Advice/How I passed/My Experience

[JoeysVee]

Advice/How I passed/My Experience :2cents:

I’ll update this thread as I try to recall the things I did to pass months ago.

I took the HVAC afternoon in October 2009 and passed. ASSED2:

I took the exam and failed in 2006 even though I spent about 400 hours studying for the thing. It was a hard thing to deal with as I had never really failed anything and because I had studied so much. It took me 3 years to pick myself back up and study for it again in June 2009. I took the PE twice and my study approach was way different each time. The first time, I went through a rigorous 5 month period of studying Mechanical Engineering, and I thought I was prepared. Then I took the exam and was shocked. I couldn't even tell if a problem was a fluids problem or a thermo problem. I couldn't even tell what the question was asking for so I only completed about 30 in the morning and about 15 in the afternoon. I was devastated! I felt almost like I had studied the wrong thing and now I know I did. I studied Mechanical Engineering instead of what was going to be on the exam.

The second time, I wasn't just determined....I was on a mission! I studied smart…only the things on the exam and the things that would give me the best shot of passing. I’m going to be completely honest with you here. All PE study courses are overrated (in my opinion). I could teach a PE study course better than most professors even though they know so much more about Mechanical Engineering than I ever will but that is not the goal….the goal is to pass the exam. Forget going to a refresher course…in my opinion you could spend time better just studying at your house. I know some will disagree with me on this and that’s fine as these are just my opinions.

I would spend one month going through the MERM. This will be a rigorous month but you’ll need to read each chapter page by page and work all the problems except the 1 hour problems in chapters 14-58 & 69 and read only (do not work problems) in chapters 61, 62, 63, 64, and 67. Then one month after you go through the MERM start working problems for about 3 or 4 months (don’t stop until the exam). The first time I studied for the exam I studied way to deep in each area thus not giving myself enough time for working problems. I know working problems is not the most fun way to study but I promise you, it’s the best way to spend your time. One month before the exam take the sample exam on a Saturday and try to mimic exam conditions. Go to a quiet room in your house and start at 8AM then take a 1 hour lunch break and finish the exam 4 hours later. Review what you did wrong and rework all of them...that's right, the entire book cover to cover! Then concentrate on thing s you got wrong and your depth area for the next month.

After going through the MERM you’ll be working problems until the exam date. Tab the MERM and other resources accordingly (ie. ASHRAE books). Also, prepare a binder with the MERM index and other pages of formulas or anything helpful you’ll acquire or make along the way. While working problems (after you have finished the problems in the MERM) make sure you work through all 3 six minute solutions books and after you take the sample exam work all the problems again including the other afternoon problems you didn’t take when you sat down for the sample exam the first time. As I said before I skipped the long 1 hour MERM problems, instead I spent that time on other valuable problems. Consider working through the example problems in Crane Technical Paper (these are very good problems to work), the example problems in ASHRAE if you are taking HVAC in subjects like heating and cooling loads and enthalpy wheels, etc. All in all I worked about 650 problems in my preparation (Sample exam 160, MERM guessing 400, Crane 10, ASHRAE 20, ~60 other problems I came across.

I brought the following to the exam:

*MERM

MERM Solutions

*Book of unit conversions

*Crane

*ASHRAE Books

*Steam tables

Machinery’s Handbook

*Engineering dictionary

2009 Sample exam

*A binder full of MERM and ASHRAE indexes and some other things I picked up along the way.

* These are the only books I used

If I think of more things I took to the exam, I’ll edit this post.

That is a general plan I would follow if I were retaking the exam. Problems, problems, and more problems! I hope this helps! This thread wasn't started so people could disagree with my approach. If you want to post your opinions that are in disagreement please start your own thread with how you think people should study.

Please don’t hesitate to ask me questions! :thumbs:

Good luck! :Banane35:

 

[benbo]

100% agree! Problems, problems, problems.

My discipline is electrical, but from what I have heard from mechanicals it also applies. It's all about problems. That's the only way to get comfortable enough to ensure passing. Sure, you may be able to luck by, or you may already know enough or remember enough to pass without working problems, but for these two disciplines I also believe working problems is critical to bringing up speed and confidence. It is painful, but it works.

Other disciplines are more "reference" and "tabbing" intensive. Civil has a lot of codes, and things you can look up. But for electrical I scarcely used my references - although I brought a lot and probably got a few points on obscure questions from them.

And I also agree that you don't need to work through super long problems if you don't feel it is beneficial. The PE problems are meant to be solved in 6 minutes, and most take much less than that. If it is taking you an hour to do something you are either doing it wrong, or it is not the type of problem you should be using to study.

 

[GoPack]

You definitely studied hard and it payed off... congrats!

If I could add one thing it would be:

Don't beat yourself up if you find that you aren't getting every single problem correct. When I started working problems I got more problems wrong than I did right.... That's not a bad thing though, because you want to get those mistakes out of the way now instead of on test day.

And don't forget to take a break every now and then for a cold beer. Studying takes it out of you....

Good Luck

 

[JoeysVee]

After I spent a month going through the MERM I had zero self confidence because I only got about 25% of them correct. Then I started working the other problems and over time I got to the point of getting about 90% of them correct. I NEVER moved on to the next problem unless I completely understood how to work the problem I just finished, tabbed the info that I couldn’t find while working the problem, and updating my binder with a formula I need the next time I may encounter a related question.

When I sat for the exam I felt confident in that I knew how to go about working every single problem…doesn’t mean I got them all right, far from it, but it does mean I knew how to approach them all. You’ll get there but first you’ll need to work hundreds of problems.

 

[JoeysVee]

The first month I spent about 20 hours per weekend and 4 hours per night going through the MERM. In the few months after that I would take some nights on the weekend off but not many. I had too many problems to work to take a lot of time off but it is important to take some time off.

 

[Mutha PE PS]

100% agree! Problems, problems, problems.
My discipline is electrical, but from what I have heard from mechanicals it also applies. It's all about problems. That's the only way to get comfortable enough to ensure passing. Sure, you may be able to luck by, or you may already know enough or remember enough to pass without working problems, but for these two disciplines I also believe working problems is critical to bringing up speed and confidence. It is painful, but it works.

Other disciplines are more "reference" and "tabbing" intensive. Civil has a lot of codes, and things you can look up. But for electrical I scarcely used my references - although I brought a lot and probably got a few points on obscure questions from them.

And I also agree that you don't need to work through super long problems if you don't feel it is beneficial. The PE problems are meant to be solved in 6 minutes, and most take much less than that. If it is taking you an hour to do something you are either doing it wrong, or it is not the type of problem you should be using to study.

I would definitely agree to work as many problems as you can. I spent 4-5 hours almost every day working problems from any source i could get my hands on and trying to understand the concepts more so than just getting the right answer. I would disagree on a review course however. Some of the instructors were not the best, but i also felt i benefited from interaction with other takers who in the class.

 

[Firefly]

Great Stuff. Keep it coming!

 

[MechGuy]

JoeysVee -- " I couldn't have said it better myself! " :thumbs:

 

[goodal]

My experience was almost identical except i went ahead and did the 1 hr problems. I knew there would be nothing close to them on the exam, but after taking the time to understand the problem and find the solution(s), I felt much more prepared.

Even after passing, I dont feel like im as smart as a PE "should" be but at least Ive got a liscense now to prove i was that smart once.

 

[Kephart P.E.]

I pretty much agree, but I took a review course from a local university and it really did help me. Of course they were not teaching theory either and there were lots of example problems.

All in all working the NCEES Sample Exam twice and spending 40+ hours organizing my notes and the MERM were why I passed the first time.

 

[Shaggy]

Here are some links to good old threads with similar info.

http://engineerboards.com/index.php?showtopic=9034&hl=

http://engineerboards.com/index.php?showtopic=2996&hl=

 

[jm_arduino]

Working problems is the key to building speed and avoiding common mistakes...

I worked the NCEES sample exam timed and the Lindeburg untimed plus all of the 6 min Solutions Problems for Fluids / HVAC, and morning only for the machine design. I skipped most of the 1 hour problems in the MERM except for Fluids/Thermo and HVAC. I filled up 3 notebooks worth over 4 months! BTW, I took the HVAC depth but I wanted to be prepared for Fluids / Thermo as well due to the overlap.

I will never forget how I felt getting the results online and passing!

For new exam takers, do not forget to make notes in PEN in the MERM and use your exam calculator for both work and studying.

 

[Alex J]

Would any of you guys recommend just working through problems & skimming through the topics in the book?

Right now my current strategy is to Read for the next 10 weeks the major Topics ( Fluids, THermo, Heat Xfer, etc.) and then after reading & some highlighting, do the problems for that topic. But so far, I'm finding that reading the MERM is taking quite a bit of time, time that I could devote to working on problems.

Normally when I start out a study regimen, especially when there are solutions, I try to solve it on my own. If I get stuck, I look at the solutions, writing down the solutions, then making notes to myself about what I missed. As time goes on, I get better and better at them.

So should I forget reading then doing problems? Or should I just do problems?? Thanks!

 

[JoeysVee]

Reread my first post...

"I would spend one month going through the MERM. This will be a rigorous month but you’ll need to read each chapter page by page and work all the problems except the 1 hour problems in chapters 14-58 & 69 and read only (do not work problems) in chapters 61, 62, 63, 64, and 67. Then one month after you go through the MERM start working problems for about 3 or 4 months (don’t stop until the exam)."

 

[Alex J]

Yea I saw about Doing the proble

ms... But what about the reading? Or based on the problems you catalogue the concepts from MERM?

 

[Shaggy]

Alex, you are in Irvine. I would recommend looking into the review class from PPI. The instructor is very experienced and it is an excellent review course.

 

[Bman]

Joey,

My hat's off to you. After having to put off the October exam, I've been back studying for the April exam and I just don't see how I am going to make it through the MERM in one month! I've been reading and working through the example problems and then doing the practice problems and I'm lucky to make it through a chapter a day. Maybe I am getting too in depth, but I don't want to move on until I really figure out each problem... I was hoping to make it through by end of Jan/ beginning of Feb. but I'm just hoping for the end of Feb. at this point which will give me about 1 1/2 months to go through the six minute solutions books and the sample exams I have. Starting to get a little worried.... Well, back to it!

 

[JoeysVee]

When I went through the MERM in a month, the weekends were instrumental. I would go through several chapters each weekend. Keep in mind some chapters are very short and only have a couple problems. Keep pushing through it then work tons of problems. Good Luck!