I passed the Chemical Engineering test on my first attempt. I had been working in manufacturing for 11+ years and switched careers last fall to go into consulting. Needless to say, I was a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of having to study again for the first time in over a decade. I hadn't used any mass transfer or kinetics in my career and had forgotten just about everything I learned in those two areas.
I started studying 6 months prior to the exam. I laid out a study plan of all the topics I needed to cover and stuck to it. I studied an average of 10-12 hours per week for the first 5 months. The last month, I kicked into high gear and took more time on weekends to cram. I took a practice exam 6 weeks prior to the test and then another practice exam 2 weeks prior to the test. Because of time constraints, I had to split the practice exams into two 4 hour sessions. This seemed to work okay.
I primarily used the Chemical Engineering Reference Manual for the PE Exam, 6th Ed. by Lindeburg as my main study guide. I also bought the companion Quick Reference for the Chemical Engineering PE exam. I used this to take notes in and found it to be very useful. I could quickly flip through it to find the formula I needed. If I wanted more detail, it was crossed reference to the main text for easy retrieval. I also bought the companion Practice Problems for the PE exam that went with the main text. As I went through each chapter, I worked all the example problems. Then I would work the problems in the Practice Problems book. I kept all my worked problems in a three ring binder along with notes, useful graphs, reference materials, etc.
I found Lindeburg to be embarrassingly light on kinetics and rather weak on mass transfer as well. I also bought Chemical Engineering PE License Review, 3rd Ed. by Das. This was a better text than Lindeburg, but I got it late in the game and so didn't use it as much. In hindsight, it would have been better to start with Das and use it as my main reference, but everything turned out okay. I also bought the companion books Chemical Engineering PE Sample Exam by Prabhudesai and Chemical Engineering PE Problems and Solutions, 3rd Ed. by Das. The Problems and Solutions book was terrible. It has so many errors and errata in it as to render it useless. Lindeburg was very strong in thermo and heat transfer and I didn't need Das for those.
Other books I bought were Chemical Engineering Solve Problems by Nandagopal. Again, more problems to work and sharpen your skills. The best book I bought was the NCEES Principles and Practice of Engineering Chemical Engineering Sample Questions & Solutions. I used this for my first practice exam. I then re-worked all the problems about a week before the test. Best thing I did hands down.
Other texts I found to be very valuable were my old college texts for Kinetics - Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering, 2nd Ed. by Fogler. I used this a lot for Kinetics - more so than Das or Lindeburg. I also used Mass Transfer Operations, 3rd Ed. by Treybal. I would turn to this text when I wanted more detail on distillation, packed beds, etc. Not as handy as the Kinetics text, but it had its place. I also used Elementary Principles of Chemical Processes, 2nd Ed. by Felder & Rousseau for material balances, combustion reactions, and general data. Lots of handy charts in this book and good conversion factors. I also used Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering, 5th Ed. by McCabe, Smith, and Harriot for general process information. Solid reference. Another excellent book was Plant Design and Economics for Chemical Engineers, 4th Ed. by Peters and Timmerhaus. I had to borrow this one from a colleague. Glad I did. It was much better than the lousy Chem E Econ book I had from college. Lots of good design information on heat exchangers, pumps, etc and cost estimating tools, economics. Good text.
Other texts I used a lot were the Crane 410 Technical Paper for fluids. I also really relied on Cameron Hydraulic Data, 19th Ed. for fluids. These were must haves for the test.
I also bought the Six-Minute Solutions for Chemical PE Exam Problems by Vasquez & Zinn. I worked most of the problems, but found them to be much more difficult/time consuming then what was representative of the test. Good practice though.
On test day I brought all my references in a cardboard box with a removalable lid. I used the lid as a bookshelf and set my books up in it for ready access. This worked great. I had a small, folding dolly to roll everything in from the car. This was also wise.
Books I used during the test: Lindeburg (Quick Reference and Main reference) for Heat Transfer, material balances (combustion), fluids, and Thermo; Das Reference for Mass Transfer, Kinetics, materials, and process safety; Perry's for miscellaneous info; Crane 410 for fluids,;Cameron Hydraulic for fluids; Fogler for Kinetics; Felder & Rousseau for combustion, material balances, and general info; McCabe, Smith, and Harriott for general info; Peters & Timmerhaus for design and economics. I also used my 3-ring binder with notes and references. Particularly useful were formulas for volume of objects, trig & calc formulas (kinetics).
I had all my old texts as back up references (Process Fluid Mechanics by Denn, Introduction to Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics, 4th Ed. by Smith and Van Ness, Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer, 3rd Ed. by Incropera and DeWitt, Process Dynamics and Control by Seborg, Edgar, and Mellichamp). I didn't use these, but they were there as a security blanket. I had a few other miscellaneous pocket books, but again didn't use them.
I took the day before the test off of work. I drove to the exam city the day before and checked out the facility to alleviate any extra exam day jitters. I has a decent meal, soaked in the hot tub, thumbed through the NCEES book again, and went to bed early. I actually slept okay. I had a good breakfast (whole grain cereal w/ milk and banana, and some OJ). I got to the exam site early and checked in. I worked comfortable clothes (layers were key, the room was too hot in the morning and cold in the afternoon). I packed a good lunch (sandwich, carrots, pretzels chips, and water). I had a bottle of water, a banana, and peanuts & raisins in a baggie with me in the exam room. Didn't need them, but they were there just in case.
Exam strategy for me was to look through all the problems before beginning. I worked the easiest ones first and then worked up to the hard ones. I kept a close eye on the clock and made sure I didn't invest too much time in any one problem. If I got stuck I moved on. In the AM I had 4-5 problems I had to guess on. I then checked my work and caught a couple mistakes. In the PM, same strategy. I had to guess on 10-12 in the PM. Whatever time I had left I spent checking work and making sure I had filled in my answer sheet with the answer I had intended.
That's the quick and dirty for what worked for me. Best advice is to work as many problems as possible and become efficient at it. Know your references, tab most used items, and be familiar with your calculator. Support from family and friends is also very important. I couldn't have passed without sacrifices by my wife. She got more than her share of caring for the kids on weekends the last 4-5 weeks while I was really pounding the books. Also missed out on quality time as a couple during the week as I usually would study at night after the kids were in bed. Get Tivo, record all your shows. You can watch them when the exam is over.
Good luck!
