April 2009 Mech PE exam

What did you guys think about the Mechanical Exam. The morning was a little easier than i thought it would be. At lunch i thought i had it made, but then came the afternoon portion. It was more difficult (I took Thermal and Fluids) than the morning i thought. This was my first time taking the exam and i have a feeling that I'm right on the fence, i.e. a couple questions above or below the Cut Score. I'm guessing i got 30-35 right on the morning portion and approximately 20-25 right during the afternoon portion. Have any previous Mech PE takers had the same feeling after leaving the exam and how did it end up turning out for you??? And I know people speculate alot on Cut Scores, what would be a fair guess of the range for the cut score: 53-56 correct out of 80?

After taking the PPI practice exam, I thought both portions were easier than I had expected. I took the Machine Design depth. Even though it wasn't as bad as it could have been, I still had issues concentrating during the afternoon session. I don't know why, but I struggled with the easiest problems on the entire exam. I think it was burnout. It was to the point that I couldn't find the buttons on my calculator anymore. It was a weird feeling and I panicked when it happened. I think I am on the bubble because of it. :angry:

It could go either way for me. It'll definitely be a long 12 weeks. :smileyballs:

steven_0078 said:

And I know people speculate alot on Cut Scores, what would be a fair guess of the range for the cut score: 53-56 correct out of 80?

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I think that's a reasonable range.

steven_0078 said:

What did you guys think about the Mechanical Exam. The morning was a little easier than i thought it would be. At lunch i thought i had it made, but then came the afternoon portion. It was more difficult (I took Thermal and Fluids) than the morning i thought. This was my first time taking the exam and i have a feeling that I'm right on the fence, i.e. a couple questions above or below the Cut Score. I'm guessing i got 30-35 right on the morning portion and approximately 20-25 right during the afternoon portion. Have any previous Mech PE takers had the same feeling after leaving the exam and how did it end up turning out for you??? And I know people speculate alot on Cut Scores, what would be a fair guess of the range for the cut score: 53-56 correct out of 80?

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I think I'm in the same boat, did very well on the morning MD questions and fair on the rest of the morning, likely got 30/40 maybe better (or maybe worse?). In the afternoon, I got off to a bad start and got a bit of tunnel vision, and became sloppy, maybe 25/40, or so. I'm guessing a total of 55/80 or so, which will be close. I only studied for 5 weeks, but studied extremely hard during that time (the most studying I've ever done in 5 weeks!). I don't know how people find the energy to take this exam multiple times, my hats off those that can.

-BPH

bph said:

I think I'm in the same boat, did very well on the morning MD questions and fair on the rest of the morning, likely got 30/40 maybe better (or maybe worse?). In the afternoon, I got off to a bad start and got a bit of tunnel vision, and became sloppy, maybe 25/40, or so. I'm guessing a total of 55/80 or so, which will be close. I only studied for 5 weeks, but studied extremely hard during that time (the most studying I've ever done in 5 weeks!). I don't know how people find the energy to take this exam multiple times, my hats off those that can.-BPH

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I don't know how people find the energy to keep taking it over either. It really drained me. I think part of the battle was that i was extremely psyched up being this was my first time to sit for it. Being that i think i scored right around the Cut score, I came this far, so a little additional studying for the next exam will seem like 25% of the work that i put in for the first time. As for those who take it 3+ times, i think i would give up. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully i will be in the group of high percentage first time takers who pass (70% or so).

I finished up the morning session in about the same amount of time that it took me to take the 2008 NCEES practice exam, and I feel pretty comfortable with that section. There were only a couple that I didn't feel "sure" of (which really doesn't mean too much since I usually miss ones that I feel "sure" of anyways).

The afternoon Thermal/Fluids section seemed really easy compared to the sample exam. It took me a solid 4 hours to finish the sample exam, and even then I did some quick guessing to finish in time. I finished the actual exam about 50 minutes early. Did anyone else take the Thermal/Fluids section? How did you feel about it?

I also did the thermal and fluids afternoon portion. For both sessions, I marked problems that I wasn't 100% percent on with an asterik. Most of these, I had a general idea of how to do the problem, but couldn't get an answer that exactly matched the choices. There was only one where I didn't know what the h&^& it was asking or where I would search for it.

Anyway, I ended up with 10 'asteriks' on the morning session, and 13 'asteriks' on the afternoon (which was definitely more challenging). I'm sure I missed at least a few that I was confident on, so hopefully I narrowed down the choices enough to make educated guesses.

Also, I started each session at the end and worked backwards. It seems to me like more of the 'look-up' definition questions end up towards the beginning. I'd rather work on those at the end when I am drained.

I thought overall the exam seemed much easier than the practice exam and the practice problems in any books that i used to review. i felt really good about all of my answers, but sometimes its more nerve racking when things come a little too easy.

I took the HVAC in he afternoon and thought it was much more basic than a lot of the review problems as well.

all in all i felt really good about 29 of the problems in the morning and 30 in the afternoon. now its just time to sit and wait...hopefully this was a one time deal! i was totally spent after that test.

I took the HVAC depth. The test was very similar to the 2008 practice test. I found the problems I had trouble with were the ones you didnt need a calulator for. There were 5-6 with an asterisk in the morning and about 8-9 in the afternoon. Several of those were probably right, i just wasnt 100% sure about them. Took way too many books in. All i needed was MERM, ASHRAE and Marks for one or two problems.

I feel good enough about it to say I am pretty sure I passed, but im not getting cocky about it (because you never know)!!

I thought the morning section was great. They weren't too easy, but easy enough that I felt really good about it. My biggest problem on practice tests had been missing the "hiccups" they throw in there, and I re-read every problem and caught 3 or 4 where I would have had an incorrect answer. (that's not too much to say right? don't want to get in trouble)

Thermo/Fluids in the afternoon was more difficult than the morning but not as bad as PPI practice test (which is essentially impossible in 4 hours) My biggest issue was lack of focus as the day wore on. I started having problems reading the questions with about an hour left which meant going back to the harder problems didn't do much for me. I finished a half hour early and after 15 minutes of brain melt going back through hard problems I decided to just turn it in and go have a beer.

I won't be suprised if I pass and I won't be suprised if I'm just under the cut score. I'll only be suprised if I bombed the morning section.

I took the afternoon Machine design depth.

When I left the morning I felt that I did ok. I am not real sure about the afternoon maybe 25/40 or better. I just lost focus in the afternoon as I was beat. I also worked the afternoon back wards which interestingly enough worked to my benefit.

Looking back at the entire exam I know I missed three for sure and maybe 12 were maybe. I only remember guessing on 4 total, but that is what I remember. Note: I went home and did three problems I had difficulty with in about 5 minutes which bothers me allot.

I believe I studied enough and I just made some stupid mistakes on some. A few areas I know I need to brush up on but I hope I do not have to do this again. The entire afternoon I kept telling myself to keep pushing so I would not be doing this again and it helped. I hope it was enough.

buick455 said:

I took the afternoon Machine design depth.
When I left the morning I felt that I did ok. I am not real sure about the afternoon maybe 25/40 or better. I just lost focus in the afternoon as I was beat. I also worked the afternoon back wards which interestingly enough worked to my benefit.

Looking back at the entire exam I know I missed three for sure and maybe 12 were maybe. I only remember guessing on 4 total, but that is what I remember. Note: I went home and did three problems I had difficulty with in about 5 minutes which bothers me allot.

I believe I studied enough and I just made some stupid mistakes on some. A few areas I know I need to brush up on but I hope I do not have to do this again. The entire afternoon I kept telling myself to keep pushing so I would not be doing this again and it helped. I hope it was enough.

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Gotta say, I feel really similiar to a lot of folks on here. Took the T & F depth. Thought the morning was pretty standard, finished early only took a guess on a couple.

The afternoon was a challenge for me had about 10-12 that I was unsure about. Also seemed to hit that wall everyone is describing about 6 1/2 hours in.

Again, I would only be surprised if I do poorly on the morning as for pass/no pass I am feeling 50/50.

I will preface this post with "I am an idiot"

I took T&F in the afternoon and I was sitting in the front of the testing center right in front of a big analog clock. I did the same thing with the asterisks. When I got to about the 30th problem I looked up and saw that i only had an hour left. I started to panic because i had questions I hadn't answered (the asterisks) plus the 10 I didn't even look at yet. I busted butt and finished the test in the hour but I couldn't understand why no one gave the 15 minute warning. This is when I figured out that I read the clock wrong and was actually up to problem 30 with 2 hours left, not 1!! Talk about burn out!!

That being said, I too fee like I got 50-55 of the 80 questions correct and I definitely don't want to sit that test again!!

I hope you got a 56/80 (70) vs 55/80 (69). I am not counting on a curve. I hope I got the same or better.

I stopped beating myself up on the exam after about 2 weeks after I took it. I figure I will know one way or the other sometime before my vacation which is July 11th (Virgina).

buick455 said:

I hope you got a 56/80 (70) vs 55/80 (69). I am not counting on a curve. I hope I got the same or better.
I stopped beating myself up on the exam after about 2 weeks after I took it. I figure I will know one way or the other sometime before my vacation which is July 11th (Virgina).

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Here is this exam's PSA - 70% is an urban legend. Nowhere does NCEES say that 70% is the passing score. When they used to give out scores, the converted every exams cut off score was set to a scaled score of 70 - not 70% raw score but a converted score of 70. So if you barely passed Civil transportation, you got a 70 even though your raw score was 60. You got a 70 scaled score on MEC T/F you passed eventhough your raw score was 48. This has been discussed many, many times on this board.

When I received my October results and figured out my raw score is was around 48/80 which would be 60%. At least this is what I got when I figured it out based on the % correct in each area given the number of problems in that topic. I am not realy that concerned about it as I just wanted to know how I did in each area. My published score was 65% and as 70% was required to pass I took it again this past April. I just know this is allot of work to get basically a 0% if you fail. Good luck to all.

Mike in Gastonia said:

Here is this exam's PSA - 70% is an urban legend. Nowhere does NCEES say that 70% is the passing score. When they used to give out scores, the converted every exams cut off score was set to a scaled score of 70 - not 70% raw score but a converted score of 70. So if you barely passed Civil transportation, you got a 70 even though your raw score was 60. You got a 70 scaled score on MEC T/F you passed eventhough your raw score was 48. This has been discussed many, many times on this board.

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What you are saying makes sense, because I did not study for the FE at all. I reviewed the reference book they give you some, just to see where everything was located but that was about it.

I know I didn't get 70% on that test, but I somehow passed.

buick455 said:

When I received my October results and figured out my raw score is was around 48/80 which would be 60%. At least this is what I got when I figured it out based on the % correct in each area given the number of problems in that topic. I am not realy that concerned about it as I just wanted to know how I did in each area. My published score was 65% and as 70% was required to pass I took it again this past April. I just know this is allot of work to get basically a 0% if you fail. Good luck to all.

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See the post directly above yours. 70% is not required to pass.

D. Kephart said:

What you are saying makes sense, because I did not study for the FE at all. I reviewed the reference book they give you some, just to see where everything was located but that was about it.
I know I didn't get 70% on that test, but I somehow passed.

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Because the infamous 70 is not percentage of raw score.......

This has been discussed many, many times on this board.

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It's not like there's a search function around here... :brickwall: