April 2015 ME Exam Thoughts

[LWhitson2]

So, I completed the April 2015 Mechanical Engineering: Thermal and Fluids Exam yesterday and I am feeling pretty good overall. It kind of scares me because I got a solution to all the questions except one, which I will get to in a minute. However, I am worried that I made "the simple mistake" on them which is why my answer was actual listed. Here is for hoping...

Now, as I mentioned above, one of the questions I did not get an answer that was within the realm of available answers on the sheet. It was a fairly straight forward problem and I got an answer exactly in the middle of two choices. After the exam, I checked one of my other reference manuals I have at home with a nearly identical problem and my solution method was correct. Is there anything that I can do about this?

Also, one other question on the exam that required the use of tables, utilized values outside of any table that I had for the subject matter. I referenced tables out of three different sources and they all had the same range of values posted. I ended up using an extended interpolation and I got an answer close enough to choose, but should this be brought up to the exam committee as well?

 

[Ramnares P.E.]

I'm not sure what you want to do about your first problem where your solution was midway between two available options. It's likely that you made a simple error somewhere since your answer was the right magnitude.

As for your second issue, many sources utilize the same references and therefore go to the same range in the table. You would have to prove that there aren't sources out there with the information in order to contest that question. You may want to email NCEES about this if you really feel that strongly about it but I would be very surprised if the value isn't in a table you just haven't used.

Hope you get good news in a couple months.

 

[LWhitson2]

I do too. I felt really good about the test overall minus the one problem. I hate the waiting part though; it is going to seem like forever I am sure.

Oh, since I can't post there, can you tell everyone in the April 2015 board that the pencil in Indiana was White with Blue Trimmings?

 

[Ramnares P.E.]

Try to dive back into work, catch up on tv/hobbies etc. to make the time go by. It's amazing how much time you'll have on your hands now that you're not studying for the PE.

Thanks for the pencil color, looks like someone beat you to reporting it. The beta are starting for the fall color already!

 

[Just Some Guy P.E.]

Also, one other question on the exam that required the use of tables, utilized values outside of any table that I had for the subject matter. I referenced tables out of three different sources and they all had the same range of values posted.

I took the same exam and believe I know to which question you're referring. Post-mortem review is taking my moderate anxiety and spinning it up infinitely.

 

[LWhitson2]

I took the same exam and believe I know to which question you're referring. Post-mortem review is taking my moderate anxiety and spinning it up infinitely.

I'm sure we both did fine. I'm not going to worry about it until 8-10wks from now, haha.

 

[MechE_in_PA_PE]

I also took the thermal fluids exam and felt good about most of my answers. Like you there was only one quantitative problem that I had to guess on, ...As to your second question, I don't think it is a valid argument since the PE exam is open book....you probably just did not have the right set of tables.

The distrators have me second guessing, but I guess that is natural and we won't know for sure until exam result day.

 

[LWhitson2]

The distrators have me second guessing, but I guess that is natural and we won't know for sure until exam result day.

You know, I actually caught myself on a couple of the distraction answers when I did my second review of the questions. If there was a question I wasn't 100% sure on my method, I would underline it for review when I was done. I think I changed my answer on about 25% of those after further review.

 

[matt267 PE]

Only time will tell.

A good way to pass the time is to head over to the "shoot the breeze" section of engineerboards.com. Specifically: http://engineerboard...showtopic=25068

 

[MishaAl]

Also, one other question on the exam that required the use of tables, utilized values outside of any table that I had for the subject matter. I referenced tables out of three different sources and they all had the same range of values posted. I ended up using an extended interpolation and I got an answer close enough to choose, but should this be brought up to the exam committee as well?

I'm pretty sure I had the same question. It is solved using formulas, not tables.

 

[Monza]

I also took the ME-TF exam. I had the same issue with one of the problems being exactly halfway between two choices. I skipped it and since I had plenty of time at the end, I worked it again. I came up with the same answer. I did it a third time, checking my units carefully, and decided to carry out my mid-solution values to as many decimal places as I could. The final answer was the same, but just a tick toward one of the given solutions, so I chose that one. The problem was not a difficult one, or tricky in any way. I considered it very straight forward. But it certainly gave me fits and left me wondering about what was the correct solution or if there was an error in the problem.

For the tables, I also had a problem where my go-to reference did not go out far enough. Fortunately, I had purchased a secondary reference early on in my studying. I checked it and sure enough, it went out far enough to get an answer. So there are references readily available that could be used to solve this problem (assuming you and I are talking about the same one).

Overall, I left feeling pretty good. I'm worried about making stupid mistakes but I try to focus on the feelings I had when I left the exam room. I finished both sessions early enough to go back and review questions I wasn't confident about. Nothing struck me as too difficult or out of the ordinary. I think the NCEES practice exam was fairly representative.

Good luck to everyone!