Words of Advice for Test Takers Who Don't Pass...

[hjg7715]

The strategy in the introduction of Spin-Up (Cory Lanza) was very helpful in my opinion. I'll try to post it for others to look at. I actually bought this book specifically because I had heard that the strategy was effective and I agree 100%. I was able to finish 30 minutes early on the AM session and 1.5 hours early on the PM session and I think it's due in large to the strategy. Plus I studied my ass off.

In any case, you basically go through the exam 5 times. Yes, at first it doesn't seem that you can do that but trust me that it is doable. The first pass you solve the low hanging fruit, and at the same time mark each question you don't answer with a 2, 3, 4 or 5. ...

I'm not familiar with the specific strategy you're referencing, but I'm assuming it's a variation of what most people will tell you or have learned from personal experience. My personal strategy was to go through all the questions and the ones I could answer without any kind of lookup or knew how to find the reference relatively quickly and solve, I would go ahead and answer. Any questions I thought would take more than 4 minutes, but thought I could solve, I would mark with a star and for the questions I had no idea on what the answer was or how to solve, I would put an exclamation mark by. Naturally, once I started going back through the unanswered questions I would first focus on the ones I knew how to solve but required more time and then save the problems I didn't know the answer to or how to solve for last. In addition to being an effective time management strategy, it also helped reduce stress and anxiety in trying to get through the sessions.

 

[allgood]

I'm not familiar with the specific strategy you're referencing, but I'm assuming it's a variation of what most people will tell you or have learned from personal experience. My personal strategy was to go through all the questions and the ones I could answer without any kind of lookup or knew how to find the reference relatively quickly and solve, I would go ahead and answer. Any questions I thought would take more than 4 minutes, but thought I could solve, I would mark with a star and for the questions I had no idea on what the answer was or how to solve, I would put an exclamation mark by. Naturally, once I started going back through the unanswered questions I would first focus on the ones I knew how to solve but required more time and then save the problems I didn't know the answer to or how to solve for last. In addition to being an effective time management strategy, it also helped reduce stress and anxiety in trying to get through the sessions.

Yes, it's similar to what you mentioned. Highly effective!

 

[SK82 P.E.]

I was a repeater as well.  

Passed October 2016 Mechanical - Thermal Fluids.

To reiterate what has already been said.

The biggest thing I believe got me over the finish line this time was truly understanding how to recognize problem types and the proper theory/method to solve the problems.  

When I started back studying after the April exam, it was like I had never worked some of the problems in the NCEES and 6 min Solution practice exams.  I made an effort this time to examine each problem and say why I used certain equations. For example, when to use hf vs hg, how/when to use "mass flow (in) = mass flow (out)", and especially when to incorporate the efficiency of a turbine or boiler, and when not to.

I shamefully admit that I took Dr. Tom's Classroom course for my first try because his class really is top-notch.  I still highly recommend his class because I still used his weekly lessons in my prep this second time.  The MERM, Dr. Tom's Exam Day Companion, and his practice questions that his gives out about 3 weeks before the actual test were the main resources I used during the test.

Hindsight,  I would have probably been successful the first time, if I had completed a crash course upfront, then went into working the practice exams over and over until the exam.  Dr. Tom's class finishes about 3 weeks before the actual test, so I didn't really work the problems over and over until I was doing them in my dreams like I should have done.  Dr. Tom definitely has a gift at teaching.  He is silky smooth in how walks you through how to solve problems in all the topics.  He also throws out certain problems in the Six Min Solutions practice exams that are really not good exam problems -which helps a lot.  His advice on which specification to take is golden as well.   

I wish he was at Clemson when I went through, then maybe thermo and heat transfer would not have been so terrible for me.   His weekly lessons are very clear and well explained to where I falsely gauged myself as understanding the problem but I really was not there in my understanding.  As I prepared working problems for the Oct exam, I had some "Ah ha" moments remembering problems that stomped me during the test that I wished I had back.   

So basically first you need to be real with if you can truly teach yourself or if a course is needed to do this.  Get the theory from self-study or a course, then rework the practice exams and as many problems as you can, over and over and over again until the binding fall off!

Having the NCEES 2001 also helped me see that I didn't truly know how to apply certain principles because it exposed me to additional problems that had the same theoretical undertone, but they still stomped me, illuminating the fact that I really didn't get it yet.

Lastly, during the test, have as much of a calm spirit as possible during the exam so that your mind will be free to use commonsense and sound engineering assumptions.  I was amazed at some of the problems that I deemed "hard" during my first pass through which ended up not being so bad.