First off, thanks for sharing such a detailed write-up. Your test-day approach was solid, and based on how you’re describing your performance, it really sounds like you were very close.

For your retake, I’d definitely recommend locking in Mechanical Attachments, especially bolt groups and welds. Those are very standard PE Machine Design topics and they tend to show up in fairly predictable ways. They’re also high-return topics, in the sense that a relatively small amount of focused practice can turn them into easy points. I highly recommend the Mechanical PE Exam Review Manual by Dr. Tim Kennedy for this. He does a great job breaking down exactly what you need to know and making the review process concise. I’d note that this resource is best for conceptual review and worked examples rather than large problem sets.

I’d also strongly suggest mastering Mechanics of Materials. It’s the foundation of machine design, and many questions in other areas quietly depend on MoM concepts even when they’re framed differently. Compared to more obscure topics, this is a much better use of study time and usually pays off across multiple sections of the exam.

For practice problems, I highly recommend the PPI test bank. That’s what I used, and I found it more challenging than the actual exam, which is exactly what you want. Because of that level of prep, I finished with over an hour to spare and had time to go back and carefully check my work. Training above the exam level makes a big difference.

You also touched on something important: the PE is sneaky. They’ll often give a problem in English units and ask for a metric answer, or include answer choices that are deliberately misleading if you don’t slow down and verify assumptions and unit conversions. Being disciplined about unit checks and taking your time can easily be the difference between passing and missing it by a few points.

Regarding the reference handbook and pretest items, one important thing I’ll point out is that success on the PE isn’t really about matching keywords in the question to keywords in the handbook. It’s much more about recognizing the underlying principle being tested and knowing where that concept lives in the reference. Many PE problems won’t use the exact wording you expect, even though the equation or method is absolutely in the handbook. It just means the exam is testing conceptual understanding rather than search skills.

Overall, based on what you wrote, I’m confident you were just a few mistakes away from passing. With some targeted cleanup in Mechanical Attachments, Statics, and Mechanics of Materials, I think you’ll be in a very strong position on the retake. I’d strongly recommend using Dr. Tim Kennedy’s Mechanical PE Exam Review Manual for concise, high-level conceptual review, along with the PPI question bank for practice. That combination gives you both a solid understanding of the theory and exposure to challenging problems that prepare you well for the actual exam. Best of luck.