FE Chemical study plan

Build a one-page formula sheet covering material balances, recycle/bypass/purge, and stoichiometry, then rewrite it from memory at the end of the week.

Work 25 material-balance problems without a solution key open, timing each to under 4 minutes and logging every error by cause.

Set up and solve 5 multi-unit recycle and purge systems using degree-of-freedom analysis before touching the calculator.

Diagnose your baseline by taking a 30-question mixed diagnostic and tagging each miss to a subtopic on your formula sheet.

Derive and apply energy balances for reactive and non-reactive systems, including heat of reaction from formation enthalpies and Hess's law paths.

Solve 20 combined material-and-energy balance problems, writing the enthalpy reference state explicitly before each solution.

Practice psychrometric and humidity calculations for drying and humidification until you can read a humidity chart value from given data without the chart.

Convert between mass, mole, and volumetric flow bases in 10 problems that mix units deliberately.

Compute pressure drop, friction factor, and minor losses for pipe networks, then size a pump and check NPSH available against required.

Select and characterize pumps and compressors using head, efficiency, and power relations, and identify operating points on a system curve.

Solve 15 fluid statics and manometer problems, including variable-density and inclined-leg cases.

Explain in writing when to apply Bernoulli versus the mechanical energy balance with friction.

Compute overall and individual heat-transfer coefficients for conduction, convection, and radiation, and combine them through resistances.

Design and rate shell-and-tube and double-pipe exchangers using LMTD and effectiveness-NTU, including correction factors for multipass.

Analyze transient conduction with lumped capacitance and check when the Biot number justifies it.

Identify controlling resistances and propose fouling or velocity fixes in 5 exchanger troubleshooting scenarios.

Apply rate laws and the Arrhenius equation to batch, CSTR, and PFR design equations, and compare reactor volumes for a given conversion.

Determine reaction order and rate constants from experimental data using integral and differential methods.

Solve 10 problems involving multiple reactions, selectivity, and yield in mixed reactor configurations.

Set up a simple reactor energy balance and identify runaway and stability conditions qualitatively.

Build and solve VLE problems using Raoult's law, modified Raoult's law with activity coefficients, and Henry's law for dilute solutes.

Perform McCabe-Thiele stepping for binary distillation and compute minimum reflux and minimum stages.

Analyze absorption and stripping with Kremser equations and compute packed-column height from HTU and NTU.

Solve 10 staged-separation problems under time pressure, checking each answer for physical plausibility.

Apply mass and energy balances to drying, evaporation, crystallization, and liquid-liquid extraction, including ternary diagrams.

Compute heat duty and steam economy for single- and multiple-effect evaporators.

Solve 10 staged mass-transfer and separation-process problems that combine units rather than testing one operation.

Review process-control basics: feedback loops, PID behavior, and valve characteristics, and answer 10 questions on loop troubleshooting.

Take two full-length timed practice exams under exam conditions and score each by subtopic.

Re-drill every subtopic scoring below 70 percent using targeted problem sets until each reaches 80 percent.

Memorize and rehearse the constants, unit conversions, and dimensionless groups you keep looking up, then verify recall with a blank-page dump.

Finalize a time-allocation and skip-and-return strategy for the exam and rehearse it during the second practice test.