These are tips on how to do well on any exam. I placed at state level in many academic competitions throughout my grade school and high school years. These test taking tips will improve your scores. This article has little to do with study. It focuses primarily on other aspects of life which can affect test taking performance.
1. Confidence is second only to ability. Be sure to prepare using equal mixes of the material. Studying just the material you have not yet mastered can be discouraging. Mix in material you feel you already know in order to build confidence.
2. Return to material you have already covered in study. Quiz yourself. On most tests, 90% is recall and 10% is novel application of the material. Realize this: The exam tests your ability to recall formulas and how to use them. In a self quiz, you actually practice for a test by mimicking test conditions.
These test taking tips helping you so far? I tutored math, calculus, trigonometry, algebra and the sciences in college. People requested me by name. This is because these tools brought people with D averages up to B averages- many scoring A grades on exams! Keep reading, there's more:
3. Sleep right. Go to bed at 11 or before. Do not eat for at least one hour before going to sleep. Best is to not eat 3 hours before sleeping, and to not drink 60 minutes before going to bed. Have you heard of the "freshman fifteen"? This refers to young women who enter college and gain 15 pounds. When I was in college at SJSU in 1992, it was just the freshman ten.
Hormones are produced during sleep. Formally, science believed hormones were produced equally all through the night, at a steady rate per hour. More recently, this notion has been replaced. The body produces hormones according to a priority list. It produces several hormones at once, until optimal levels are attained. Then, it ceases a hormone which has reached capacity and begins production on another hormone.
The hormones that limit fat production are one of the last produced. When you begin to lose sleep, fat production suffers. We can reasonably extrapolate that other functions, not just fat production, also suffer from poor, irregular, and insufficient sleep.How much of youthful energy results from an early bed time and sleeping as late as the body wants?
The body is like an organic machine. Care for it. Provide the proper maintenance, and it will operate efficiently and effectively for you.
4. Get regular exercise each week. Three times weekly with about 30 minutes each time makes a big difference. This increases blood flow throughout the entire body and increases the capacity of the cardiovascular system to uptake and transport oxygen- which is rocket fuel for the brain. Did you know that 80% of matriculants to Ivy League schools jog regularly? It makes a difference!
5. Stretch out once in a while. If you are someone who wakes in the morning with a stiff back or other stiff muscles, stretching is for you. This improves circulation and will benefit not just the brain, but the entire body as well. There is a reason airlines recommend stretching before long flights.
6. Quit drinking soda and never drink it ever again in your lifetime. The body operates at a preferred pH balance of about 7.2 to 7.4 (normal saliva ranges 6.0 to 7.4). Just one 12 oz. can of soda drops system pH and it takes the body a full week to recover back to normal pH. Again, treat the organic machine with respect, and it will operate according to the way God designed it. Abuse it and pour in the wrong fuel, and it will first begin to lose slight degrees of efficiency, and then begin to break down.
Did you know that cancer patients have very low pH? It is true. One more reason to never drink cola- it creates an environment favorable to cancer (which is really just fungus, research this.)
Artificial products gunk up the works.
7. This is not just a test taking tip, it's a life tip. Avoid or totally eliminate artificial colors and artificial flavors. One study on grade school children tested their grade level performance, then eliminated artificial colors and flavors for 3 months. At the end of the period during which these fake ingredients were eliminated at school, (but not at home), researchers retested the children. The average test performance improvement was 3 grade levels!
8. Dress to impress. Above, I mentioned confidence. Another factor that boosts self-confidence is a sharp appearance. Impact the room when you enter, and you will impact yourself as well. Wear nice suits even to study. A pressed shirt and tie will prevent you from taking a nap and doesn't feel right slumped into the couch with the remote in one hand.
9. Drink plenty of water. Again: organic machine. Water lubricates, cleanses, and freshens everything inside you.
10. Respect visual stimulants. Classical conditioning is at work all the time. Use this to your advantage. For every unique activity in your life, your body responds by producing what it needs. For example, the site of the gym will cause the body to produce simple sugars to fuel muscles. It has been conditioned to expect this. Even the site of gym clothes, your gym bag, gym membership card, and running shoes will start production of energy.
Your body will develop similar visual stimulators for mental work. Your calculator will definitely be one of these. So will reference books and other study materials. If you can, keep the most powerful icons of study in view during your exam.
I predict that a study using visual stimulants for study periods of specific topics which use different areas of the brain, will produce better results using the conditioned visual stimulators. For example: wearing a gold ring and using a specific pencil to study history, vs. wearing a blue shirt, a gemstone ring, and using a very different pencil to study chemistry.
Most drug addicts develop a tolerance to drugs. Their body becomes conditioned to produce drug-disabling hormones. Visual stimulants, like their dealer's street corner, a syringe, or crack spoon set off their bodies defense works. Most drug overdoses are total rookies who have no system built up, or veterans who took their usual amount in a new place- like a toilet stall in a club, where no visual stimulants facilitated their body pre-producing what it needed to negate portions of the drug.
11. Don't eat anything spicy the day before, or the morning of, an exam. Don't eat at a "greasy spoon", either. Generally, avoid food with the ability to upset your gastrointestinal system. This goes double for people who tend to be nervous at the beginning of exams. Exception: If you eat spicy food every day, don't change a thing.
12. Arrive to your exam seat as soon as you can. Get comfortable with the environment. This is more important for regional competitions and national exams like the ASVAB, SAT, and professional licensing exams- places you have never before seen.
13. Within 15 minutes prior to beginning your exam, get 5 minutes of exercise. Run from your car to the test building, run around your classroom, or do push ups on some grass or against a bench. Also, drink a half cup of coffee. Each of these strategies, independently, increases blood flow to the brain. And, this has been shown to improve test scores an average of 5%. The day I took my exam, I also excused myself to the men's room and jogged there and jogged back to increase the flow of blood.
14. Stop drinking Fluoridated water and use toothpaste without Fluoride. U.S. studies show Fluoride drops IQs by 10 points. Chinese studies show 20 points lost where Fluoride was added to water.
Showing posts with label PE exam tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PE exam tips. Show all posts
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Thursday, January 10, 2013
NCEES Practice Exam
(Link for free FE mini exam is at the bottom.)
Preparation for the FE exam or the PE exam, both prepared and administered by NCEES, absolutely requires taking practice exams.
There is really only one place to begin your search for preparation materials. This is the bookstore I put together of the best PE exam materials on Amazon. I hear people saying they invested 150 hours and more to prepare for the FE and more than 300 hours for the PE. You need the right materials to make your time effective.
I studied much less, and- get this - I do not have an engineering degree! (California is one of the states which allows experience and knowledge to qualify a person for the FE and for the PE exam.)
How did I pass when so many with expensive 4 and 5 year degrees could not? (Only about half of those with engineering degrees ever take the FE, fewer than this take the professional engineer exam.)
The reason I passed is simple. I know how to prepare for an exam. (Plus the required years of work experience, of course.) To prepare for the FE exam, I bought a fat book from Great Lakes Press on Amazon. I also took many practice exams, using the book I purchased. I studied by focusing on my strongest and weakest topics- a strategy to consolidate my base of points, and to glean the easiest additional points.
Really, it was the PE practice exams which really made the difference. There are several reasons why.
Best PE Sample Exams
Preparation for the FE exam or the PE exam, both prepared and administered by NCEES, absolutely requires taking practice exams.
There is really only one place to begin your search for preparation materials. This is the bookstore I put together of the best PE exam materials on Amazon. I hear people saying they invested 150 hours and more to prepare for the FE and more than 300 hours for the PE. You need the right materials to make your time effective.
I studied much less, and- get this - I do not have an engineering degree! (California is one of the states which allows experience and knowledge to qualify a person for the FE and for the PE exam.)
How did I pass when so many with expensive 4 and 5 year degrees could not? (Only about half of those with engineering degrees ever take the FE, fewer than this take the professional engineer exam.)
The reason I passed is simple. I know how to prepare for an exam. (Plus the required years of work experience, of course.) To prepare for the FE exam, I bought a fat book from Great Lakes Press on Amazon. I also took many practice exams, using the book I purchased. I studied by focusing on my strongest and weakest topics- a strategy to consolidate my base of points, and to glean the easiest additional points.
Really, it was the PE practice exams which really made the difference. There are several reasons why.
- Practice exams familiarize you with the time constraints of 6 minutes per question on the PE exam morning and afternoon sessions, and with the 1.92 minute allotment in the FE exam (5 hours, 20 minutes for 110 questions- the CBT format.)
- Practice exams remove stress. Once you are comfortable with the format, and have scored enough to pass (based on statistical history and rumor) on two or three PE practice exams, exam stress will be eliminated or nearly gone. Stress works against the examinee. Being relaxed frees your mind and allows good circulation for body and brain.
- Practice exams show you which subjects are your strongest, and which subjects are your weakest. (There is a lot about this in my book, Pass the PE like a Pro.)
- The explanations for the solution to each of the problems allows you to immediately review mistakes.
- Psychology has shown through experimentation: Information given in exams is remembered far better than information covered in cram sessions, homework, or lectures. (This is why teachers are encouraged to put more True answers on exams than False. People who thought the false information on the exam was true tend to believe it years later.) Taking a practice exam, or taking one a mini-quiz with questions in subjects you choose, is a more effective learning technique than sitting at Starbucks with your CERM and attempting to work problems.
- Schedule your practice exams (FE or PE) regularly. Study in between. This will show you how effective your study has been. If you slack off between practice exams, your score will warn you immediately. Bad feedback will motivate you. Good feedback will encourage. But, you need to invest in some practice exam books. Buy from at least two authors/publishers.
- I reviewed all the offerings on Amazon. Click the link above to go see pages and pages of current, top-rated PE review books. They are listed by exam topic: mechanical, civil, geotech, etc.
Best PE Sample Exams
Monday, January 7, 2013
PE Exam Tips
How to Pass the PE Exam: Exam Tips for Winners
If you want to pass the PE on the first try, take these tips from a master of taking tests. I have taken a lot of schooling over the years, in the military and at 10 different colleges and universities- on both coasts and overseas. Here are some excellent PE exam tips to facilitate your passing the NCEES exam as well as the California state specific surveying and seismic exams.
1. Give yourself plenty of time to study.
2. Sacrifice an unnecessary routine event, like television or movies.
3. Make a REGULAR, dedicated schedule. Keep it over all else.
4. Take practice exams regularly during your engineering review program.
5. Analyze your PE practice test results.
6. Using practice test results: study your strengths first, weaknesses second.
7. Purchase the Civil Engineering Reference Manual as soon as possible. Know it better than your calculator.
Above are the main aspects of preparing for the NCEES and state specific exams to receive a professional engineering license. Below are more detailed explanations of the above exam tips to give you an edge above those less-blessed EITs who did not find this blog.
Professional Engineer Exam Tips Expanded
1. Time: Give yourself as much time as you can. Six months is not unreasonable. Start with a full practice exam. The brain breaks things down into chunks. As you learn information, the mental platform holds 5 to 9 items which it can compare and process. (This is called the magic number in psychology, 7±2). Items repeated in groups or frequently paired together become one item, called a chunk. Chunking is not a rapid process. You need to give the brain time to form new neural networks.
2. Sacrifice: Prior to implementing your review course, each day before today was filled with some activities: work, sleep, eating, and optional activities. Some of these optional activities must make way to provide the time you need to take practice exams, to work problems, and to familiarize yourself with reference books.
3. Regularity: The mind-body system responds well to routine. It likes it. Capitalize on this. I recommend taking a full 8-hour practice exam every other Saturday (and Sunday, if you live in California and will take the seismic and surveying exams). If you have Fridays free, take your practice exams on Friday. You want to duplicate the actual conditions of test day as closely as possible.
Find a test area similar to the situation of the test room (well-lit, open space, folding table) conditions where you will take your exam. Arrive at the time you need to be seated in the exam room. (For example, in some states you must be seated at 7:40 when the instructions begin to be read. NCEES policy does not allow examinees to enter after this time.) Begin the exam exactly at the time scheduled in your state. Give yourself a 1-hour break between each 4-hour practice test. Take a practice PE exam as in conditions as close to the real exam as possible.
Between taking practice tests, set a regular study time. An hour and a half after a reasonable dinner is a good time. For example, if you eat your evening meal at 6:30, study from 8 to 9 Monday through Thursday. Give yourself Friday off. On non-practice-exam Saturdays, sit at your desk by 8 and study for at least 4 hours. If ennui sets in, study anyway. It is better to put in 20 minutes of a scheduled hour than to skip the hour entirely. The 20 minute investment keeps your study habit alive. And, the first part of a review period and the last part of a review session are the most valuable in terms of remaining in memory. So, 20 of 60 minutes is closer to a 50% kept goal than it is 33%.
4. PE Practice Exams: Take these regularly. I studied for three months. I took a practice exam every other Saturday. If you live in California, you may also want to take a seismic practice exam and a surveying practice exam the following day. Practice exams familiarize you with not just the material, but also with time management, reference materials, and the process of moving your reference books, exam, and other materials around in your test area. (I had half of a folding table, it was 5 or 6 feet long by 2'6", I think). Regardless of how well you studied or did not study in the interim between exams, be sure to take the exams according to schedule. I was surprised to find I did much better on my third practice test than on the previous two- despite a weak study performance the preceding two weeks. Chunking, reference book familiarization, and time management had all improved, which affected my score. Also, an 8-hour exam requires some mental training, some mental conditioning.
5. Develop Strength: Analyze your results by type of problem. What percent did you correctly answer in Chemistry? In Environmental? Geotechnical? (and etcetera...)
6. Strengths and Weaknesses: The test you completed included questions from all main areas of the PE exam. However, it could not possibly cover every area of every subject. However, the subjects in which you scored best represent the areas in which you are most likely to score points on your exam date. So: practice heavily in the one or two subjects in which you scored highest. Also: look at your two lowest subject matter scores. Read material in these subjects (the CERM is good for this) and work practice problems. You will need to buy a few different PE sample exams. Study these three or four subjects for the next two weeks, until the next scheduled NCEES practice exam on your schedule.
7. Buy the Civil Engineering Reference Manual as soon as you can. Mark the index with tabs that don't fall out if you shake the book. Use this book for your practice exams. Familiarize yourself with it. I learned to open the index, write down the page numbers indexed to my topic, and then check each in turn until I found the solution process needed.
8. Purchase two approved calculators, not one. Choose different models, practice with both, and choose the one you prefer as your primary. NCEES permits just one on the desk. But, a reserve calculator is encouraged. An exact duplicate has the advantage of not requiring any new learning. However, a carefully selected back-up engineering calculator will compliment the functionality of your primary calculator.
9. Get a good guide book to walk you through the non-studying part of preparation for the PE exam. You need to know where to source the best prices for books, how to get discounts, how to lay out an effective study plan, how to force your brain to work and learn, what to bring to the exam, and much more. For that, there is really just one quality book: Pass the PE like a Pro.
If you have not yet purchased your code books and review books, I have another advantage for you: I painstakingly reviewed the available options on Amazon, and put them together on one site. They are categorized by type of exam: Mechanical, Civil, etc. For the Civil, I compiled separate pages for each of the five afternoon subject areas.
I included only current versions. From these, I also booted out material with poor reviews. See all these pages at: PE Exam Study Materials. I have placed the best materials at the top of each page.
Please share this blog post via Twitter and Facebook, and give it a Google +1. Thank you!
Update: Here is an article from the American Psychological Association. It explains how studying in shorter sessions, spread out over a longer time period, with more time between sessions, creates stronger long term memories than does studying the same total of hours packed into a shorter time frame. For example, 2 hours a night 3 times weekly for 14 weeks will produce better results than 2 hours per night 6 times weekly for 7 weeks. Both programs total 84 hours. But, according to the article, the 14-week plan will produce up to 26.5% improvement. This is a very good article. It recognizes some of the more important techniques I used to derive the study plans presented in Pass the PE like a Pro. Read Study Smart.
If you want to pass the PE on the first try, take these tips from a master of taking tests. I have taken a lot of schooling over the years, in the military and at 10 different colleges and universities- on both coasts and overseas. Here are some excellent PE exam tips to facilitate your passing the NCEES exam as well as the California state specific surveying and seismic exams.
1. Give yourself plenty of time to study.
2. Sacrifice an unnecessary routine event, like television or movies.
3. Make a REGULAR, dedicated schedule. Keep it over all else.
4. Take practice exams regularly during your engineering review program.
5. Analyze your PE practice test results.
6. Using practice test results: study your strengths first, weaknesses second.
7. Purchase the Civil Engineering Reference Manual as soon as possible. Know it better than your calculator.
Above are the main aspects of preparing for the NCEES and state specific exams to receive a professional engineering license. Below are more detailed explanations of the above exam tips to give you an edge above those less-blessed EITs who did not find this blog.
Professional Engineer Exam Tips Expanded
1. Time: Give yourself as much time as you can. Six months is not unreasonable. Start with a full practice exam. The brain breaks things down into chunks. As you learn information, the mental platform holds 5 to 9 items which it can compare and process. (This is called the magic number in psychology, 7±2). Items repeated in groups or frequently paired together become one item, called a chunk. Chunking is not a rapid process. You need to give the brain time to form new neural networks.
2. Sacrifice: Prior to implementing your review course, each day before today was filled with some activities: work, sleep, eating, and optional activities. Some of these optional activities must make way to provide the time you need to take practice exams, to work problems, and to familiarize yourself with reference books.
3. Regularity: The mind-body system responds well to routine. It likes it. Capitalize on this. I recommend taking a full 8-hour practice exam every other Saturday (and Sunday, if you live in California and will take the seismic and surveying exams). If you have Fridays free, take your practice exams on Friday. You want to duplicate the actual conditions of test day as closely as possible.
Find a test area similar to the situation of the test room (well-lit, open space, folding table) conditions where you will take your exam. Arrive at the time you need to be seated in the exam room. (For example, in some states you must be seated at 7:40 when the instructions begin to be read. NCEES policy does not allow examinees to enter after this time.) Begin the exam exactly at the time scheduled in your state. Give yourself a 1-hour break between each 4-hour practice test. Take a practice PE exam as in conditions as close to the real exam as possible.
Between taking practice tests, set a regular study time. An hour and a half after a reasonable dinner is a good time. For example, if you eat your evening meal at 6:30, study from 8 to 9 Monday through Thursday. Give yourself Friday off. On non-practice-exam Saturdays, sit at your desk by 8 and study for at least 4 hours. If ennui sets in, study anyway. It is better to put in 20 minutes of a scheduled hour than to skip the hour entirely. The 20 minute investment keeps your study habit alive. And, the first part of a review period and the last part of a review session are the most valuable in terms of remaining in memory. So, 20 of 60 minutes is closer to a 50% kept goal than it is 33%.
4. PE Practice Exams: Take these regularly. I studied for three months. I took a practice exam every other Saturday. If you live in California, you may also want to take a seismic practice exam and a surveying practice exam the following day. Practice exams familiarize you with not just the material, but also with time management, reference materials, and the process of moving your reference books, exam, and other materials around in your test area. (I had half of a folding table, it was 5 or 6 feet long by 2'6", I think). Regardless of how well you studied or did not study in the interim between exams, be sure to take the exams according to schedule. I was surprised to find I did much better on my third practice test than on the previous two- despite a weak study performance the preceding two weeks. Chunking, reference book familiarization, and time management had all improved, which affected my score. Also, an 8-hour exam requires some mental training, some mental conditioning.
5. Develop Strength: Analyze your results by type of problem. What percent did you correctly answer in Chemistry? In Environmental? Geotechnical? (and etcetera...)
6. Strengths and Weaknesses: The test you completed included questions from all main areas of the PE exam. However, it could not possibly cover every area of every subject. However, the subjects in which you scored best represent the areas in which you are most likely to score points on your exam date. So: practice heavily in the one or two subjects in which you scored highest. Also: look at your two lowest subject matter scores. Read material in these subjects (the CERM is good for this) and work practice problems. You will need to buy a few different PE sample exams. Study these three or four subjects for the next two weeks, until the next scheduled NCEES practice exam on your schedule.
7. Buy the Civil Engineering Reference Manual as soon as you can. Mark the index with tabs that don't fall out if you shake the book. Use this book for your practice exams. Familiarize yourself with it. I learned to open the index, write down the page numbers indexed to my topic, and then check each in turn until I found the solution process needed. 8. Purchase two approved calculators, not one. Choose different models, practice with both, and choose the one you prefer as your primary. NCEES permits just one on the desk. But, a reserve calculator is encouraged. An exact duplicate has the advantage of not requiring any new learning. However, a carefully selected back-up engineering calculator will compliment the functionality of your primary calculator.
9. Get a good guide book to walk you through the non-studying part of preparation for the PE exam. You need to know where to source the best prices for books, how to get discounts, how to lay out an effective study plan, how to force your brain to work and learn, what to bring to the exam, and much more. For that, there is really just one quality book: Pass the PE like a Pro.
 |
| (Sometimes $1.98 or less.) |
If you have not yet purchased your code books and review books, I have another advantage for you: I painstakingly reviewed the available options on Amazon, and put them together on one site. They are categorized by type of exam: Mechanical, Civil, etc. For the Civil, I compiled separate pages for each of the five afternoon subject areas.
I included only current versions. From these, I also booted out material with poor reviews. See all these pages at: PE Exam Study Materials. I have placed the best materials at the top of each page.
Please share this blog post via Twitter and Facebook, and give it a Google +1. Thank you!
Update: Here is an article from the American Psychological Association. It explains how studying in shorter sessions, spread out over a longer time period, with more time between sessions, creates stronger long term memories than does studying the same total of hours packed into a shorter time frame. For example, 2 hours a night 3 times weekly for 14 weeks will produce better results than 2 hours per night 6 times weekly for 7 weeks. Both programs total 84 hours. But, according to the article, the 14-week plan will produce up to 26.5% improvement. This is a very good article. It recognizes some of the more important techniques I used to derive the study plans presented in Pass the PE like a Pro. Read Study Smart.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
PE Exam Tip #2: Make a "Quick Reference" Folder
PE Exam Tips for Winners
During the actual exam, you will utilize your time most effectively, and thereby earn your maximum potential score, by skipping problems with which you are unfamiliar, or which do not quickly yield a solution method. Instead, you will move to the problems you know well. You will work questions similar to the work you perform during the week, from classes in which you excelled, and in material you studied during your preparation for the NCEES exam.
Include: Equations, conversions, solution methods you use regularly.
Add as well: Solved problems you have worked successfully a few times on practice exams, but cannot solve quickly without referencing an example. The day before the April exam, I took the afternoon portion of a practice exam. I copied several examples I correctly worked. And I added a few on which I made simple errors and corrected them in review. On the actual exam, there were three problems very similar to those I had added into my quick reference folder the night before.
Ensure all sheets are secured. I read some testimonies of binders being shaken for loose papers, examinees taping loose sheets into folders in the moments before the exam, and other stories of paranoid police-state enforcement. Just make sure the sheets stay in the folder. I used a hole punch and a Dollar Store plastic three-ring binder. Nothing fancy. Get one that flops open and stays open. Fighting your binder to keep it open during the timed professional engineering exam is not best!
One error I caught while taking a practice exam at home was the distraction of a a binder that wants to flip closed on it's own. I replaced it with one that has creases at the binding so it lays flat naturally.
When you take your practice exams, keep the quick reference binder on the desk you will use. After each use, organize and reorganize to make it more intuitive. Add index sheets or tabs. Put the most used categories to the front. Within categories, move most used sheets to the front, nearest the tab. That way, when you open the binder with the tab, the most likely desired information is immediately available.
Be selective. An overcrowded quick reference is less advantageous than one holding only the richest equations and solution methods.
Use it during your practice sessions. Books you use during your practice sessions become valuable. You will use them on the exam. References you do not use will be less than worthless- they will be a detriment as you stumble through them hoping the equation you need can be gleaned from unfamiliar pages. The same is true for the quick reference folder.
Bonus tip: You should have a quick reference folder for your desk at work. The one you prepare for the exam will provide the basis for your work version.
During the actual exam, you will utilize your time most effectively, and thereby earn your maximum potential score, by skipping problems with which you are unfamiliar, or which do not quickly yield a solution method. Instead, you will move to the problems you know well. You will work questions similar to the work you perform during the week, from classes in which you excelled, and in material you studied during your preparation for the NCEES exam.
Include: Equations, conversions, solution methods you use regularly.
Add as well: Solved problems you have worked successfully a few times on practice exams, but cannot solve quickly without referencing an example. The day before the April exam, I took the afternoon portion of a practice exam. I copied several examples I correctly worked. And I added a few on which I made simple errors and corrected them in review. On the actual exam, there were three problems very similar to those I had added into my quick reference folder the night before.
Ensure all sheets are secured. I read some testimonies of binders being shaken for loose papers, examinees taping loose sheets into folders in the moments before the exam, and other stories of paranoid police-state enforcement. Just make sure the sheets stay in the folder. I used a hole punch and a Dollar Store plastic three-ring binder. Nothing fancy. Get one that flops open and stays open. Fighting your binder to keep it open during the timed professional engineering exam is not best!
One error I caught while taking a practice exam at home was the distraction of a a binder that wants to flip closed on it's own. I replaced it with one that has creases at the binding so it lays flat naturally.
When you take your practice exams, keep the quick reference binder on the desk you will use. After each use, organize and reorganize to make it more intuitive. Add index sheets or tabs. Put the most used categories to the front. Within categories, move most used sheets to the front, nearest the tab. That way, when you open the binder with the tab, the most likely desired information is immediately available.
Be selective. An overcrowded quick reference is less advantageous than one holding only the richest equations and solution methods.
Use it during your practice sessions. Books you use during your practice sessions become valuable. You will use them on the exam. References you do not use will be less than worthless- they will be a detriment as you stumble through them hoping the equation you need can be gleaned from unfamiliar pages. The same is true for the quick reference folder.
Bonus tip: You should have a quick reference folder for your desk at work. The one you prepare for the exam will provide the basis for your work version.
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