# HVAC Depth



## Playful Engineer (Apr 12, 2011)

Took the HVAC depth in NY for the first time, overall exam experience wasn't bad. Felt good leaving the exam but now I am starting to second guess myself on a few questions.

Overall I thought the HVAC questions were pretty easy for both morning and afternoon session, think I messed up on

the machine design and heat transfer questions.

ahh well, guess I will find out in 8-10 weeks. hopefully the new email process cuts down the wait time instead of

waiting for a letter from NYS.

any thoughts anyone ?


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## snickerd3 (Apr 12, 2011)

it will still take 8-10 weeks. the new process doesn't speed things up


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## Playful Engineer (Apr 12, 2011)

in that case, that sucks...............gotta figure out what to do in next 8-10 weeks waiting for this crap !!!!


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## Jamo (Apr 12, 2011)

I took the HVAC exam and felt pretty confident on both AM and PM. I would have liked a few more HVAC specific in the morning as I thought there were more MD questions (albeit easy ones), but there were a lot that landed in that thermo/fluid overlap area. Of course, I read in another thread that a person who took MD in the afternoon thought that there were too many HVAC questions in the morning. I guess coming across any questions that are out of your comfort zone you start feeling like that's all you see.

I did feel like the afternoon was pretty easy compared to my practice exam, but I pretty much did HVAC only for the last month. I'm just a little nervous that I might've gotten tricked on some, but still feeling confident that I passed. I haven't been second guessing myself on any problems because I did a brain dump on my way out of the test room and can only remember a few specifics. Should make the next couple of months a little easier since I can't second guess myself.


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## jmbeck (Apr 13, 2011)

Jamo said:


> I haven't been second guessing myself on any problems because I did a brain dump on my way out of the test room and can only remember a few specifics. Should make the next couple of months a little easier since I can't second guess myself.


That's what I've never understood about people that could come back and give enough information about a problem to get in trouble. Like you, I literally could not have recalled enough specifics about a problem had I tried. Perhaps it's because I worked straight through the test, and didn't return to a problem.

I wasn't overly concerned about time, because I decided some would take longer than 6 minutes, and some would take much less than 6 minutes. The only thing I remember from Dec. 2007 was that I was 20 questions in after three hours in the AM, and somehow finished the other 20 in one hour with about 5 minutes to spare. It all evened out for me.


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## Playful Engineer (Apr 13, 2011)

you do remember a few problems, the ones you were stuck on especially, but I am sure it will fade over the next few weeks waiting for the results.

either way I am hoping I pass the first time around and don't have to retake that test, not that it was bad experience overall.......


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## jamiecta (Aug 13, 2011)

For those of you who have recently taken this exam, how did it compare to the NCEES practice exam as well as the 6MS HVAC. I am taking the exam for my first time this October. Last weekend I did my first run through of 6MS HVAC breadth and depth and completed all 85 problems in 5 hours and scored a 69%. I didn't have any of my ASHRAE material with me so there were a handful of easy problems I missed simply from not having them with me (I left them at work by accident).

Knowing that the rough cut score I see thrown around is ~70%, I am feeling pretty good about the HVAC portion knowing that, had I had all my reference materials at home, I probably would have gotten closer to 75% in under 6 hours with still 3 months to go until the test. However, I really don't know how these questions compare to the real test.

Also, for T&amp;F and MD for the morning my approach has been the MERM example and practice problems plus the breadth portions of their associated 6MS books. I am putting most of my focus on HVAC but I have at least gone through all the MERM chapters and done the problems, even if the results were a little rough for the MD questions since that is not my strong suit.

Do you think my approach will adequately prepare me? (in general terms...everyone is different of course).

Thanks.


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## thwlruss (Aug 15, 2011)

jamiecta said:


> For those of you who have recently taken this exam, how did it compare to the NCEES practice exam as well as the 6MS HVAC. I am taking the exam for my first time this October. Last weekend I did my first run through of 6MS HVAC breadth and depth and completed all 85 problems in 5 hours and scored a 69%. I didn't have any of my ASHRAE material with me so there were a handful of easy problems I missed simply from not having them with me (I left them at work by accident).
> Knowing that the rough cut score I see thrown around is ~70%, I am feeling pretty good about the HVAC portion knowing that, had I had all my reference materials at home, I probably would have gotten closer to 75% in under 6 hours with still 3 months to go until the test. However, I really don't know how these questions compare to the real test.
> 
> Also, for T&amp;F and MD for the morning my approach has been the MERM example and practice problems plus the breadth portions of their associated 6MS books. I am putting most of my focus on HVAC but I have at least gone through all the MERM chapters and done the problems, even if the results were a little rough for the MD questions since that is not my strong suit.
> ...


damn that sounds good. I've been studying for months and just spent last week limping through the HVAC 6MS. Im going to pivot to T/F 6MS this week.


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## jamiecta (Aug 15, 2011)

thwlruss said:


> jamiecta said:
> 
> 
> > For those of you who have recently taken this exam, how did it compare to the NCEES practice exam as well as the 6MS HVAC. I am taking the exam for my first time this October. Last weekend I did my first run through of 6MS HVAC breadth and depth and completed all 85 problems in 5 hours and scored a 69%. I didn't have any of my ASHRAE material with me so there were a handful of easy problems I missed simply from not having them with me (I left them at work by accident).
> ...


What do you do for a living? I do a lot of HVAC calculations on a daily basis and pull out the psych chart almost weekly so that probably has helped me as a start. I wouldn't worry too much, you have plenty of time. Also, I have been studying for a couple months too, so don't think that my first time through this 6MS was the first time I have looked at this stuff. Far from it! I'm hoping the 6MS are fairly representative of the real exam though. We'll see...my first pass through the NCEES exam is in 4 weeks so I guess I will get my first "real" gauge from that.


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## thwlruss (Aug 16, 2011)

What do I do? Good question. Project Management and facility design at the moment. My background is piping design and stress analysis.

I plan to do the T/F depth module in October. I’ve been working through HVAC 6MS so I have a good handle on those problems. I worked on T/F 6MS yesterday and felt pretty good. I’m going to keep working on T/F for two weeks then do a practice exam.


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## Clydeman (Aug 16, 2011)

thwlruss said:


> What do I do? Good question. Project Management and facility design at the moment. My background is piping design and stress analysis.
> I plan to do the T/F depth module in October. I’ve been working through HVAC 6MS so I have a good handle on those problems. I worked on T/F 6MS yesterday and felt pretty good. I’m going to keep working on T/F for two weeks then do a practice exam.


If you are going to take TF depth, don't go too deep into HVAC. The HVAC problems you will see on the morning portion will be really easy, often times nothing more than reading a single value off a psych chart.

The 6MS HVAC is the best of the 6MS in my opinion, but keep in mind you will not see anything even close to as difficult as what is in the 6MS HVAC depth portion.

Also try to track down both practice exams. There was is one from 2001 and 2008 (the 2010 test is the same as 2008 except they broke it into three books , by depth, rather than selling it all as one).

I used the inter library system at a local university to check out the 2001 test.

The key is to practice with problems representative of what is on the exam.


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## thwlruss (Aug 16, 2011)

Clydeman said:


> thwlruss said:
> 
> 
> > What do I do? Good question. Project Management and facility design at the moment. My background is piping design and stress analysis.
> ...


Thanks for the advise. I was wondering how deep I needed to go. I completed the morning section and about 15 problems in the afternoon section of the HVAC 6MS workbook. Now I will lay off HVAC and do thermo fluids. My plan is to take a practice exam in two weeks so I know where I stand.


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## jamiecta (Aug 18, 2011)

how are the machine design and materials questions on the morning portion of the exam?

Thermo, Fluids, and HVAC are my strong points and I have always been pretty weak on the machine and materials side of engineering. If it is a simple cookbook truss problem, or stress + elongation, mohr's circle, very basic "find the moment" or "find the reactions" problem etc. I am fine. Beyond that I definitely start stumbling. I wasn't great at that in school and haven't touched it since.

Luckily I should only have to touch on a handful of these types of problems, but I'm just wondering what some good tools are. I've done the morning portion of the 6MS MD (won't do the afternoon probably), I've done the MERM practice problems, and I will do the NCEES practice exam. How are the PPI MD problems?


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## Playful Engineer (Aug 19, 2011)

I took the April 2011 HVAC and passed the first try. I had the 6MS for all three sections, the HVAC 6MS is the best of the three in my opinion, it gives you a good practice before the exam. However, the most real thing to the actual exam is the NCEES practice exam, this is in terms of difficulty and what the actual problems may look like.

After going through all three 6MS and the MERM, I thought the NCEES HVAC practice exam was a joke, keep in my I am real good with psyc charts, it really helps to know it well.

The exam itself in April, in my opinion was a joke, I am able to say that due to extensive preparation, you do second guess yourself afterwards wondering if you make stupid mistakes but fortunately I passed.

My tips if you are taking the HVAC depth, work the 6MS for HVAC and also the NCESS practice exam atleast 2 times, trust me, it builds speed and will save you alot of time on the exam.


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## jamiecta (Aug 19, 2011)

Playful Engineer said:


> I took the April 2011 HVAC and passed the first try. I had the 6MS for all three sections, the HVAC 6MS is the best of the three in my opinion, it gives you a good practice before the exam. However, the most real thing to the actual exam is the NCEES practice exam, this is in terms of difficulty and what the actual problems may look like.
> After going through all three 6MS and the MERM, I thought the NCEES HVAC practice exam was a joke, keep in my I am real good with psyc charts, it really helps to know it well.
> 
> The exam itself in April, in my opinion was a joke, I am able to say that due to extensive preparation, you do second guess yourself afterwards wondering if you make stupid mistakes but fortunately I passed.
> ...


Thanks a lot for the reply. I have done the HVAC 6MS solutions once and I plan to do it at least 2 more times through before the exam (Once next month in September and then again mid-October). The first time I did it untimed just as a review, but the next two times I will do it as a timed 8-hour test. I am also doing the NCEES practice exam for the first time in 3 weeks and I also plan to do it another time or two before the exam. Each time I take this I will take it as a timed 8-hour test. Seems like I am on the right track.

I have gone through the MERM and done almost all of the practice problems from Chapters 14-59 and a handful of basic economics as well.

Also, to anyone else out there studying, I found that ASHRAE actually puts out a college textbook called "Principles of HVAC." It has problems at the end of each chapter and there is a separate solution manual for it. My work library had a copy of each and I have done some of those problems as well. Always nice to get some extra sample problems...

A little over 2 months to go and I am getting nervous (not due to lack of preparation...just the daunting task in general). The practice exam can't get here fast enough. I left myself about 7 weeks after the practice exam to work hard on the areas I felt weak in and hopefully that will be enough.


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## jamiecta (Aug 26, 2011)

To follow up, I took the 6MS HVAC today in a timed setting. I schedule the first 45 questions from 8am to 12pm and the remaining 40 questions from 1pm to 5pm. Followed the same rules as the real exam with food and my references etc.

I finished the morning 30 mins early and the afternoon 1.5 hours early and scored a 93%. Now, I did already go through the 6MS HVAC a month ago. It was untimed then, but I still had seen the questions and solutions once before coming in to today so it is hard to really get too happy with the score. But overall I am extremely happy with that.

I am sitting to do the same thing two Fridays from now with the official NCEES Sample/Practice Exam (HVAC Depth) so that will be a good test. I flipped through the book when I received it but I have not attempted to solve any problems in there and have not looked at any solutions so it should be a good barometer for where I stand with two months to go...

In addition to that, I also ordered the other 2 NCEES Sample tests today. I know the morning for all of them is the exact same, but I figure it can't hurt to work more T/F and MD problems from the same people who make the real exam - even if these questions will be harder since they are depth questions and I will only see T/F and MD in breadth.

I debated doing the Exam Cafe problems instead of the NCEES depths from T/F and MD, but at the end of the day, I decided that seeing more problems from the people who actually make the exam will probably be more beneficial.


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## jamiecta (Sep 6, 2011)

What kind of scores were people seeing the first time you took the NCEES practice test? I'm taking mine this weekend and shooting for a 75% with 7 weeks to go but I guess I won't get too down on myself if I am lower considering I still have more time to practice.

Also, is the general consensus that the cut score is ~56/80? (iow 70%)


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## andreyshka (Dec 18, 2012)

I will take the HVAC Depth. What books should i buy to study? Which books are vital to bring to the exam?


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## GA PE (Dec 19, 2012)

andreyshka said:


> I will take the HVAC Depth. What books should i buy to study? Which books are vital to bring to the exam?


MERM 12TH edition, MERM Quick reference guide, and make your own 3 ring binder with formulas, charts, etc, I got better copies of the Mollier chart, area charts, phsycometric charts, etc. is all I used...


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