# Time to take the practice exam



## Capt Worley PE (Mar 14, 2008)

For anyone taking the April PE, next week would be a good time to take the practice exam.

I made it as realistic as possible. Took Friday off, and did the NCEES sample exam. I started a little early (7:00 rather than 8:00), but did the morning section, took an hour for lunch, then did the afternoon section. I set up a card table and folding chair to make it as realistic as possible.

It'll give you a pretty good feel for what you need to concentrate on the next few weeks.


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## RIP - VTEnviro (Mar 14, 2008)

I can't stress how important it was for me to take a simulated exam. It's the closest you'll get to the real thing. You will be in more of a comfort zone on exam day because it won't be a totally new thing for you.

Don't take it any later than 2 weeks before the exam. Those last couple weeks are when you want to dial it down a little bit before exam day.


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## wilheldp_PE (Mar 14, 2008)

I was planning on taking Dr. Kaiser's practice exam this weekend (Electrical, morning only), then doing the full NCEES dry run next Saturday or Sunday. The problem is that I don't have any more practice exams or good sample problems to work on after I finish those exams. So if I identify a weak spot in my studying, I don't have a good way to get better at them.

Oh well, I'll figure something out.


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## benbo (Mar 14, 2008)

wilheldp said:


> I was planning on taking Dr. Kaiser's practice exam this weekend (Electrical, morning only), then doing the full NCEES dry run next Saturday or Sunday. The problem is that I don't have any more practice exams or good sample problems to work on after I finish those exams. So if I identify a weak spot in my studying, I don't have a good way to get better at them.
> Oh well, I'll figure something out.


Do you have the Camara smaple exam from "the other board"? It's a little easier than the NCEES but it is a practice exam.


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## LionCE (Mar 14, 2008)

Captain Worley PE said:


> For anyone taking the April PE, next week would be a good time to take the practice exam.
> I made it as realistic as possible. Took Friday off, and did the NCEES sample exam. I started a little early (7:00 rather than 8:00), but did the morning section, took an hour for lunch, then did the afternoon section. I set up a card table and folding chair to make it as realistic as possible.
> 
> It'll give you a pretty good feel for what you need to concentrate on the next few weeks.


Did you hire the guy that was pulling out his hair and muttering "I didn't study that", "Where did they get that question" or "I don't get any of those answers", or did you just put it on tape in a running loop.


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## wilheldp_PE (Mar 14, 2008)

benbo said:


> Do you have the Camara smaple exam from "the other board"? It's a little easier than the NCEES but it is a practice exam.


No, I didn't get that one because of the reviews on Amazon where Dr. Kaiser says that it wasn't indicative of the test. Unfortunately, I didn't see any reviews of the Kaplan books before I had already bought them.


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## Capt Worley PE (Mar 14, 2008)

LionCE said:


> Did you hire the guy that was pulling out his hair and muttering "I didn't study that", "Where did they get that question" or "I don't get any of those answers", or did you just put it on tape in a running loop.


You know, I was really expecting something like that to go on, but it was preternatuarally quiet during my exam. Either that or I was focused far more than I can imagine myself being.


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## RIP - VTEnviro (Mar 14, 2008)

wilheldp said:


> The problem is that I don't have any more practice exams or good sample problems to work on after I finish those exams. So if I identify a weak spot in my studying, I don't have a good way to get better at them.


Sure you do. Go back and review your textbooks and your EERM to brush up on weak spots. Also, I found that by the time I had finished studying, some of the early stuff I did months back was getting hazy again. I went back and re-reviewed my earliest topics.


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## M.E. Nebraska (Mar 14, 2008)

VTEnviro said:


> I can't stress how important it was for me to take a simulated exam. It's the closest you'll get to the real thing. You will be in more of a comfort zone on exam day because it won't be a totally new thing for you.
> Don't take it any later than 2 weeks before the exam. Those last couple weeks are when you want to dial it down a little bit before exam day.


I am a little behind as far as where I want to be for getting ready for the test (Not by the time I put in, just where I thought I would be by now.) I have been going through the MERM doing all the practice problems. I should finish with the book by the end of next week. Where I hope to take "the other board" test on Saturday. Then the week after that take the NCEES exam (might get pushed to weekend before test), which would leave almost two weeks before the test. I know it does not leave me alot of time before the exam, but I want to get through the MERM completely.

As of right now, the MERM problems seem fairly difficult and I will struggle to pass if they are as difficult as the practice problems. I am hoping the NCEES exam and "other board" problems won't be as intense. I hope I have prepared properly, I don't want to do this again. As of now I have probably put in 250-300 hours since November, and still don't fill like I have studied enough. I seem to have trouble retaining all the details of each section.


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## Matt-NM (Mar 14, 2008)

(Also taking the ME PE in April. Machine design depth.) I hear you on retaining information. Seems like i'l do some problems one week and then two weeks later they seem like brand new problems. I really don't think (at least with me) that a chapter by chapter approach with MERM will work if it is timed so that you finish the last chapter right before the exam, leaving almost no time to review chapters that were done two months prior. Maybe I am just forgetful.

Right now I feel that I know "a decent amount" on all exam subjects, at least enough to know where to point in MERM if the exam were held today. (Still would not pass today.) This has come from bouncing around subjects, not necessarily by plan but by not developing a better strategy earlier on. Actually, I think it has worked ok, since it has given me some insight to all subjects and problem types that will be on the exam. The single hardest thing for me has been coming up with a plan and sticking to it. I still struggle with it, even now a month before the exam. Do I go through the MERM chapters problems, then go through the six-minute breadth problems, then the NCEES problems, then back to the MERM end of chapter problems, and then review the six-minute problems again before the exam since it will have been weeks since doing them, and so on. This has been my biggest battle.

I did do the NCEES problems but not as a simulated exam. I was thinking of doing the Lindeburg sample exam tomorrow as a simulated exam. I know it's going to bury me, but at least I will have that initial PE exam feel. How much emphasis are people putting on the results of this exam? I know from multiple people that this exam is difficult, probably longer than 8 hours, and not quite representative of the actual thing. With that being said, is it even worth trying to go back through and understand each and every one of the problems after the exam?

I have also begun writing equation sheets for each subject, but am beginning to think that maybe I need to reference MERM for every problem, even if the equation I think I need is on my sheet. Seems like MERM likes to write critical information in adjacent paragraphs to the equations, instead of small footnotes right next to the equations. This may be safer, if it does not take to much extra time. Like everybody keeps saying, know MERM inside and out! I am thinking that it's probably best for me to know MERM well, than several references ok.


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## Vinsanity (Mar 14, 2008)

I have always used the approach in studying, "Problem Solving" kind of method, then if I forgot or missed some items that is the time I scanned over for theories behind it, in this way Im more prepared in NCEES exam format. I dont know what other guys here use in preparing themselves, I hope to hear some inputs too.


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## rudy (Mar 14, 2008)

wilheldp said:


> I was planning on taking Dr. Kaiser's practice exam this weekend (Electrical, morning only), then doing the full NCEES dry run next Saturday or Sunday. The problem is that I don't have any more practice exams or good sample problems to work on after I finish those exams. So if I identify a weak spot in my studying, I don't have a good way to get better at them.
> Oh well, I'll figure something out.


I was in the same boat after taking the exam twice and going thru all my study material and practice exams. For my third time (last time), I ordered more books. I made copies of the problems at the end of the chapters. Then, I stapled them together to make a small booklet. I highlighted, using a yellow highlighter, a few problems from each chapter until there were a total of 80 highlighted problems, with equal distribution among the chapters. I used these 80 problems as my sample exam. I only highlighted the problem number.

After I finished the exam and reviewed my week areas, I "created" another sample exam by repeating the same process above using a green highlighter.

You might want to try checking out this site for extra study material:

http://www.kaplanaecengineering.com/

I don't hear many people talk about this site. The ChemE material I used from that site was reasonable and helped because it was new to me after my two tries.


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## wilheldp_PE (Mar 14, 2008)

rudy said:


> You might want to try checking out this site for extra study material:http://www.kaplanaecengineering.com/
> 
> I don't hear many people talk about this site. The ChemE material I used from that site was reasonable and helped because it was new to me after my two tries.


I have the Kaplan books for Electrical. I think they are unreasonably hard...but I have already worked the problem in them.


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## Matt-NM (Mar 16, 2008)

Took "The other board" ME PE sample exam today (Machine Design depth). Man, I feel like I need to see a doctor. I simulated it as much as possible (4 hour morning, 1 hour lunch, 4 hour afternoon). Just graded it and it came in around 50%, including guesses, of which there were quite a few. I am not really disappointed, as I knew that this test was really difficult, and knew I probably wouldn't do well. I am just worried that this may not scale up enough for a passing score on the real thing. Some of the questions I had no idea, while others I probably could have solved, but not in the allotted time. The SI units didn't help either.

How much value is everybody placing in this exam? I know quite a few people have taken it. What was everybody's score, including guesses? How did you score compare to your score on the real thing?

Some observations from this first simulated exam...

1. I really didn't use anything but MERM. I realized that with the time crunch, there is just not enough time to be flipping through numerous references. I glanced at my equation sheets a few times. This also

helped me because I now realize that indexing hundreds of solved problems probably won't do me any good, and thus won't spend the time doing it. A few template problems will help though.

2. Having to skip over so many problems, I began losing track of time. It's very different doing 40 problems in 4 hours as opposed to doing 4 problems in 24 minutes and then thinking that it will scale exactly,

which is what I kind of do when I am studying.

3. Information from multiple chapters will be needed to solve some problems. i.e., vibrations combined with helical springs.

4. When I would struggle with multiple problems in a row, my mind would sort of trick me into thinking that every problem thereafter was just getting harder and harder. It became discouraging and I lost

motivation.

I'm sure there are others but I think I am going to take the rest of the night off and hit it again tomorrow.


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## wilheldp_PE (Mar 16, 2008)

I got 50% on the morning-only electrical exam that I took yesterday. I thought I was doing better than that. Oh well.

I think I can make some points up on the afternoon computer section since it shouldn't have any of the topics I still don't understand at all. I'm doing a full practice exam next Saturday...that should give me a better idea of how screwed I am.


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## RIP - VTEnviro (Mar 17, 2008)

I got in the mid-50% range when I took the NCEES sample Envl exam. I freaked out because I honestly studied as hard as I could for it for months. Ended up passing the real exam and feeling like I did so fairly comfortably (no score to know for sure.)

In a way it helped because I felt less cocky afterwards, I guess.


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## roadwreck (Mar 17, 2008)

VTEnviro said:


> I got in the mid-50% range when I took the NCEES sample Envl exam. I freaked out because I honestly studied as hard as I could for it for months. Ended up passing the real exam and feeling like I did so fairly comfortably (no score to know for sure.)
> In a way it helped because I felt less cocky afterwards, I guess.


I had a similar experience when I took the NCEES sample Transpo exam. I took it only a week out from the actual exam (not ideal but I was pressed for time) and I felt like I bombed it. I don't remember my exact score but it was in the 50% range too. Prior to that I felt like I was doing pretty well on my studying and that sample exam really knocked me down a peg. In the next week I focused me last minute prep on the areas that I performed particularly poorly in on the sample exam which probably really helped me on the real exam.

After the humbling experience with the practice exam I didn't have high hopes for my performance on the real deal but I too walked out of the exam feeling like I did pretty well.


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## Fudgey (Mar 17, 2008)

I am doing ok on the "other guys" sample problems. The construction questions are killing me because its all new to me. I hope this doesn't come back to haunt me on test day. I am taking Friday off to take the official NCEES test.

We'll see where things stand then. I'm feeling a lot better about my chances this go around except for construction. I still am going to take water/envl for the afternoon.


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## wilheldp_PE (Mar 22, 2008)

Guh. I took the NCEES exam this morning/afternoon. It took me just under 7 hours total (including about 45 minutes off for lunch...I was going to try to do the full hour, but got bored). I got 21/40 on the morning section and 25/40 on the Computer afternoon section. Overall it was a 57.5%. I'm pretty disappointed since I did better on the Kaplan exam (under non-test conditions, i.e. I worked a few problems a night for a couple weeks).

I haven't gone over solutions to see if I made easily avoidable/stupid mistakes yet, but most of the ones I missed had "Guess" written next to them because I literally had no clue how to work them. This certainly didn't serve as the confidence boost I was hoping it would.


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## benbo (Mar 23, 2008)

wilheldp said:


> Guh. I took the NCEES exam this morning/afternoon. It took me just under 7 hours total (including about 45 minutes off for lunch...I was going to try to do the full hour, but got bored). I got 21/40 on the morning section and 25/40 on the Computer afternoon section. Overall it was a 57.5%. I'm pretty disappointed since I did better on the Kaplan exam (under non-test conditions, i.e. I worked a few problems a night for a couple weeks).
> I haven't gone over solutions to see if I made easily avoidable/stupid mistakes yet, but most of the ones I missed had "Guess" written next to them because I literally had no clue how to work them. This certainly didn't serve as the confidence boost I was hoping it would.


IMO that is a respectable score. I wouldn't panic.

But here is where I will give some advice, based on my experience, and I hope other's will chime in. I would spend a significant amount of time between now and the exam, going over the NCEES exam until I could work the problems in my sleep. NCEES problems are a little "different" than other straightforward exams, even in the way they make the drawings. But in my case, the AM electrical exam was VERY much like the practice exam. Once you go over the test you will find that it was not as hard as you might have thought - you just need to look at it in a different way than a normal "school" exam.

What say you other electrical guys?


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## mudpuppy (Mar 23, 2008)

I agree. 57.5% is a respectable score, especially for the first time being exposed to the NCEES format. And of course feel free to ask questions here on the ones you had no clue on (especially on the morning section)--you've got a bunch of EE PEs here just waiting for a chance to answer a question.


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## adr (Mar 23, 2008)

What questions did you have a problem with (computer depth)? Start a new thread in the electrical subforum?


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## wilheldp_PE (Mar 23, 2008)

adr said:


> What questions did you have a problem with (computer depth)? Start a new thread in the electrical subforum?


I have a feeling that going over the solutions included with the sample exam will make me realize my mistakes, but I will definitely post anything that I still don't understand. I'll get to it some time this week, but I'm not sure when...I got in a wreck on Wed, so I'm dealing with insurance companies which is never fun.


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