PE Exam Tip - Have One Way to Solve a Problem

As you prepare for the PE Exam, you will find many sources of exam-type problems (MERM, CERM, NCEES Practice Exams, etc). This wealth of information has a great many benefits. However, having a number of references has a troublesome downside. For a class of problems, you will see several solution approaches. You may have even thought of additional, and quite valid, approaches on your own. All you need is one right way to work a problem, but which one to use? You don’t want to make this decision during the exam; that can use up valuable time. You need to make that decision now while you are preparing, and use that same solution consistently throughout your review.

You are free to choose any solution you like, but I would like to make a strong argument for using a solution approach that follows a logical order and is applicable across multiple problems. Easier to remember and less to learn that way. In my review courses, that’s what I’ve done – I have worked to select the most direct and teachable solution approach for a class of problems, using an approach for each class of problems that is consistent and repeatable, and from the feedback I have received from past participants is that it really does pay off for them on the exam.
- Dr. Tom

"Dr. Tom's PE Review Course was incredibly helpful in my test preparation. The course helped me to prepare for the test by not only providing lessons in a variety of exam topics, but also by providing tips and practice on how to solve exam problems. In the weekly lessons, Dr. Tom provided multiple example problems in a number of exam topics, as well as instructions and suggestions on how to approach different types of problems. The weekly lessons, challenge problems, and  assessment problems, combined with Dr. Tom's suggestions, tips, and step-by-step instructions on how to solve test problems, helped to give me the tools that I needed to pass the PE Exam."
- Krystyn Wagner, PE, Wake Forest, NC

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Using Infrastructure to Create Energy

I recently learned about an innovative project that combines water supply with green energy. The city of Portland, Oregon, has replaced a section of its distribution network with pipes from Lucid Energy that use gravity flows to power turbines that feed the grid. Unlike the hydropower systems that are installed in dams across the country, Portland’s system uses existing infrastructure, which allows it to avoid killing fish and other marine life, or otherwise significantly altering aquatic habitats.   This sounds like a win-win situation for cities as we move forward in exploring ways to increase reliance on renewable energy. I hope we see more of it soon! - Beth Sciaudone, DTC Civil Water Resources & Environmental Instructor

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FEATURED TESTIMONIAL - Personalized References Are Key

“Dr. Tom's Classroom was crucial in my preparation for the PE Thermodynamic and Fluids test. I doubt I would have been able to pass the test with without the Personalized Resource Notebooks that I had built during my 20+ weeks of preparation. Dr. Tom is an excellent educator and communicator who made the arduous process manageable. The resources and material I collected and studied for this exam will be an excellent reference tool as I continue in professional career."
Ivan Auer, PE, Portland General Electric, Clatskanie, Oregon

The references you build as part of our courses are one of the keys to passing the exam, but they only work for the pencil-and-paper exam format. With the CBT format you won’t be able to bring ANY references with you. So Mechanical engineers, take the exam in October, before it’s too late!

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Take Us Out, Mr. Sulu. Warp Factor One.

I am old enough to remember the first episodes of Flash Gordon. His space ship was an obvious painted plywood and plastic affair with an engine that had flames that were clearly not from a true rocket engine.

Fast forward into the 21st Century and we have the legacies of Star Trek and Star Wars. Even the Enterprise on the first Star Trek show had engines that glowed "blue flames." We learned over time that hydrogen was involved, but the details were never divulged by Scotty, the chief engineer.

According to an article mentioned in a recent ASME SmartBrief, it turns out that NASA has been awarded $100 million to develop a Nuclear Thermal Rocket Engine. Such a project was funded back in the 1960's and 1970's, but was dropped due to other budget considerations. Now the engineers at NASA have a green light, or maybe I should say blue light, to proceed again. The engine will be powered by hydrogen which will be turned into plasma at very high temperatures and expanded through a rocket nozzle. Sure sounds familiar to any Star Trek fan. There are plans to have a demonstration of the engine in 2024. Someone at NASA should contact William Shatner and see if he can be the master of ceremonies and say one of his famous lines to inaugurate a new era in space travel. - Dr. Tom

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Dr. Tom’s Recipe for Success!

Dr. Tom is a master chef when it comes to PE Exam preparation, and he is happy to share his recipe for success, what we call, “The Dr. Tom Method.” It could be the secret sauce you need to pass the exam.



“My biggest concern was where to begin and how to organize all of the information, and relearning the topics in time. Dr. Tom guided us with a cookbook method of organizing the info and provided an Exam Day Companion that concisely summarized most of the reference info in one notebook. He defined for us the number of hours needed for prep. I felt that Dr. Tom saw everything from the test takers point of view. You will not find anyone else more committed. I would most definitely recommend Dr. Tom's Review to others preparing for the ME PE Exam.”
- Patrick P. PE, 25 yrs out of college

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PE Exam Tip - 3 Keys to Passing the PE Exam

I have spent decades helping engineers prepare for both the Mechanical and Civil PE Exams, and I’ve learned a lot in those years about what works and what doesn’t. I’ve especially learned a lot from the engineers whom I have taught. They have shared their insights, and I have worked to use those insights to make my PE Exam review courses better and more effective. I've found that if you follow these three simple strategies, your first attempt might very well be the charm. I wrote an article about these strategies a few years back, but that advice still holds true today. Here's a summary, but for more details, check out the article.

#1 - Adequate Time - Start preparing for the exam at least 6 months before you plan to take the exam. In the years I’ve been helping people prepare for PE Exams, I have taught review courses in many forms: short, long, live, online. I have found 6 months to be the optimal time frame to adequately cover the range of topics that you need to review at a pace that allows you to truly comprehend the material. It is also the best time frame for being able to retain that information on the exam. Start too soon and you run the risk of forgetting things when the exam rolls around. Start too late and there are just going to be topics that will not stick.

#2 – Organized Review - Because no one can go through every possible resource or problem related to any PE Exam discipline, another key strategy for success is to be organized. Everyone approaches learning a little differently, and an organizational process that works for one person may not be best for another. However you approach it, you'll need to gather the appropriate resources, approach each topic one at a time, and organize your resources for exam.

#3 – Exam Strategy - It is vital to go into the exam with a plan to work all the “low-hanging” fruit first. By that I mean that the first time you go through the exam, you only work problems that are very familiar to you and that you can work very quickly and easily. The second time through, work problems that are familiar and you think you can work without too much trouble. Repeat that process again and again until you have exhausted all that you can work and guessed at the ones you absolutely know you can’t work.

I have made these three strategies the cornerstones of the PE Exam reviews we offer at Dr. Tom's Classroom, and over the years I have found them to be consistently effective. No one can guarantee your success on the exam, but if you devote adequate time, organize your review and your resources properly, and have an effective exam day strategy, your first attempt can indeed be the charm. Being thoroughly prepared and having a plan can bring a peace of mind that will give you the clear mind and calm spirit on exam day that are the keys to success.

 - Dr. Tom

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Slide Short Cut - Cool Idea or Transportation Blunder?

A sharp reduction in travel time combined with entertainment reminiscent of childhood sounds like the perfect mix for transportation engineers inventing a new mode of transport. However such a design closed just one day after opening in the Spanish town of Estapona. A slide connecting two local roads cut travel times by 10 minutes but resulted in a few bruises on opening day. While more than 1000 citizens were able to use the slide safety, videos and pictures posted online show others did not fare quite as well. The slide has a maximum incline of 33 degrees, and instructions were provided on safe use. Some in the town fear more injuries may be seen among unfamiliar travelers including those vacationing in the area. In light of opening day, the town is working to conduct additional inspections to ensure the safety of the slide. - Shannon Warchol, DTC Civil Structural Instructor

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FEATURED TESTIMONIAL - Civil Water Resources & Env. PE Exam Success!

“I participated in the 20-Week Review class for the Civil: Water Resources and Environmental exam. All of the hours put into studying and developing the materials following the Dr. Tom method paid off as I passed the Exam. One of the critical items to my success was understanding the test taking method of taking multiple passes and not allowing myself to become to hung up on any one question. Taking the 20 weeks to absorb the material and develop organized references, I believe, was also critical to my success. I will recommend anyone taking the test in the future to use the Dr. Tom courses, they were worth both my monetary and time investments.”
- Chris Bakey, PE, Cochranville, PA

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You Can’t Push a Rope, Or Can You?

From the very beginning of my mechanical engineering teaching career, whenever I presented Newton's Laws of Motion I always added a 4th Law: "You can't push on a rope!" Students would laugh, but then a significant number of the class would, on the first test, submit a negative value for the tension in a rope, cable, or belt, meaning they were "pushing on a rope."

Well, a few days ago a dear friend and colleague, a former Department Head of Mechanical Engineering and Associate Dean, told me about an interesting device that negates the "Can't push on a rope" law. It is called a "Push Belt." They are used on Continuously Variable Transmissions (CVT). These are flexible steel belts that operate in compression instead of tension. It is hard to describe exactly how these work, so I will refer you to a video by John Kelly, a Professor in the Department of Automotive Technology at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. The video is amazing, which accounts for its 1.2 million and counting views. I invite you to enjoy watching it, and I will no longer be talking about "not pushing on a rope."  - Dr. Tom

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Flexible to Fit Your Schedule - Whatever It Is!

At DTC, we understand that you are a very busy person, and that finding time to prepare for the PE Exam is a big challenge. That’s why our courses are designed with maximum flexibility and effectiveness in mind - available 24/7 online, with short lessons, lots of practice, and detailed study plans. We give you the structure, you choose the schedule.

“Being nearly 20 years out of college, I was VERY intimidated to attempt the PE exam. I can say with absolute certainty that Dr. Tom’s review course was the key to my success.

I initially was planning to attend a live class offered by another company. However, sitting through 4 days in a row of 8 hour classes (for three weekends) did NOT appeal to me or fit my learning style. Tackling it at MY pace and on MY schedule (weekday lunch and evenings, weekends), focusing on solving examples, and shoring up trouble areas before progressing to new lessons was the only way I could effectively learn the material. Doing, not merely watching is the key for me.

The organized approach (study schedule, practice problem selection, and reference binder structure) allowed me to focus on learning the content for the exam instead of wasting time trying to figure those out on my own. I was doubtful that I could get back up to speed on so many of the subjects that I spent years studying in college, but it worked!”
- Brent V., PE, Houston, Texas

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CHANGE IS COMING - CBT Offers Greater Flexibility, But Is It Really an Advantage?

The Mechanical PE Exams will convert to the year-round Computer-Based Testing (CBT) format starting in April of 2020. The October 2019 Exam is the last chance to take the Mechanical exams in the Pencil-and-Paper format. In this post, I want to address the “so-called” advantages of CPT PE Exam, which generally are touted as providing greater flexibility for examinees. 

Flexibility is definitely one of the things that is appealing to some people about the change to the CBT format. With CBT exams, you can take the exam year-round, at multiple locations, on a date you schedule, and you can get your results in 8 to 10 days. You can also take the exam up to three times in a 12-month period, with some additional restrictions within that period (only one time within one of four 3-month windows: January – March, April – June, July – September, and October – December). So if you don’t pass, you could potentially take the exam again in as little as two weeks.

The Pencil-and-Paper exam, on the other hand, is only offered twice a year on specific dates in April and October at a limited number of locations, and it takes a month or more to get your results. So if you don’t pass, you have to wait at least six months to take the exam again. But when you think about it, the CBT exam only gets you one extra try per year (three vs. two).

The flexibility of the CBT exam certainly makes it easier for you to fit the exam into your schedule and to keep taking more swings at it in a shorter period of time. But are these really advantages? Passing the PE Exam requires more than just taking a whack at it until you pass. It requires a serious commitment to the task of mastering the knowledge and skills required to pass. Human nature being what it is, having the specific date of the Pencil-and-Paper exam means you must make a commitment knowing there is no turning back. Not so with the CBT exam. Human nature works against you there. It will be easy to put off taking the exam, letting all manner of life events keep you from taking it. Even if you pick a day, you can easily change it, and if something happens the morning of the exam, it is easy to reschedule. The value of that flexibility can evaporate into thin air if you never actually find the personal strength to make the commitment and stick to it. The PE Exam is not a doctor’s appointment to be wedged into your hectic schedule. It is a major life event that will have serious implications for your future, and it should be treated as such.

In my analysis, the advantages of the Pencil-and-Paper exam, which I’ve outlined in my previous posts, far outweigh anything you would gain in flexibility from the CBT exam. My advice is to make the commitment now to take the October 2019 Mechanical PE Exam before the change to CBT takes place. The knowledge that your opportunity to take the exam in the current format is limited to only one try might very well be the motivation that gets you a Pass!
- Dr. Tom

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Road Crash Occurrence and Geometric Design Consistency

One of our DTC instructors, Dr. Daniel Findley, recently worked with collaborators at the Universitat Politècnica de València to publish a paper in the Journal Accident Analysis and Prevention on geometric design consistency. Road crash occurrence is closely related to the geometric design consistency, which can be defined as how drivers’ expectancies and road behavior fit. The crash rate on a road segment increases as its consistency level decreases. To assess this phenomenon, inertial consistency models were recently developed. These models are based on the difference between the inertial operating speed, which represents drivers’ expectancies, and the operating speed, which represents road behavior. The higher the difference between both speeds, the higher the likelihood of crash occurrence.



This research validated and calibrated these consistency models on two-lane rural roads. For this, a total of 194 homogeneous road segments and 977 horizontal curves along 665 km in North Carolina (US) were used. As a result, the geometric design consistency was identified as a major factor of crash occurrence. The higher the difference between drivers’ expectancies and road behavior, the higher the crash rate. Likewise, the greater the consistency level, the greater the percentage of horizontal curves without reported crashes.

A Safety Performance Function was also calibrated to estimate the number of crashes on a road segment. Consistency thresholds were defined and tested to identify where these crashes are more likely to take place. Finally, the results obtained in this study were compared with those obtained previously on Spanish highways. To this regard, the crash rate on an American highway was 1.85 times greater than those observed on a Spanish highway under the same risk exposure and consistency conditions. Therefore, different tools were developed to enhance the assessment of road safety to the geometric design of both new two-lane rural roads and improvements of existing highways.

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