State of CA Mechanical PE exam?

Question

My husband would like to take the PE exam for Mechanical in April of 08, here in California. He was told by a co-worker that unless you take a preparation course, the pass rate is only 25%. We would love for him to take the course but it's almost $1000 without the latest and greatest editions of the book. He bought the latest edition in June of last yr and that is the edition he has been studying out of.

25% doesnt seem like really good odds to me. I wondered if it was a marketing scheme for the company that was giving the course or if it really is that low. My husband would like to study on his own and also, the course is INCREDIBLY expensive but if it's the only way people can pass the exam successfully is it worth taking? He is a Cal Poly graduate in Mechanical Engineering and has worked in the industry for 3 yrs now. He is also doing a lot of project management and has been promoted a couple of times in his company. I think he can do it, but am I right?

How can he prepare?

Answer 1

I passed the California Mechanical PE first time up. I took 6 weeks of study. The first 4 weeks, each day I read through a couple chapters of :
Mechanical Engineering Reference Manual by Lindeburg. This is the bible.
I spent 2 weeks doing practice problems. For $54.95 the NCEES has:
PE Mechanical Sample Questions and Solutions
These sample problems were the best prep money could buy. Go to www.ncees.org bookstore.

Answer 2

Pe Exam California

Answer 3

California Pe Exam

Answer 4

I agree with Trent. Practice exams and books written by pros are the way to go. Here is a place where the best books are compiled and kept current:

http://astore.amazon.com/howtom09-20?_encoding=UTF8&node=2

If you want more guidance on how to set up a study plan, and how to enhance the effectiveness of your study time (I know married life has more distracting fun than single life, hehe!), then I recommend the book Pass the PE like a Pro (cheap), and the blog peexamstudy.blogspot (free).

For newcomers who will take the Mechanical exam, consider the newest Lindeburg book Mechanical PE Practice Examination (April, 2013). It meets the new Mechanical exam format.

There are now 3 afternoon specialties, and examinees must select one. The Lindeburg book has 1 morning breadth exam and 3 afternoon depth exams, all 40 questions each.

The three afternoon exam choices are:
HVAC and Refrigeration
Mechanical Systems and Materials
Thermal and Fluids Systems

Use the blog I mentioned if you want to pick up any of those titles with a discount. The blog keeps a current discount code for PPI's website.

Best wishes to all future engineers! Keep the profession respected and talented. Peace.

Answer 5

They told me the same thing many years ago when I decided to take the Colorado PE exam.

I signed up for a review course that was also expensive.
I only attended two sessions. There were so many people in the class that were always asking questions about the problems presented in class that they only had time to present two or three problems during each session.....a complete waste of time and cash. There were at least 200 people in the class, and it was held in an auditorium.

I went to the public library and took out several books that presented review problems for the PE exams, and also bought one text from Amazon.com which contained review problems for the PE exams. I spent several months reviewing problems from those books, several every evening.

Since I had about seven years experience at that time they allowed me to take the Engineering-in-Training exam on one Saturday, and then the following Saturday I took the PE exam.

I passed them both (but just barely).

Based on my experience I would not take the review course.
The only thing that I got out of the course was two example exams, but the questions in the exams that I took were totally different anyway.

Answer 6

I bought the study book for the EE PE, and I passed the test the 2nd time. It is a very hard test, but if you study and you know how to work the problems, you can pass it. Like I said many folks take two times to pass it. Others never pass it. He might as well try to pass the test and see how good he does. HE must study and study a lot. Work all the problem in the study book. I worked problems till they were coming out my
ears.

Does not matter how you do on the job, you must be able to work the engineering problems in your field.

Answer 7

Don't know how different the ME exam is, but the EE exam had a lot of questions that didn't require any real calculations, just an understanding of the concepts that comes from experience.

Answer 8

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