Customer Reviews

Mechanical Engineering Reference Manual for the PE Exam, 12th Edition

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This manual covers every topic you're going to find on the 8-hour NCEES PE exam. It is married to the Practice Problems for the Mechanical Engineering PE Exam Practice Problems for the Mechanical Engineering PE Exam: A Companion to the Mechanical Engineering Reference Manual, 12th Edition so both books are vital to your preparation. I started studying about 2 months prior to the April '09 exam and worked problems almost every evening. As I went along I created labels for the important sections such as fan equations, pipe flow, fatigue loading, etc. I also used the inside blank pages to write out formulas that I felt I would need during the exam. Keep in mind that you have only 6 minutes per problem and the quicker you can get to the correct formula the better your chances of completing the exam, so tabbing this book is very helpful.

The first page of this manual is conversion factors. I'd recommend adding to this list as you are studying because it is not all-inclusive and many of the exam questions try to trip you up by giving you information in 'strange' units. For instance, they'll give you power in kW and expect an answer in ft/min or they'll give pressure in inches of water and you'll need to convert it to atmospheres. The second page is physical constants like air density and the universal gas constant, R. Add to this list as you study along because the exam will expect you to know the other 'constants' such as the density of steel, aluminum, and concrete.

About two weeks before the exam I recommend taking Lindeburg's practice exam Mechanical PE Sample Examination and the NCEES sample exam (available from NCEES). Treat them as if you're actually in the exam room. Start the exam at 8am and stop working at 12pm; no breaks or interuptions. This will give you a taste of the real exam and how important it is to be able to find your material quickly. Don't be tempted to look at the problems beforehand because you won't have that advantage during the real exam. Study the solutions afterwards and think about why and how you messed up.

My only complaint about this book and the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that after all of my studying the pages started coming out of the book. The exam proctors do not allow loose papers so I was concerned that during the exam I might not be able to use this book. I had to tape the pages back into the binding. Having spent the amount of money on this book that I did, I would expect higher quality.

I passed the April '09 PE exam in Mechanical Engineering (machine design)and I attribute my success to the availability and comprehensive information contained in this book and the related materials.

I have been a practicing engineer for 18 years. I bought this book (11th edition)and the answer manual for the example problems 5 months before the exam. I spent at least 10 hours a week studying but it paid off. I passed the PE exam the first time. The book is a very good reference also.

I'm giving this book five stars because I feel it is a must for Mechanical Engineers and the author deserves five stars, but the publisher needs a lesson or two on book binding.
If anyone from the publishing company reads this they may learn something about book binding from "The Penland Book of Handmade Books: Master Classes in Bookmaking Techniques". I know it is geared for the amateur book binder, but judging from the workmanship of this book, I believe you fit into that category quite well thank, you very much. You could make this up to a loyal customer by giving me a new copy. I'm easy to find, just follow the trail of pages I leave behind from this book on my way to work.

The book is a necessary evil since Lindeburg is definitely the go-to author for EIT and PE preperation. The material is great and structured nicely and I think it will help me be successful on the exam. However that's all over-shadowed by the fact that after only a few weeks, the binding on my brand new book has already split! I glued it together, but pages are still falling out and ripping away one by one! That's absolutely miserable "Professional Publications, Inc!" We bring these books into the exam room and they must survive enough that we can flip back and forth between pages! I'm not just whining; the binding on my 7 year old McGraw Hill "Marks' Handbook" is perfectly intact, even after a three year period of almost daily use. For a $160 book, way to cut corners PPI! Thanks.

I purchased the MERM and the Practice Problem manual and used it for my exam prep. It starts at a review level much more fundamental than what is required for most folks, but good to get you back in the swing of things if you've been out of practice for a while.

I used the planning guide in the front of the book for my prep and condensed their 14 week program down into 7 weeks. After practicing Consulting Engineering for 5 years, I spent 8 years working for a Temperature Control contractor and got really rusty on the calcs. I joined a firm again in the fall and signed up for the exam. I borrowed someone's copy of the NCEES practice exam and between these materials and that exam, it's all the prep I did. I passed on the first attempt.

You will see people with a ridiculous amount of materials on exam day, I took this book and my ASHRAE books (I took the HVAC depth exam) and it was everything I needed. The prep gets you familiar with the Tables and text, it's all that's needed for the exam.

Exam day convenience and familiarity are just as important as the review process. With only 6 minutes per problem, you had better have your road map quickly and this reference does just that.

Several other folks at my firm have past editions of this and refer to it from time to time. Every person from every discipline in my exam had the appropriate version of this manual for their discipline. I highly recommend this reference!

This is onle heavy book but for good reason, there is a lot of good information in here. I got this book to help me study for the PE exam, however I am not eligable to take it for another 2 years. If I could do it all over again, I probably could have bought this book and used it for every engineering class I had throughout all of college. I have about 20 or so engineering books that I have collected over the years and this one book about sums it all up except for those classes that are very speciallized like Fuel Cell Design or English 1. Even though I am out of college and can't take the exam for a while, it is still a very good reference book for work. I used to keep all my collage book so I would have them for referance but since I got this book, the rest just stay in a box now. I have so far found one flaw, there are things in there I don't know what to do with them but then I realized that it was stuff school never taught me in the first place. So not really a flaw of the book... the book is great.

I only used this book to study (whilst doing the NCEES practice test) and only brought this book to the exam and I passed on the first attempt. Most everyone taking the PE had some sort of roller suitcase filled with a library of books. It was funny to just have 1 book and know that 1/3 of those people will be hauling their roller bags back in to take the test again in 6 months. If you went to a good college, do the practice exam, get this book and study for about 40-50 hours, you'll do fine.