One year ago...

[Matt-NM]

I took the mechanical PE in April of 2008. By the grace of God I passed. Now looking back, finding out that I passed was one of the happiest days in my life. I sometimes have nightmares about having to go through the study and exam process again. Waking up knowing that it's over is a great feeling.

So basically what I am trying to accomplish here is to give a little motivation to those who are preparing for the exam in April and are probably at the point of complete burnout. I know the feeling all to well. Do everything in your power to pass this time! It's only a month away. It will be here before you know it.

These have been written a thousand times before, but here are a few things that really helped me prepare for the exam...

1. Take simulated 8 hour exams with the conditions as close to real exam conditions as possible. There are always things that seem to sneak up that can be revealed through these simulated exams.

2. Take care of all the non-technical stuff way in advance. Where is the test taking place, where will you eat lunch, where are the bathrooms, how will you carry your books, what time do you need to leave your house in the morning, do you have your exam entry sheet and ID? Any oversight on items that seem as simple as these can make for a bad day.

3. Review all material. Information studied in January will not be familiar at the end of April.

4. Have your tabbing method for MERM, or CERM or whatever test you are taking, done well in advance so that you can practice with it and make adjustments if necessary. Remember, time is the main factor.

5. Know how you are going to approach the exam. Are you going to work the problems in order or are you going to go through and rate them as difficult, easy, etc. Practice this in advance so as not to waste time on the exam trying it for the first time.

6. Study engineering economics! I spent about three hours working problems in the economics section of MERM and it saved me. There were probably six economics problems on the exam that required knowledge of the economics principles, as opposed to those on the NCEES practice exam that required only simple multplication.

7. Take time off from work if at all possible. Any extra time you can spend studying can really make a difference. I took the whole last week off from work. This really helped. It gave me extra study time as well as time to completely organize everything. It also ensured that nothing new entered my mind that could potentially be a distraction (i.e, new project, bad boss, coworker problems, etc).

8. Prepare for bad exam room conditions. My table was about a foot too tall! Thus my books were just under my chin. I hated this. The table was also skinny which meant that I could be only one deep on books. It was definitely a far cry from the table I used during studying.

I guess this is enough for now. Best of luck to everybody.

 

[buick455]

I took the exam last fall and started studying in January for April and I am more than burned out. To top it off the Fall and Spring are the busiest times at work and we are swamped so no possibility to take time off to study. I am just hopping I do not have to start working weekends until after the exam. It just happened that two days after taking the exam in the Fall I had to go on a 7 day a week stint for 4 weeks so I got lucky.

 

[bph]

Thanks Matt.

I will be making my first attempt this April. I have only been studying for 2 weeks so far, because I was notified late and also I didn't find the time. I have a study plan that is very aggressive and tuned to my depth (machine design) but it doesn't lave much time for Thermo, fluids or HVAC (just a quick review). This board has help me organize and make an efficient study plan. Thanks for reviewing the important points.

BPH

 

[chaocl]

Matt-NM, which mechanical afternoon part did you pick at that time? Did you take your mechanical PE test in New Mexico?

I plan to have my PE mechanical taking in CA @ Oct, 2009. Correct me if I am wrong. I am deciding which afternoon part of mechanical should I pick. I heard that machine design should be ok because you just need MERM and some reference books where you can look for your answer faster in the exam. HVAC will need a lot of reference books and you need to familiar which book as well. Theremal and fluid have a lot of suprise questions and my friend told me not to take it.

 

[Brentum]

Ack!

I'd just typed out a long post and got an error when submitting and lost it! Ack!

I'm not going to type all of that again, so I'll be very brief.

I studied for about 120 hours and must have passed by the skin of my teeth. I think 120-150 is probably average for most. Some do more. If you are a lot less, then you'll probably need to put some more in.

Do a 8-hour practice exam 4-6 weeks before the test. This will light a fire under your butt when you crash and burn (like it did for me), and it will leave you enough time to get cracking and shore up your weak spots.

You studying should be 50/50 or 40/60 reading/practice problems. You can't -just- read, but there's a fair amount of short calculation and non-quantitative problems in there. And each one of those counts the same as the long thermo-cycle one.

MANAGE YOUR TIME! I didn't and was lucky I survived. on mine they front loaded the longer calculation problems which bogged me down and wasted a lot of time. Then there were a fair amount of easier non-quantitative and short calculation problems towards the end which are fairly easy, but you'll have to guess on them if you are out of time (like I did).

Go through and do all the non-quantitative and short calculation problems first. Then all the longer calculation problems that you feel pretty sure you know. Then you can spend the rest of the time plowing through all the ones you don't know.

It's not the problems you don't know that will kill you, but the problems that you -sorta- know. They'll bog you down and waste lots of time.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[Dleg]

Good advice!

I have what seems like a petty piece of advice to add, but looking back over 2 years now to when I took the test, this is really one of my strongest memories of the actual exam experience:

Drink water! Don't dehydrate yourself just to avoid bathroom time. I ended up with a dehydration headache that set in at around 2:30 p.m., and not only distracted me during the last portion of the exam, but also ruined my post-exam drinking. Like I said, this is the memory that sticks in my head more than anything about exam day (of course, this is said from the comfort of being a PE now - during those first two months after the exam, i was worried about a lot more than how I felt after the exam).

 

[Matt-NM]

chaocl

I chose machine design depth because I had no experience in either of the other two. I have heard that many people use this choosing "technique" as well. HVAC, I believe, is for people who have had a decent amount of HVAC design experience and are familiar with the HVAC handbooks. I actually hear that the HVAC depth is the easiest, if you have HVAC experience, which I did not. The same goes for thermo/fluids. I have heard many people choosing this depth without experience in the field and not doing well. I think the breadth questions in these subjects are difficult enough.

Now as far as machine design is concerned, i'm not saying that I do this type of thing every day but felt that I had the best chance here. After browsing through MERM, it seemed like this material was going to come back to me the easiest. Back in school I had no HVAC, 1 fluids class, and 2 thermo classes. On the other hand I, like everybody else, had statics, mechanics of materials, dynamics, vibrations, machine design, design of mechanisms, etc. Thus, I felt like I had a better backround for the machine design depth. I actually was catching on, I thought, to the fluids and thermo problems about a month away from the PE. Thus I considered changing my depth. Then I started doing some of the more difficult cycle problems and quickly put any thought of changing behind me. I think having a good grasp of the thermo/fluids problems will be very helpful for the breadth problems. But doing the depth portion on the exam I think will be very difficult if you haven't looked at this type of problem since college.

Hope this helps. Good luck! Sorry for the delay.

 

[Matt-NM]

chaocl

Yes I did take it in New Mexico.