# April 09 or Bust, Baby!



## Agg97 (Feb 5, 2009)

Just wondering how many of us on the board are studying to take the test in April? I am (or at least hope to, haven't received my letter from Texas saying I'm A-OK to take the test). Are you out there? Introduce yourself!

I'll start. I'm Agg97, and I'll be taking the HVAC depth portion. As my handle suggests, I've been out of school almost 12 years now, so it's been a little slow getting the cogs cranking in my head again. The good news is that I can still integrate and differentiate! Who knew! The bad news is that I've forgotten most of Diff EQ. I think I can get by though...1st order means the equation is solved with e. 2nd order means the equation is sin or cos. That's really about all I remember. Oh, yeah. And kinematics and dynamics is gone as well. But I think they'll come back...that was one of my better subjects in school. Just hadn't used it in 12 years.

I've been studying about a month now. I'm hitting the problems hard and getting familiar with the MERM as I go. If I did it the other way, I'd never start working problems!

So, who else is out there?

-Agg97


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## maryannette (Feb 5, 2009)

I've got mine behind me, but I wish you the best! I'm cheering for you.


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## MikeR (Feb 5, 2009)

I left college in 1995. I am planning on doing the MD depth section in April 09. I started hitting the MERM 2 weeks ago. Basically a 3 month program of cramming. I have sort of run into brick wall called Fluids and HVAC.

I live in California and will be lucky to get a weeks notice prior to the exam. Can't wait to get this Monkey off my back. Getting the PE will basically open the door to promotions within my Department.

Good Luck with the exam.


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## Master slacker (Feb 6, 2009)

Another April taker right here. Well, gotta pay my registration fee first, though. As my name suggests, I have a Masters degree in ME (finished 12/06). Did a lot of dynamics work with biomechanics research and being the dynamics undergrad TA, but since that time my dynamics/kinematics knowledge drifted away. Getting it back little by little, though. In my month and a half of studying so far, I've read MERM and worked the problems through the Kinetics section in MERM. I'm at 68 pages of problems solved and have a loooooooong way to go as a lot is still fuzzy.


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## MechGuy (Feb 6, 2009)

Agg97 said:


> Just wondering how many of us on the board are studying to take the test in April? I am (or at least hope to, haven't received my letter from Texas saying I'm A-OK to take the test). Are you out there? Introduce yourself!
> I'll start. I'm Agg97, and I'll be taking the HVAC depth portion. As my handle suggests, I've been out of school almost 12 years now, so it's been a little slow getting the cogs cranking in my head again. The good news is that I can still integrate and differentiate! Who knew! The bad news is that I've forgotten most of Diff EQ. I think I can get by though...1st order means the equation is solved with e. 2nd order means the equation is sin or cos. That's really about all I remember. Oh, yeah. And kinematics and dynamics is gone as well. But I think they'll come back...that was one of my better subjects in school. Just hadn't used it in 12 years.
> 
> I've been studying about a month now. I'm hitting the problems hard and getting familiar with the MERM as I go. If I did it the other way, I'd never start working problems!
> ...



I assume you're talking about the PE Exam and not the FE exam -- if so you don't need to worry about calculus or diff eq so much! MERM and the Practice Exams are the way to go, and I also recommend all of the "6 minute solutions" books... they were ALL very helpful to me.

Good Luck!


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## goodal (Feb 9, 2009)

Im taking the HVAC depth in April in Tennessee. Been studying since November. I graduated with a EE but all my experience during and after college has been in HVAC design. So needless to say i am worried about machine design and heat transfer problems because ive never studied them. I have gone through the MERM once already and aswered the problems out of an old edition. Now i have the new Practice Problems book and im going through it. Going to do the 6 minute hvac book and at least one practise test. Im hopelessly lost in machine design, but decent in fluids and pretty good with the HVAC section. 2 1/2 months to go. cant wait till its over.


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## djshortsleeve (Feb 10, 2009)

I'm taking the exam in April. I started studying after the first of the year but really started putting in the time about 2-3 weeks ago. I am taking a review course which will be good to use as a guide. Or course, MERM is the centerpiece of my study material.

How is everyone finding the problems? The first few are pretty easy but as I get deep into the sections they get pretty tough and I keep having to check out the solutions to see how to solve them.


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## Master slacker (Feb 11, 2009)

djshortsleeve said:


> How is everyone finding the problems? The first few are pretty easy but as I get deep into the sections they get pretty tough and I keep having to check out the solutions to see how to solve them.


I'm in the same boat. But keep working problems. I'm about to finish all the the non-econ problems in MERM's problem book. For the most part things are still fuzzy. With 2 months to go, I'm going to dive into 6-minute solutions and 101 problems to see if anything I have learned is paying off. I'm crossing my fingers.


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## djshortsleeve (Feb 11, 2009)

Master slacker said:


> I'm in the same boat. But keep working problems. I'm about to finish all the the non-econ problems in MERM's problem book. For the most part things are still fuzzy. With 2 months to go, I'm going to dive into 6-minute solutions and 101 problems to see if anything I have learned is paying off. I'm crossing my fingers.


I'm in the same boat. Having pushed through the MERM problems I am now looking at getting some other problems. Do you recommend the 6 minute solutions and/or 101?


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## JoeysVee (Feb 19, 2009)

djshortsleeve said:


> I'm taking the exam in April. I started studying after the first of the year but really started putting in the time about 2-3 weeks ago. I am taking a review course which will be good to use as a guide. Or course, MERM is the centerpiece of my study material.
> How is everyone finding the problems? The first few are pretty easy but as I get deep into the sections they get pretty tough and I keep having to check out the solutions to see how to solve them.


What review course are you taking?


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## djshortsleeve (Feb 21, 2009)

JoeysVee said:


> What review course are you taking?


Its a Mech PE course at Northeastern University. The instructor who puts it together does a nice job.


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