# Suggestion on Books to buy



## gudiya (Jun 26, 2012)

Hello all!

I am going in for the T/F section in Oct &amp; wanted to check about the additional books that I should buy

Right now I have the MERM &amp; the practice problems. I am thinking about getting ppi2pass T&amp;F package fincluding SMS &amp; NCEES.

Do you recommend getting Quick Reference &amp; PE Sample Examination as well? Also is there any way of getting old NCEES books?

Thanks a lot.


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## Jonhnny123 (Jun 27, 2012)

My advice might be contrary to some of the other people on this board, so keep that in mind.

I don't see the point of the quick reference guide. Why have an additional book that you need to learn (either tab, or learn the location of the various topics)? I suggest a 3 ring-binder with a few pages of hand written formulas and notes. I found that going through the MERM and then writing down what I felt were the most used or most important equations helped in remembering them. I only had to look at my handwritten notes a couple of times.

The 2001 and 2008 NCEES sample exams were great. And they both have all three afternoon sections which is nice. I still just focused on the T/F part, but if you have extra time it doesn't hurt to be able to look through the HVAC and Machine Design sections. You can find them for sale here, if you keep your eyes open. You can also try ebay or amazon. The newer NCEES sample exam is the same as the 2008.

I also had the Lindeburg PE Sample exam. I have mixed thoughts on that. The questions are not at all like the ones on the actual exam. You could spend 30 - 40 mintues answering some of the questions even if you're quick! I guess the plus side is that if you work out these problems, you're developing your fundamentals and should be able to apply a fraction of that to slove an actual exam problem. The down side is the problems are time consuming and frustrating. They also make seemingly assumptions that you wouldn't have to on the exam.


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## Krakosky (Jun 27, 2012)

I bought the quick reference guide and never really used it. I ended up just making sure my MERM was tabbed really well. I like the idea of the quick reference guide but it didn't include all of the formulas from the MERM and I found that frustrating. I also copied the most frequently used appendices from the MERM and had them separately bound. I also put together some of my own notes on specific types of problems/topics and also had this separately bound. The NCEES 2001 and 2008 practice exams were invaluable. I also recommend taking the FE reference manual. I ended up using it for at least one problem and it saved me a lot of time.


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## MetsFan (Jun 27, 2012)

I don't recommend the quick reference guide either. I thumbed through it once and didn't open it again. If you're meticulous about tabbing the MERM, you should be ok. I do recommend going through the PE Sample Exam though, if anything just to get more exposure to different questions. I couldn't solve half of the problems, but I know they helped just by having to review the different topics involved in the problem.


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## mikecart1 (Jun 27, 2012)

gudiya said:


> Hello all!
> 
> I am going in for the T/F section in Oct &amp; wanted to check about the additional books that I should buy
> 
> ...


Going to keep in real. The book you will use during the exam the most is the MERM. Forget any Quick reference book or shortened version of anything. When you want answers, you want to get them from the source. Not some Cliff Notes worthless version that doesn't even explain how to use the formulas in the first place (like finding COP or efficiency and using C or F for degrees). Don't get scared the day of the exam when you see people carting in libraries to the test or suitcases like they are traveling around the world. No exaggeration, this past April I was looking at everyone and thought I was not prepared enough. These same people were taking the test for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, x times and they saw their solution as to being to bring even more books to the exam. I had a back pack of a reference binder from prep class I didn't use, a couple of 0.5" binders of practice problems I did, calc, ruler, and the MERM.

How to prepare:

1) Do problems over and over. The more the better. NCEES sample exam is the best. In fact, doing problems would be better than reading the concepts if you had to choose only one IMO.

2) Tab the key sections in the MERM that you use the most when doing these practice problems.

3) Know everything in the MERM book. I mean know from cover to cover! You have 6 minutes per question and during the test you don't have time to go through the index and look up where topics are. At the very least you should know exactly what chapter to go to when given a question. That way if you do flip through pages, you have about 20 pages to scan instead of 1000+ pages.

4) Take a day off from work the day before the exam and sleep the entire day. You will realize why this is important at 12pm the day of the test.

Reference Book that will help a lot outside of MERM:

1) Unit Conversion Book (I didn't have this for the test as I created my own bootleg version but I wish I had bought one)

Good luck!


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## Krakosky (Jun 27, 2012)

That conversion book is a must. Saves a lot of time.


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## gudiya (Jun 27, 2012)

Thank you all for the invaluable suggestions.

Sounds like getting the Quick Reference is not worthwhile.

Trying to look for the NCEES exams but not able to find them.......... will appreciate any advice since they seem to be citical.

Is there a specifc unit conversion book that we should follow?

Also one major question that I have is on some of the lengthy questions given in the MERM that involve assumptions &amp; iterations. How much time &amp; effort should we spend on such questions?

Thanks again for all the help.


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## Jonhnny123 (Jun 28, 2012)

For the MERM sample exam and practice problems, the assumptions were the most frustrating part. I did as many as I could, but there were a lot that I just went right to the solution and made sure I could follow along. It's your call on how much you want to balance working on a long problem or studying a different topic.

Lindeburg has a book "Engineering Unit Conversions". That's what I used, and it was open almost as much as the MERM was.


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## Krakosky (Jun 29, 2012)

Yes get the Lindeburg conversions book. I only did the "one hour time limit" problems if they didn't involve a bunch of iterations or assumptions.


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