Assuming you are taking the mechanical exam (per your handle), These books are important to have:
1. Mechanical Engineering Reference Manual, Lindeburg
2. NCEES Mechanical PE practice exam
3. Steam tables, Keenan and Keyes et. al (English units)
4. ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals
5. Cameron Hydraulic Data OR Crane TP410-Flow of Fluids through valves, fittings and pipe
6. Mark's Standard Handbook of Mechanical Engineering
In addition, these books come in handy:
7. Solutions manual for MERM (#1 above)
8. Gas Tables, Keenan and Kaye (English units)
9. A heat transfer textbook
10. A thermodynamics textbook
11. Roark's formulas for Stress and Strain
12. A mechanical design book
You will use #1 for almost every question, the other #2-#6 you will use on 2-3 questions each. Start watching Ebay right now and you can find some good deals on a few of these once in a while. You can also find some at the library. If you buy all of them, it can get expensive. Checking them out from the library will allow you to see how good they are before you purchase. I purchased all of these books (or already had them), and still have many because they are excellent references. Good luck!
My suggestion- get whatever sample questions or sample tests the NCEES has to offer, go through them, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what you need. If you kept your college textbooks, there's not much reason to go buy something new for the test.
I am planning on taking the Mech PE test in April as well. I bought the Kaplan books a few months ago and started studying.
The Kaplan, Mechanical Engineering license review, 7th edition is full of errors!!! There are mistakes with units, formulas have the numbers transposed, and they missed a zero here and there on some numbers. Some of the examples even state numbers and then the solution use different numbers. The solutions are vague on how they are brought about and there is very little use of units in the solutions so you are never really sure how they get the solution they do.
After a month of studying I got sick of the Kaplan books and bought Lindeburg. The Lindeburg are twice the price but are infinitely better. I would recommend spending the money on the Lindeburg books. If you have not opened the Kaplan books yet, return them! I cannot return mine since I started correcting the errors as I found them. One page has as many as 5 errors on it.
Not to defend inaccurate material in any way, but you are, to some extent, actually getting more out of it by recognizing the errors and doing the work to correct them. I'd be real frustrated also, wondering what errors I was missing, so I can understand your complaint, but you are gaining something from those errors.
I agree that does give the person studying a different level to learn on but the frustration became too mcuh. the biggest problem was that I was always second guessing the book, I would think "Is this formula right? or did they use the right number in this equation?" The reliability of the solutions was disapearing and that ended up leaving me even more frustrated.
Swivel63,
If you have the mind set to study like this, more power to you, and good luck on the test, if you live in NM I will see you in April.
Jpankask gave you a great list of books to get. For studying, I'd use most if not all of whats mentioned, however for test taking, I feel that less is more.
I bought a host of books from ppi2pass.com and used perhaps half of them. The Lindeberg books are a must, and the reference manual sits on my technical shelf beside me along with Perry's, Marks, Camerson, my Crane 410, and Kern's Heat Transfer book.
I found that one of the first things you need to do prior to sitting down to study is take a long hard look at what you know and especially what you DON'T know. If you flat out don't get something, don't waste time trying to learn it. That's an academic exercise left for your free time, not for eating up precious PE exam study time Following the 80/20 rule, reinforce the 80% that you are competent in, and worry about the 20% after you've mastered your 80%.
With regards to what to take, the more you learn up front, the less digging you'll have to do! You'll hear stories about people bringing trunks full of books, and I witnessed it. I brought in a single backpack with Lindeberg's ME reference, the guide and the study questions, Perry's Chem E handbook, Mark's ME handbook, Cameron's, Crane's 410, my college fluids book, my college thermo book (Bernake, I think) and that's about it.
naw, i took the test (structural 1) already. i didn't even know there were other books out there for that test. hell i would have bought those just for extra practice problems. but yea, i found myself questioning some of the author's logic and stuff. i found plenty wrong with what he was doing.
i'm just waiting on someone to tell me there are more books for the structural 2 other than the famous kaplan books and the ncees book. i just want more problems to do. best way to study is repitition. we should already have most of the basic stuff down, so from there it's just application.
I am taking the Mech Pe exam on spring too. I am already studying, using the MERM book, however I feel I need a book filled with formulas that I can reference during the exam. I took the EIT on April 2005 and I remember the "NCEES EIT Guide" was very useful (this is the only book allowed on the EIT). My question is, can I bring this book with me? WHat do you guys think?
I have Cameron and Crane, and will take them with me, but I am more used to the nomenclature of the "NCEES EIT Guide" book.
It's been a long time (over 20 years) since I took the PE exam. While I'm sure there's been many changes, some hints may remain valid.
More important than a good reference is your familiarity with it. That is, USE IT (or more likely, THEM) as you study for the exam, hopefully working through many practice problems. In my case, I had key chapters, tables, etc, marked with post-its.
I know some folks use a relatively small number of references, others MANY. As loing as you are familier with each, it doesn't matter. The key is knowing what to look for, and where to find it.
I'll second everyone else's opinion. MERM is the Bible for any mechanical. I used it and passed on the first try. Otherwise, I just used my thermo book a little, but that was it.
You can take the EIT equation book. I took it (I took everything I owned), but didn't use it. I made my own equation booklet as I worked through the MERM chapters. That always helps me to learn, and I prefer things in my own form. I'm also an obsessive studier, so others might not want to take the time to make a note sheet. . .
Also imperitive is to mark the MERM sections with tabs and know where the important tables are in the appendix.
As far as "bookmarking" section in the reference books, I believe "stickies" or anything that can be written on is prohibited. I used different color paperclips.
I agree with mechmama, making your own formulas sheet was very helpful. Different reference books may show the forumlas in a slightly different manner. I created a one-page sheet that had the most important formulas I would need for the mechanical exam (in a format I was used to) as well as frequently-used unit conversions and frequently-used data, i.e. density of water, etc. in common units. For most questions, I would start with this page and the basic equation that dealt with the problem (energy balance, heat transfer, etc.) Saved a lot of time flipping back and forth in the references. Then if the question was somewhat obscure, I would then go to my references for specifics.
DO NOT take any reference you are not at least somewhat familiar with, you will waste time looking through it for information. Do not be afraid to take any reference you think might help you, there will be a few obscure problems and that one reference you never thought you would use may come in handy but resist the urge to check out every reference book you can from the library and take it to the exam because you will get overwhelmed and waste time if you have not used your references in school or at work to be familiar with the layout. Referring to my previous post at the top (for mechanical PE exam), if you have the top 6 books and some of the others, and you spend a fair amount of time studying, you will do fine. I also took the NCEES FE exam equation book but I don't think I used it. Good luck!
I just found out in January that I passed the FE. I believe that the state will allow me to take it after 3 years because I have an MSME. Is it worth waiting 3 years to get the Crane TP 410, Cameron and MERM, or do they change signifigantly in the amount of time I have to wait?
Like most new engineers, I have a burning curiousity to buy them and see what is in them so I can learn and be prepared. Is this a bit overzealous?
