Hi all, this will be my 4th (and final time allowed) taking the PE exam. I want to wish everyone the best of luck tomorrow!
I feel like I am the most prepared I have ever been for it, which is all I can really do. My particular exam doesn't have much preparation material available (only one study guide exists and it only has 40 problems in it) so it is difficult to know what exactly will be thrown at you on exam day-- but I hope it isn't very obscure questions like last time.
First Try: The first time I took it I wasn't prepared as everyone told me it was extremely easy (it is not!!), people said "oh I studied for maybe 4 hours and passed LOL" study time was only 20 hours.
Second Try: The second time I put in 100+ hours, but my information was not organized well-- additionally they added a whole new topic (15% of exam questions) without including it in the exam guide on NCEES site.
Third Try: The third time I put in 200+ hours-- built my own excellent study guide, and limited the books I brought to reduce time flipping through material not needed (big mistake), I remember sitting there thinking-- oh darn I know I could solve this one-- but the book I need is at home. I still felt like I was close to passing, but I failed by one - three questions (I'm guessing based on estimated cut score).
Fourth Try (Now): This time I have put in 200+ hours of study again. I have an even better hand written equation booklet. I have an official equation booklet (released last year). I have another equation book designed towards the PE exam for this subject (released a few months ago). I will be bringing 32+ books (trust me, I need them all for this exam as lots of the questions are from random books). I have organized a guide that points me towards where an example problem is for each topic. This is probably the best prepared I will ever be, so if I fail this time at least I know I gave it my all in the end.
Advice for exam day (if you feel like taking advice from someone who failed this many times! haha)
1. Bring a watch (forgot it my first time!!), bring a ruler, two calculators
2. Mark all the questions according to difficulty 1st thing!! Work it easy to hard.
3. Get to exam site early-- very early-- there is often a large line for parking at some of these places
4. Relax, it is just an exam and doesn't mean you are a bad engineer if you don't do well. Plenty of people work in industry without passing an exam covering obscure questions that many people don't ever see in a lifetime of work at their job.
Best of luck!
