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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Things to be aware of...you may want the 11th edition, March 25, 2007
This review is from: Mechanical Engineering Reference Manual for the PE Exam, 12th Edition (Hardcover)
Although the MERM and other PPI materials are helpful there are several things about them I wish I was aware of before purchase (Note, I probably still would have purchased them, but it would have been a more informed choice). First, I bought the 12th edition with the intent of using it alone as a reference and source of review problems. I did not want to get the 'Practice Problem Solution Manual' since I didn't think I'd need solutions too. I was dissapointed to find that after opening the MERM 12th edition the first thing I read is the practice problems are removed, causing me to buy the Practice Problem book. Since the 12th edition retailed for the same as the 11th I don't see any gain from the 12th edition. Plus there is no errata published for it yet. The MERM itself is primarily useful now as a summary to give you a sense of how to study (don't get me wrong, this is still very important). Otherwise all of the information is contained in Mark's or other handbooks. The information in the PE MERM is taken directly from the FE/EIT reference manual also sold by PPI. It is also repeated in the Civil PE review manual and I'd imagine the others. Hence PPI is mainly marketing about one book in many different configurations. This is likely what leads to the issues associated with the practice exam being in SI and English units instead of just English.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Better than the PE 03 Class at Rensselaer in Hartford, March 9, 2010
This review is from: Mechanical Engineering Reference Manual for the PE Exam, 12th Edition (Hardcover)
Lindeburg has done a great job at pulling together everything you'll see on the PE Mechanical exam. The format of the 12th edition is better than the 11th. The 11th included extra problems at the end of each chapter. Though this is helpful for studying, it clutters up the book and adds extra pages to thumb through during the exam. Edition 12 moved the problems at the end of the chapter to another book ("Practice Problems for the Mechanical Engineering PE Exam" - which I also recommend). The book isn't perfect. You will find errata. Most of it is covered in the errata sheets on ppi2pass. Take an hour to look at the errata sheet and transfer the corrections to the book. All in all, if you read each chapter and then work the associated practice problems, you should be able to pass the exam. The nice thing about this book is the fact that it is up to date with the exam. This is not true of some of the review classes you can take. I paid $1,750 for a class at Renssalaer in Hartford. I should have just taken the money and flushed it down the drain. The class was out-dated (the teacher kept giving examples of problems he remembered from when each question was 1 hour long). He also kept teaching us subjects and then saying "You probably won't see this on the exam". Talk about a waste of time. Also, the class claimed that the Lindeburg book was the official text. It wasn't. The official text was a 3 ring binder full of the teachers barely readable (they were copies of copies of copies of copies....) notes. Anyway, enough ranting about that. If you want to take a class, make sure you talk to someone who's taken it before, and make sure it teaches out of the Lindeburg book. Also, as soon as you start studying, buy an approved calculator. It will be your best friend during the exam and you will need to be 100% familiar with it. Use it every day and get use to its functions. I have the Casio fx-115 ES. It served me well during the FE exam and the PE exam. Also, buy 2 of them. You must have an identical spare! You don't want your main calculator to die during the exam and then try to use a calculator you found laying in the bottom of your junk drawer. It will slow you down if you're not 100% familiar with it.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good reference, except for heat transfer, June 27, 2009
This review is from: Mechanical Engineering Reference Manual for the PE Exam, 12th Edition (Hardcover)
For starters, I passed the PE (thermal & fluids) the first time. Overall, this book is great as an overview of all subjects. This is a perfect book to highlight and tab pages for quick reference during the exam. Knowing what I know now, I would still buy it, but I have the following complaints: 1. There are a LOT of questions in the book that don't give you all the information you need in order to solve the problem. For those questions, you need to assume a value for one piece of information. None of the problems in the actual PE are solved like this! Yes, it is a good challenge, but I found it superflourous. Typically, these questions were asked in subjects that I'm not proficient in. If these type of questions are not on the exam, why have them in there at all? 2. Some chapters had too few questions to work through (chapter 34 and 35 for example). 3. My main problem with this book was the lack of explanation for heat transfer. There were some key equations (that were used extensively in the test) that were not explained, or were not derived in a form that is usable. I had a lot of difficulty with this. I ended up figuring out by working out the practice exam that NCEES sells. If heat transfer isn't your specialty, I would recommend looking elsewhere. Conclusion: The book is still good for reference. I would recommend using this book to review all subjects and to use as a reference guide during the test. For review questions, I would look somewhere else.
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