I take it again in April (the next test cycle available for me). Plenty of time.

How many hours of study did you put in for the results you posted? Are you taking this exam right out of college, or have a few years past since school?

I'm sure you'll get it next time. Good luck in April.

I actually studied a lot for this. It's been close to 6 years since I graduated. Started studying in October. I put a couple hours in on weeknights and 5-8 on the weekends. I think that I just didn't do enough problems. I spent about half of my time on theory/reading/reacquainting myself... Practice problems only this time around.

Sign up for the Prepineer.com review course. You can take the review on line-- there is plenty of help available and you will be able to nail this test the next time. As mentioned above, you need significant work in most areas. You did the ethics problems all right, 15/15. My advice is to try hard to get 12/15 on all areas. Then you don't have to worry about any area. Good Luck-- you can do this.

I would plan on putting in 25 hours per week between now and April to study. I mean 25 good, hard, solid hours every week-- yes, it is hard, but then you are done.

pmc said:

I actually studied a lot for this. It's been close to 6 years since I graduated. Started studying in October. I put a couple hours in on weeknights and 5-8 on the weekends. I think that I just didn't do enough problems. I spent about half of my time on theory/reading/reacquainting myself... Practice problems only this time around.

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Well, you just answered why you didn't pass. Theory and reading will only get you so far. It's all about the problems. Do as many as you can get your hands on. Then do them again and again to get even faster. Do sample exams and time and grade them yourself.

I'd plan on setting aside about 200hrs in study time since this is your second time around.

I passed on my 4th time taking the exam - 6 years post graduation. The first time I didn't study at all (my senior year). The second time (3 years post grad), I took a review course but didn't put much time outside of the course in. The third time I studied my ass off for 4 months and just barely failed. I had to guess on the last 20 questions because I ran out of time. The fourth time I didn't change any study habits except to focus on being faster. The 4th and final time I completed all the questions.

Skip the hard problems and get all the easy ones done first. The goal is to get as many points as possible. If you can't figure out the problem within 2 minutes, move on. If it's impossible, just guess and forget about it. If you need to come back to a problem later, then leave it blank. But focus on speed and efficiency.

I used 3 different PPI books. One was the big Lindeburg book, the other 2 were just discipline specific (electrical). I also looked up some problems on YouTube or did an internet search if I didn't understand a concept. Do as many practice problems as you can over and over and over again. The first round or two of doing problems, I didn't care how long it took me, I just focused on understanding the problem and how to solve it. Once you get the concepts down you can work on speed.

Best of luck! Don't give up!

Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to spend my time exclusively doing problems as I do not need to relearn the topics. I did find that a big part of my problem during the last half hour of test was a short of time to finish a large amount of problems. This allowed for a panic to set in. A goal this time, like Kovz's, is to work on speed/accuracy.

Prepineer sounds nice. 600 dollars is a lot of money, but its something to think about. I've heard good things about PPI's Mechanical quiz bank and it's 2600 problems of varying difficulty. I'll probably go that route.

For clarity, I should add that my first time studying consisted of doing every problem from Lindeburg's new Mechanical exam specific practice problems (published in May 2014). Each topic had roughly 10-15 problems. I also did 2 practice exams (one from NCEES, and one from PPI).

Might I also suggest a tutor if needed. I hired a grad student at a local college (searched tutoring on Craigslist). It really helped my math skills. That section had the highest percentage of problems on my exam and it's the base for knowing how to do the calculations in other disciplines. Focus on your math problem solving ability. That seems to be one of your weaker areas.

I was surprised at that math score on my exam report. In both of my practice exams, my mathematics, heat transfer, and fluids were my best scores. In the PPI practice test my math score was around 80%. Regardless, I need to do many more problems and will consider a tutor. Must have left part of my brain home when I sat for this.

To follow up, I passed after my second attempt. My strategy was just doing more problems than I did when studying for the first attempt. It'd be nice to know how I did quantitatively, but I'm just glad it's behind me.

Good luck to everyone taking this.

Congrats! After doing more problems than studying theory, did you find the test to be more easy going this time? I'm taking mine soon for the first and I've been studying for months since December. I've practiced a lot of questions! I feel like I know most of it but still I'm very nervous!

engineer123 said:

Congrats! After doing more problems than studying theory, did you find the test to be more easy going this time? I'm taking mine soon for the first and I've been studying for months since December. I've practiced a lot of questions! I feel like I know most of it but still I'm very nervous!

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I found it to be easy the second time. But I also found it to be easy the first time around. The only difference being that I was overly confident on the first go. If you think you've practiced enough problems, do more problems. That's basically what I did up until the day before....many problems.

I memorized the location of key topics with the FE reference manual too. Not the formulas per se, but the location. This helped me a lot and saved me a lot of time. In the end, I had about 10-15 minutes to spare for 2 problems I was unsure of. During my first attempt i guessed on roughly 10 problems at the end with 1 minute remaining.

Good luck!