To retake, or not, and when

I'm here again.  Took the Machine Design two Aprils ago with an unfortunate outcome.  Used Dr. Tom's review course, but my score was awful.  I'm now 30yrs out of school and 26yrs from my EIT.  I don't "need" the PE for my job, it's suggested, but not a requirement, but the young folks are taking over here and are all getting their PEs with ease.   

Do you *want* the PE? 

Will it aid you in your current job or if you were to switch companies? 

I dont know if they have them as much anymore but if you want to take it again maybe try and find a classroom study prep?

I'm only 20+ something years out of school but even back when I took the PE I got more out of the "old school: exam prep, 8 hours in a class Saturday and Sunday, paper, instructor you can talk to", etc

& I dont know much about the machine design exam but probably lots of people in the mechanical forum that do

Welcome back.

I passed the Machine Design PE in Oct 2018. I also took Dr. Tom's course and I thought it was great for me. But I completely understand that everyone is different.

Please be aware, there's a new wrinkle now. (You probably know this) The Mechanical PE exam is no longer pencil and paper. Starting April 2020, the Mechanical PE is only offered as a computer-based test (CBT). The last pencil and paper offering was Oct 2019. With the new format there are some significant changes.

• You can take it anytime you want, not just twice a year
  
• You can't bring your own references. You'll be provided a single official electronic reference at the exam site. (You can download it in advance to start practicing with it.)
  
• There are new question types in addition to multiple choice. The new question types include multiple select, drag and drop, point and click, and fill in the blank.
  

So definitely do your research. Chemical, Nuclear, Petroleum, and Environmental are the PE exams that are already CBT, so there's not a ton of experience with the new format. (I'm pretty sure those are much smaller disciplines.) Lots of unknowns. Most of the classes haven't caught up to the new format yet, but they should be soon (hopefully). You can find more info on the NCEES site: https://ncees.org/exams/cbt/

Do I "want" a PE, eh, it's a big thing with my employer now but we don't need it to do the work.  It's more of a status thing applied by our new prez and it's only a $2/hr raise.  The "want" for me would be to put myself with the rest of the workforce.  It "may" help me moving on, but my days of considering doing any type of design work have long past. 

I took DTC as have many here that have passed the exam.  For me, I know I need to do problems, I need the repetition.  I didn't leave enough time at the end of the class to do problems before the exam.  That, and I felt I just had to much reference material at the exam.  That being the case, I didn't know my way around all of my ref material well enough and found myself doing way too much searching during the exam.  I may not have adhered to the DT Method well either.  So the CBT format for the exam addresses one problem, no reference material. 

My exam, April 2018, had a lot of problems from my NCEES practice exam.  Same problems but different answers.  I did feel like doing more of the Lindeburg, tougher, problems would have helped. 

I have the PPI study kit right now.  It seems like there are a lot of useless practice problems, like all of the math and conversion stuff at the beginning.  

I'm torn between following the PPI study plan, which includes reading all of the MERM pertinent chapters, or just sitting down and grinding through problems and reviewing the MERM where necessary.