# SI Units...



## JoeysVee (Oct 13, 2009)

I went back and counted the # of problems with SI units in the morning section of the 2008 NCEES sample exam and I only count 2. So is that representative of the real thing....about 2 questions in the morning on the PE exam in ME???? I'm taking the HVAC afternoon so I will not have to deal with them in the afternoon either. So only about 2 problems all day deal with SI if you take the HVAC afternoon? That sounds low...think I shouldn't even really study those.

The 2 on the 2008 sample were real easy too and I got them both correct, so I'm thinking about not even really studying SI units and just keep pounding through HVAC afternoon type problems here with 10 days to go...any thoughts?


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## Agg97 (Oct 13, 2009)

JoeysVee said:


> I went back and counted the # of problems with SI units in the morning section of the 2008 NCEES sample exam and I only count 2. So is that representative of the real thing....about 2 questions in the morning on the PE exam in ME???? I'm taking the HVAC afternoon so I will not have to deal with them in the afternoon either. So only about 2 problems all day deal with SI if you take the HVAC afternoon? That sounds low...think I shouldn't even really study those.
> The 2 on the 2008 sample were real easy too and I got them both correct, so I'm thinking about not even really studying SI units and just keep pounding through HVAC afternoon type problems here with 10 days to go...any thoughts?


I don't remember how many problems were in SI units, but it wasn't many. Well under 5. I didn't study SI units at all. I figured if I got stuck, I could convert all the givens into I-P and solve the problem that way, then convert the answer back. I don't think I had to go through that trouble on the actual exam, though.


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## Sschell (Oct 13, 2009)

I dont recall there being any problems in SI units when I took the test.

We are engineers, not scientists, and we are applying for licensure in the US. I think SI units are (or should be) irrelevant to this exam.


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## MechGuy (Oct 13, 2009)

sschell_PE said:


> I dont recall there being any problems in SI units when I took the test.
> We are engineers, not scientists, and we are applying for licensure in the US. I think SI units are (or should be) irrelevant to this exam.



NCEES did change the ME exam in 2008 to include problems with SI units. That said, I think you only need to be aware of this and not worry about necessarily study or do alot of problems in SI.

Converting units is pretty simple, whether you are used to English units or SI units. you should be able to convert whatever you need using the MERM. I wouldn't put too much thought into this...


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## JoeysVee (Oct 14, 2009)

Thanks guys!


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## buick455 (Oct 14, 2009)

There are a number of them but I can not remember the percentage. I have to deal with it in the PM as well (MD). I know I missed one in the morning due to units so it can be an issue and it can slow you down.


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## chaocl (Oct 15, 2009)

SI unit is easy to calculate...I hope they can have more SI unit.


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## Firefly (Feb 15, 2010)

How many problems did y'all see in the October 2009 exam with SI?


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## Sschell (Feb 15, 2010)

^I don't think it is appropriate to discuss the actual exam in this detail.

Perhaps someone could say if the NCEES practice test was "representative of the real thing"... this might be a safer question (we don't want to get in trouble with NCEES here!)


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## JoeysVee (Feb 16, 2010)

The number of problems in SI on the sample exam is representative of the real exam.


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## MechGuy (Feb 16, 2010)

And I 'll keep on preaching this: Don't worry about how many SI problems there are! Problems with SI units are no harder than problems in English units. Just have a conversion chart handy and you'll be fine.


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## carlos2 (Feb 16, 2010)

The percentage of problems with SI units is likely to increase over time. It is important to be able to work problems in both USCS and SI units for the morning and the afternoon session, except for HVAC. MERM provides formulas for both. The time to complete a problem should not be affected by whether the problem is in SI or USCS units. In anticipation of this trend, the Mechanical PE Exams that I wrote contain almost 20% SI units.

Carlos Chapek

[email protected]

www.testprepessentials


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## Ronin (Sep 13, 2010)

The HVAC afternoon section is all in U.S. units


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