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© Copyright 2026 Ran Chen, EA, CFP®
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Engineering Exam Prep is a free, daily podcast by OpenExamPrep covering the most in-demand engineering licensure exams — including FE Fundamentals of Engineering, FE Surveying, and the full PE catalog (Civil, Civil Geotechnical, Civil Construction, Civil Transportation, Civil Water Resources & Environmental, Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, Architectural, Agricultural & Biological, Control Systems, and more). Each 5-minute episode breaks down one exam topic with worked-style examples, NCEES Reference Handbook callouts, common exam traps, unit-conversion gotchas, and memory tricks to help you pass on your first attempt. No fluff, no filler — just the concepts you need to know, explained the way the exam tests them. This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation for everyone — from EITs studying for the FE to working engineers preparing for the PE. For free practice questions, AI-powered explanations, flashcards, and full study guides, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ Subscribe and listen daily — your PE license is closer than you think.
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This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.
In this episode you will learn:
- How to identify the four key state points of an ideal vapor-compression cycle using the NCEES Handbook.
- The specific enthalpy-based formulas for calculating the refrigeration effect and compressor work.
- How to calculate the Coefficient of Performance (COP) for both refrigerators and heat pumps.
- The critical distinction between thermal efficiency and COP, and why COP is usually greater than one.
- A simple mnemonic to ensure you use the correct numerator for any COP calculation: "What you want over what you pay for."
For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.
In this episode you will learn:
- The critical first step for any power cycle problem: mapping state points to property relations on a T-s or P-v diagram.
- How to determine the properties at each of the four key states in an ideal Rankine cycle using the NCEES Reference Handbook.
- The key differences in thermal efficiency formulas for Otto, Diesel, and Brayton cycles based on their respective ratios (compression, cutoff, and pressure).
- A common exam trap involving the distinction between constant volume heat addition (Otto) and constant pressure heat addition (Diesel).
- A simple mnemonic, 'Otto at the top, Diesel on the side,' to visually remember the heat addition process for internal combustion engine cycles.
For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.
In this episode you will learn:
- Why the Second Law of Thermodynamics is essential for measuring process quality, something the First Law's energy balance cannot do.
- That entropy generation (S_gen) is the key indicator of process irreversibility and is always positive for real processes.
- How an isentropic process (constant entropy) serves as the ideal, reversible benchmark for real thermodynamic components.
- The correct application of isentropic efficiency formulas for both work-producing (turbines) and work-consuming (compressors) devices.
- A mnemonic to avoid the common exam trap of inverting the isentropic efficiency ratio for turbines and compressors.
For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.
In this episode you will learn:
- How to simplify the full steady-state, steady-flow energy equation for common engineering devices.
- That nozzles and diffusers primarily trade enthalpy for kinetic energy, with work and heat transfer being negligible.
- Why turbines produce work by decreasing fluid enthalpy, while compressors and pumps consume work to increase it.
- The critical rule for throttling valves: the process is always isenthalpic, meaning inlet enthalpy equals outlet enthalpy (h1 = h2).
- To identify keywords like 'adiabatic' (Q=0) and 'negligible velocity' (ΔKE=0) to correctly eliminate terms from the energy balance equation.
For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.
In this episode you will learn:
- The NCEES sign convention: Heat added to the system is positive, and work done by the system is positive.
- For a constant-volume (isochoric) process, boundary work is zero, simplifying the first law to ΔU = Q.
- For an adiabatic process, heat transfer is zero (Q=0), simplifying the first law to ΔU = -W.
- How to find and apply the specific work formulas for constant-pressure, and polytropic processes located in the NCEES FE Reference Handbook.
- That the change in internal energy (ΔU) for an ideal gas is always calculated using the specific heat at constant volume (c_v).
For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep
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