It is now official – the three Mechanical PE Exams are scheduled to convert to the year-round Computer-Based Testing (CBT) format starting in April of 2020. This change in the testing method for the PE Exam has huge consequences for anyone taking the exam. To help you understand how this will affect you, I will be outlining the implications of the CBT exam and giving you my advice regarding this change.
Here’s the bottom line up front – Mechanical Engineers, take the October 2019 Pencil-and-Paper exam, before it’s too late.
NCEES first introduced Computer-Based Testing (CBT) for the FE Exams in January 2014, and the Chemical PE Exam converted to the CBT format in 2018. The Environmental PE Exam is converting in 2019, with the Mechanical following in 2020 and Civil in 2023 (https://ncees.org/exams/cbt/).
The official NCEES Reference Handbook for the Mechanical CBT exam is now available for download from NCEES in PDF format. You’ll need to create an NCEES account to access it. With the introduction of this new Reference Handbook, there is also the possibility that there could be changes in the exam specifications, although we have not seen those yet.
The most significant consequence of the CBT exam format for examinees of the PE Exam is that no personal reference materials will be allowed into the exam facility. The only reference that will be available to you during the exam is a searchable PDF of the Reference Handbook, sharing half the 24-inch computer screen with the PE Exam itself. The PE Mechanical Reference Handbook is over 500 pages, with 200 pages needed for Machine Design & Materials topics, 260 pages for Thermal & Fluids Systems, and 385 pages for HVAC & Refrigeration. Let that sink in. Think about how that limits your ability to prepare for this exam and what it means to have only one, generic, on-screen reference to help you solve problems during the exam.
It is clear to me that the most viable response to this change is to take the PE Exam before this transition takes place. For Mechanical, that means only one more exam taking opportunity: the October 2019 Exam. Change is indeed coming, and I will be addressing the specifics and consequences of those changes in future posts, but from what I can discern, the new format is going to present you with an exam experience that is more daunting and one for which carefully preparing and choosing your exam references will no longer give you an advantage. My advice is to take and pass the PE exam now if you can before the change takes place! - Dr. Tom
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