# Exam Content Clarification - HVAC & Refrig



## breezy_moto (Jan 25, 2018)

Taking the exam in April. I've been under the impression that the first half of the exam covered all of general engineering and the second half would be hvac &amp; refrigeration focused. However, in looking at the spec sheet from NCEES, it seems this is not the case. https://ncees.org/engineering/pe/mechanical/  

Am I wasting my time studying statics/dynamics/vibrations/materials/etc?


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## Slay the P.E. (Jan 25, 2018)

breezy_moto said:


> Am I wasting my time studying statics/dynamics/vibrations/materials/etc?


Yes you are. New specs came in effect starting with the April 2017 exam. The April 2018 exam will be the 3rd time the exam is issued with the new specs. 

Vibrations is part of the HVAC exam specs, though. So, do study that.


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## breezy_moto (Jan 26, 2018)

Slay the P.E. said:


> Yes you are. New specs came in effect starting with the April 2017 exam. The April 2018 exam will be the 3rd time the exam is issued with the new specs.
> 
> Vibrations is part of the HVAC exam specs, though. So, do study that.


Thank you. Seems I need to adjust my study plan. I've been going through the 12th edition MERM and was intending to move on to the 6 minute solutions next but sounds like that may not be the best route. Does the NCEES practice exam reflect the new format? I feel that would give me a good idea of the material.


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## Slay the P.E. (Jan 26, 2018)

breezy_moto said:


> Does the NCEES practice exam reflect the new format? I feel that would give me a good idea of the material.


Absolutely. The reason they published new practice exams was because they changed the specifications. Others who have actually taken the HVAC&amp;R exam recently will have better informed comments about the closeness between the practice exam and the actual exam they took.


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## Audi Driver P.E. (Jan 29, 2018)

Slay the P.E. said:


> Absolutely. The reason they published new practice exams was because they changed the specifications. Others who have actually taken the HVAC&amp;R exam recently will have better informed comments about the closeness between the practice exam and the actual exam they took.


Yes. Just note that for ANY NCEES practice exam, the intent is to demonstrate the potential scope of questions asked (i.e the practice test covered 30 topic areas), and the relative difficulty of questions, but it is NOT comprehensive for every topic that MAY be covered on your exam.  You can come away from a practice exam with knowledge on how to pace yourself and have some idea how difficult problems in any given area will be, but do NOT make the mistake of thinking that if an area wasn't captured in the practice exam that it won't be on your test.  Conversely, you better darn well be able to work any problem on the practice exam topics that ARE covered.


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## breezy_moto (Jan 30, 2018)

Audi driver said:


> Yes. Just note that for ANY NCEES practice exam, the intent is to demonstrate the potential scope of questions asked (i.e the practice test covered 30 topic areas), and the relative difficulty of questions, but it is NOT comprehensive for every topic that MAY be covered on your exam.  You can come away from a practice exam with knowledge on how to pace yourself and have some idea how difficult problems in any given area will be, but do NOT make the mistake of thinking that if an area wasn't captured in the practice exam that it won't be on your test.  Conversely, you better darn well be able to work any problem on the practice exam topics that ARE covered.


Understood. Thanks!


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## sayed (Feb 9, 2018)

Test did have a tiny bit of those topics. i think maybe 3 questions. so get a little familiar, but don't spend days on it


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