ksprayberry
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What was your study regimen?
My study method
I write this in hopes that someone will take away some small jewel of wisdom. If one sentence or thought in my ramblings helps someone, then I’ve done what I set out to do. I’m not saying I done it the right way, but I did it nonetheless. I passed the first time. I don’t consider myself overly smart or intelligent, but I was devoted.
“Buy In”
You have to have the support of family and friends. It is a long and drawn out process. It’s not something to go into halfhearted, you have to commit to do it, they (your family friends, and loved ones) need to make the commitment along with you and allow you the time you need to do it. You need their support and understanding. Sit down and explain to the ones that matter what is involved and what it means for all of you. You’re going to have to devote a good bit of time to this. Better to over exaggerate the time required than have them thinking it’s just going to be a minor inconvenience for a short time. I basically put my life on hold for almost 4 months to do this. You also have to be realistic. All study and no play..well, that just won’t work either. I studied each night, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, most Thursdays for three hours each night. Friday night I took off and spent time with my family. Saturday and Sunday, it was back to the books again at least for four hours with the remainder of the days spent with them enjoying one another’s company.
Quality, not quantity
Make sure you spend quality time studying. Just because you spend a ton of time “studying” doesn’t mean you will do well. Put down the phone, quit texting, and get at it! I started halfheartedly studying in October or November for the April exam. Once I registered and ponied up the money, I knew I had lit the fuse and it was time to get at it. From Christmas on, I followed the above regimen religiously. Find a good place to study without interruptions. Go to the library, a school, or a spare room at home, but seclude yourself. This allows you to develop uninterrupted thoughts and think things all the way through without distractions. Locking yourself in the bedroom only to be interrupted for dinner, by the baby, by the dog, by the phone, or any other distraction won’t work! YOU DON’T WANT TO DO THIS AGAIN! TRUST ME!
Ear Plugs
Start early with ear plugs. I know this is weird, but try it. I used them in the exam room and was glad I did. The ear plugs will allow you to develop more focus and concentration, or at least it did me. It cut out the distractions of the library and allowed me to become engrossed in the subject matter. I wished I had started earlier than I had with them. Also, by starting early, you will be used to them once exam time rolls around. I wouldn’t try them the week before only to realize you don’t like them or that you have uncomfortable ones.
Plan the work, Work the plan
Follow a program. Either go by the MERM study guide and review schedule or develop your own. When I started earlier in October and November, I was making an assessment of my skills and weaknesses. I started by reviewing an exam and seeing what I knew and didn’t know and developed a study guide from my assessment. I can’t say what I did was right or wrong, but this worked for me. I realized that I lacked in every area but HVAC. I focused heavily on Fluids and Thermodynamics with HVAC since I planned on taking the HVAC and Refrigeration afternoon exam. I spent well over a month on Fluids, well over a month of Thermo and spent the remainder of the time equally devoted to statics, dynamics, Strengths of Materials. AGAIN! I am not saying this is the right way to do it. Remember I started in October or November for the April exam, even though somewhat halfheartedly. Make a schedule of your expected study days including a subject to study. Eventually I found that I was spending too much time on certain subjects and would force myself to move on. Remember you need to be somewhat well rounded. Knowing one subject like the back of your hand won’t do you any good. You need to know two or three if possible like the back of your hand and the rest to a “good level of comfort”. The average time to solve a problem is 6 minutes. Six minutes. I can’t say whether you would benefit from trying a sample test early on or not, maybe so. Sit down and try it and see how you do and to get an idea of how quick six minutes goes by, then put the test aside and don’t come back to it until a week or so before the test…forget about it.
Time to put the lead to the paper. Get some!
In addition to the 500 problems in the sample problems book, and the two sample exams, I bought 1000 problems in thermo, 2500 problems in fluids, 800 in statics, 700 in dynamics. I worked my way through the MERM pretty much on schedule. I would review a chapter and start on the problems. Work the problems. Work the problems! Work the problems!! While you’re working the problems, be tabbing your MERM. Us the MERM, know the MERM, you should be married to the MERM by now! You should be familiar with every reference you take to the exam, but especially you should know the MERM frontward and backward. I think Shaggy on here has an excellent picture of his tabbing method, follow his method. Back to the problems, did I say work the problems? Yes, work problems. I worked everyone in the sample problem book, probably twice! I also worked tons of problems out of the other books I had. I even backed up to my school books and worked problems out of the physics book to build a foundation, then moved up to the fluids, then thermo. The more problems you work, the more methodical/mechanical you become at doing them to build the speed you need...remember, six minutes. See the problem, attack it. Take the given, find the state points, find the enthalpy, the entropy, calculate the work, calculate the capacity, etc. Bang, bang, bang. You see the problem and know exactly what needs to be done, no hesitation, pound it out! The more problems you work, the more the process becomes ingrained in your brain.
Putting it all together
The two weeks before the exam, I increased my study time. Seven hours on Saturday and Sunday, I also bumped it up to 4 hours per night during the week. You’re getting tired, but push through it, almost there. I took the last couple of weekends to simulate taking the exam. By this time, I had gotten my cart that I planned on using to take my books in and packed it up to take with me to the library to simulate. I did this for three reasons. I wanted to get used to sitting there for 4 hours at a time and depriving myself of water and the bathroom, get my bladder used to the long wait. I also wanted to, at this point; get a better sense of where I was with my timing. Six minutes! I also wanted to get used to using my references under duress to see where the “cracks” were so to speak. What things I needed to add more tabs to, how to manipulate them efficiently and if I thought I even needed the reference at all. There is limited space on the table top, there’s no sense in having something with you and not using it. If you think you need to take something, you can take all you want, just leave it on the floor. One thing to think about, the more references you have the more likely you might be to just start thumbing through them looking for an answer. This wastes time you don’t have! Put it on the floor and come back to the problem if you have time later! Back to the simulation, at this time, if I had looked at my sample exams, I had forgotten them. It was all fresh to me. I worked through the Lindeburgh sample exam one day, then the NCEES exam the next. I timed myself and kept to the time limit. I went back and checked my answers and made a list of where I needed extra help. I still had time to polish on some of my weak spots. I repeated the same thing the weekend before, then by Wednesday of the exam week, I was shot.
References
These are the references I used. I took several others, but truly did not have time to use them.
MERM
Crane TP410
Cameron Hydraulic Data
ASHRAE books
Steam tables
Some various school books
I bought a spiral binder so I could bind things that I could fold double. I made a small “goto” binder that had items I felt were used on a regular basis. All at hand. It had some electrical calcs, thermo, psychrometric stuff, odds and ends I thought I kept going back to problem after problem.
I hope this helps someone.
Thanks
Kelly
My study method
I write this in hopes that someone will take away some small jewel of wisdom. If one sentence or thought in my ramblings helps someone, then I’ve done what I set out to do. I’m not saying I done it the right way, but I did it nonetheless. I passed the first time. I don’t consider myself overly smart or intelligent, but I was devoted.
“Buy In”
You have to have the support of family and friends. It is a long and drawn out process. It’s not something to go into halfhearted, you have to commit to do it, they (your family friends, and loved ones) need to make the commitment along with you and allow you the time you need to do it. You need their support and understanding. Sit down and explain to the ones that matter what is involved and what it means for all of you. You’re going to have to devote a good bit of time to this. Better to over exaggerate the time required than have them thinking it’s just going to be a minor inconvenience for a short time. I basically put my life on hold for almost 4 months to do this. You also have to be realistic. All study and no play..well, that just won’t work either. I studied each night, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, most Thursdays for three hours each night. Friday night I took off and spent time with my family. Saturday and Sunday, it was back to the books again at least for four hours with the remainder of the days spent with them enjoying one another’s company.
Quality, not quantity
Make sure you spend quality time studying. Just because you spend a ton of time “studying” doesn’t mean you will do well. Put down the phone, quit texting, and get at it! I started halfheartedly studying in October or November for the April exam. Once I registered and ponied up the money, I knew I had lit the fuse and it was time to get at it. From Christmas on, I followed the above regimen religiously. Find a good place to study without interruptions. Go to the library, a school, or a spare room at home, but seclude yourself. This allows you to develop uninterrupted thoughts and think things all the way through without distractions. Locking yourself in the bedroom only to be interrupted for dinner, by the baby, by the dog, by the phone, or any other distraction won’t work! YOU DON’T WANT TO DO THIS AGAIN! TRUST ME!
Ear Plugs
Start early with ear plugs. I know this is weird, but try it. I used them in the exam room and was glad I did. The ear plugs will allow you to develop more focus and concentration, or at least it did me. It cut out the distractions of the library and allowed me to become engrossed in the subject matter. I wished I had started earlier than I had with them. Also, by starting early, you will be used to them once exam time rolls around. I wouldn’t try them the week before only to realize you don’t like them or that you have uncomfortable ones.
Plan the work, Work the plan
Follow a program. Either go by the MERM study guide and review schedule or develop your own. When I started earlier in October and November, I was making an assessment of my skills and weaknesses. I started by reviewing an exam and seeing what I knew and didn’t know and developed a study guide from my assessment. I can’t say what I did was right or wrong, but this worked for me. I realized that I lacked in every area but HVAC. I focused heavily on Fluids and Thermodynamics with HVAC since I planned on taking the HVAC and Refrigeration afternoon exam. I spent well over a month on Fluids, well over a month of Thermo and spent the remainder of the time equally devoted to statics, dynamics, Strengths of Materials. AGAIN! I am not saying this is the right way to do it. Remember I started in October or November for the April exam, even though somewhat halfheartedly. Make a schedule of your expected study days including a subject to study. Eventually I found that I was spending too much time on certain subjects and would force myself to move on. Remember you need to be somewhat well rounded. Knowing one subject like the back of your hand won’t do you any good. You need to know two or three if possible like the back of your hand and the rest to a “good level of comfort”. The average time to solve a problem is 6 minutes. Six minutes. I can’t say whether you would benefit from trying a sample test early on or not, maybe so. Sit down and try it and see how you do and to get an idea of how quick six minutes goes by, then put the test aside and don’t come back to it until a week or so before the test…forget about it.
Time to put the lead to the paper. Get some!
In addition to the 500 problems in the sample problems book, and the two sample exams, I bought 1000 problems in thermo, 2500 problems in fluids, 800 in statics, 700 in dynamics. I worked my way through the MERM pretty much on schedule. I would review a chapter and start on the problems. Work the problems. Work the problems! Work the problems!! While you’re working the problems, be tabbing your MERM. Us the MERM, know the MERM, you should be married to the MERM by now! You should be familiar with every reference you take to the exam, but especially you should know the MERM frontward and backward. I think Shaggy on here has an excellent picture of his tabbing method, follow his method. Back to the problems, did I say work the problems? Yes, work problems. I worked everyone in the sample problem book, probably twice! I also worked tons of problems out of the other books I had. I even backed up to my school books and worked problems out of the physics book to build a foundation, then moved up to the fluids, then thermo. The more problems you work, the more methodical/mechanical you become at doing them to build the speed you need...remember, six minutes. See the problem, attack it. Take the given, find the state points, find the enthalpy, the entropy, calculate the work, calculate the capacity, etc. Bang, bang, bang. You see the problem and know exactly what needs to be done, no hesitation, pound it out! The more problems you work, the more the process becomes ingrained in your brain.
Putting it all together
The two weeks before the exam, I increased my study time. Seven hours on Saturday and Sunday, I also bumped it up to 4 hours per night during the week. You’re getting tired, but push through it, almost there. I took the last couple of weekends to simulate taking the exam. By this time, I had gotten my cart that I planned on using to take my books in and packed it up to take with me to the library to simulate. I did this for three reasons. I wanted to get used to sitting there for 4 hours at a time and depriving myself of water and the bathroom, get my bladder used to the long wait. I also wanted to, at this point; get a better sense of where I was with my timing. Six minutes! I also wanted to get used to using my references under duress to see where the “cracks” were so to speak. What things I needed to add more tabs to, how to manipulate them efficiently and if I thought I even needed the reference at all. There is limited space on the table top, there’s no sense in having something with you and not using it. If you think you need to take something, you can take all you want, just leave it on the floor. One thing to think about, the more references you have the more likely you might be to just start thumbing through them looking for an answer. This wastes time you don’t have! Put it on the floor and come back to the problem if you have time later! Back to the simulation, at this time, if I had looked at my sample exams, I had forgotten them. It was all fresh to me. I worked through the Lindeburgh sample exam one day, then the NCEES exam the next. I timed myself and kept to the time limit. I went back and checked my answers and made a list of where I needed extra help. I still had time to polish on some of my weak spots. I repeated the same thing the weekend before, then by Wednesday of the exam week, I was shot.
References
These are the references I used. I took several others, but truly did not have time to use them.
MERM
Crane TP410
Cameron Hydraulic Data
ASHRAE books
Steam tables
Some various school books
I bought a spiral binder so I could bind things that I could fold double. I made a small “goto” binder that had items I felt were used on a regular basis. All at hand. It had some electrical calcs, thermo, psychrometric stuff, odds and ends I thought I kept going back to problem after problem.
I hope this helps someone.
Thanks
Kelly
