Practice Problems

In preparation for the PE exam in April, I've been reading the chapters in the MERM and then doing the practice problems in the accompanying book. So far I've been through the thermo chapters and I'm into the power cycles chapters. What I am finding is that I can usually get the correct answer, with no peeking at the solution, but my average time per problem is much greater than 6 minutes (not even counting the one hour time limit problems). Please, someone tell me that on the actual exam, the problems are not as lengthy to solve as these are. From a quick peek at the NCEES practice problems, those problems look on the surface a bit simpler, but I'm saving those to test myself later, and I don't want to spoil it by becoming familar with the problems ahead of time. Thanks for any insight offered.

MEPE2B said:

In preparation for the PE exam in April, I've been reading the chapters in the MERM and then doing the practice problems in the accompanying book. So far I've been through the thermo chapters and I'm into the power cycles chapters. What I am finding is that I can usually get the correct answer, with no peeking at the solution, but my average time per problem is much greater than 6 minutes (not even counting the one hour time limit problems). Please, someone tell me that on the actual exam, the problems are not as lengthy to solve as these are. From a quick peek at the NCEES practice problems, those problems look on the surface a bit simpler, but I'm saving those to test myself later, and I don't want to spoil it by becoming familar with the problems ahead of time. Thanks for any insight offered.

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IMO most of the practice problems that went along with MERM took a lot longer to solve than what I saw in October. I did all the NCEES problems and thought those were a lot more realisitc. I don't think I worked more than 20 problems out of the "the other board" practice problem book. I did read most of them though.

Texas Aggie '02

Just wanted to add that you should not let the NCEES practice probems fool you into thinking the test will be that easy. I thought most of the practice problems were pretty straight forward and simple to answer. The October ME/Thermo was a quite a bit tougher IMO.

Texas Aggie '02

Thanks for your perspective, Texas Aggie. It sounds like the length/difficulty of the questions on the actual test was somewhere between the NCEES practice problems and the practice problems that go along with the MERM. I'm planning on taking the thermo/fluids PM section on the ME exam as well. Just wondering, did you find the PM questions to have a greater complexity or difficulty than the AM questions? It seems on the face that they should be about equal, since there is an equal number of questions in the PM as the AM.

MEPE2B said:

Thanks for your perspective, Texas Aggie. It sounds like the length/difficulty of the questions on the actual test was somewhere between the NCEES practice problems and the practice problems that go along with the MERM. I'm planning on taking the thermo/fluids PM section on the ME exam as well. Just wondering, did you find the PM questions to have a greater complexity or difficulty than the AM questions? It seems on the face that they should be about equal, since there is an equal number of questions in the PM as the AM.

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I didn't think they were any more difficult than the morning questions, just more questions in the Thermo/Fluids/HVAC topics as would be expected. I passed my test, but I would be curious what the breakdown of topics was on someone's diagnostic report. As far as my gut feeling, I felt better about the morning session (~34/40 right) than the afternoon session (~26/40 right).

Texas Aggie '02

Texas Aggie said:

Just wanted to add that you should not let the NCEES practice probems fool you into thinking the test will be that easy. I thought most of the practice problems were pretty straight forward and simple to answer. The October ME/Thermo was a quite a bit tougher IMO.
Texas Aggie '02

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Texas Aggie said:

I didn't think they were any more difficult than the morning questions, just more questions in the Thermo/Fluids/HVAC topics as would be expected. I passed my test, but I would be curious what the breakdown of topics was on someone's diagnostic report. As far as my gut feeling, I felt better about the morning session (~34/40 right) than the afternoon session (~26/40 right).
Texas Aggie '02

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Concur on all points (I did MD depth april 07)

I appreciate the feedback from you folks who have taken this test. I'm already feeling the pressure and the test is still more than two months away.

No worries. I got my acceptance to take the test in TX about 8 weeks before the test date. As long as you are able to make time to study, you should be good to go. Good luck.

Texas Aggie '02

One more thing (can you tell I'm trying to get to 25 posts? ). Get a copy of some gas tables. The MERM and my thermo book (Cengel and Bowles or something like that) were pretty thin on properties of air. I think I probably would have got a few more right if I had a better resource for those problems requiring properties of air.

Texas Aggie '02

I concur with Aggie. I thoguht the problems were much easier then the test problems. Remember to take your time and practice with the untis being written out cause that is a biggie on the test. You only have about 6 minutes on the test problems so you have to work quick. Also remember that not all information is pertainent to acquiring the right answer. The process is more important then the solution as you are practicing. if you know how to get the answer then the rest is just calculator work.

I had a binder with gas and steam tables copied and put into it. It helped cause it was well tabbed and I didnt have to flip through books to find the table. I used my tables from my thermo and fluids book in college. they seemed pretty complete for what I needed.

Keep practicing and dont let the d-day scare you or make you anxious. Good luck and if you need help let us know.

Thanks, guys. This forum is a great resource.

I can't speak directly on the MERM or the book of accompanying practice problems, but my primary study tool for the PE was the CERM and it's accompanying book of practice problems. I found the practice problems to be much harder then what you find on the actual exam, and before the exam I too was concerned that the problems were taking much longer then the 6 minutes I knew I'd have on the exam. What makes these problems useful (at least for civil) was that I thought they incorporated and built on multiple concepts in one problem. Meaning that you had to understand and use information that perhaps was presented in previous chapters which helps keeps those subjects fresh in your mind.

They may not be a good representation of the difficulty of the problems that you will see on the exam but i do feel they are a great tool for helping you prepare.

roadwreck said:

I can't speak directly on the MERM or the book of accompanying practice problems, but my primary study tool for the PE was the CERM and it's accompanying book of practice problems. I found the practice problems to be much harder then what you find on the actual exam, and before the exam I too was concerned that the problems were taking much longer then the 6 minutes I knew I'd have on the exam. What makes these problems useful (at least for civil) was that I thought they incorporated and built on multiple concepts in one problem. Meaning that you had to understand and use information that perhaps was presented in previous chapters which helps keeps those subjects fresh in your mind.
They may not be a good representation of the difficulty of the problems that you will see on the exam but i do feel they are a great tool for helping you prepare.

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The MERM problems are not representative of the actual test.

However, it does have a great index which I found very useful when I did the T&F Depth in April 2007.

I did practice problems for all three areas (HVAC, MD, T&F) and this really helped me to pass the 2nd time around. Don't skip any of the areas because it will really hurt you in the morning session.

Good Luck in April '08.