How long are the actual problems?

Hi all,

I am new to this forum. I intend to take the PE Mechanical Exam in April, 09, with depth exam as thermal/fluid systems.

I have been using PE Mechanical Practice Questions by Lindeberg for preparation. I found some of the problems involve too much of calculations, especially the ones in fluid dynamics which involve friction loss calculations, equivalent length, etc.

I was just wondering are the actual problems also that big or they are brief but involve good understanding of the concept? People who have taken the exam once, could you please comment?

mechie_aggie said:

Hi all,
I am new to this forum. I intend to take the PE Mechanical Exam in April, 09, with depth exam as thermal/fluid systems.

I have been using PE Mechanical Practice Questions by Lindeberg for preparation. I found some of the problems involve too much of calculations, especially the ones in fluid dynamics which involve friction loss calculations, equivalent length, etc.

I was just wondering are the actual problems also that big or they are brief but involve good understanding of the concept? People who have taken the exam once, could you please comment?

Click to expand...

No, the practice problems from MERM and the Lindberg Sample Exam are longer and more complex than the average exam question in my opinion. In many Lindberg problems, there are actually numerous questions in the problem that could each be viewed as a separate typical exam problem.

Don't worry if you're not solving those big Lindberg problems in 6 minutes... you're not meant to.

The problems in the 6 minute solutions books are shorter and I think are probably more representative of exam type problems.

Everyone on this board has a different opinion though

mechie_aggie said:

Hi all,
I am new to this forum. I intend to take the PE Mechanical Exam in April, 09, with depth exam as thermal/fluid systems.

I have been using PE Mechanical Practice Questions by Lindeberg for preparation. I found some of the problems involve too much of calculations, especially the ones in fluid dynamics which involve friction loss calculations, equivalent length, etc.

I was just wondering are the actual problems also that big or they are brief but involve good understanding of the concept? People who have taken the exam once, could you please comment?

Click to expand...

The lindeberg problems are great for getting a grasp of the material, but they are bad for getting a feel for the test questions. Some of the lindeberg questions took me up to 15-20 minutes. But during the test I was able to breeze through 2 or 3 questions in under a minute. If you want a good feel for the test. Order the NCEES exams. They are great!

I agree with the two posts above.

Shaggy said:

I agree with the two posts above.

Click to expand...

I passed the last exam. I definitely agree with the recommendation to obtain the NCEES practice questions. Make sure that you can do every problem in the Principles and Practice of Engineering Mechanical Sample Questions & Solutions.

Later this year, I hope to publish my own practice exam in Thermal and Fluids Systems. I just published a practice exam for the Mechanical Systems and Materials section. My materials follow the NCEES very closely, as I found that the NCEES practice questions were the best materials for the exam.

Based on the time I took (and somehow passed) the exam in April 08, I'd say it's hard to generalize about the length or complexity of problems. Some problems are quick knowledge or look-up questions that will take you about 10 seconds to one minute if you have that knowledge in your head, or have the right reference and know where to look. Some problems are the average 6-minute type problem. And then some problems look simple and familiar at first, but then evolve to become more complex or more lengthy than you thought when you first started it. These problems can suck you into blowing a bunch of time. I recall that there were several of those problems that I just couldn't pull myself away from because I was so familiar how to do them, even though they were time hogs. I'd look at my watch and be shocked to realize I had just blown 15 or 20 minutes on a problem and still wasn't done, but I just couldn't bring myself to drop it because it was familiar materal for me, and I'd already invested too much time to just give up on it. The diverse mix of complexity in problems, and time to solve, makes it hard to pace yourself by watching the clock. After the clock kicked my butt in the morning, I came back in the afternoon and the first thing I did was scan for the low lying fruit - the problems that take a couple of minutes or less. I think that was a good strategy because I was then sure that I didn't give away any of the easy ones for running out of time, by solving the lengthy problems first.

I also agree with the above posts about the length/difficulty of the Lindeburg material. I thought the "Six Minute Solutions" books were very helpful. The NCEES practice exam was also helpful, but can give a false sense of security in comparison to the actual exam. I took the exam in April 2008 (passed, machine design depth) and thought the actual exam was significantly harder than the NCEES practice exam. I think there is a newer version of the NCEES practice exam out now. I would put the actual exam somewhere between the NCEES practice exam and the Lindeburg sample exam.

Yeah the Six Minute Problems were very helpful but I also worked through all the MERM problems also.