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First Class Applied Mechanics

Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2016 3:33 am
by MikeH
Hello,

I am studying for the First Class Applied Mechanics exam. I spent a lot of time going through the Reeds book, chapter by chapter and then going through all the Second class questions, and went through some of the First Class questions before getting frustrated/intimidated/mad at myself.
So as a way to test my skills, I decided to attempt the First class questions supplied in the Diesel Duck Library.
This only made me much more frustrated/intimidated/mad at myself!!
I understand that there is more than one way to answer these questions, but a lot of time I feel as though studying the Reeds book hasn't provided the means to solve some of these questions.
Martin has mentioned that the exam is heavily based on the Reeds book. So what I'm wondering is: Are the questions in the library worth spending time to learn these other methods?
Can anyone provide some insight wether the questions in the library are close to what I should expect to find on the TC exam? Or should I stick to reeds and not get distracted to the library questions?
I feel overwhelmed every time I sit down to study and feel like I am no closer to being ready to write this exam than I was a few months ago.
I can't imagine I am the only that had these questions when studying for this exam and hoping for someone who has written the exam already could provide some insight for a good studying strategy.
Thanks for any help or suggestions!

Re: First Class Applied Mechanics

Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2016 5:13 am
by JK
I can't offer any help on the Applied, I hated every second of it. I will commiserate with you though.

Re: First Class Applied Mechanics

Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2016 6:38 am
by D Winsor
Is it the math or the questions themselves that is frustrating you?
If it is the math I suggest digging out or borrowing a High School math book and use it to refresh your math skills because if you are like the rest of us you have forgotten 90% of the advanced math done in High School.
I know from experience from trying to help other engineers that sometimes the questions in the Reed's books can be confusing and difficult to determine what is being asked. So I get the person I'm helping to try and think of a real world situation that they are familiar with and where they would have to use the same process to calculate an answer for a report, verify an observed result or the limits of equipment.
When tackling a question don't over think it, remember K.I.S.S. and break the question down to it's simplest parts.

Re: First Class Applied Mechanics

Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 7:02 am
by JK
What I remember most about Applied, is staggering out from an exam, and one of my fellow classmates moaning that all he could think about while trying to calculate the forces in a chain, was the same chain dangling the instructor from the neck. That's over 30 years ago and about all I remember about applied. LOL. Not much help, but it is not only yourself that struggles with this.

Re: First Class Applied Mechanics

Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 7:40 am
by Merlyn
Don't know if your examinations for certificates differ from over here in UK but I well remember Calculus, DX and DY etc, Quadratic Equations, seem to remember the knack with them was recognising the format and what type they were so you could apply the correct formulae to crack them. Wrong recognition equalled wrong answer every time. And of course " N " which was allways the " unknown " number. Thermal Dynamics, wonder if PV/T still remains a constant, ie C? Loads of Q&A in the back of the books. Didn't come naturally to me and as such had to learn a lot of it Parrot fashion. Still got a lot of the old books.

Re: First Class Applied Mechanics

Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2016 10:02 am
by JollyJack
If you can do all the questions in Reeds Applied Mechanics, especially the ones marked with "f", you should be OK. I think 1st Class is actually easier than 2nd Class, maybe it's because you have some idea of what it's about.

I agree with the KISS principle, the other piece of advice I offer every candidate I examine is RTFQ, understand what is being asked, what needs to be solved, what information is important and what is just fluff. If you can do all the "f" questions and get them right, you'll be OK.