Pe Chemical -- 2nd Attempt
Passed PE Chemical on my 2nd attempt — sharing because I don't see many PE Chemical posts on here.
**First attempt: PPI2Pass Live Lectures**
Would not recommend paying for the live lectures. Just get the question bank if you go this route. The live lecture, homework, and Lindenburg study schedule is unrealistic and ends up being a lot of busy work. The instructor was a genuinely nice guy but didn't explain theory in a meaningful way. The course struggles due to how everything is laid out and presented. The real value is in the questions and the PPI practice exam (which is harder than the actual exam — I scored 50% on it the first time). Also, the Kaplan website is buggy as hell.
**Second attempt: LearnChemE PE Exam Prep (FREE)**
Shoutout to the professors and staff at the CU Boulder Chemical Engineering Dept who put this together and made it FREE. The screencasts and interactive simulations are excellent for actually learning theory, not just drilling problem types. That distinction matters — NCEES writes purposefully tricky, worded questions, so if you haven't touched something like extents of reaction, Raoult's Law, Heats of Mixing, etc. in 20 years, rote practice alone won't save you.
**What I'd do if starting over:**
- Buy only the PPI2Pass question bank and practice exam (skip live lectures)
- Use LearnChemE for theory
- NCEES practice exam — the single best study resource; don't just check answers, make sure you fully understand the *why*
- Matthew G's practice exam on Amazon (some dated API-referenced questions, but still solid overall)
- Aim to score at least 75-80% on practice exams for buffer
Happy to answer any questions