NECEES Mechanical PE Reference Manual Released

[cvanwy02]

Has anyone seen that NCEES has released the Mechanical PE reference manual which will be used for the computer based exams?

https://core-ncees-org.s3.amazonaws.com/pdfs/pe-mec-handbook.pdf?X-Amz-Content-Sha256=UNSIGNED-PAYLOAD&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIHJFPKLZRKQERK5A%2F20190225%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20190225T165150Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-Signature=33b87488392a4db45188f9966447e3fd83390eae8d35e6719aaceea76c187917

 

[Slay the P.E.]

Has anyone seen that NCEES has released the Mechanical PE reference manual which will be used for the computer based exams?

https://core-ncees-org.s3.amazonaws.com/pdfs/pe-mec-handbook.pdf?X-Amz-Content-Sha256=UNSIGNED-PAYLOAD&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIHJFPKLZRKQERK5A%2F20190225%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20190225T165150Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-Signature=33b87488392a4db45188f9966447e3fd83390eae8d35e6719aaceea76c187917

The link doesn't work because one has to be logged in to myNCEES to download the manual.

I'm going to urge HVAC people to download and review this ASAP. It should put to rest any doubt about what ASHRAE handbooks to bring to the test. Here NCEES has copied everything they deem important. You should review the Refrigeration, HVAC, and Combustion sections and make sure you understand how to use every table and graph in those sections. They're virtually all taken straight from the ASHRAE handbooks.

Similarly for MDM. This handbook definitely helps determine which areas of Shigley's you should really emphasize in your prep.

After a quick review with an eye for the TFS Exam:

• YIKES! no Mollier diagram anywhere in sight. Makes steam turbine problems unnecessarily long.
  
• There are no Normal Shock compressible flow tables, but they do provide the equations, so people taking CBT will have to solve shockwave problems without the benefit of the table. That's not nice of them.
  
• Their table of unit conversions is appallingly sparse.
  
• The psychrometric charts are preposterously blurry, bordering on unreadable.
  

 

[SacMe24]

@squaretaper PE....aren't you glad we passed the PE when we did? Imagine taking this exam wihout the use of personal notes, references, books, etc. Look at the evaluation above for the guide that's offered for the TFS exam in particular. WDYT?

 

[cvanwy02]

Everyone still has two more tries in the pencil and paper!

 

[squaretaper LIT AF PE]

@squaretaper PE....aren't you glad we passed the PE when we did? Imagine taking this exam wihout the use of personal notes, references, books, etc. Look at the evaluation above for the guide that's offered for the TFS exam in particular. WDYT?

Yowza...If anyone has been following my posts, I think I've said on no fewer than ten occasions I couldn't have survived without the Mollier diagram. This is just yet another reason people should just get the Mollier diagram tattooed on their forearms! :rotflmao:

 

[squaretaper LIT AF PE]

@SacMe24 I think this wouldn't hurt MDM folks as much, what are your thoughts?

I can say that TFS people should consider taking the paper-and-pencil exam this year if they can. I might take a crack at trying to do a practice exam with just this reference, just to see. But some of these tables are pretty hard to read. Look at the Moody diagram on page 204, that's pretty hard to use with an embedded table blocking the lines. Especially in the case of water where the Moody friction factor is 0.02 (usually, approximately) with turbulent flow (most real-life cases), kinda sucks to eyeball across that embedded table.

 

[squaretaper LIT AF PE]

I actually think this might force NCEES to water down the questions. Who really knows...

 

[SacMe24]

@SacMe24 I think this wouldn't hurt MDM folks as much, what are your thoughts?

I can say that TFS people should consider taking the paper-and-pencil exam this year if they can. I might take a crack at trying to do a practice exam with just this reference, just to see. But some of these tables are pretty hard to read. Look at the Moody diagram on page 204, that's pretty hard to use with an embedded table blocking the lines. Especially in the case of water where the Moody friction factor is 0.02 (usually, approximately) with turbulent flow (most real-life cases), kinda sucks to eyeball across that embedded table.

I looked at the MDM section and WOW, it's basically just a collection of equations. Little to no explanations or examples like in MERM, I'm just VERY glad I took the exam when I did.

 

[23and1]

I've downloaded and started going through it. I suppose I'll be one of the lab rats who get to test this out by bringing it with me to the exam in April.

 

[Abraham5G PE]

I'm logged in to MyNCEES and the link isn't working for me, anyone know where I can download this?

Edit: Nevermind, I found it.

 

[squaretaper LIT AF PE]

I've downloaded and started going through it. I suppose I'll be one of the lab rats who get to test this out by bringing it with me to the exam in April.

I don't want to discourage new test takers with any unnecessary fear mongering about references (or lack thereof). Regardless of whether you will take the new or old tests, if you diligently work a sufficient number of practice questions/exams and really internalize what's really going on with respect to theory, you'll see that it's really quite repetitive (speaking from a TFS standpoint, but I'm sure HVAC and MDM are probably the same, ask those weirdos :rotflmao: ) and you'll pretty much memorize most forms of equations you'll ever need. I got to a point where I pretty much memorized steam table values and only looked things up as a sanity check.

Remember, you're all very smart, beautiful, and capable, AND already working engineers. You can do it!

 

[cvanwy02]

I don't want to discourage new test takers with any unnecessary fear mongering about references (or lack thereof). Regardless of whether you will take the new or old tests, if you diligently work a sufficient number of practice questions/exams and really internalize what's really going on with respect to theory, you'll see that it's really quite repetitive (speaking from a TFS standpoint, but I'm sure HVAC and MDM are probably the same, ask those weirdos :rotflmao: ) and you'll pretty much memorize most forms of equations you'll ever need. I got to a point where I pretty much memorized steam table values and only looked things up as a sanity check.

Remember, you're all very smart, beautiful, and capable, AND already working engineers. You can do it!

True that.  I haven't taken the test yet but I'm going through the Slay the PE test bundle and have already memorized most formulas and conversions needed for the PE exam... Once you truly understand the concepts, the NCEES questions are not that hard.  I started out with the 2016 NCEES practice exam and got to where I could get a 100% but never TRULY understood what was going on.  It was more like wrote memorization. 

 

[Workx]

HI,

 Can anyone guide me how to get? I logged into NCEES and I can't find it. 

NEVER MIND: I got it. 

 

[GordyJ]

I've downloaded and started going through it. I suppose I'll be one of the lab rats who get to test this out by bringing it with me to the exam in April.

Lab rats unite!

 

[Dr. Barber]

Yowza...If anyone has been following my posts, I think I've said on no fewer than ten occasions I couldn't have survived without the Mollier diagram. This is just yet another reason people should just get the Mollier diagram tattooed on their forearms! :rotflmao:

Yeah, no Mollier diagram which is a major bummer.

However, they did put in some really useful and important stuff such as the charge of an electron, Faraday's constant, and the conversion factor from hectares to acres. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[monty01]

Yeah, no Mollier diagram which is a major bummer.

However, they did put in some really useful and important stuff such as the charge of an electron, Faraday's constant, and the conversion factor from hectares to acres. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Dude.  You mean you don't have the conversion from hectares to acres memorized?  Fo shame! 

 

[Dr. Barber]

Dude.  You mean you don't have the conversion from hectares to acres memorized?  Fo shame! 

I don't have it memorized, so I'm lucky they were smart enough to include it. 

I'm also grateful they made some room for these ever useful trig identities. I mean, these are crucial for the P.E. exam:

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[Audi Driver P.E.]

Well, I am sorry to any long time engineers that are going to have to take the CBT. That reference is utter ****. One of the main things that saved me for my exam, was that I could bring along equation formats I was used to, which I can tell you right now were different than many of the things included in the MERM. Some of my undergraduate profs wrote their own texts and used unique terms/terminology that, even though it matched 1:1 (in most cases) with other references, would have required me to relearn what I already knew.

Also, it's a mere 522 pages without any explanations. On my paper/pencil exam there were questions that made you reason out answers based on formula derivations, principles and so forth. I have to assume those are going bye bye? This reference is little more than a collection of equations.

First they did away with subject matter that would require an engineer to be well rounded and now this. What a pile of horse hockey this test is becoming.

 

[Ramnares P.E.]

Well, I am sorry to any long time engineers that are going to have to take the CBT. That reference is utter ****. One of the main things that save me for my exam, was that I could bring along equation formats I was used to, which I can tell you right now were different than many of the things included in the MERM. Some of my undergraduate profs wrote their own texts and used unique term/terminology that, even though it matched 1:1 (in most cases) with other references would have required me to relearn what I already knew.

Also, it's a mere 522 pages without any explanations. On my paper/pencil exam there were questions that made you reason out answers based on formula derivations, principles and so forth. I have to assume those are going bye bye? This reference is little more than a collection of equations.

First they did away with subject matter that would require an engineer to be well rounded and now this. What a pile of horse hockey this test is becoming.

Concur with this.  The change from the "general" morning is a detriment to the exam and the introduction of this reference manual is more akin to the FE where you're testing to what's provided and not testing to what is representative of the industry.

 

[Dr. Barber]

I hope CBT takers never are asked to find the entropy of a saturated liquid-vapor mixture of water at 100 psia.

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