Mechanical PE Afternoon Session

[jroyce]

Did anyone take the machine design afternoon session? One of the engineers I work with told me it is heavy in spring problems. I'm not sure if he is just yanking my chain because I told him that I didn't like spring problems or if he is telling me the truth and trying to help me study by giving me a general topic to make sure I know before the test.

Did anyone else find this to be true?

I guess its just getting down to the last few weeks of studying and I really don't want to do this again. This test really takes its toll even before you sit to take the exam.

Any help anyone can give me about the machine design session would be greatly appreciated.

 

[MetroRAFB]

EdinNO took the Machine Design depth, I think in April of '06, but it might have been Oct. of '05. If he doesn't reply here in the next couple of days send him a PM.

As far as your buddy's spring comment goes, it's very possible. The only problem is, there really isn't any way to know for sure:

1) whether or not this April's MD Depth module will focus heavily on any one topic at all, or

2) if it does, what topic that will be. YOUR exam might focus heavily on gears.

That's kind of what I was getting at in my post in another thread here. You could see focus on any particular depth problem type, or no particular focus at all. The exam definitely changes each time, you kind of just have to prepare as best you can for any contingency and hope that they don't laser in on something you're not prepared for. I thought that October's HVAC module focused pretty heavily on one kind of problem, for whatever that's worth.

 

[jroyce]

Metro, Thanks for the info. I was planning on spending the last two or three weeks just focusing on the afternoon module that I wanted to take. Going throught the MERM chapters for machine design and there is just so much information. I feel somewhat confident but with these type of tests you feel confident going in and then once you get there eveything changes. I'm just trying to get as much information as possible.

Does anyone think it is advisable to take a steel design manual or the roarks stress and strain books for reference books or is most of your material in the MERM? I am comfortable with both books but I don't want to get overburdened with extra books and get stuck looking through them for the hail-mary questions.

 

[MetroRAFB]

Bring them. It can't hurt. If you're familiar with the books you might be able to pick an answer or two out of them as the clock ticks down. You'll be kicking yourself if you don't bring them and find a problem that you know you could have gotten if you had brought it.

 

[EdinNO]

I did MD in April '06. Funny thing is that I am drawing a blank as to what was really on the exam- honestly! If I had to take it again this April, I would be hurting for sure. Though I don't really recall much in the way of spring problems.

I went through many of the chapters in MERM, took notes on things I thought might be important, worked in-chapter and end-of-chapter problems, created an Excel index from my notes, tabbed my MERM in accordance with my notes and index and worked NCEES practice problems. That was essentially my entire study regime. I did work all three afternoon modules in the NCEES book. I figured that even though I wasn't taking thermal/fluid and was undecided about HVAC or MD (decided during the test), that anything in any afternoon section of the sample problems could be in the morning session.

Vague and not very helpful, I'm sure. I think I just blacked that whole memory out of my mind. To this day I still can only remember one problem from the test. It stuck out because I was lucky enough to find a very similar problem in the MERM, but would have completely missed it otherwise.

Ed

 

[JohnNevets]

I took the MD depth this past October. I'm a little reluctant to mention this, since I think it is important to study all areas of the depth, because you don't know what will be on the next test. But... here it goes, I do think they were heavy in springs and had multiple gear problems as well. They were very light on statics type problems, and had no classic beam type problems. This was a bit of a surprise to me, but by having done quite a bit of studying I survived it and passed on the first try. By the way I had to go back and check my old posts to refresh my memory, and in that post I also mentioned that I did all the 6 min problems for MD and went through those sections of the MERM twice. In my opinion the way they have the study chapters set up in MERM is very good for the MD depth, you start by doing the two other topics, and finish with the MD sections, that way it is freshest in your mind.

I took a lot of books with me, not as many as the Civil guys did, but more than the handful of other Mech. folks did. I probably brought to many, but I didn't want to feal that I had left something at home that I needed. I brought an old copy of Rorak and Young, and maybe opened it once on a couple of long shots. MERM handles most things, but I would recommend a real good Machine Design text book that you are very familiar with, one with a good gear section, and definitely Machinery's Handbook if you know it at all. I also grabbed a very old copy of Marks handbook, because a co-worker had it, and sometimes having access to old methods of doing things is a good thing.

I used the NCESS sample test about a month before the test, to see where I stood, it was not good. By that time I had gone through almost all the sections of MERM once, but had not done any of the 6 min solutions. When I saw the results, I re-went over the whole MD chapter, and started doing problems like crazy. It helped big time.

Also don't forget to brush up on the eng. econ. topics, there are some very low lying fruit if you know what you are doing.

Hope that helps,

John

 

[moderndoug]

I took the MD depth this past October. I'm a little reluctant to mention this, since I think it is important to study all areas of the depth, because you don't know what will be on the next test. But... here it goes, I do think they were heavy in springs and had multiple gear problems as well. They were very light on statics type problems, and had no classic beam type problems. This was a bit of a surprise to me, but by having done quite a bit of studying I survived it and passed on the first try. By the way I had to go back and check my old posts to refresh my memory, and in that post I also mentioned that I did all the 6 min problems for MD and went through those sections of the MERM twice. In my opinion the way they have the study chapters set up in MERM is very good for the MD depth, you start by doing the two other topics, and finish with the MD sections, that way it is freshest in your mind.
I took a lot of books with me, not as many as the Civil guys did, but more than the handful of other Mech. folks did. I probably brought to many, but I didn't want to feal that I had left something at home that I needed. I brought an old copy of Rorak and Young, and maybe opened it once on a couple of long shots. MERM handles most things, but I would recommend a real good Machine Design text book that you are very familiar with, one with a good gear section, and definitely Machinery's Handbook if you know it at all. I also grabbed a very old copy of Marks handbook, because a co-worker had it, and sometimes having access to old methods of doing things is a good thing.

I used the NCESS sample test about a month before the test, to see where I stood, it was not good. By that time I had gone through almost all the sections of MERM once, but had not done any of the 6 min solutions. When I saw the results, I re-went over the whole MD chapter, and started doing problems like crazy. It helped big time.

Also don't forget to brush up on the eng. econ. topics, there are some very low lying fruit if you know what you are doing.

Hope that helps,

John

Different story April 2007 ME Thermal/Fluids. Prepare, prepare, prepare! ModernDoug

 

[Fordman101]

"Study all areas of the depth, because you don't know what will be on the next test."

ALL is FAIR in LOVE, WAR AND the PE exam!!!