Success Strategy

For those that passed, to what do you attribute your success??

- I would say 3 major things: PRAYER, practice exams (get a good practice test, block out an 8-hour day and simulate the real test.), and strategic approach to TAKING the test.

a. I read all the way through the test and marked the "category" of question. i.e. XFMR, trans. line, sync. motor, etc. While

reading through the first pass, I answered the plug-and-chug questions that were quick and just plugging numbers.

b. Then I did all the NEC questions on the second pass.

c. Third pass was the problems I felt really confident about thereby building my confidence and momentum. All the while I am

keeping a mental note of my "correctness factor". I tried to stay focused, even through the CRAZY questions not letting

anything take me away from my strategy. And I prayed constantly throughout.

Sharon said:

For those that passed, to what do you attribute your success??
- I would say 3 major things: PRAYER, practice exams (get a good practice test, block out an 8-hour day and simulate the real test.), and strategic approach to TAKING the test.

a. I read all the way through the test and marked the "category" of question. i.e. XFMR, trans. line, sync. motor, etc. While

reading through the first pass, I answered the plug-and-chug questions that were quick and just plugging numbers.

b. Then I did all the NEC questions on the second pass.

c. Third pass was the problems I felt really confident about thereby building my confidence and momentum. All the while I am

keeping a mental note of my "correctness factor". I tried to stay focused, even through the CRAZY questions not letting

anything take me away from my strategy. And I prayed constantly throughout.

Click to expand...

I guess we all did a little bit of that

I passed.

What I did was read all the chapters from PPI for my discipline.

Then I did all the practice problems also from PPI.

Then I did the all the the practice exam problems from both NCEES and PPI.

Then I did all the practice exam problems again.

Then I went to the areas I had problems with and did them again.

I also tabbed the practice exam problems and books so I could find

them easily.

Between application fees, test fees, and study materials I was put out

nearly a G. So there is no such thing as over prepared.

One thing I did that saved a ton of time was to tab the index of the CERM, (CE Reference Manual). That really helped. Also, practice taking tests in actual test conditions. Don't look at answers after every question and try to get through questions in 6 minutes or less.

-Didn't stress when studying (worrying about getting in 300+ hours of problem solving)

-Learned how to quickly determine what the questions are asking for and if you can work the problem

-Learned how to skip questions

-Don't rush when doing calculations (you would be suprised at how many times you select the wrong answer by mistake)

and of course tons of prayer.

The best advice I heard was, "know what you know, and more importantly know what you DON'T know". It's along test with lots of questions. You won't know the answer to everything, answer what you know then come back and answer the other questions.

1) Know your depth inside out.

2) Do all the Sample exams/Practice exams/6MS

3) Know how to navigate through the Lindberg Reference Manual in the shortest amount of time as possible. Efficiency is key!

First, I took a prep course that was decent. I took the mechanical system portion of the exam and the course was heavier in thermo and HVAC than I needed, but it provided a wealth of reference material for me to choose from to prepare and I made sure I never missed one class, so I was at least thinking about my prep 3 hours a week (you know how life is and sometimes the best intentions turn into no prep some weeks). (I think it was 75 hours total)

I did some prep on my own before I started taking practice exams. I wanted to do more, but truthfully, it was only 40-50 hours in areas that I have not considered since school. I woulld have liked to have done at least 2-3 x that amount, but work took up the time I had for that.

Then what I though was most helpful by necessity, I zeroed in on the last week. On the Saturday before the exam, I took all of my (anticipated) reference material and I gave myself exactly 4 hours to do the morning exam, and 4 hours to do the afternoon exam. I have younger children, so I DID NOT do this at home. I guessed at nothing and only answered questions I knew how to or could figure out how to solve in the time I gave myself. I did not look at a single answer until after this session was over. Then I graded it, tweaked my reference material, and started my final prep.

After that, I hit things real hard (working full time so just grabbing every minute I could) until Wednesday (cause I knew I would fail if I did not). Wednesday and Thursday were spent reviewing and organizing my reference materials. I prayed alot, realizing I needed favor, and the ability to execute.

I only used a few references. Lindeburg, Marks' Standard Handbook for ME, the Machinist Handbook, Mechanics of Materials (Beer and Johnston) come to mind right now.

I hope this helps and good luck to all who are gearing up from April. Study early, because life happens at the worse times sometime.

Glad to be on the other side of this.

arty-smiley-048:

And don't forget to pray for favor! I know I needed it!

Sharon said:

For those that passed, to what do you attribute your success??
- I would say 3 major things: PRAYER, practice exams (get a good practice test, block out an 8-hour day and simulate the real test.), and strategic approach to TAKING the test.

a. I read all the way through the test and marked the "category" of question. i.e. XFMR, trans. line, sync. motor, etc. While

reading through the first pass, I answered the plug-and-chug questions that were quick and just plugging numbers.

b. Then I did all the NEC questions on the second pass.

c. Third pass was the problems I felt really confident about thereby building my confidence and momentum. All the while I am

keeping a mental note of my "correctness factor". I tried to stay focused, even through the CRAZY questions not letting

anything take me away from my strategy. And I prayed constantly throughout.

Click to expand...

Great advise Sharon!!

I agree that tabbing your Engineering Reference Manual was essential. Another thing that helped me was to print out and tab the index of the MERM as well. That way you don't have to mess with the index in the 2 lb book. Practice problems and know your reference material as well.

I passed the PE (Power) with a 93.

-I took the practice test to help me figure out what areas I was weakest in.

-I took the Testmasters Prep course.

-Then I took the practice test again to figure out where I still needed some work.

-I studied individual subject areas in depth, especially the areas I was weak in.

-Then I took the practice test again to make sure that I was comfortable with all of the subjects.

I probably studied 60-80 hours on my own outside of Testmasters (~150 hours total). I didn't think I did nearly as well as my score indicated. I am a good test taker in general so that probably helped. And yes, I prayed as well.

jcovey713 said:

I agree that tabbing your Engineering Reference Manual was essential. Another thing that helped me was to print out and tab the index of the MERM as well. That way you don't have to mess with the index in the 2 lb book. Practice problems and know your reference material as well.

Click to expand...

Printing and tabbing the index of the MERM is a great idea - wish I would have thougth of it! I had every major section of the MERM tabbed, in addition to each section of the index, and the conversion tables I knew I'd be using. I also tabbed the morning and afternoon practice problems in the NCEES practice problems book.

I worked practice problems and studied mostly out of the MERM, since I knew I'd primarily be using it during the exam. I took about 12 references with me. Besides the MERM (which I used for probably 95% of the exam) I used my Thermodynamics (Cengel, Boles), Machine Design ("Mechanical Engineering Design," Shigley, et al.), and Mechanics of Materials (Gere) texts. I looked for something for just a minute or so in my Physics text (Serway, Beichner) but didn't have any luck and went back to the MERM. I also took my vibrations, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, statics and dynamics texts, in addition to the Machinery's Handbook (didn't touch) and Roark's (didn't touch). I also bound my study guide from the FE review course I took while in college and took it. I think I refered to it once or twice during the PE. Obviously I had more books than I needed, but they fit in a back pack and a book bag, so it wasn't a big deal.

I studied maybe 25 hours total, but really wish I had studied more, especially for the HVAC, economics, and some of the thermo questions. I knew going in that these three areas were my weak spots. I was glad to see only one economics question (maybe two... can't remember. In fact, it blows me away to hear people say they know the number of questions they got right, wrong or guessed on. I was way too caught up in working problems to keep track). The good news is that I passed. I've never had test anxiety, and that served me well on October 29th. Also, I recieved great study and test taking strategy advice from a co-worker.

During the morning portion of the exam, I would skip a problem if I knew I didn't know how to do it, or felt I could do it but would likely take longer than six minutes. I didn't read through the entire exam before answering - my philosophy is why read each question twice? If I could do it, I did it then. If not, I came back to it. I finished the morning portion with enough time to go back, work difficult problems, and check some work - just as my co-worker said would happen. In the afternoon, I skipped fewer problems, but not because I knew how to do them. I just decided to do all but the ones I didn't know how to, even if it took longer than six minutes. I finished with enough time to work a few I skipped and make reasonable guesses on the 3 or 4 remaining.

I had a comfortable feeling going in to the exam, but part of it might have been trying not to be freaked out by the fact that I had only studied about 25 hours. Again, I've never had test anxiety. I felt good about the morning half of the test, but after the afternoon half, I felt like I had no idea if I passed or failed. I knew I hadn't just had my *** handed to me, but I was worried that stupid mistakes and unlucky guesses would spell doom. Needless to say, I was wobbly for a while when I found out I passed.

Hope this helps, because I know the advice I received definitely helped me. I attribute passing the exam with 25 hours of studying to the great advice I received and my lack of test anxiety, not because I'm better than anyone else. I'm thinking luck was a big part of it, too. I learned the MERM well, had it tabbed, and knew pretty much where to find most things in the MERM. The practice problems I worked got me back into the "homework" type of problmes and avoiding all the silly little mistakes, like fouling up units.

BeckfromPA said:

Sharon said:

For those that passed, to what do you attribute your success??
- I would say 3 major things: PRAYER, practice exams (get a good practice test, block out an 8-hour day and simulate the real test.), and strategic approach to TAKING the test.

a. I read all the way through the test and marked the "category" of question. i.e. XFMR, trans. line, sync. motor, etc. While

reading through the first pass, I answered the plug-and-chug questions that were quick and just plugging numbers.

b. Then I did all the NEC questions on the second pass.

c. Third pass was the problems I felt really confident about thereby building my confidence and momentum. All the while I am

keeping a mental note of my "correctness factor". I tried to stay focused, even through the CRAZY questions not letting

anything take me away from my strategy. And I prayed constantly throughout.

Click to expand...

Great advise Sharon!!

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Thanks. Yours was good as well. I just want to provide some help to those facing the challenge.

Wes said:

I passed the PE (Power) with a 93.
-I took the Testmasters Prep course.

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Hey Wes, where'd you sit in the Testmasters course (in Houston)? I was in the back row (one of the talkative gray haired guys in the back corner, lol).

I studied a lot. I read a lot of extra material. I downloaded most of the Internet (lol). I went through the practice exam at least 7 times. I made a great formula sheet workbook and knew where everything was in it. I studied too much. When I walked in to the exam, my brain was set on "kill". Things clicked for me. I didn't use much of my reference material. Mostly my formula sheet workbook (for per unit stuff, and a few other things), and then the Testmasters stuff (especially for economics etc).

I thought (for the Power exam, anyway), the questions were not too deep at all. Only one or two problems required more than a couple lines of calculations. This issue is knowing which formula to use and running with it. I had all the formulas handy and ready to go.

cableguy said:

Wes said:

I passed the PE (Power) with a 93.
-I took the Testmasters Prep course.

Click to expand...

Hey Wes, where'd you sit in the Testmasters course (in Houston)? I was in the back row (one of the talkative gray haired guys in the back corner, lol).

Click to expand...

In the original room I sat on the right side about mid-way up. I have a few gray hairs myself but still mostly brown You probably wouldn't remember me because I didn't say a word during the course.

Know your depth, inside and out. I passed 2nd time and I must say that there are some questions in the morning that you won't get, accept it, study accordingly. Focus and make sure you get right the ones you do know.

Make up for the loss in the morning with the depth questions in the afternoon.

I did not know about 2 problems in the depth portion, but probably didn't know about 18 in the morning. Taking hte average and some guessed problems being right, I passed. Biggest relief ever.

I took transportation, and i made sure to focus on water and transportation the most. Just by mastering those two sections, you can get 56 correct. 40+8+8. Afterwards I studied the simple CPMs, Economics, bending moment Diagrams, Soil Classification problems, borrow pit- I probably got additional 8 correct from these sections, and overall passing score.

you can do IT!!!!

You guys are crazy. You are overthinking it.

For the Power PE, I got the NCEES practice exam, worked out each problem in the book, and one night glanced through the Camara book for 2 hours one night looking for stuff that I didn't come across in the practice test.

I brought to the exam the practice test, my worked out long solutions, the Camara reference book, and the NEC. I got a 77.

The only flaw is lack of studying economics. Do what I did above, spend a night on extra economics, and you should be fine.

I only had about a month to study for the Civil PE. I was most comfortable with structural, but didn't have access to alot of the codes that NCEES specifies are needed for the structural depth, so I decided to go with geotech for the depth portion. Since I am very comfortable with structures, I ddin't study any structures figuring I'd be able to get most of the AM structure questions without studying. I spent about 18 hours doing all the geotech problems I could get my hands on and tabbing the CERM and practice tests for the different types of geotech problems. I figured transportation was the next easiest to learn since it was mostly geometry or looking things up in tables. So i spend about 2 hours doing transportation practice problems and tabbing the CERM. I figured knowing about 60-70% (geotech, structural, transportation, and some of construction) of the morning section and doing really well on the afternoon section would be enough to pass. I found the morning section to be much easier than I had anticipated and probably got closer to 85% of the questiosn correct. The afternoon geotech was more difficult than I had anticipated, but I still managed to pass. Bottom line, tab your references and work a ton of practice problems in your chosen depth.

Honestly, doing the practice problems only allowed me to become familiar with a few methods. The biggest thing it helped me with was being able to find everything I needed quickly. Thinking back on the test, there were only a handful of questions in both morning and afternoon that were similar to or the same as things I had worked out in my practice problems. Everything else was stuff I either knew or knew where to find in the book just from reading through it.