Chemical Engineering License Review, 2nd Edition brings together all elements of professional problem solving in one volume. It is an ideal study guide and the first truly practical, no-nonsense review for the difficult PE Exam. 146 example problems with detailed step-by-step solutionsCovers all topics featured on the exam Easy-to-use tables, charts, and formulasThe introductory chapter reviews test specifications and offers the authors’ recommendations on the be… More >>
Chemical Engineering: License Review
Tags: chemical engineering, introductory chapter, pe exam, professional problem, test specifications
This definitely is NOT the best book for review for the PE Chemical Engineering Exam. It is strewn with errors in the formulas and sample problems. Because this book is written in a size 12 font with 1-3 inch margins at the sides and bottom, it is a lot longer than it should be. This format should give the reader a sense of accomplishment while studying (Hey, I’ve done 10 pages already!), but the sample solutions are so time-consuming to work through that a few simple pages can take an hour. The authors dispense with units on most problems and combine several solution steps into one, leaving the reader to retrace every step to figure out where he got lost. On a PE test, you would be penalized for not referencing your starting equation, not carrying and cancelling units, and other sloppy habits and mistakes committed by the authors. Buy Randall Robinson’s PE Study Guide instead. It is more straightforward, contains much more reference information, and the author has spent more than a week writing the book!
Rating: 1 / 5
I took Chemical Engineering PE exam in April 2007 for the first time. I passed the exam. When I was solving the problems in the actual exam I knew what I was doing. I was confident that I will pass. The main reason was Chemical Engineering License Review.
License review is written by chemical engineers. This book brushed up my chemical engineering knowledge. Review has addressed all areas in PE exam. But the best covered area is Chemical Reaction Engineering. There are lot of questions on reaction engineering (11%). Problem with kinetics is that we do not use it everyday like fluid dynamics or heat transfer. This book will bring you up to the speed for kinetics problems. Kinetics is the area which will make it or break it.
Review was great help in plant design and operation section. I found this section very useful during actual examination.
Heat transfer chapter has good review of shell and tube exchangers. Fluid dynamics chapter helped me in flow of fluids in pipes and pump calcs most.
License review gives extensive coverage for mass transfer. Absorption and distillation are very important sections and this book prepared me well to solve those questions.
Book had printing mistakes but these mistakes did not deter me from understanding the principles. There are other reference books/solved problems (Chemical Engineering Reference Manual, NCEES problems) available and they are useful too. While studying I kept this book as a main focus and used other reference material also. Study from more than one source is a must. If one starts early enough and balance fundamentals and problem solving properly then passing in the first attempt is not tough.
PE exam tests experience and fundamentals. License Review will clear your fundamentals. It helped me during exam and I am going to keep it as a reference also.
I did not have resort to option elimination. In most of the cases I got the answer and it matched with one of the option. Now I can say my answers were correct (atleast most of them!!!) because I passed the exam.
Rating: 5 / 5
Don’t be fooled by the updated cover. The paperback version does not fix any of the serious flaws contained in the hardcover version. Don’t waste your money.
Rating: 1 / 5
This is an excellent study guide with practical examples. I bought this book and its companion texts. It covers most fo the chemical engineering topics for the exam.
The latest edition (2007) has very few errors. The errors are posted on publisher’s website as they are discovered. The reader should ignore any review done on earlier editions.
Rating: 4 / 5
This is an excellent book for refreshing core concepts in chemical engineering, particularly if you’ve been out of school for a long while. It’s also loaded with solved example problems to give the reader practice solving problems with speed. Although not necessarily recommended, one can actually get by on the numerous example problems in this book alone without having to buy separate books on practice problems.
What this books lacks is reference information in the form of tables and charts, etc. It is also skimpy on the many minor topics that invariably get asked on the exam but that are too minor and too numerous for a student to spend much time preparing for. I also wish it were hardbound because the soft cover gets beat up very quickly. For reference information for use during the exam, choose Lindeburg’s Chemical Engineering Reference Manual instead. The Das/Prabhudesai and Lindeburg books complement each other perfectly, one mostly for use to get ready for the exam, the other for use during the exam. Lindeburg’s book isn’t particularly good as an exam prep study guide, but the Das/Prabhudesai books is.
My advice for anyone preparing for the chemical PE is to get both books. I passed the Chem E PE on my first attempt this way. The Lindeburg is indispensible as a handy reference during the exam. Read my review on it, too. Yes, you’ll have to shell out the money for both sets of books, but doing so is still far cheaper than having to take the exam twice! Use both books to pass the exam.
One thing to keep in mind about the PE exam is that it tests for acceptable competence instead of excellence (This generally means answering at least 70% of the questions correctly). One doesn’t need to have been an A-caliber student in college to pass it. The passing rate for first-time takers has been over 70% in recent years. The combined pass rate is around 50% because it’s dragged down by repeat takers who have only a 40% pass rate.
Rating: 5 / 5