Did anyone took the April 2017 PE Exam (Thermal Fluid)

ericjiangpsu · Jul 21, 2017

Hello everyone, i am new to the forum.

I am so glad to see so many folks here are taking the Oct 2017 PE exam and sharing their study plans.

I believe the most confusing part for the exam is the Old Spec vs New Spec.

I am taking Dr. Tom's online course and I found it very helpful.

However, the printout material from the course have not updated to exactly match with the new spec.

Even though they did a really good job to correlate the old material with the new spec, but I do think there might be something missing.

My question are,

1. Is there anyone here took the April 2017 exam and can share your thoughts on the new specs?

2. Does the new exam format highly matched with the Syllabus that NCEES posed? (e.g. there will be 6 questions on Basic Engineering Practice include Economic analysis and 4 questions on supportive knowledge include Joints)

3. I am using MERM 13th, Six-minute solution, NCEES Practice exam 2016 and of course all the good stuff provided by Dr. Tom. (i believe all these are great for the old spec, but not sure for new spec)
Is there any other book you guys recommend? especially that target the new spec. What about NCEES 2011 Practice exam? (i saw lots of people mentioned that)

4. Is there any new established practices problem or sample exam that's dedicated for the new format exam? (please provide me a link)

I really appreciate any help and advice! Thank you guys.

spacebanjo · Jul 21, 2017

I took it.

1. I never took the old exam so can't really compare but I think overall it will decrease studying time due to the narrower range of topics. You just have to really understand the material (can't plug-n-chug need to understand).

2. Yes. I was extremely particular about using the syllabus and I found the exam matches the syllabus to a tee. The official practice exam is highly realistic.

3. I found it very helpful to do all relevant problems from the MERM companion but this may be overkill with Dr. Tom. That was my main method of review although it was extensive and exhausting.

4. Dunno.

Sheshtawy · Jul 21, 2017

I'm planning to take the October exam for the first time, but I can answer your last question.

There is a book dedicated to the new specs called "Thermal and Fluids Systems Reference Manual for the PE Exam": https://www.amazon.com/Thermal-Fluids-Systems-Reference-Mechanical/dp/1591265223/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1500668092&sr=8-3&keywords=METS+exam. It summarizes all the topics covered by the new specs and contains around 90 problems that match the exam's format. I bought the book along with the references you mentioned and the Units Conversions book.

apford · Jul 24, 2017

I took the Dr Tom class this past winter and passed the exam this April. My biggest gripe is that his class covers only what is covered on the practice test. Be sure to look through the MREM and whatever other texts you have to cover the full range of material on the exam spec. The practice test was very different in terms of content than the actual test. If I had to do it over again I'd use the exam spec as a good reality check. Mark off things that you review, make sure you look in the MREM for more details on some of the areas the review class doesn't hit.

Maddog10 · Jul 25, 2017

I took Dr. Tom's Fast Track class and passed the Thermal Fluids exam in April. I found his class to be incredibly helpful, and even though it was the first test under the new specifications the class had me very prepared. The structure and organization of the class really benefits you in terms of being efficient finding the information you need.

I used the Dr. Tom material (90%+ of what you will look at during the test), the MERM 13th edition, the 2016 practice exam, the 2011 practice exam, and the SMS. However, in the SMS I only did the problems that Dr. Tom suggests and skipped the rest. There are several problems in the SMS that aren't relevant to the test.

I don't remember exactly how well the test matched the specifications in terms of quantity of questions per topic, but I did feel that the practice exam was a pretty accurate representation of the test. It certainly doesn't cover every type of problem, but that's why Dr. Tom's examples that require you to find 4 or 5 different values within the same problem are beneficial. You will see some economic analysis questions, and in terms of supportive knowledge they keep it fairly basic. Dr. Tom does a nice job of covering the supportive knowledge topics such as pipe stress and psych charts. There was maybe only one or two problems on the test that kind of surprised me and maybe didn't match up with the specifications, but they only required a shallow understanding of that topic so they weren't very difficult.

I think the new specifications are beneficial to test takers because it narrows the field of what you need to know. However, the pass rate for the April exam was lower than it had previously been with the old specifications so others may disagree. In my opinion, if you put in the work with Dr. Tom you will be very well prepared for the test. I felt pretty confident walking out of the exam that I had passed, and that was after failing the exam once under the old specifications back in 2015.

ericjiangpsu · Jul 26, 2017

Maddog10 said:
I took Dr. Tom's Fast Track class and passed the Thermal Fluids exam in April. I found his class to be incredibly helpful, and even though it was the first test under the new specifications the class had me very prepared. The structure and organization of the class really benefits you in terms of being efficient finding the information you need.

I used the Dr. Tom material (90%+ of what you will look at during the test), the MERM 13th edition, the 2016 practice exam, the 2011 practice exam, and the SMS. However, in the SMS I only did the problems that Dr. Tom suggests and skipped the rest. There are several problems in the SMS that aren't relevant to the test.

I don't remember exactly how well the test matched the specifications in terms of quantity of questions per topic, but I did feel that the practice exam was a pretty accurate representation of the test. It certainly doesn't cover every type of problem, but that's why Dr. Tom's examples that require you to find 4 or 5 different values within the same problem are beneficial. You will see some economic analysis questions, and in terms of supportive knowledge they keep it fairly basic. Dr. Tom does a nice job of covering the supportive knowledge topics such as pipe stress and psych charts. There was maybe only one or two problems on the test that kind of surprised me and maybe didn't match up with the specifications, but they only required a shallow understanding of that topic so they weren't very difficult.

I think the new specifications are beneficial to test takers because it narrows the field of what you need to know. However, the pass rate for the April exam was lower than it had previously been with the old specifications so others may disagree. In my opinion, if you put in the work with Dr. Tom you will be very well prepared for the test. I felt pretty confident walking out of the exam that I had passed, and that was after failing the exam once under the old specifications back in 2015.

Thank you all!

Your response really motivates me a lot!

Yea, i totally agree Dr. Tom's review course is money worth.

I like his famous term : low hanging fruit

Did anyone took the April 2017 PE Exam (Thermal Fluid)

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Did anyone took the April 2017 PE Exam (Thermal Fluid)

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