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“Dr. Tom’s no-nonsense approach coupled with a wide-ranging experience and clear explanations was undoubtedly a key factor leading to my passing score on the PE exam. The well-structured course format provides an organized progression through the review material and the resources provided were key in my ability to efficiently work through the exam. With better than competitive prices, effective teaching ability, and proven results, Dr. Tom's Classroom is undeniably the best value in Mechanical Engineering PE exam preparation, thanks Dr. Tom!”
- Andrew Lipetzky, PE, Duke Energy, New Hill, NC

Change Is Coming!

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Computer-Based Testing – This Changes Everything!

Although still unofficial, the three Mechanical PE Exams are scheduled to convert to the year-round Computer-Based Testing (CBT) format starting in January of 2020, and the five Civil PE Exams will convert in 2023 (https://ncees.org/exams/cbt/). 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 – take the Pencil-and-Paper exam now, before it’s too late.

NCEES first introduced Computer-Based Testing (CBT) for the FE Exams in January 2014, and it has been expected that they would move to this format for the PE Exams, but until now no transition schedule had been established. Now it has. Some CBT exams will be offered year-round. In this category, the Chemical PE Exam transitioned to the CBT format for 2018, and the Environmental PE Exam is scheduled to transition in 2019, with the Mechanical following in 2020 and Civil in 2023. Other CBT exams will only be offered one day a year. The Nuclear PE Exam falls into this category and has already transitioned to the CBT format. Over the next five years, about a dozen other PE Exams will transition to the CBT format offered one day a year.NCEES first introduced Computer-Based Testing (CBT) for the FE Exams in January 2014, and it has been expected that they would move to this format for the PE Exams, but until now no transition schedule had been established. Now it has. Some CBT exams will be offered year-round. In this category, the Chemical PE Exam transitioned to the CBT format for 2018, and the Environmental PE Exam is scheduled to transition in 2019, with the Mechanical following in 2020 and Civil in 2023. Other CBT exams will only be offered one day a year. The Nuclear PE Exam falls into this category and has already transitioned to the CBT format. Over the next five years, about a dozen other PE Exams will transition to the CBT format offered one day a year.

The NCEES says that transition dates for all the future transitions to CBT will be confirmed one year in advance. Along with the confirmation, the official NCEES Reference Handbook for the exam will be made available for download in PDF format. With the introduction of this new Reference Handbook, there is also the possibility that there could be changes in the exam specifications.

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. For the Chemical PE Exam, the PE Chemical Reference Handbook is almost 600 pages, so the Mechanical and Civil handbooks will most likely be similar in length, if not longer. 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 two more exam taking opportunities: the April 2019 Exam and October 2019 Exam. For Civil, it means a few more years. After that, the only choice will be the CBT format. 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

Read Dr. Tom’s full article about the transition to the CBT format PE Exam at https://drtomsclassroom.com/news/change-is-coming.

Change Is Coming!

You Should Take the PE Exam Now.

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Workplace Stretching - A New Construction Norm?

A trend that I’m noticing in the construction industry is workplace stretching programs. These type programs, in conjunction with others, help reduce incidents and injuries, which effectively helps to maintain productivity and efficiency. Reducing incidents and injuries has a direct impact on construction company’s Experience Modification Rate and Incident Rate. This OHS Online article explains more. - Jason Savage, DTC Civil Construction Instructor.

Change Is Coming!

You Should Take the PE Exam Now.

Learn the Latest Here.

Dr. Tom's Classroom – Helping Engineers become Professional Engineers

Targeted Civil and Mechanical PE Exam Reviews that work! 

Change Is Coming

Change Is Coming!

You Should Take the PE Exam Now.

Learn the Latest Here.

Dr. Tom's Classroom – Helping Engineers become Professional Engineers

Targeted Civil and Mechanical PE Exam Reviews that work!

Driverless Wheelchair = Independence

A day doesn't seem to go by when an article associated with "driverless" automobiles does not show up on your smartphone.  But what about those people who must depend on a wheelchair to get around, either temporarily or because of a permanent disability?

Motorizing a wheelchair is one thing, but adding a "driverless" capability is quite another. Researchers at MIT and the University of Singapore have developed a prototype wheelchair equipped with "driverless" features. Enter where you want to go, and it takes you there. It can detect unexpected obstacles, even someone walking in front of the wheelchair, and it can be summoned electronically using a standard GPS system. It is always a great source of pride in our profession when engineers tackle problems for those who have special needs. - Dr. Tom

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The Clock Is Ticking - Time to Jump on the Fast Track

If you’re going to take the October 2018 PE Exam, it’s time to jump into your preparation with DTC’s Fast Track Review. If you start now, you will have 10 weeks to get through the course and 3 weeks for your final review. And trust us, you’re going to need it. Don’t wait another minute. SIGN UP and start your review today!



“Dr. Tom's Fast Track Review has an aggressive schedule, but I can’t argue with the results. I worked hard (30-40 hours a week) to "knock off the rust" my skills had collected over the years and get caught up. 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. 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 and just studying the MERM. 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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A New Form of Transportation?

A bus with chiseled biceps and gluts probably won’t be showing up on a street near you, but in Prague, this work of art does pushups once a day complete with the groans that come with them. - Daniel Findley, DTC Civil Transportation Instructor

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FEATURED TESTIMONIAL - You CAN Do It!

“It's been 15 years since I graduated from college and I passed on my 3rd try. I'm confident the difference was Dr. Tom's Classroom. Being well organized as advised made it very easy to find the appropriate info to answer questions quickly. Dr. Tom's videos are a great refresher to understand the concepts required to solve the problems. His advice on how to approach the problems during the test and get the low hanging fruit is spot on.”
- Chris Hall, PE, Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation, Little Rock, Arkansas

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Water, Literally Out of Thin Air. In the Desert.

A team at MIT, led by mechanical engineering Professor Evelyn Wang, has developed a unique system to remove drinkable water from desert air. According to an ASME article, the system uses a new class of materials called "metal-organic frameworks," or MOFs. Water molecules from air get trapped in the matrix of this exciting new material. In fact, this new class of materials was developed by another professor at MIT, chemistry Professor Mircea Dinca, for a totally different application, "supercapacitors" for storing electrical energy. We may be hearing a lot more about MOFs in the future.

Once the water molecules are in the MOF matrix, sunlight causes the water to be released and then condensed into drinking water.  So far, in tests in Arizona, they have only collected small amounts of water, but they believe the concept is scalable to where it could be life-saving for a great many people who live in desert regions.

When I was in the Navy, we were shown in desert survival training how to dig a hole, put something to catch water at the bottom of the hole, cover the hole with a piece of our parachute, put a small rock in the center of the piece of parachute, and over the course of the day water vapor would collect on the underside of the piece of parachute and drop into the cup.  It would give you enough water to survive until you could be rescued. However, I like Dr. Wang's MOF-based system much better and wish her team success. It could indeed change the lives of millions of people. - Dr. Tom

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Is a DTC Fast Track Review Right for You?

If you’re planning to take the October 2018 Exam, we are currently offering the Fast Track version of our Civil and Mechanical PE Exam reviews. And with our structured approach, it could be just what you need. But we want you to know going in, that it’s a lot of work and a lot of hours. This is not a crash course. We don’t believe in them.

Our Fast Track Reviews are comprehensive reviews that thoroughly prepare you for the exam, with with a method that provides you with targeted assignments, lots of practice problems, a way to organize your references for quick access during the exam, and a strategy for solving problems on exam day. If you dedicate yourself to the plan and put in the time, you will be prepared for the exam by October 26, 2018.



“I thought the Fast Track Review Course was excellent. It provided the structure, practice, and review that I needed 25 years after receiving my M.E. degree. I loved Dr. Tom's teaching - his style & strategy tips made the learning process very enjoyable. The class format and hand-outs were also excellent. I would strongly recommend it to others taking the ME PE exam.”
-Joel Lemke, PE, Emerson, Chanhassen, MN

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THIS MONTH’S FEATURED FREE VIDEO - One of our Most Popular Civil Videos! - Water Res/Env NCEES Problem 510

On our website, we highlight our alternative (and we think better) solutions to selected problems in the NCEES Practice Exam in short videos created by our instructors. The selected problems are those that participants in our reviews have found problematic or confusing.

Problem 510 is a PM Exam problem found in the NCEES PE Civil: Water Resources and Environmental Practice Exam — but don’t be afraid to try it if you are just taking the AM portion as it’s a great problem to practice open channel flow computations!

This problem involves a channel and overbank area which need to convey a given design flood. The unknown in this problem is the width of the overbank needed such that the depth in the channel does not exceed a certain value. There are two given Manning’s n values for the channel and overbank area.

DTC HINT: Separate the main channel and overbank areas into two rectangular cross-sections, and be careful when you compute the wetted perimeter, including only the parts of the channel and overbank that are wetted.

Dr. Beth Sciaudone’s Solution to NCEES PE Civil: Water Resources/Env Problem 510

DTC recommends that anyone taking the PE Exam purchase the NCEES Practice Exam for the exam they are taking. It is an essential exam review resource. https://account.ncees.org/exam-prep/

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Travel Demand Models of University Students

One of our DTC instructors, Dr. Daniel Findley, recently co-authored a paper in the Travel Behaviour and Society Journal on a multi-year project focused on developing travel demand models for university student trips that affect the road systems surrounding university campuses in North Carolina. The paper explores the relationship between trip frequency as a function of travel mode and distance from students’ residence to campus. This paper shows that non-motorized trips comprise the majority of predicted trips at short distances from campus, while automobile and transit trips comprise the majority of trips at longer distances. Further, the average number of daily trips peak at a distance between 0.25 and 0.5 miles before dropping rapidly for non-motorized travel modes, but peak and plateau at greater distances (two miles and four miles, respectively) for automobile and transit trips. - Daniel Findley, DTC Civil Transportation Instructor

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TESTIMONIAL OF THE WEEK - Thumbs Up for the Fast Track!

“I thought the Fast Track Review Course was excellent. It provided the structure, practice, and review that I needed 25 years after receiving my mechanical engineering degree. I loved Dr. Tom's teaching - his style & strategy tips made the learning process very enjoyable. The class format and hand-outs were also excellent.  I  would strongly recommend it to others taking the ME PE exam.”
-Joel Lemke, PE, Emerson, Chanhassen, MN

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Fireworks U.

Did you know that there’s a school that teaches a commercial fireworks display course? At Missouri S&T, students set off fireworks during football games as one of their assignments. I just read this story which follows mechanical engineering major Leanna Lincoln who has developed expertise in pyrotechnics as part of her curriculum. “I realized I wanted to do engineering, because I could be very good at it,” Lincoln says. “I could really improve the entertainment community.” I wonder how many mechanical engineers were behind the scenes this Fourth of July? - Beth Sciaudone, DTC Water Resources & Environmental Instructor

 

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A Salute to the Engineers of United States Military

On Independence Day, everyone here at Dr. Tom’s Classroom would like to pay tribute to the many engineers who serve in the United States military. We appreciate their dedication and contribution to preserving our freedom. Their work is an inspiration to us all.

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