# My study tips for FE: Chemical afternoon



## oilsands

As the exam day is approaching, I decided to post my advice on Chemical Afternoon FE preparation. There are some great posts on this board on the morning and general afternoon, and fabulous study tips for Chemical PE, but I did not find much for the FE Chemical PM. Maybe, someone will find my tips useful. I intentionally post this before the exam so that my opinion is not biased by real exam questions.

A little intro: graduated 15 years ago in Europe, in Chemical Engineering. During my professional experience, I dealt only with ~20% of the material needed for Chemical PM, the rest I never used. Initially, when I started preparing for the October exam in March, I thought of taking the General PM but then I realized that it is better to go with my discipline as even if I do not remember a lot of things, at least I have my discipline-oriented intuition, and as my practice exams showed, I was absolutely correct in this assumption.

So, my study materials for the FE Chemical PM:

1). NCEES Chemical sample example. Very useful. The biggest lesson I learnt from it is that the strategies for AM and PM exams should be different. I figured that the fastest way to solve AM problems is to see what is given, and this can help figuring out the necessary equation (it seems that the AM portion is not overburden with unnecessary info in the problem statement). This is absolutely not true for the PM: many questions are page-long with too much information, but to solve a problem you often need just half a line of data. So, look at the question first and then try to find necessary info by reading the problem statement. Having NCEES practice exam is an absolute must, because I hardly saw the problem overstatement in any other practice exams.

2). PPI sample Chemical exams. Do not attempt to work with this book as “practice exams”, they are way too long to appear at a real exam, and also the time you put to review some of the questions is not worth a slight probability of getting such exam question. I used the problems and solutions to go through the material for review.

3). I did not like at all Kaplan’s FE big review book, but I found the Chemical book very useful. Well, the chapters themselves did not help at all apart from the Distillation part (found it nicely written) but the exam at the end is great! It feels like a real exam, with short questions (unfortunately, they are well-expressed and problem statement gives only necessary info in the most cases), but I could practice the 4-hour exam and also review what I did not know.

4). I made sure that I know extremely well the areas that overlap in General and Chemical PM. For these areas, I studied the following:

- Lindeburg FE Review Manual

- 1001 solved problems (thermo and fluids sections; chemistry is strangely presented)

- NCEES “Other discipline” PM practice exam, also thermo and fluids sections

5). I also used PPI website for PM section, waste of time as many problems are the same as in the book, some have mistakes, and there are even two identical problems with different solutions and different final answers!

6). I have Chemical Engineering Reference manual from PPI as well, but did not find it useful for the FE preparation

7). Might sound strange but I at some point I got so depressed by PPI Chemical problems, i.e., my inability to solve most of them in 4 minutes, that I ordered NCEES PE Chemical exam booklet, and ended up using it extensively to review the problems, my weak areas and also to see the level of the PE difficulty, meaning that the problems on FE can not be harder! Extremely useful.

8). NCEES supplied handbook – for sure. Make sure to read every page of it because many of necessary equations are in Mechanical, Environmental Sections, etc.

9). Calculator (I used Casio fx-115es)– know inside-out, in the PM may help with integration and linear regression (in the reactors part) and solving equations.

I will let you know if I pass so that you can either use or not follow my strategy.


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## oilsands

I passed.


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## snickerd3

congrats!!!!!


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## H2O

Oilsands congrats!!

Did you get your result via APEGA?


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## oilsands

Thanks, all!

Yes, they are on my APEGA member web-site, under exam status. Did not get an official letter yet.

Congratulations to all who passed and my encouragement to those who will have to attempt it again.


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## H2O

I guess my study plan did not workout. I think I did my best but result shows failed 3rd time. Very frustrating situation,



(My back ground 18 yrs out of school with chemical discipline. Try to pass exam with (afternoon) other discipline seems did not work out). 

Now I’m thinking to take afternoon Chemical specific but I think I need to skip April2013 session in order to do a complete review.



Any advice and suggestion will highly appreciate.

Best Regard


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## H2O

I guess my study plan did not workout. I'm honest to God, I think I did my best but result shows failed 3rd time. Very frustrating situation,

(My back ground 18 yrs out of school with chemical discipline. Try to pass exam with (afternoon) other discipline seems did not work out). 

Now I’m thinking to take afternoon Chemical specific but I think I need to skip April2013 session in order to do a complete review.



Any advice and suggestion will highly appreciate.

Best Regard


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## oilsands

H2O, you are not alone: if you check the NCEES website for the October results, you will see that Chemical Engineers' pass rate is 81%, but if they take General PM, it's only 60%. Go for the Chemical PM next time

Another advice: take as many mock exams as possible, repeat some of them. Debriefing is crucial: for an 4-hour mock exam, I added extra 4 hours to review the answers and problems, and solve them until I get them right. Make sure to have a strategy, solve your easy areas first (areas, not problems, this allows you saving time by not looking at all questions first to determine their difficulty level).

Good luck; this exam preparation is a torture for those who graduated many years ago, do not get frustrated (easy to say...) Try to have a Merry Christmas!


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## Ashp

I passed my FE chemical CBT exam.  I would advice future test takers the following :

1. Time management is the key. I spent 2 hrs 20 minutes on first section(52 questions) and the rest on the remaining. I had a target of 2 hrs for first 52 questions but went over by 20 minutes

2. I gave NCEES practice test and PPI full length practice test 2 weeks before exam. It helped

3. I may have got a raw score of 65 to 75 %. 

4. Get familiar with NCEES reference manual . It helps not to spend time looking for things during the exam

5. Don`t spend too much time on a question which doesn`t light a bulb right away. Flag it and come to it later on. However do answer the question by making a guess , just in case if you are not able to come back to it later on. DON`T leave the question unanswered. I feel 20 to 25 % of guessed answers  turn out to be correct answer.

6.I spent around 4 months studying for the exam. I had bought study material(only) from Testmasters.

7. Most importantly. Don`t panic during the exam. 110 questions can be overwhelming but it  pays to be calm.

All the best to future test takers


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## Ashp

Please disregard above comments on point # 5 . Please disregard the statement "I feel 20 to 25 % of guessed answers turn out to be correct answers"


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