This article takes you through a method that you can use to pass the PE exam. This method is described step by step and has proven many times to work. This method will save you time and money from other methods like taking an exam preparatory course. This method is for the self-motivated test taker. Some people may be more suited to going through a planned course with motivation from a teacher.

Step 1: Gather your Resources

The first step is to collect the minimum amount of resources that you will need to pass the exam. I have created a separate page that goes through each resource. Some of these resources will require you pay and others are free. The total cost for these resources is around $300 to $400. You should try and get the resources used, because the older versions will still allow you to pass the PE exam.
HVAC Thrifty Resources: https://www.engproguides.com/gathering-your-resources-for-the-hvac-thrifty-engineer.html

Step 2: Create Your 3-Ring Binder

The next step is to get a 3″ three ring binder. This binder will hold all your notes, practice problems and cheat sheets. You should put the NCEES outline in the front of the binder. Creating your binder helps to customize the subject matter. You can't take in your binder to the exam, but creating the binder and adding your notes will help to organize your materials.

Step 3: Create a section for each NCEES topic below.

Then create sections and separators for each of the HVAC & Refrigeration NCEES topics. These topics include the following:

1. Basic Engineering Practice
2. Thermodynamics
3. Psychrometrics
4. Heat Transfer
5. Fluid Mechanics
6. Energy/Mass Balance
7. Heating/Cooling Loads
8. Equipment & Components
9. Systems & Components
10. Supportive Knowledge

Step 4: Fill up the binder with practice problems and relevant information to each topic.

As you go through the next steps which involve reading through the references and completing sample exams, you should write down or print out the necessary material and place it into the appropriate section of your 3-ring binder. Each section should have all the sample problems within that topic and any tables, equations, page excerpts that were necessary to solve the problem or any information that you think may be necessary to solve future problems.

Step 5: Print the NCEES Mechanical PE Reference Handbook

As you go through practice problems, you need to be able to quickly find the relevant formulas and materials in the handbook. If you aren't able to find the information, then you may need to commit that concept or skill to memory. The goal is to be able to know where everything is in the handbook and to know what isn't in the handbook.

Step 6: Complete Engineering Pro Guides Technical Study Guide

Next, step is to read through the Engineering Pro Guides HVAC & Refrigeration Technical Study Guide and complete the practice problems. The practice problems are not the same level of difficulty as the actual PE exam, but it will help you to determine what material you need in your 3-ring binder and what material is in the Handbook. For example, when you are completing a pipe friction loss calculation, you know that you need the Moody Diagram and the inner diameters and areas. Locate this information in the handbook. As another example, you may need to know the contents of ASHRAE 55 for a problem. This information isn't in the handbook, but you can jot down notes in your binder, so that you can remember it for the exam.
HVAC Technical Study Guide Link: https://www.engproguides.com/pe-mechanical-hvac-and-refrigeration-practice-exam-guide.html

Step 7: Print out cheat sheets from Engineering Pro Guides and place into your binder.

Each section of the engineering pro guides hvac technical study guide has a list of key equations and terms. This is a good place to start in beginning to fill in your 3-ring binder. You can also place the practice problems from each section into your binder. Engineering Pro Guides also offers a word document version of the key equations and terms that you can edit. The cheat sheet for the HVAC & Refrigeration PE Exam can be found on the link below. You can use this document to edit your cheat sheets as you go through the next steps.
Link: https://engproguides.com/free-pe-exam-cheat-sheets-unit-conversions.html

Step 8: Look up terms you don’t know and add to your binder.

Next, complete the Engineering Pro Guides full exam. When you take the exam for the first time, you should time yourself and break up the exam into two, four-hour sessions. This will help to simulate the actual exam. When you grade yourself, you should be very forgiving and understanding of yourself, since this is the first time taking the exam. You should expect a maximum score of about 50%, depending on how well you did in engineering college.
HVAC Full Exam Link: https://www.engproguides.com/pe-mechanical-hvac-and-refrigeration-practice-exam.html

A typical score of 50% on the first time through an exam is acceptable, even if you already completed a similar sample PE exam.

The next step is to go through the exam, one problem at a time and make sure that you understand how to do each problem even if you got the problem correct. You should also take the exam problem and place it into your binder, along with your work and any other references you needed to solve that problem. When you place the items in your binder, you want to envision encountering a similar problem on the actual PE exam. You may also find the items you need in the handbook, when you look back at the problem, so try to remember where that information is in the handbook for next time.

Step 9: Identify Weaknesses

Now, that you have completed one exam, you should be able to look at the various NCEES topics and determine your weaknesses. Are you struggling with Psychrometrics? Theromdynamics? Equipment & Systems? or Systems & Components?

Once you have identified your weaknesses, you should go through the resources and read more about the topics. If you can find sample problems on the topic online, that will help as well. Search through youtube videos to find instructions on how to complete typical problems within your weak topics. Add any information you find to your binder. The Engineering Pro Guides HVAC & Refrigeration Technical Study Guide is a good place to start to find more information on your weak topics. The following webpage also identifies appropriate resources for each NCEES HVAC & Refrigeration topic.

Step 10: Take NCEES HVAC & Refrigeration Sample Exam

Now, that you have completed one exam and built up your binder and knowledge, the next step is to try the actual NCEES sample exam. This exam is the closest representation to the actual PE exam. When you complete this exam, follow the same method as the previous exam. Complete the exam in two, four-hour sessions and after the exam, you should identify your weaknesses and continue to research your weak topics.

The NCEES sample exam is made from old HVAC & Refrigeration PE exam problems, so it is the more representative of the actual exam. The next exam that is closest is the Engineering Pro Guides exam.

Step 11: Read through ASHRAE Handbooks

The HVAC & Refrigeration exam currently references a lot of topics in ASHRAE Fundamentals and Systems & Equipment Handbooks. You should go through these topics and do all the sample problems within each of the chapters that are on the NCEES HVAC & Refrigeration exam.

Complete the sample problems in ASHRAE Fundamentals and ASHRAE Systems & Equipment that pertain to the topics in the NCEES HVAC & Refrigeration outline. Add these problems to your binder. The HVAC References Exam is also another good way to go through all of these chapters with sample problems.
HVAC Reference Exam Link: https://www.engproguides.com/mechanical-pe-hvac-refrigeration-supplemental-reference-exam.html

Step 12: Increase Speed and Memorize Experience Based Problems

Lastly, I think that you can complete all the NCEES HVAC & Refrigeration PE Exam problems with unlimited time and your three-ring binder. The ASHRAE Handbooks and the Engineering Pro Guides Technical Study Guide pretty much have all the answers to the PE exam problems, it is just a matter of finding all that information within the allotted time and remembering the information in your 3-ring binder and the handbooks. Thus the last part of your studying should be to increase your speed in completing the problems within the NCEES sample exam and re-reading everything in your 3-ring binder so you can remember the key concepts that are not presented in the handbook.

You can score HIGH on the actual PE exam given enough time. The problem is that you only have six minutes per problem. Better preparation and practice can help you to decrease the time you spend on easy-medium problems. This will save you time for the difficult problems.

Time yourself and try to improve your speed for the problems that you know will be on the exam. Each NCEES topic has problems that are very common. For example, psychrometrics always seems to have a problem on mixing air streams. Fluids, most likely will have a pressure loss within a pipe problem. Thermodynamics, will have a net refrigeration effect problem and so on and so on. Try to think like the exam creator and think of common problems within each topic. Then do variations of the problem, for example if the problem gives you “X”, “Y” and wants you to solve for “Z”, then do the problem with given “Z” and “Y”, then solve for “X”.

Step 13: Do More Practice Problems

If you have time, then you should go through more practice problems. I recommend 6MS and any older NCEES Mechanical PE Exam that you can get your hands on.