OCTOBER 2017 PE EXAM

[enfinity]

I should also mention that I found the TFS afternoon to be wayyyy harder than the morning.

In the morning, I answered 29 questions very confidently.  3 questions were "educated guesses", but I had an inkling I was correct.  8 questions were total random guesses due to time limits.

In the afternoon, I was surprised by how hard the questions were.  I'd say 23 questions were very confident answers, followed by 7 "educated guesses".  These educated guesses I had a little more confidence in, but still unsure.  Then 10 or so totally random guesses.

 

[glowe]

I agree, AM section was easier than the afternoon section in HVAC test. Overall I think I guessed on about 5-6 problems total..I am sure I will make few other mistakes..this was my 2nd time around..I did feel better this time come out..I hope I pass..ASHRAE handbooks were super helpful..this was one of the ref material I did not take last time (Apri)!!..keeping my fingers crossed.

Oh man, I used the ASHRAE books on at least 6 or 7 questions that I can remember. Not bringing those would totally be bringing a knife to a gunfight...

 

[Sheshtawy]

I took the TFS exam and I too think that the AM one was much better than the PM. I also agree that NCEES practice exam was way easier than the real thing. Anybody took the exam in Houston?

 

 

[sbrookef]

I took the TFS exam and I too think that the AM one was much better than the PM. I also agree that NCEES practice exam was way easier than the real thing. Anybody took the exam in Houston?

 

I took MDM in Houston

 

[Sheshtawy]

I took MDM in Houston

Cool! The head proctor was the least fun person with a bow tie I've ever seen 

 

[jtparker]

Reading how everyone felt about the TFS exam is a great relief. I too felt that there were some questions that were not expected to be on the exam. I took School of PE which helped incredibly, however, there were multiple questions that were said to have a "very low chance" of showing up on the exam. With that being said I feel that the morning exam was a little difficult and I am glad I did the thermo problems the way I did. I feel that there was around 7 questions that I had no clue on and guessed in the morning and 3 with some sort of clue what the answer was and the other 30 were pretty confident answers. The PM session was much more difficult leaving me with around 14 questions that I had to guess and/or redo. 7 or 8 of which no clue and the other 6 or 7 were just redone with 70% confidence. The other 26, I felt confident on. I am anxious to see the results since I tend to work fast and screw my units up sometime. This test had tons and tons of conversions it seemed like to me. I really hope that they bring the cut score down from 70%. It sounds like everyone is in the same boat. 

MODERATOR NOTE:

1.  Per your NCEES policy, you are not allowed to discuss or disclose exam specific content.  Please do NOT post questions on here.

2.  Your post has been edited to remove references to specific exam topics and questions.

3.  Please be mindful of your NDA. 

 

[enfinity]

Reading how everyone felt about the TFS exam is a great relief. I too felt that there were some questions that were not expected to be on the exam. I took School of PE which helped incredibly, however, there were multiple questions that were said to have a "very low chance" of showing up on the exam. With that being said I feel that the morning exam was a little difficult and I am glad I did the thermo problems the way I did. I feel that there was around 7 questions that I had no clue on and guessed in the morning and 3 with some sort of clue what the answer was and the other 30 were pretty confident answers. The PM session was much more difficult leaving me with around 14 questions that I had to guess and/or redo. 7 or 8 of which no clue and the other 6 or 7 were just redone with 70% confidence. The other 26, I felt confident on. I am anxious to see the results since I tend to work fast and screw my units up sometime. This test had tons and tons of conversions it seemed like to me. I really hope that they bring the cut score down from 70%. It sounds like everyone is in the same boat. 

MODERATOR NOTE:

1.  Per your NCEES policy, you are not allowed to discuss or disclose exam specific content.  Please do NOT post questions on here.

2.  Your post has been edited to remove references to specific exam topics and questions.

3.  Please be mindful of your NDA. 

Haha, the more people jump on this boat and confirm to me that the test was harder than we thought it would be, the better I feel.  I do think if this is a consistent feeling from test takers, the cut score shouldbe lower than 70%. Let's cross our fingers.

The consistent themes seem to be:

- Afternoon session way harder than Morning session

- Overall test much harder than the official NCEES practice exams

- Several "unexpected" questions showed up on the exam

 

[Philscrimp]

I understand that unit conversions are crucial to engineering, but working through this test(TFS)  I felt like the test was more guided toward the ability to do unit conversions than your knowledge of engineering principles. Anyone else feel that way?

 

[sbrookef]

Cool! The head proctor was the least fun person with a bow tie I've ever seen 

I'm just thankful I wasn't kicked out for doing something like standing up too early. He must've had some sort of military background or something. Or if not, he should be in the military

 

[casummerlin]

TFS taker here.  I thought it was a little harder than the NCEES practice tests, but not a lot.  I studied the 2011 and 2016 tests, 6MS, and the eng pro guides study guide and test.  I thought the morning and afternoon were about the same difficulty.  Maybe I was just less nervous in the afternoon.  I did feel like I got in a rhythm in the afternoon and blazed through a bunch, so maybe that was it.  There were a few very specific things on the test that I hadn't seen at all in my studies, but I skipped them, came back to them at the end, and was able to locate most of them with the MERM index and figure them out (I think) on the fly.  

I've been out of school 7 years and haven't done a lot of engineering calculations in that time.  The first two years were in a coal-fired power plant and the past 5 have been in combined cycle.  I was worried that might be a hindrance, but I think there were a lot of problems where it was more helpful to have a knowledge of practical applications instead of having the theory and formulas memorized.

 

[enfinity]

Any repeat test-takers?

Wondering if the April exam was easier/harder than the October one (Especially for TFS)

 

[Philscrimp]

Any repeat test-takers?

Wondering if the April exam was easier/harder than the October one (Especially for TFS)

As i was taking the exam, I was telling myself that the April exam didn't seem this tough...But, i didn't get to all of the questions on the morning or afternoon session in April. I tried the whole take you time approach, but I was inefficient in looking up conversions and formulas and it hurt me in the long run

 

[enfinity]

As i was taking the exam, I was telling myself that the April exam didn't seem this tough...But, i didn't get to all of the questions on the morning or afternoon session in April. I tried the whole take you time approach, but I was inefficient in looking up conversions and formulas and it hurt me in the long run

TFS?

Lol, but it does seem like you're saying this October one was tougher at first glance.

I looked back on some old threads and it also seemed that October ones tended to seem harder than April ones for some reason.  Probably just a coincidence.

 

[Philscrimp]

TFS?

Lol, but it does seem like you're saying this October one was tougher at first glance.

I looked back on some old threads and it also seemed that October ones tended to seem harder than April ones for some reason.  Probably just a coincidence.

Yeah, TFS...First thought was that October was tougher than April. But, I think i did a lot better this time around...Maybe because I partially knew what to expect.

 

[Slay the P.E.]

I understand that unit conversions are crucial to engineering, but working through this test(TFS)  I felt like the test was more guided toward the ability to do unit conversions than your knowledge of engineering principles. Anyone else feel that way?

I am convinced that one of the biggest hindrances to success with the PE exam is indeed being sloppy with units (NEVER write a number down without its units) and also, not practicing unit conversions to become quick at it. 

Additionally, be mindful of the units you are required to answer in. Through your calculations, you might arrive at an answer of 0.5 feet, but the question might have been something like:

... the required thickness (inches) is most nearly:

(A) 0.5

(B) 4.0

(C) 6.0

(7) 8.0

If you’re not careful you might choose (A); 0.5 — because it’s the number you got in your calculations, however in this case the correct answer would be (C). This is unfortunate, but it happens. You might have the concept down cold, but can still get the answer “wrong”.

 

[Ramnares P.E.]

One of the first things I learned in undergrad was never write down numbers without applicable units and to be careful to do units analysis.

 

[enfinity]

I recall when I took a practice exam I messed up 3 or so answers simply on unit conversions.  After that I beat it into my head to make sure I answer in the correct units.

For the actual test on friday, I would underline, box, triple underline (lol) the units that the question asked for.  I made sure to finish the problem and then check that it was the correct units, I didn't want to be burned on stupid stuff like that again for the real thing.

 

[BeefyAmericanMachoMan]

Dudes.  This test was definitely harder, but only in that the questions were different.  The concepts were the same.  It was annoying that you had to spend more time thinking about the problem to get a grasp on it.

 

[BeefyAmericanMachoMan]

TFS taker here.  I thought it was a little harder than the NCEES practice tests, but not a lot.  I studied the 2011 and 2016 tests, 6MS, and the eng pro guides study guide and test.  I thought the morning and afternoon were about the same difficulty.  Maybe I was just less nervous in the afternoon.  I did feel like I got in a rhythm in the afternoon and blazed through a bunch, so maybe that was it.  There were a few very specific things on the test that I hadn't seen at all in my studies, but I skipped them, came back to them at the end, and was able to locate most of them with the MERM index and figure them out (I think) on the fly.  

I've been out of school 7 years and haven't done a lot of engineering calculations in that time.  The first two years were in a coal-fired power plant and the past 5 have been in combined cycle.  I was worried that might be a hindrance, but I think there were a lot of problems where it was more helpful to have a knowledge of practical applications instead of having the theory and formulas memorized.

I agree with you.  It was harder, but concepts and theory was the same.  However, I don't like that so many questions were over XXXXX as much because most people in engineering jobs do not perform those calculations.  It's a very specific industry.  It would be like if I made a test over gas compression in the oil and gas industry for midstream and well head applications.  Most people would not get it event though we all learned the concepts in college.

 

[BeefyAmericanMachoMan]

I took the TFS exam and I too think that the AM one was much better than the PM. I also agree that NCEES practice exam was way easier than the real thing. Anybody took the exam in Houston?

 

I did.  Proctor needed a xanex.