Sharing Computer Based Exam (CBT) experience - PE Mechanical Engineering

[Mecha]

oh good luck!
my exam is this week. will share experience when done

 

[FA_Mechanical engineer]

Good luck to you as well. Please, do share your experience and the discipline you are taking the exam in?

 

[Mecha]

Just wanted to share PE exam experience with all of you. I took the exam last week and just heard back from NCEES that I have passed.

1. Overall difficulty level? Medium

2. Question outside the NCEES reference manual? If yes difficulty level. - Yes, a lot of questions from ASHRAE books which will require common sense and little understanding of how HVAC & Refrigeration system work.

3. Best practice problem book to be used for CBT based on the difficulty level? For eg. PPI Mechanical engineering practice problem, 14th edition, NCEES practice exam etc. - I have prioritize the practice books for CBT, please see below:

a. NCEES practice problems (MUST!!!! Can not emphasize it enough) Exams problems are based on same concepts as published in the NCEES Book

b. Practice problems by Engg Pro Guides

c. Final Exam by Engg Pro Guides

d. MERM is definitely required to go through all the fundamentals. I did not use it a lot as I took FE Exam last October, so fundamentals were all fresh in my mind.

4. When did you get the test results? 6 days.

@FA_Mechanical engineerGood Luck!!

 

[BuffaloWings]

@Mecha

Thank you for the information. Do you have any tips or suggestions on time saving techniques when taking the CBT Exam. Obviously, the more you formulas that you don’t need to look up in the Reference Manual the more time you will save. 

 

[FA_Mechanical engineer]

 @Mecha

CONRATULATIONS!!! I am glad you passed the exam. How many questions in the exam were there which does not require any calculations at all? Just curious.

 

[Jonnybgood]

Greetings & thank you to @FA_Mechanical engineer for starting this thread. Also, congrats to those of you ( @gregp  , @mechengineer1213 , @Mecha , etc) that have already taken the CBT and passed!

Main question I have for those of you that have taken it: There are a lot of properties that called for MERM, steam tables, and other references. Generally, were the specific material/component/fluid properties needed for specific questions within that specific question or did they need to be referenced back to the provided electronic handbook? A lot of the practice problems (currently 6 Min Problems) I am working use properties that are not in the handbook at all. But I assume these have to be provided for the CBT - just wondering if it is more prevalent for them to be provided in specific questions or only in the handbook. 

I took TFS April '19 with minimal studying and did not pass. I started studying for the October '19 exam but due to a hurricane on the Gulf Coast and other personal obligations decided to postpone and take my chances with the CBT. I started Dr. Tom's in October '19 and really like the format, but feel there is a lot that you need to cover/practice on your own. For that reason I am focusing on working and understanding as many different types of problems that I can find . Currently working Deckler's 6 Min Problems from PPI and plan to go back to NCEES practice problems thereafter. Also considering working Slay the PE problems in as there seems to be good reviews based on this Forum Board. Any thoughts on study tactics or suggested material appreciated as well !

Only big issue I have with CBT is I personally like printed material that I can feel, make notes on, organize/categorize, etc. I am a bit worried about the CBT for this reason. That and of course the security blanket of reference material!

 

[MAHMOOD ASLAM QUMMAR]

I appeared for the PE HVAC exam on  Saturday, I got result today and I passed. Exam was technical with wrinkles. Morning section was easy. Need deep study and knowledge of codes , controls and practical knowledge. Main point is, no need to panic. Skip first three economics questions and go directly to easy questions of psychometrics. At the end of the session you need to come back and solve all skipped questions. Please make sure to prepare to get all 80 questions right. In that way you will hunt the exam easily. But if your preparation is only for to achieve the goal of 70%, it will hurt you brutally. 

 

[FA_Mechanical engineer]

@MAHMOOD ASLAM QUMMAR    Congrats!!! Mahmood on passing the HVAC & R exam. Any additional feedback on preparation for the exam would be helpful. I would like to know which study material you used to practice for the exam. Which areas you focused the most and which practice tests you completed as a part of the exam preparation?

 

[MAHMOOD ASLAM QUMMAR]

MERM, 6 minutes problems, NCEES practice test, Engineering pro-guide study guide and practice test. PPI preparation course. Most important to study the MERM at least 4 time and Engineering pro-guide’s study guide thrice. Need to clear the concept. Need to study the control systems and vibration  and acoustics From ASHRAE. 

 

[justin-hawaii]

Congratulations @MAHMOOD ASLAM QUMMAR and everyone else who passed.  

I am posting some information from one of our students in our HVAC class who took the exam a couple of weeks ago and passed.  I thought the part about the format of the exam was very interesting.  Our student lost some time on the second half of the exam because he didn't know how long it would take to get checked back into the afternoon portion of the exam, please see below.  I also thought the information on drawing lines in the PDF was interesting.

"If you feel good about the NCEES practice exam and the 6-minute problems practice exam you should do fine on the test. Both of those were of similar difficulty and format as the official test. I actually think the Engineering Pro Guides final exam is harder than the official test I took. If you understand psychrometrics, vapor compression cycle, the lever rule, mass balance and the Bernoulli equation you will be in good shape. I think it's important not to second guess yourself on problems. My advice is to read the whole problem twice and really think about what it's asking before jumping into calculations.

The test format itself was pretty straight forward. You get a 24 inch computer monitor, on the left side is the NCEES reference manual and the exam is on the right side. The reference manual is searchable and has the same bookmark tabs as the one you download to study with. One thing I wish I knew is you can draw as many lines as you want on the reference manual but you can only delete 10 lines, which is really stupid I think. I ended up with 11 lines at one time and couldn't get rid of the last one so I had a random line on my psych chart for like half of the test which was annoying. The line drawing tool draws black lines that are only slightly more bold than the lines on the psycho chart so be careful that you are reading the correct line.

The testing center staff were very serious about security and hand hygiene. I had to use hand sanitizer like 10 times before I sat at my testing station. They will make you wear a mask the entire time your testing. You will have 37 problems in the morning session and 43 in the afternoon. I couldn't tell a difference in the difficulty between morning and afternoon problems. You have to complete and submit the 37 morning questions before taking lunch, you will not be able to go back to those problems after lunch.

You get to choose when to take your 50 minute lunch break. You will not get a break before or after lunch, if you need to use the bathroom the clock will continue ticking away while your gone. If you arrive back from lunch after 50 minutes have elapsed the clock will start without you. It took the exam staff like 10 minutes to check me and a few other testers back in after lunch and I lost like 4 minutes from my time which was annoying. I recommend bringing a sack lunch, I would hate to be stressed waiting for food. Give yourself plenty of time to be checked back into the test."

 

[Tiger15]

Congratulations @MAHMOOD ASLAM QUMMAR and everyone else who passed.  

I am posting some information from one of our students in our HVAC class who took the exam a couple of weeks ago and passed.  I thought the part about the format of the exam was very interesting.  Our student lost some time on the second half of the exam because he didn't know how long it would take to get checked back into the afternoon portion of the exam, please see below.  I also thought the information on drawing lines in the PDF was interesting.

"If you feel good about the NCEES practice exam and the 6-minute problems practice exam you should do fine on the test. Both of those were of similar difficulty and format as the official test. I actually think the Engineering Pro Guides final exam is harder than the official test I took. If you understand psychrometrics, vapor compression cycle, the lever rule, mass balance and the Bernoulli equation you will be in good shape. I think it's important not to second guess yourself on problems. My advice is to read the whole problem twice and really think about what it's asking before jumping into calculations.

The test format itself was pretty straight forward. You get a 24 inch computer monitor, on the left side is the NCEES reference manual and the exam is on the right side. The reference manual is searchable and has the same bookmark tabs as the one you download to study with. One thing I wish I knew is you can draw as many lines as you want on the reference manual but you can only delete 10 lines, which is really stupid I think. I ended up with 11 lines at one time and couldn't get rid of the last one so I had a random line on my psych chart for like half of the test which was annoying. The line drawing tool draws black lines that are only slightly more bold than the lines on the psycho chart so be careful that you are reading the correct line.

The testing center staff were very serious about security and hand hygiene. I had to use hand sanitizer like 10 times before I sat at my testing station. They will make you wear a mask the entire time your testing. You will have 37 problems in the morning session and 43 in the afternoon. I couldn't tell a difference in the difficulty between morning and afternoon problems. You have to complete and submit the 37 morning questions before taking lunch, you will not be able to go back to those problems after lunch.

You get to choose when to take your 50 minute lunch break. You will not get a break before or after lunch, if you need to use the bathroom the clock will continue ticking away while your gone. If you arrive back from lunch after 50 minutes have elapsed the clock will start without you. It took the exam staff like 10 minutes to check me and a few other testers back in after lunch and I lost like 4 minutes from my time which was annoying. I recommend bringing a sack lunch, I would hate to be stressed waiting for food. Give yourself plenty of time to be checked back into the test."

That's really weird that it's 37 and 43. That almost sounds like an error. All the rest of it sounds exactly like the old paper base exam. Except that everyone starts and ends at the same time both morning and afternoon. So you don't get to choose your lunch time it's after exactly 4 hours.

 

[justin-hawaii]

My theory as to why there is an uneven amount of problems between the AM and PM session is that the first half includes the Basic Eng Practice (4-6), Thermo (4-6), Psych (7-11), Fluids(3-5), Heat Transfer(6-9), Energy/Mass Balance(4-6) and Heating/Cooling Loads(7-11).  The second half includes HVAC Systems(16-24), HVAC Equipment(16-24) and Supportive Knowledge(3-5).  

Based on the outline, there is a range of the possible number of problems for the 1st half and second half.  Assuming this is how the exam is split up.  

AM Session:  35 to 54 possible problems  [Basic Eng Practice (4-6), Thermo (4-6), Psych (7-11), Fluids(3-5), Heat Transfer(6-9), Energy/Mass Balance(4-6) and Heating/Cooling Loads(7-11)]

PM Session:  35 to 53 possible problems [HVAC Systems(16-24), HVAC Equipment(16-24) and Supportive Knowledge(3-5)]

So this means that 37 problems on the AM session and 43 on the PM session is possible.  

 

[JG3]

I just took the T&F CBT Exam last week. Hopefully this will help others with the black box that is this test currently.

1. Overall difficulty level?

Easy/Medium. My best description of the test is "tedious". The number of unit conversions will whittle you down faster than the actual difficulty of knowledge depth behind the problems. I had enough time to review all the questions with an hour to spare at the end. If you know the key search words and the main unit conversion factors that you'll use 40 times, you should have plenty of time to think through the difficult problems.

2. Question outside the NCEES reference manual? If yes difficulty level.

Pretty much all of these related to theory. They were simply "you know it or you don't" as someone else has said. I'd argue that most of them would be relevant to practical field experience rather than theoretical (book) knowledge. There was a certain formula on the exam (for one question) that is in the handbook for a quantitative problem, but the handbook is missing a portion of the explanation on how to get one of the values.

3. Best practice problem book to be used for CBT based on the difficulty level?

NCEES Practice Exam. It was spot on for difficulty and length. My first run through of the practice of exam and the actual exam were almost identical in time and confidence in answers.

Btw, I wrote my review of the PPI system (MERM, PP, Learning hub) here:



4. When did you get the test results?

Still waiting. Still a few days til a week. I'm a little concerned with how the test will be curved moving forward.

Some additional info that I think will help future takers with expectations:

1. The erasable booklet was pretty much the perfect length for each half of the exam for me (filled up an entire booklet for each half of the exam. Swapped out for a new one at halftime without losing any time.). I typically would write out all the knowns for each problem along with a diagram when needed, which takes up considerable space. I was worried going in, but I don't think anyone should have any problems. I will say that they didn't provide me any materials to actually erase the marker for errors, so that did almost run me out of space on the second half of the exam.
   
2. Psychrometric chart tool - worked pretty well. Mine actually had a bug where I had under 10 lines (I think i had 3), and one wouldn't erase. I reported to NCEES, but they didn't seem to take me seriously.
   
3. I had no access to the table of contents from the handbook during my exam. This was a BIG issue as I had to shred through the search function. Reported this to NCEES as well. Not sure if anyone else had this issue.
   
4. AM and PM sections seemed relatively the same, with the PM having 3 or 4 longer/harder questions. The knowledge areas seemed mixed together to me (no dedicated split), but that's still a little blurry.
   
5. I used bluebeam during studying for the handbook. For some reason, bluebeam doesn't read the data in the 1.1 handbook for searches. One example of this is having to spell "affiinity" as "afinity" in bluebeam search to pull up results. However, the search function in the Pearson Vue center seemed to work very well (didn't have to intentionally misspell anything to receive results).
   

 

[FA_Mechanical engineer]

Thanks for your input JG3. Your detailed feedback on the CBT experience seems to be fairly accurate and valuable for the test takers. Like other test takers in HVAC & R and Thermal Fluid Systems (TFS), your feedback does match fairly well and help the test takers to prepare better for the CBT environment.

Thanks again and good luck with your test results!!!   

 

[DaisyD]

JG3, Thank you for the feedback! I’m appalled that the table of contents didn’t work for you...that’s pretty major for making things go quickly during the search, did NCEES respond, and did you ask the Vue Pearson staff if this could be fixed? All the best for your test results!

 

[martiansoldier]

JG3 - Thank you for the review and hope you were successful. Am I right in assuming that the timer starts with 8 hours remaining and does not have a cut off between te morning and afternoon sessions, i.e., you don't necessarily get exactly 6 minutes per question for say 40 questions in the morning session, but get the whole 8 hours that you have to manage appropriately to be able to finish the whole exam within the given time regardless of when you take the break?

 

[martiansoldier]

My theory as to why there is an uneven amount of problems between the AM and PM session is that the first half includes the Basic Eng Practice (4-6), Thermo (4-6), Psych (7-11), Fluids(3-5), Heat Transfer(6-9), Energy/Mass Balance(4-6) and Heating/Cooling Loads(7-11).  The second half includes HVAC Systems(16-24), HVAC Equipment(16-24) and Supportive Knowledge(3-5).  

Based on the outline, there is a range of the possible number of problems for the 1st half and second half.  Assuming this is how the exam is split up.  

AM Session:  35 to 54 possible problems  [Basic Eng Practice (4-6), Thermo (4-6), Psych (7-11), Fluids(3-5), Heat Transfer(6-9), Energy/Mass Balance(4-6) and Heating/Cooling Loads(7-11)]

PM Session:  35 to 53 possible problems [HVAC Systems(16-24), HVAC Equipment(16-24) and Supportive Knowledge(3-5)]

So this means that 37 problems on the AM session and 43 on the PM session is possible.  

Would you know at the start of the test that you will have a certain number of questions in the AM and the rest in the afternoon or would you only find out when you complete approximately 40 questions when a break is offered?

 

[FA_Mechanical engineer]

I have no doubt in my mind that you can actually see how many questions you have in the morning session and in the afternoon session. You can also skip questions and come back to answer them in a later time. I also think once you complete the morning session, you would be prompted to take a scheduled break and need to get back to the afternoon session after you are done with the break.

 

[santy]

Hello folks,

I took the MD&M CBT Exam last week. Here is my experience about the exam and its preparation.

I gave my FE Mechanical Exam on December 2019. I received the results as “Passed” within 4 days of the exam. I knew I would pass this one easily. Couple weeks after the completion of FE exam, some how I thought it would be a good idea to start preparing for PE as well, as I was eligible. I discussed this idea with one of my co-workers who passed his PE exam October 2019. He suggested me to wait atleast 1-1.5 years and get a feedback about the new CBT exam from other test takers before I give it a shot. He had a point, but somehow I felt that I should start preparing early since a lot of concepts were still fresh in my mind from FE preparation. Also I read from several reviews that PE preparation is much more exhaustive and is time demanding compared to FE. So finally after a lot of thought, I said it to myself “Lets do it and see what happens”.

PE Preparation : I was clear my focus would be MD&M as I have been working on the Mechanical Testing for 9 years now. I started self preparing in January of this year. I studied for 2 hrs early morning every day before I went to my work and weekends as well. I started with MERM and studied in the order listed in the NCEES topics for this exam. I bought the updated MERM and MEPP book from ppi. 
For the AM topics, I felt studying from MERM was sufficient (with the exception of couple topics). For the PM topics, Shigley is the best. MERM is ok. I also bought the Pro Engg guides study material and felt that it is much more concise and easier to study because of the order and the depth to which the topics are laid out and how well it is connected to the PE Reference Manual. I must certainly appreciate Justin for his efforts on coming out with this book for the CBT format.
This exam is all about application of problems and concepts. The more and the variety of problems you do, the higher are the chances of passing. I did problems from MERM, MEPP, Six Minute solutions, Pro Engg Guides, PE Review by Kennedy and all quizzes from ppi learning hub. I tried to reference the concept used on every problem I worked on to the PE reference manual. 5 months into my preparation, I got completely familiar with the reference manual.

Practice Exams : 1 month before the exam, I started giving timed exams. I started with NCEES Exam followed by Ppi exams, Pro Engg guide exam, PE Exam by Hart and Klein. I got >80% in all these exams. I thoroughly reviewed the concept of every problem from every exam I took.

The Actual Exam : My exam had a question split of 38-42. There is no set time for every question. After you submit first half of the exam, you get an optional 50 minute break which does not count in the 8 hr time provided. You can take as much time as you need for the first half. Obviously, the remaining time is for the second half of the exam.

For me, I can say with full certainity that the exam was much harder than the NCEES Practice exam and Pro engg guide practice exam. It is slightly easier than Klein and Hart exam and close to the difficulty of the 2 ppi exams.

The first half of my exam wasn’t a good start for me as my first 6-7 questions tanked. I lost confidence, may be because of my nervousness. It took 1 hr into the exam until I started feeling little confident. Some questions were ok, some moderate. There were a decent number of questions that ripped me apart inspite of my exhaustive preparation and paying attention to the units. They were longer and harder. I took ~ 4:30 hrs for the first haIf. I knew I was not managing time well, but I decided to submit with a moderate confidence level. I was left with ~3.5 hrs and 42 questions. I was only confident of 20-24 questions out of 38 questions in the first half. 

Second half started well and I breezed through the problems. The difficulty level was moderate but I didnt have to come back to any question/s. I finished and submitted all 42 questions within 3 hrs with 30 min to spare. Overall, I walked out of the exam confidently.

I received the results within a week. I passed.
Overall, I must say that folks at NCEES are masters at framing the questions. Know the reference manual well. Practise as many variety of problems as possible during preparation. Please pay close attention to the units ( I might have navigated to the units page of the manual atleast 40 times). For quantitative questions, read the entire question and diagram properly. Please think carefully about what is being asked in a question. I had diagrams for most of the questions (both quantitative and qualitative). For the qualitative type questions, either you know them or you dont.

Others folks who gave the exam might have similar or different experience/s. I apologize for the lengthy post, but if you have any question/s related to preparation or CBT exam format in general, I will be glad to answer. Best of luck to all the future test takers.

 

[martiansoldier]

Overall, I must say that folks at NCEES are masters at framing the questions.

Tell me about it!

I took the TFS exam last Friday and received my results today, and I'm thrilled to have passed.

Having been out of school for several years, I did not think until late last year that I would one day take the P.E. exam, but I did and I am glad I did.

I started my preparation in late January after signing up with Dr. Tom's Classroom, which was highly recommended by 3 of my coworkers. Dr. Tom's course also requires working problems from the NCEES Practice Exam. I did not use any other material to prepare, but after the exam, I felt that the exam problems were at a much higher level than the DTC coursework and the NCEES practice problems. Nevertheless, as it turns out now, what I did was sufficient.

I spent a total of about 23 weeks preparing, which included 18 weeks to get through the 20 week planned coursework, a couple of weeks of intermittent reviews and 3 weeks of final review. Each week included about 25 hours of preparation (I was literally starting from zero theoretical knowledge). I thought the DTC coursework was very well structured for someone who has no clue where to begin and for anyone considering taking a course, I would highly recommend DTC.

The exam itself was super tedious. Wearing a mask was mandatory, but wasn't necessarily strictly monitored. My morning session had 37 questions for which I decided to give myself 3 hours and 40 minutes. I was able to get through most of the questions in less than 3 hours and spend the next 40 minutes trying to work problems that I had skipped or flagged. I took my break at that point and returned after a 40 minute break only to lose 6-8 minutes trying to get a pen that would write on the erasable booklet. The questions in the afternoon needed more time to work and some of them kept me spinning in circles with the way they were framed. There were some that looked very similar to the NCEES Practice exam, just twice as twisted. In my opinion, the difficulty level for the morning 37 questions was medium and the afternoon felt more like medium/hard with a couple of easy questions here and there. I had a fair amount of "Alternate Item Type" questions which I hated and most of those, you either knew based on your field of work or you didn't. To my surprise however, despite several questions seeming like curve balls, I managed to stay calm throughout the whole exam and I think this definitely played to my favor. Towards the end of my 8 hours, I still had several flagged questions and didn't manage to review them all. So, I walked out a bit low on confidence but high on hope and needless to say, hope prevailed.

Like others have mentioned, it is important to know how to navigate the Reference Handbook and the number you unit conversions throughout the exam will indeed wear you out. Also, be prepared for some questions that are unrelated to the Reference Handbook and I'd say Dr. Tom did a good job on some of these, which certainly helped me.

I too apologize for the lengthy post, but I hope some of you find it helpful and good luck to future test takers!