What reference material did you use to prepare for the exam, i'm planning on sitting in October 2019 ME TFS exam. Any Advice?
The ones who passed tell us how you did.
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EngrPaper
In experience purgatory
For TFS, I brought MERM, Cameron's Hydraulic Data, Cengel and Boles Thermo (for metric steam tables in kPa), Incropera and Dewitt Heat Transfer, NCEES and Lindburgh practice exams, and I think Shigley's Machine Design as insurance just in case. All of that was plenty for me.
john813_PE
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Personally I found NCEES practice exam(s), and the ENG PRO GUIDES to be the most similar to the test. I used six minute solutions and Slay the P.E. for deeper dives into concepts I struggled with. I had the MERM practice problems book and didn't open it one time so not sure if it would have been useful or not. There is a ton of resources on the TFS specific forum that I would recommend taking a look at!
Cheers and good luck!
which edition of cameron's hydraulic data did you get? 18th edition? Im looking for a good hydraulic & fluid equipment book, was this useful?
EngrPaper
In experience purgatory
I think its the latest edition, but I've had it for a couple years now so I am not sure off the top of my head. I used Cameron's primarily for valve flow coefficients, which it is great for. In real life, Cameron's is great for pump details and piping systems. But for the exam, the MERM had everything useful for hydraulic equipment. No need to break the bank if you've got other resources on hand.
This is true, I got the merm, i looked at a pdf version of the cameron's book and it had some good information I see what you mean. I'm just trying to gather up as much good practice question sources i can. I will just work questions for review and build a library of references as i go. So you said, you use NCEES and both linderburgh practice exam questions, right?
EngrPaper
In experience purgatory
I did use both practice exams. The NCEES practice exam I thought was representative of the difficulty of the actual exam and Lindburgh required more effort. L's practice exam required more table lookups and doesn't give as many properties as the NCEES practice exam. Its good practice, but does make the timing more difficult. Before sitting for the exam, I was getting around 90-95% on the NCEES exam and high 70s/low 80s on Lindburgh. I didn't do any other practice exams or review courses.
GR8 PLUMENG
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ME-HVAC: I was a repeat taker so I didnt really focus on studying concepts. I felt pretty confident I knew the material. I focused mostly on practice problems.
Materials for the Test:
ME Reference Manual printed and Tabbed.
MERM
Engproguides Full Test and Reference Manual (Very Helpful)
Slay PE - Psychrometrics and Basic HVAC System Calculations for the HVAC&R Exam
NCEES HVAC Exam (2016) and Six Min Solution.
I worked those problems 10 problems at a time. I think I went through both books probably twice.
Engproguides has 80 Questions. I focused on the areas I had difficulty.
Morning part was easy. I think I had about 1 hr left with about 2 or 3 questions I just didnt wanna be bothered with. So I guessed those, and spent the rest of the time going over, making sure I actually bubbled in the correct answer.
Afternoon was a bit challenging. But I managed to be done with an hour left. The key is to do so many problems that it becomes easy.
Materials for the Test:
ME Reference Manual printed and Tabbed.
MERM
Engproguides Full Test and Reference Manual (Very Helpful)
Slay PE - Psychrometrics and Basic HVAC System Calculations for the HVAC&R Exam
NCEES HVAC Exam (2016) and Six Min Solution.
I worked those problems 10 problems at a time. I think I went through both books probably twice.
Engproguides has 80 Questions. I focused on the areas I had difficulty.
Morning part was easy. I think I had about 1 hr left with about 2 or 3 questions I just didnt wanna be bothered with. So I guessed those, and spent the rest of the time going over, making sure I actually bubbled in the correct answer.
Afternoon was a bit challenging. But I managed to be done with an hour left. The key is to do so many problems that it becomes easy.
JustTryingToHelp
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Passed 1st time. Civil Transportation. Took SOPE for review. They were good for the AM but not so much for the PM portions.
In the AM portion, I felt very confident on 27 of them and the ramaining 10 were educated guesses (mostly concert questions) and 3 were a stab.
in the PM portion. Felt confident on 22 of them, had educated guesses on about 13 of them, and had to stab on 5.
With all this being said, I thought for sure I failed after leaving the exam and I ended up passing. Another guy on a different post thought for sure he passed and he failed.
If you failed, keep your head up and dive deep into the depth portion of the exam for next time. From what I’ve seen, most people do well in the AM portion and then get killed in the PM portion.
good luck!!!
In the AM portion, I felt very confident on 27 of them and the ramaining 10 were educated guesses (mostly concert questions) and 3 were a stab.
in the PM portion. Felt confident on 22 of them, had educated guesses on about 13 of them, and had to stab on 5.
With all this being said, I thought for sure I failed after leaving the exam and I ended up passing. Another guy on a different post thought for sure he passed and he failed.
If you failed, keep your head up and dive deep into the depth portion of the exam for next time. From what I’ve seen, most people do well in the AM portion and then get killed in the PM portion.
good luck!!!
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Can't believe I passed Civil Transportation! I took the PPI course offered by local NSPE chapter. The instructors were all local and helped a lot, but the course material wasn't really detailed in my opinion. I also canceled a trip to Hawaii for my friend's wedding and stay at home to study more.
I am pretty much on the same boat as @JustTryingToHelp when I walked out of the room. AM I should get around 25, educated guess 7-8 and at least 6-7 were foreign to me so I put down all Cs for Civil. For PM I spent 3:15 hours doing 25 questions and left myself 45 minutes for 15 questions. I probably got all those 15 wrong (putting As on 10 of them in the last minute) but I think the 25 questions that I spent most of my time on were mostly correct. So that gave me 30 AM + 25 PM = 55 Total estimate.
I also echoed @goldpanner's point on time management as I was probably lucky to be able to pull it off. Bringing a watch and set the stopwatch is a must.
About a month ago before the exam I were still debating if I should purchase all the manuals and guidelines listed. Coincidentally I sat next to a guy during a conference (same location as the exam lol) that he suggested me to do a search on the public library website. Guess what... I was able to borrow the Roadside Design Guide, MUTCD actual book, AASHTO Green Book, and HCM 6th ed. I also found the HSM draft version online (from 2009) with very similar materials as the published HSM. And I did use all of them during the PM.
For everyone that didn't pass, maybe luck was't on your side this time. Keep believing in yourself and you will pass for sure!
Passed PE: Power - Recent graduate (May 2018) so math was all still fresh. Also, I like to read and have read 5 books on the topic since graduation: (2)Power Systems/(2)PE Study Guides/(1)Power Reference Manual
5 possible missed in the AM: 3 wrong + 2 guesses
3 possible missed in the PM: 3 guesses
Power System Analysis by Grainger (Author)
Electrical Engineer's Guide to Passing the Power PE Exam by A. S. Graffeo, PE
Power PE Technical Study Guide by Justin Kauwale, P.E.
Power Reference Manual for the Electrical and Computer PE Exam Second Edition, New Edition by Camara PE, John A
Machines book I had back from college - Forgot name/Author. - didn't reference it at all during exam
Used all of these as references, plus NEC, NESC, NFPA 70E, NCEES Practice Test, Power PE Practice Test, Power PE References Practice Test
5 possible missed in the AM: 3 wrong + 2 guesses
3 possible missed in the PM: 3 guesses
Power System Analysis by Grainger (Author)
Electrical Engineer's Guide to Passing the Power PE Exam by A. S. Graffeo, PE
Power PE Technical Study Guide by Justin Kauwale, P.E.
Power Reference Manual for the Electrical and Computer PE Exam Second Edition, New Edition by Camara PE, John A
Machines book I had back from college - Forgot name/Author. - didn't reference it at all during exam
Used all of these as references, plus NEC, NESC, NFPA 70E, NCEES Practice Test, Power PE Practice Test, Power PE References Practice Test
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omniware19
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PE: Electronic many many years out of school and luckily passed as 1st time taker, same for FE. Better very late than never and I figured that they won't have many years to collect my license fee either. The duration between my FE and PE was almost six months. After receiving the EIT certificate that took nearly two months to receive then I signed up for PE. Total of four months on preparation:
- NCEES PE practice exam - Do the test run on it first then verified the answers. Reviewed the materials that I failed. Spent hour or so each evening, few hours on weekend at my own pace. Two weeks before exam, did the test run again and refined the study. Stopped study two days before the exam to relax.
- FE reference handbook + FE review manual + anything I can find in the old books in my garage. I realized that through these years, physics has not changed. Circuit analysis is still analyzed the same way. Transistors have not changed a bit either. If that is the case, why having specific book is more helpful than the others ? The pain from the electric shock I got decade ago would produce the same pain I get today. The test is not about technology trend or latest research papers. It was about the same old fundamentals that we forgot. For those who failed, focus on the area of your weakness after you practiced the sample exams. Don't focus on study to pass the exam, instead focus on understanding the concept posed in the problems. If you study just to pass the test you will fail when the exam change as they always do. That is why many repeaters still fail. NCEES practice exam is the best material for us because it practically tell us what to expect, the level of difficulty and the type of questions. I saw peoples hauled so many of books with them and I was wondering if they rather spending time solving the problem than thumbing through their books. This was not a good sign. I too brought four books with me and probably spent no more than few minutes on them. I just felt guilty if I did not take them. They are not that useful. I should have taken only one reference book as I forgot to bring my lunch. I only had one bottle of water so I took the test starving. Now I got 6 minutes per problem. If I spent more than 3 minutes, then I realized that I wandered in the wrong path. I stopped. It appeared to me that they designed the test that way. The concept of the test is to gauge whether you know the subject or you don't. If you know, you can solve it under 1 minute instead of 6, 3 minutes max. I went through easy problems first, skipped if I did not how to solve it right away. When I revisited the old problems, I read and reread and understood what they asked for. The rule is not to solve it brute force, read the problems carefully. Some problems are straight some need to look in different angle. The information given in the problem is not always relevant. Maybe it is designed to throw you off course. I wish I knew my score, but I don't think it was more than 10 incorrect answers.
- NCEES PE practice exam - Do the test run on it first then verified the answers. Reviewed the materials that I failed. Spent hour or so each evening, few hours on weekend at my own pace. Two weeks before exam, did the test run again and refined the study. Stopped study two days before the exam to relax.
- FE reference handbook + FE review manual + anything I can find in the old books in my garage. I realized that through these years, physics has not changed. Circuit analysis is still analyzed the same way. Transistors have not changed a bit either. If that is the case, why having specific book is more helpful than the others ? The pain from the electric shock I got decade ago would produce the same pain I get today. The test is not about technology trend or latest research papers. It was about the same old fundamentals that we forgot. For those who failed, focus on the area of your weakness after you practiced the sample exams. Don't focus on study to pass the exam, instead focus on understanding the concept posed in the problems. If you study just to pass the test you will fail when the exam change as they always do. That is why many repeaters still fail. NCEES practice exam is the best material for us because it practically tell us what to expect, the level of difficulty and the type of questions. I saw peoples hauled so many of books with them and I was wondering if they rather spending time solving the problem than thumbing through their books. This was not a good sign. I too brought four books with me and probably spent no more than few minutes on them. I just felt guilty if I did not take them. They are not that useful. I should have taken only one reference book as I forgot to bring my lunch. I only had one bottle of water so I took the test starving. Now I got 6 minutes per problem. If I spent more than 3 minutes, then I realized that I wandered in the wrong path. I stopped. It appeared to me that they designed the test that way. The concept of the test is to gauge whether you know the subject or you don't. If you know, you can solve it under 1 minute instead of 6, 3 minutes max. I went through easy problems first, skipped if I did not how to solve it right away. When I revisited the old problems, I read and reread and understood what they asked for. The rule is not to solve it brute force, read the problems carefully. Some problems are straight some need to look in different angle. The information given in the problem is not always relevant. Maybe it is designed to throw you off course. I wish I knew my score, but I don't think it was more than 10 incorrect answers.
Passed WR&E First attempt.
AM: 34/40 Very Confident
PM: 20/40 Very Confident
If I could give anyone a little test-taking advice, it’d be this:
1) Get really, really familiar with the AM portion material, no matter what discipline you end up taking. To me, these questions felt a lot like FE level questions, were much easier, and were much more straight forward than the afternoon portion. Spend enough time so you’re extremely confident with the basics of each discipline so you can crush the morning portion. These are the easy points.
2) Know your reference materials. I'm a less-is-more kind of guy when it came to reference material, but whatever you decide to bring, make sure you know what’s in it. You can waste a ton of time trying to look something up in a book you’ve barely opened (I did this, don’t be like me). Be really familiar with the CERM. I probably used it on 90-95% percent of the problems where I had to look something up. Know what’s in it, including the appendices (which can be a huge time saver on some problems). You might not find this as helpful for you, but I also printed out a copy of the CERM index, 3-hole punched it, put it in its own binder and tabbed it alphabetically so I could look things up really quickly if I had to. It was useful during the test and while studying. A big time saver compared to flipping back and forth in the CERM.
3) Don’t freak out if/when the PM portion feels really challenging. I got questions I had never seen before and didn’t have the first clue how to solve. Don’t let it throw you. Even if it happens multiple times. Move on and come back to it if you can. Focus on the ones you think you’ll be able to solve. You might walk out of the PM portion feeling less-than-stellar, but don't throw in the towel. Keep your chin up!
AM: 34/40 Very Confident
PM: 20/40 Very Confident
If I could give anyone a little test-taking advice, it’d be this:
1) Get really, really familiar with the AM portion material, no matter what discipline you end up taking. To me, these questions felt a lot like FE level questions, were much easier, and were much more straight forward than the afternoon portion. Spend enough time so you’re extremely confident with the basics of each discipline so you can crush the morning portion. These are the easy points.
2) Know your reference materials. I'm a less-is-more kind of guy when it came to reference material, but whatever you decide to bring, make sure you know what’s in it. You can waste a ton of time trying to look something up in a book you’ve barely opened (I did this, don’t be like me). Be really familiar with the CERM. I probably used it on 90-95% percent of the problems where I had to look something up. Know what’s in it, including the appendices (which can be a huge time saver on some problems). You might not find this as helpful for you, but I also printed out a copy of the CERM index, 3-hole punched it, put it in its own binder and tabbed it alphabetically so I could look things up really quickly if I had to. It was useful during the test and while studying. A big time saver compared to flipping back and forth in the CERM.
3) Don’t freak out if/when the PM portion feels really challenging. I got questions I had never seen before and didn’t have the first clue how to solve. Don’t let it throw you. Even if it happens multiple times. Move on and come back to it if you can. Focus on the ones you think you’ll be able to solve. You might walk out of the PM portion feeling less-than-stellar, but don't throw in the towel. Keep your chin up!
Thanks! That's a definite possibility. I don't live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area but I'll be passing through on Friday. What day were you going?
8-10 Weeks Later
Active member
Works for me too as I will be going to the Twins game. DM me both your numbers and I will create a text group.
I passed Industrial. For both morning and afternoon sessions I divided the test into three groups: approximately 1/3 of questions I calculated and confidently answered; then 1/3 of them I dug thru my references and struggled to answer and then finally the remaining 1/3 I really struggled to answer by looking thru notes and reference material in order to answer.
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