PE Petroleum Exam: January 2016

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Test Taking Strategy

Note: I will not talk about specific problems from the exam.
Update: This post was updated with the completion of the Petroleum PE Sample Exam 2016.
Update: This post was updated using suggestions from Guidebook readers after the 2016 exam.

First: review the Petroleum Engineering Guidebook in detail and SPE Textbook Series #1, #2, #12, and #4 as time allows. Tab by letter a good Petroleum Dictionary. Have the Halliburton Red Book (or equivalent) and Well Control (for the pictures). Know whatever resources you choose very well; never waste time searching through books during an exam.

Second: Take the 2016 Petroleum PE Practice Exam Morning Section or the 2004 Sample Exam Morning Section. It's critical to take them under actual test conditions. Lock yourself in a room for four hours with your books, calculator, mechanical pencil, and whatever you will eat and drink. If you lack four uninterrupted hours, do 10 problems in 1 hour for the same effect.

Third: Take, practice, and completely understand every problem on the 2004 SPE Sample Exam. This is your calculation problem study time. Do every problem as many times as needed until each one takes less than 5 minutes each (on average).

Fourth: Do and completely understand every problem on the 2014 SPE Practice Exam. This isn't like the actual exam, it's easy and fast, but know all the questions. Study any weak areas.

Fifth: Take the 2016 Petroleum PE Practice Exam Afternoon Section. If you don't have it, use the 2004 Practice Exam Afternoon Section instead. This is your final check. If you can get 70% under exam conditions, you will probably pass the real thing. If you can get 60%, it's worth a shot. Use this test to hone your resources and practice operating under the time constraints.

Sixth: Sometime in the month before the exam, take the 2017 Petroleum PE Practice Exam, Morning and Afternoon. Take it as if it's real, including resources, food, and restroom breaks.

Regarding studying: I didn't find practicing calculation problems to help much past a certain point. If you can do every problem on the 2004 exam within time constraints (average 6 minutes per problem), you should be good to go on calculations.

For an interesting discussion of the futility of using calculation problems to prepare for the PE Exam, read David Vaucher, who, after taking the 2014 exam, said, "I think I did well. I’m confident because I spent ample time preparing..." and "...I am certain that I got all the calculation questions right...". But to his chagrin he then discovered that he did not pass. Think about that. He believes he didn't miss a single calculation problem yet did not pass! This demonstrates the danger of focusing on calculation problems.

So how should one prepare? Focus on high-quality (but limited) resources, real understanding, and test-taking skills. This was how I generated my study notes (now Guidebook) during the years I was waiting to take the exam. My notes summarized the main points from SPE textbooks. And little else. If there was something on the exam not in my notes (rare!) I merely skipped it, confident that the question was esoteric and thus a time sink to be avoided. A willingness to "let it go" is far more important than the natural (and normally healthy) urge to chase down the correct answer on every problem and thus run out of time.

You have probably heard the joke that to avoid being eaten by a charging bear you don't have to outrun it, you just need to outrun the other guy? Well you don't need to get every answer right on this exam. You just need more answers correct than about half the other guys.

Monday, January 11, 2016

Resources

Unlike every other engineering discipline (Mechanical, Civil, Electrical, Chemical) Petroleum Engineering lacks a good reference manual for the PE Exam. The SPE official resources are:

Society of Petroleum Engineers Textbook Series

Vol. 1, Well Testing, Lee

Vol. 2, Applied Drilling Engineering, A. T. Bourgoyne Jr., et al.

Vol. 3, Waterflooding, G. P. Willhite, et al.

Vol. 4, Theory, Measurement and Interpretation of Well Logs, Z. Bassioni

Vol. 5, Gas Reservoir Engineering, J. Lee, et al.

Vol. 6, Enhanced Oil Recovery, D. W. Green, et al.

Vol. 7, Basic Applied Reservoir Stimulation, T. Ertekin, et al.

Vol. 8, Fundamental Principles of Reservoir Engineering, B. F. Towler

Vol. 9, Pressure Transient Testing, J. Lee, et al.

Vol. 10, Advanced Well Control, D. Watson, et al.

Vol. 11, Streamline Simulation: Theory and Practice, A. Satta-Gupta, et al.

Vol. 12, Fundamentals of Drilling Engineering, R. F. Mitchel, et al.

Petroleum Engineering Handbook Series Editor-in-Chief: Larry W. Lake

Volume I: General Engineering
Volume II: Drilling Engineering

Volume III: Facilities and Construction Engineering
Volume IV: Production Operations Engineering

Volume V: Reservoir Engineering and Petrophysics
Volume VI: Emerging and Peripheral Technologies

I own all of these books (plus about fifty more petroleum engineering books). Most are not very useful on a timed, open-book exam; no time to flip pages! Remember, ten problems an hour equals only six minutes for each problem. Often it takes several minutes to read/understand a problem. If you waste time looking in hope, you will fail. As I've said before about this exam: if you think, you're dead.

There are only three possible references one could use on the Petroleum PE as a "primary" text. They are below (with links).

1. Petroleum Engineering Handbook (SPE, Bradley)

2. Petroleum Engineering Handbook for the Practicing Engineer (Mian)

3. Winrock PE Review Course (Wines)

I've owned these texts for years. Each is crazy expensive. But I used none of them during the exam. Note you cannot buy the Winrock text; but must take a week-long course to get the text (this course and manual are excellent for education in petroleum engineering and I strongly recommend it., even if not taking the exam).

I know a lot about these three books. Each is tabbed, indexed, highlighted. They were some of my primary texts studied. But I never even opened one during test time. Look, all three are great for learning tools and I strongly recommend each to study from. But for actual use during a 6 minute per problem exam? No way. Were I to take it again, I wouldn't bother to bring them.

So what resources did I use?

1) My own manuscript (or your own notes). This was a concise 130 page summary of about 30 texts. It sat on my desk, spiral bound, always open.

2) SPE Textbook Series Volumes 1, 2, 4, 12.
3) Dictionary of Petroleum Exploration, Drilling & Production.

4) SPE Handbook Series Volumes 3, 6.
5) Update: I forgot to mention Well Control for Completion and Workover (and of course the HES Redbook).

I felt good leaving the exam after the first half. I felt less confident during the second half, but upon reflection understood this was weariness (goofing off the night before and forgetting my NoDoz).

I made a conscious point to not scan any of my (numerous) resources until the very end of each exam section. Precious time is better spent working, especially checking your work. You either know it, know exactly where to find it (and I mean exactly), or let it go.

Friday, January 8, 2016

Calculator

This is the easiest post to write. You are limited as to which calculators you may bring to the exam.

The best of your (very limited) selection is the TI-36X Pro. Why?

1. 4 Line Visible Stack
2. Reliable (I have 2 and both are working fine years later)
3. Solar Power Backup
4. Inexpensive
5. Nice Button Position/Response
6. Linear Interpolation*

The only reason to chose the other calculator options is if you are already know it well and like it. Regardless, you should give the TI-36X Pro a look. You might be surprised. I'm an HP guy and found the Pro pretty easy to pick up and use with speed from day one.

Bring two of these calculators to the exam (one for backup). It is >$20, so why not? The exam costs $350; why put this money at risk with a battery or mechanical failure? Leave the covers at home; some proctors will not allow them in the room.

*I don't recommend interpolation on this type of exam to save time. I estimate. But if you feel the need, the Pro's interpolation function takes about the same time as by hand (I've timed it). I personally never interpolated, just estimated, and it worked great. When you do practice problems, try estimating, then interpolate to check; you will find it almost never pays to waste time interpolating. Remember, you only have 4 answer selections. Time is your enemy on this exam, not precision. I think I found 1/100 practice problems where guessing got me the wrong final answer. Invest your time elsewhere.

But if you must interpolate, use the Pro's interpolation function because it requires no real "thinking" and is a nice rest from that. Regardless, make sure you practice using whatever method you intend on the exam. Interpolating on the Pro is a tad confusing at first, but easy once you know how:

Example: Given 200, 250, 300 interpolate between 1, 2:
(data)
type in:
----------
200 1
300 2
----------
(2nd) (data)
Scroll 2 down (2_Var Stats)
Scroll 3 down (calc)

Scroll 16 down (y')
Type number to interpolate to, here 250
(enter) gives 1.5

One last calculator trick to use on the exam: get used to using roots as exponents. It's a lot faster to enter y^0.5 for a square root, y^0.3 for a cube, etc. Remember, you will have to do many large roots, so just learn the process for any root and stick with it. It's the same for negative exponents; they are faster than inverting. Again, it's all about speed, and what you practice will be what you do under pressure. You shouldn't think on this exam. You've either done it a million times and crank it out, or you should skip it and invest your time elsewhere. It's funny to say about this type of exam, but if you think, you're dead.