April 2014 - PM exam

[Golden Eagle PE]

I have not seen many Mechanicals comment on how the exam went for them. Just curious what everyone thought about it and which depth did you take?

I took the MD PM exam and it was tough. I barely finished on time. Some problems came out for me ok but others I struggled with since I could not get it to match any of their answers choices. I would like to think I got at least 50% correct but this was doing a quick scan near the end of the exam to check my answers. It might be enough to pass if I aced the morning portion (I sure felt good at lunchtime).

I calculated it over and over it my head what I think my "high" and "low" scores are. Somehow this makes me feel better. Especially if I can convince myself I got close to the cut score (cue cut score analysis thread).

Plus, since results don't come out for another 2 months, what else are we going to do except over analyze the exam?

 

[psp80]

I took the Mechanical Systems PM Depth Module. I found it to be easier than the morning session and the morning session was not bad either.

 

[Bosco PE]

Morning session was a breeze. I was laughing at how stressed out I was.

I took the Thermal & Fluids depth. I stopped laughing.

 

[Calum]

Did the HVAC Depth

I found it pretty rough going - some tricky questions in there.

 

[acethepemd]

I have not seen many Mechanicals comment on how the exam went for them. Just curious what everyone thought about it and which depth did you take?

I took the MD PM exam and it was tough. I barely finished on time. Some problems came out for me ok but others I struggled with since I could not get it to match any of their answers choices. I would like to think I got at least 50% correct but this was doing a quick scan near the end of the exam to check my answers. It might be enough to pass if I aced the morning portion (I sure felt good at lunchtime).

I calculated it over and over it my head what I think my "high" and "low" scores are. Somehow this makes me feel better. Especially if I can convince myself I got close to the cut score (cue cut score analysis thread).

Plus, since results don't come out for another 2 months, what else are we going to do except over analyze the exam?

I took Mechanical MD in the afternoon. Morning was a breeze, i solved all 40 problems with in 3 hours and checked all my answers. i had lot of free time, i think, i aced the morning, if not, got atleast 38.

Afternoon was little disappointing. I solved almost 36 and had 30 mins. left to check. i guessed 2 or 3 because i could not solve. i am thinking atleast 30 correct questions.

 

[I M A PE]

I was Mechanical Design PM too. I finished the AM with about 30 minutes to spare. Went through about half the questions, checking math. Found 2 dumb mistakes and corrected.

PM was way harder. First pass through I skipped probably 2/3 of the problems but eventually did find a method to solve them all. Don't know if it was the "right" method but I ened up feeling decently. I got them all answered with about 10 minutes to spare.

If I don't pass, I DEFINITELY need to study more for the PM.

 

[ChrisBR]

I took the mechanical systems and materials afternoon session.

I studied way too much for the diversity of AM subjects and not enough for the PM. I didn't have enough time for studying, so I took it for granted that I would remember certain topics from college classes from 8 years ago. The AM was pretty straight forward. I thought I'd be more crunched for time then I was and that caused me to panic at the beginning. I blame it on practicing problems that were unrealistically hard. Finished with 15 minutes to spare with all but 1-2 that I was confident in.

PM session was much harder since I over prepared for the morning. I had to leave a half hour early to pick my son up from daycare, but got a reasonable answer for all but 3-4 of them. More time would not really have helped. It would have just caused me to second guess myself.

Question for the esteemed crowd-

As part of my sanity checks, I looked at the 4 answers and looked for situations where one answer was different from another by a factor of 32. The logic being that a test writer trying to gauge comprehension of units and gravity would provide the right answer as well as the answer that was off by gc. I then assumed that the answer should be one of those 2 options.

Is that good logic? I never used it as the sole method for determining an answer, but it seemed to give me a warm fuzzy in a few cases.

 

[Golden Eagle PE]

I took the mechanical systems and materials afternoon session.

I studied way too much for the diversity of AM subjects and not enough for the PM. I didn't have enough time for studying, so I took it for granted that I would remember certain topics from college classes from 8 years ago. The AM was pretty straight forward. I thought I'd be more crunched for time then I was and that caused me to panic at the beginning. I blame it on practicing problems that were unrealistically hard. Finished with 15 minutes to spare with all but 1-2 that I was confident in.

PM session was much harder since I over prepared for the morning. I had to leave a half hour early to pick my son up from daycare, but got a reasonable answer for all but 3-4 of them. More time would not really have helped. It would have just caused me to second guess myself.

Question for the esteemed crowd-

As part of my sanity checks, I looked at the 4 answers and looked for situations where one answer was different from another by a factor of 32. The logic being that a test writer trying to gauge comprehension of units and gravity would provide the right answer as well as the answer that was off by gc. I then assumed that the answer should be one of those 2 options.

Is that good logic? I never used it as the sole method for determining an answer, but it seemed to give me a warm fuzzy in a few cases.

Unless there was another mistake entirely that you made on the question (like convert ft to in or something)

 

[Calum]

Question for the esteemed crowd-

As part of my sanity checks, I looked at the 4 answers and looked for situations where one answer was different from another by a factor of 32. The logic being that a test writer trying to gauge comprehension of units and gravity would provide the right answer as well as the answer that was off by gc. I then assumed that the answer should be one of those 2 options.

Is that good logic? I never used it as the sole method for determining an answer, but it seemed to give me a warm fuzzy in a few cases.

Haha, I did the same thing for a question (for initial guess, not sanity check)! Problem is, when I got home, i checked it and it was incorrect. It seems to me that They foresee people trying to outsmart Them, and put in a bogey answer. Having said that, it does seem a sensible way to sanity check once you've already worked out an answer.

 

[Golden Eagle PE]

I took the mechanical systems and materials afternoon session.

I studied way too much for the diversity of AM subjects and not enough for the PM. I didn't have enough time for studying, so I took it for granted that I would remember certain topics from college classes from 8 years ago. The AM was pretty straight forward. I thought I'd be more crunched for time then I was and that caused me to panic at the beginning. I blame it on practicing problems that were unrealistically hard. Finished with 15 minutes to spare with all but 1-2 that I was confident in.

PM session was much harder since I over prepared for the morning. I had to leave a half hour early to pick my son up from daycare, but got a reasonable answer for all but 3-4 of them. More time would not really have helped. It would have just caused me to second guess myself.

Question for the esteemed crowd-

As part of my sanity checks, I looked at the 4 answers and looked for situations where one answer was different from another by a factor of 32. The logic being that a test writer trying to gauge comprehension of units and gravity would provide the right answer as well as the answer that was off by gc. I then assumed that the answer should be one of those 2 options.

Is that good logic? I never used it as the sole method for determining an answer, but it seemed to give me a warm fuzzy in a few cases.

Also, if that gc term was somehow inside of a square, then that would screw up your process as well. I know there were a few where I calculated it as close as I could and picked one of those answers.

 

[ChrisBR]

More importantly I guess- being religious about writing out the equations and units really helped every step of the step of the way. Whether it was false security or not, I was happy if I could look at the different answers and say "oh, I would have gotten this wrong answer if I forgot to convert to ft" and have it be supported by clearly shown work. In fact, I wish they would have left more space in between problems to be more organized and thorough with solutions.

However, I never counted on trying to outsmart the writers and their answer choices. If I used the wrong equation, no unit conversions would have helped.

 

[PGME]

I took the HVAC Depth.

Same story as many. Morning seemed to go great, until the afternoon.

Just not sure how anybody could have studied for some of those questions.

 

[SNAPE/SMOTT PE]

MD...as stated, morning went good. PM not good, but I'm really hopeful I got enough to pass.

 

[Bosco PE]

I'm surprised at how many people here took the Mechanical Systems depth. Nobody else who did Thermal & Fluids wants to comment? Seriously, I got my *** kicked in the afternoon and I would feel fantastic if someone could share my misery.

Hearing someone say they took MD depth and "solved almost 36 and still had 30 minutes to check" is making me **** a brick. That was NOT my experience with T&F depth.

 

[Golden Eagle PE]

MD...as stated, morning went good. PM not good, but I'm really hopeful I got enough to pass.

I like your new av!

 

[Golden Eagle PE]

I'm surprised at how many people here took the Mechanical Systems depth. Nobody else who did Thermal & Fluids wants to comment? Seriously, I got my *** kicked in the afternoon and I would feel fantastic if someone could share my misery.

Hearing someone say they took MD depth and "solved almost 36 and still had 30 minutes to check" is making me **** a brick. That was NOT my experience with T&F depth.

bosco, the guy that commented about the 36 problems and finishing early must have been a genius or just way smarter than me. I thought the MD PM exam was tough even though I made it through. Don't worry, most people probably suffered. Sounds like it was not exactly a breeze for Smott either.

 

[Golden Eagle PE]

To follow that, I think the PM depth is supposed to be tough. But I applaud anyone who can take it can get 90% correct. Good for them. I studied my butt off and I still do not feel super confident about the PM exam.

Maybe results will come out super early....

 

[Ramnares P.E.]

Any further input for the Thermal / Fluids depth would be greatly appreciated. For example, was NCEES / SMS good preparation? What would you have done differently to prepare? Any references you didn't take that you wish you had?

 

[DeltaT]

I took the T&F depth. After my first pass through all 40 questions, I was freaking out. I counted them up and only had about 20 answered. Once I calmed down and went through on the second pass, I gained back confidence because I was able to solve the other 20. Every question I solved I had an available answer choice to select. I do know that the most common and clever wrong answers are also listed, but it still helps me sleep at night knowing I didn't have to flat out guess on any of them.

Some nights I have nightmares that I didn't bubble in the answer sheet correctly. I'm serious. It really is a terrifying thought..

 

[DeltaT]

Any further input for the Thermal / Fluids depth would be greatly appreciated. For example, was NCEES / SMS good preparation? What would you have done differently to prepare? Any references you didn't take that you wish you had?

I feel like the SMS was a good addition to my studying. I went ahead and used all three SMS books obviously focusing the most on T+F. and the morning questions of the others. I know that a lot of people hate them because of the errors, but I didn't mind that because it takes just 15 minutes to go get the errata and fix it yourself. No big thing.