Expert: Angel Evangelista - 12/18/2008

Question
Hi. I am a 12th grade student studying in the USA but i am going to India to do chemical engineering. And I have been in the USA for 10th, 11th, and 12th grades: the most important grades in India. and i am very nervous about my exam.
Is there anyway you guys know how i can get some solved chemical engineering sample papers? I need urgent help!
Thanks sooo much!
Ambreen

Answer
12th Grade?!?  A senior (4th year) in a U.S. High School?  Are you AT LEAST taking and doing very well in your high school Advanced Placement Calculus and Chemistry classes, and do you expect to "ace" those AP Exams?  I truly doubt you will experience anything remotely related to a true Chemical Engineering course until your sophomore year of college/university.  Your first year of (US) college will be inundated with pre-requisite coursework.  Even in India, I doubt you will encounter anything that is a true Chemical Engineering course until you have completed the entire first year curriculums of: (1) general chemistry, (2) calculus, and (3) physics.  

The first true Chemical Engineering course is the only easy material in Chemical Engineering to understand - mass balances, physical properties of substances, and conversions.  Most Chemical Engineering students who find this 100-level class difficult are forced to drop Chemical Engineering.  Period.  It doesn't require advance math (calculus) or chemistry (high school AP Chem is fine), and so an exceptional high school graduate can easily complete this one semester/quarter class.  But you can't do much more with mass balances, conversions, and physical properties in Chemical Engineering - it forms the foundations, and is extremely important, but that’s not Chemical Engineering.

The remaining 10-16 Chemical Engineering courses for the rest of your college career are impossible to understand at your 12th grade level.  Even if you have taken one year of calculus and a year of general chemistry and some organic chemistry, the most fundamental class in Chemical Engineering that you take next is Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics; followed by “the Core” of Chemical Engineering - Heat and Mass Transfer Phenomena.  The vast majority of students who drop Chemical Engineering and change majors occurs before, during, and after taking these classes.  While similar to Mechanical Engineering Thermodynamics, Chemical Engineers have the added complexity of considering the chemical and physical properties of substances in the thermodynamics of processes (versus just considering the physical properties steam and water for Mechanical Engineers).

If you want ANY idea of what calculations Chemical Engineers encounter as students and at times later in their professional careers, find this book: Manual for Process Engineering Calculations Revised Second Edition, Loyal Clarke, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York; 2nd edition (1975), B00181KGAO.  However, please keep in mind that this book is no longer used by many schools, and few Chemical Engineers use it for reference.  It’s great for Chemical Engineering students, but professionally, there are many other resources we now leverage well beyond this book.  But if you want to see it in a "nutshell" this book would be it.

Chemical Engineering is arguably the MOST difficult of engineering programs – hence, it is the reason US Chemical Engineering undergraduates ALWAYS receive the top starting salaries of any undergraduate major.  It is NOT Chemistry nor is it Mechanical Engineering.

Hope it helps and best of luck in your career.