I took the 2008 NCEES sample exam yesterday

[Bman]

I took the exam yesterday and was really disappointed, I only got 44 correct. I felt pretty confident in the morning section except for some of the MD questions. I had to guess on a couple questions, but for the most part I felt like I was making fairly good educated quesses. I still got 16 wrong.... The first few questions on the afternoon HVAC test dealing with amonia threw me off and kind of freaked me out. I should have just skipped them, but I didn't and wasted too much time/effort on them and then felt rushed for the rest of the exam... Overall, I knew the concepts but was having trouble applying them to some of the questions (I think becuase I felt rushed...). I'm going to spend the next few days re-working these problems to make sure I know how to solve each one. I learned a few important lessons though:

1. Take my time and make sure the units work out. I'm sure I missed more than a few questions because of this.

2. I'm going to work all of the easy/ non-quantitative questions during the exam first to boost my confidence and then go back through and spend more time on the questions that will take a little longer to solve. This way I can make sure I am spending the most time on the problems that I have a higher chance of getting right.

Its just a practice exam and I still have almost 1 1/2 weeks, so I'm not too worried just yet. After all, I'm not trying to ace this thing, just pass it!

 

[PassItFirst]

I worked the full exam on Saturday and ended up getting 74% correct. I thought I did better on the Morning section but actually did the opposite. Upon review of my errors, I could have picked up several more points if I had watched the units and the specifics of what the problems were requesting.

After working the MERM problems and 101 Solved Mech. Problems, I thought the NCEES exam was easier than I expected. But sitting in one place for 4 hours straight and having to get thru 40 problems in that amount of time, stressed me out and I'm sure caused me to make some atypical errors. I did need the full 4 hours for both sections. Pacing my self by half-hour increments helped a lot!

What is the usual percentage correct required for a passing score? As BMan said, all anyone will ever know is whether I passed or failed.

 

[gaidox]

I took the exam yesterday and was really disappointed, I only got 44 correct. I felt pretty confident in the morning section except for some of the MD questions. I had to guess on a couple questions, but for the most part I felt like I was making fairly good educated quesses. I still got 16 wrong.... The first few questions on the afternoon HVAC test dealing with amonia threw me off and kind of freaked me out. I should have just skipped them, but I didn't and wasted too much time/effort on them and then felt rushed for the rest of the exam... Overall, I knew the concepts but was having trouble applying them to some of the questions (I think becuase I felt rushed...). I'm going to spend the next few days re-working these problems to make sure I know how to solve each one. I learned a few important lessons though:
1. Take my time and make sure the units work out. I'm sure I missed more than a few questions because of this.

2. I'm going to work all of the easy/ non-quantitative questions during the exam first to boost my confidence and then go back through and spend more time on the questions that will take a little longer to solve. This way I can make sure I am spending the most time on the problems that I have a higher chance of getting right.

Its just a practice exam and I still have almost 1 1/2 weeks, so I'm not too worried just yet. After all, I'm not trying to ace this thing, just pass it!

You will be fine Bman..dont be disappointed with the score..but on what you gain with this.

we still have time..we can do it.

Focus on what you've found out like stupid mistakes, time to solve prob., strategy on real thing, and weakness areas.

I did back to back sample exam (lindeburg and ncees) last weekend too.. i've learned on the first one to skip long solution problem.. i didnt control myself and spent 10+ mins on some problems

and get nothing..on ncess I did try to look short soln/ plug-in type prob first..

Also, found out that i need to focus now in my depth..which comprise big chunk of the exam.

The merm index, tabbing and my note binders seems effective/organized enough now after i took it and did helped me a lot..

 

[Bman]

I just worked the morning problems again last night. There were some problems that I legitimately got wrong, but for the most part I just made stupid mistakes. Some of the problems I reworked again without looking at the solutions and got them right; I'm not even sure what I was doing wrong when I took the practice on Sunday... I had about 30 minutes to spare when I took the morning section so I think I just need to slow it down, and double check my answers before I move on to the next question and make sure I write everthing down. I think I was trying to work too much of this in my head and got some wires double crossed....

 

[gaidox]

10 days to go..dig more with the time left.

I may have to take some days off at work next week to have more time for solving problems.

I pretty exhausted now and looking forward to the days after exam but I dont want to waste all the

hours I've worked to be where I'm at..Still have 10 days to give our best shot.

Many have said that the actual exam is more difficult than the ncees sample especially the depth portion so we have to prepare for that. I do hope its the same difficulty with the sample but who knows, always expect the worst.

Sample exam may deceive us to get too confident and do less now..

I think it open us for time management, stupid mistakes, and scope of exam.

 

[Shanks]

I took the NCEES Sample Exam on Sunday and I've mixed feelings now. I did well in AM exam ....was done an hour early with the first round, had 5-6 questions to re-try. I got done with second try and had about 30 minutes in hand though I didn't check my answers ...I ended up having 34 correct in AM, a few were really stupid mistakes and a few I wouldn't have got regardless....feeling all pumped up I'd a brief half-an-hour lunch break (should have taken an hour break), I came to PM (MD) test. For sure it was opposite the AM section, got done about half an hour early, could have checked my answers but I ran out of patience, final score 28/40. I am a little disappointed because I thought I will be have at least 30 in PM too. Also, I remembered the answers to a couple of questions, so not sure if they should be counted.

The NCEES exam is very close to what you get in the real-exam, if not harder. I saw a pattern in the scores I got when I took NCEES sample exam last year and PE result , it was quite close. If I compare to last time, the scored had improved but I don't want to get over-confident as you never know what you'll get.

On the side-note, I invested 2 days in organizing my material and tabbing them and it helped immensely! I was able to find the relevant equation within 30 seconds...well it took more time for the equations I didn't work w/before, like Bearing problems. I hope I am able to duplicate this in real exam.

 

[PassItFirst]

I took the NCEES Sample Exam on Sunday and I've mixed feelings now. I did well in AM exam ....was done an hour early with the first round, had 5-6 questions to re-try. I got done with second try and had about 30 minutes in hand though I didn't check my answers ...I ended up having 34 correct in AM, a few were really stupid mistakes and a few I wouldn't have got regardless....feeling all pumped up I'd a brief half-an-hour lunch break (should have taken an hour break), I came to PM (MD) test. For sure it was opposite the AM section, got done about half an hour early, could have checked my answers but I ran out of patience, final score 28/40. I am a little disappointed because I thought I will be have at least 30 in PM too. Also, I remembered the answers to a couple of questions, so not sure if they should be counted.
The NCEES exam is very close to what you get in the real-exam, if not harder. I saw a pattern in the scores I got when I took NCEES sample exam last year and PE result , it was quite close. If I compare to last time, the scored had improved but I don't want to get over-confident as you never know what you'll get.

On the side-note, I invested 2 days in organizing my material and tabbing them and it helped immensely! I was able to find the relevant equation within 30 seconds...well it took more time for the equations I didn't work w/before, like Bearing problems. I hope I am able to duplicate this in real exam.

Shanks - so I take it you didn't pass the PE last year. You scored a 77% on the NCEES exam. If the NCEES is comparable if not easier than the PE exam, why did you not pass last year?

I ended up with approximately your same score on the NCEES last weekend. This past weekend I worked all of the 6-Minute HVAC problems. I found these to be more challenging than the NCEES practice exam, so my confidence dropped some, but hearing you reiterate how the NCEES closely reflects the actual PE exam difficulty, my spirits are bolstered.

What is the typical percentage required to pass the PE?

 

[buick455]

I took the exam (MD) three times until I passed starting in October 2008 just when they incorporated SI units in the exam. In my opinion the exam was somewhat harder each time. The key is organization, practice and never giving up. Keep an eye on your time and do not waste your time on any one problem. On some I would get frustrated as I knew how to solve it but time was getting away you need to be able to give it up and move on and come back to it if time allows.

Good luck.

 

[Shanks]

PassitFirst - My correct questions were 50% i.e. about 20/20 correct in AM/PM and that's about I got in the exam. The passing score is 70 and not 70%, so you might get 50% of the answers correct and still pass. It depends on a lot of factors and probably no one but NCEES knows for sure the exact # of question to pass which again changes every year. In my case I am guessing I would have passed, had I got 2 more questions correct.

Buick455 - I agree that one of the key is to know when to move on. Last time in my exam I wasted a lot of time on a few questions in PM exam and didn't have enough time to attempt a few questions. This time on practice exam I kept an eye on the watch and never went more than 6-7 mins, if I didn't get it, I moved on and I've plenty of time at the end to come back to the problem.

Also this time I didn't take a quick glimpse of all 40 questions while starting the exam, something which I did last time. For the practice exam, I solved the problems as I saw them and honestly I didn't miss anything.