AthlonXPme
Chemical
- Mar 31, 2024
- 11
I have passed the PE Chemical exam this month, which marked the key milestone of my journey towards PE professionalism. The experience of preparing both FE and PE exams has also brought my understanding of chemical engineering subjects to a new level.
Thanks a lot for those folks who actively answered PE related questions in this forum. Would also like to share my own feelings about PE.
Background:
I have been working in O&G industry as a process engineer for over 12 years. Around 8 years in multiple EP design firms, 2 years in a third-party engineering consulting firm and most recent 2 years working in an operating company. I was already a registered P.Eng in Alberta, Canada before I started the journey towards PE. My initial motivation was actually from one of my colleagues who had successfully got PE title and shared some exciting moments during his study. Besides, I also thought it would be a very good opportunity to have a holistic review of all undergrad major courses and fundamentals after many years out of school, which could benefit my career in a longer term.
Preparation:
My preparation started with FE Chemical around two years ago with intermittent learning and passed it in April, 2023. Maybe because I didn't prepared enough and I had been out of school for so long, I actually found FE was quite tough, especially in those math related subjects. Luckily, I still passed it on the first trial although the actually score was likely at the edge.
With lessons learned from FE, I did allow much longer time to prepare the PE and tried not to rush. During the first 5 months, my focus was mostly going through each chapter of the reference handbook and revisiting my undergrad textbooks as well. I also started to work on the practice problems in NCEES PE Chemical Practice Exams 2020/2004, NCEES PE_ME Thermal/Fluid Systems 2020 and Mathew G Chemical Practice Exam. Honestly, the first-pass trial was hard and I could only answer around 40% questions correctly. Due to my personal issues, my study was paused for about 3 months. I lost quite a bit steam during the period and had to study the reference handbooks once again, just to bring myself up to speed. To better digest the handbook, I grouped all available practice problems based on each category of the reference book and tackle each area separately. This way helps me improve a lot in the weak subjects such as mass and energy balances, thermodynamics and mass transfer. Meanwhile, I got a lot more familiarity with the handbook without having to use it most time. This round of study also acted as my second trial to solve the NCEES practice exams. After the second trial, I felt I still needed more practices and subscribed PPI PE Chemical Leaning Hub for a month. It turns out this is a right choice. Although some PPI problems are quite difficult that you would need much longer time to solve, the rationale behind them really promotes thorough understanding. Besides, the PPI online subscription has a big question bank for each subject so that you will never run out of questions to practice. It also comes with a final practice exams including 80 questions. However, it is nowhere near the actual exam with some questions needing too many steps to solve. Nevertheless, one month learning of PPI online materials was a game changer to my overall preparation. I would say my confidence level reached to a new height that made me comfortable to settle the actual exam date. I left one month between completing the PPI online study and final PE exam. Within the final month, I completed all NCEES practice exams as the third trial and was able to answer over 90% questions right. My total preparation time was close to 10 months, which I think it was overprepared even it was mostly during weekends/holidays plus some workday nights.
Actual Exam:
The actual exam was no surprising with almost everything being prepared. Although most questions were new, the skills and knowledge required are nothing new. A few questions were actually taken from the 2020 and 2004 NCEES PE Chemical Practice Exams with slight changes in the asks. The amount of calculations was reasonable which could be solved under 10 min at most. Solving those qualitative questions could be much faster. While many questions appeared to be long , they were easy to solve if it was interpreted on a right direction. The plant design and operations part was also easier than I expected, which is probably because those questions coincidently aligned with my experience. This is not being said every question could be solved with no brainer. I did run into roadblocks on a few questions and flagged them during the first pass. Through the final review, I was able to solve pretty much all of them with some additional efforts. Overall, it was a very smooth exam and I finished it 2 hours earlier. Without surprise, I passed and I am confident to say the actual score should be over 90%.
Final Tit-bids:
• NCEES PE Chemical Practice Exams 2020/2004 are definitely the two most important practice materials that need deep diving and multiple trials. The difficulty level of actual exam would not exceed these two practice exams and the style is every similar.
• NCEES PE_ME Thermal/Fluid Systems 2020 has very good practice questions on power cycles, as well as basic thermodynamics related to steam, fluid mechanics and heat transfer. Worthwhile to get this material from NCEES as well.
• Mathew G Chemical Practice Exam is a good addition if you run out of materials. However, the questions are over simple, especially the workings are too short and too obvious. Regardless, it is still a good material for concept review.
• PPI PE Chemical Leaning Hub Subscription: strongly recommend this resource, next to the NCEES practice exams. Some questions are over difficult and may not be directly related to the actual exam. They are still very helpful to train your brain to digest all key aspects, which puts you at a height on top of the real exam. Sometimes, overpreparation is the best strategy to pass an exam.
• Knowing exactly where to find the information on the reference book makes you a least half succeed. This will save you a lot of time and meanwhile shows you are very familiar with the theories and equations.
• Must know both SI and field units and the exact conversions.
• 8 hours timing is generous as long as you don’t spend too much time on those questions you get stuck at the first place and don’t waste time flipping through the reference book just because you are not familiar enough.
• Ask questions in ENG-TIPS.com chemical engineering forum. I found people in this forum are pretty helpful and willing to answer any question with great discussion around.
Thanks a lot for those folks who actively answered PE related questions in this forum. Would also like to share my own feelings about PE.
Background:
I have been working in O&G industry as a process engineer for over 12 years. Around 8 years in multiple EP design firms, 2 years in a third-party engineering consulting firm and most recent 2 years working in an operating company. I was already a registered P.Eng in Alberta, Canada before I started the journey towards PE. My initial motivation was actually from one of my colleagues who had successfully got PE title and shared some exciting moments during his study. Besides, I also thought it would be a very good opportunity to have a holistic review of all undergrad major courses and fundamentals after many years out of school, which could benefit my career in a longer term.
Preparation:
My preparation started with FE Chemical around two years ago with intermittent learning and passed it in April, 2023. Maybe because I didn't prepared enough and I had been out of school for so long, I actually found FE was quite tough, especially in those math related subjects. Luckily, I still passed it on the first trial although the actually score was likely at the edge.
With lessons learned from FE, I did allow much longer time to prepare the PE and tried not to rush. During the first 5 months, my focus was mostly going through each chapter of the reference handbook and revisiting my undergrad textbooks as well. I also started to work on the practice problems in NCEES PE Chemical Practice Exams 2020/2004, NCEES PE_ME Thermal/Fluid Systems 2020 and Mathew G Chemical Practice Exam. Honestly, the first-pass trial was hard and I could only answer around 40% questions correctly. Due to my personal issues, my study was paused for about 3 months. I lost quite a bit steam during the period and had to study the reference handbooks once again, just to bring myself up to speed. To better digest the handbook, I grouped all available practice problems based on each category of the reference book and tackle each area separately. This way helps me improve a lot in the weak subjects such as mass and energy balances, thermodynamics and mass transfer. Meanwhile, I got a lot more familiarity with the handbook without having to use it most time. This round of study also acted as my second trial to solve the NCEES practice exams. After the second trial, I felt I still needed more practices and subscribed PPI PE Chemical Leaning Hub for a month. It turns out this is a right choice. Although some PPI problems are quite difficult that you would need much longer time to solve, the rationale behind them really promotes thorough understanding. Besides, the PPI online subscription has a big question bank for each subject so that you will never run out of questions to practice. It also comes with a final practice exams including 80 questions. However, it is nowhere near the actual exam with some questions needing too many steps to solve. Nevertheless, one month learning of PPI online materials was a game changer to my overall preparation. I would say my confidence level reached to a new height that made me comfortable to settle the actual exam date. I left one month between completing the PPI online study and final PE exam. Within the final month, I completed all NCEES practice exams as the third trial and was able to answer over 90% questions right. My total preparation time was close to 10 months, which I think it was overprepared even it was mostly during weekends/holidays plus some workday nights.
Actual Exam:
The actual exam was no surprising with almost everything being prepared. Although most questions were new, the skills and knowledge required are nothing new. A few questions were actually taken from the 2020 and 2004 NCEES PE Chemical Practice Exams with slight changes in the asks. The amount of calculations was reasonable which could be solved under 10 min at most. Solving those qualitative questions could be much faster. While many questions appeared to be long , they were easy to solve if it was interpreted on a right direction. The plant design and operations part was also easier than I expected, which is probably because those questions coincidently aligned with my experience. This is not being said every question could be solved with no brainer. I did run into roadblocks on a few questions and flagged them during the first pass. Through the final review, I was able to solve pretty much all of them with some additional efforts. Overall, it was a very smooth exam and I finished it 2 hours earlier. Without surprise, I passed and I am confident to say the actual score should be over 90%.
Final Tit-bids:
• NCEES PE Chemical Practice Exams 2020/2004 are definitely the two most important practice materials that need deep diving and multiple trials. The difficulty level of actual exam would not exceed these two practice exams and the style is every similar.
• NCEES PE_ME Thermal/Fluid Systems 2020 has very good practice questions on power cycles, as well as basic thermodynamics related to steam, fluid mechanics and heat transfer. Worthwhile to get this material from NCEES as well.
• Mathew G Chemical Practice Exam is a good addition if you run out of materials. However, the questions are over simple, especially the workings are too short and too obvious. Regardless, it is still a good material for concept review.
• PPI PE Chemical Leaning Hub Subscription: strongly recommend this resource, next to the NCEES practice exams. Some questions are over difficult and may not be directly related to the actual exam. They are still very helpful to train your brain to digest all key aspects, which puts you at a height on top of the real exam. Sometimes, overpreparation is the best strategy to pass an exam.
• Knowing exactly where to find the information on the reference book makes you a least half succeed. This will save you a lot of time and meanwhile shows you are very familiar with the theories and equations.
• Must know both SI and field units and the exact conversions.
• 8 hours timing is generous as long as you don’t spend too much time on those questions you get stuck at the first place and don’t waste time flipping through the reference book just because you are not familiar enough.
• Ask questions in ENG-TIPS.com chemical engineering forum. I found people in this forum are pretty helpful and willing to answer any question with great discussion around.
