- What This Credential Actually Is
- Who Administers It and Who Decides Eligibility
- How the Exam Is Built and Delivered
- The Six Official Exam Objectives
- Concrete Topics You Must Be Able to Work
- Fees, Pass Rates, and Pay: What the Numbers Say
- Who Hires Engineers Who Hold This License
- Sequencing Your Preparation Around the Blueprint
- Frequently Asked Questions
- PE-M:MD&M is the NCEES Principles and Practice of Engineering exam in Mechanical: Machine Design and Materials, a licensure exam.
- The exam has 80 questions and 8 hours of testing time inside a 9-hour appointment at Pearson VUE.
- Mechanics of Materials (17-26 questions) and Mechanical Components and Assemblies (16-24) carry the largest question ranges.
- NCEES publishes no numerical passing score; results are pass/fail against a minimum-competence standard.
What This Credential Actually Is
PE-M:MD&M stands for Principles and Practice of Engineering - Mechanical: Machine Design and Materials. NCEES labels it "PE Mechanical: Machine Design and Materials." It is one of the discipline-specific tracks of the Professional Engineer licensure exam, aimed at mechanical engineers whose work centers on designing machine elements, selecting materials, and making sure parts survive the loads and environments they will see.
A point that confuses many candidates: this is a licensure examination, not a stand-alone certification. Passing it is one step toward a Professional Engineer license issued by a state or territorial board. There is no NCEES certificate that you renew on a calendar. Once licensed, your renewal cycle and continuing-professional-competency requirements come from the board that issued the license. If you want the plain-language definition on its own, the companion article What Is PE-M:MD&M? covers it, and What Does PE-M:MD&M Stand For? unpacks the acronym.
Who Administers It and Who Decides Eligibility
NCEES, the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, writes and administers the exam. Pearson VUE delivers it at approved Pearson test centers. The licensing board you select, however, decides whether you are eligible and whether any approval is required before you register.
A common licensure pathway looks like this:
- Earn an engineering bachelor's degree from an EAC/ABET-accredited program.
- Pass the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam.
- Accumulate four years of acceptable engineering experience.
- Pass the PE exam.
That sequence is common, not universal. Boards differ on degree requirements, experience credit, and timing of approval. If your board uses NCEES Records for engineering, note that those applications use five U.S.-licensed engineer references, but this too is a board-by-board matter rather than a universal prerequisite to sit the exam. For a deeper walk through qualification questions, see PE-M:MD&M Requirements: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.
How the Exam Is Built and Delivered
The exam is computer-based, offered year-round, and assembled linear-on-the-fly (LOFT), meaning your question set is built as you progress rather than being a fixed paper form. Testing is in person only.
| Feature | PE-M:MD&M Detail |
|---|---|
| Questions | 80 total, including unidentified unscored pretest items |
| Testing time | 8 hours |
| Appointment length | 9 hours, including a 2-minute nondisclosure agreement, 8-minute tutorial, and 50-minute scheduled break |
| Item types | Multiple-choice plus alternative types: multiple-correct, point-and-click, drag-and-drop, numerical fill-in |
| Scoring | Correct/incorrect credit only; no partial credit; no deduction for wrong answers |
| References | Closed book with a supplied searchable electronic reference handbook; personal reference materials prohibited |
| Calculator | One NCEES-approved calculator |
| Units | SI and USCS |
Two sections, one clock
The exam is delivered in two sections that share the testing clock. Once you submit a section, you cannot reopen it. That rule changes how you manage time: you cannot bank a hard problem for the end of the day if it sits in a section you have already submitted. Practice finishing a block, doing a last pass, and letting it go.
Why the item types matter for machine design
Numerical fill-in items remove the safety net of answer choices. If you solve for a shaft diameter or a bolt preload, you cannot back-check against four options. Multiple-correct items are all-or-nothing, so a half-right understanding of, say, which factors reduce an endurance limit earns nothing. Point-and-click and drag-and-drop items often involve diagrams such as stress elements, free-body diagrams, or assembly layouts, so you should be comfortable reasoning visually rather than only with formulas.
The Six Official Exam Objectives
The current blueprint is the NCEES specification effective beginning with the October 2025 examinations. NCEES does not publish fixed percentage weights for this exam. Instead it gives question-count ranges per domain. Use the currently linked October 2025 specification rather than older eight-topic prep summaries or the superseded 2020 outline, since outdated summaries can send you to study the wrong things.
| # | Official Objective | Question Range |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Basic Engineering Practice | 11-17 |
| 2 | Mechanics of Materials | 17-26 |
| 3 | Mechanical Attachments | 9-14 |
| 4 | Power Transmission | 9-14 |
| 5 | Mechanical Components and Assemblies | 16-24 |
| 6 | Supportive Knowledge (Machine Design and Materials) | 8-12 |
These six headings are official exam objectives, not a preparation curriculum, and the subtopics listed beneath each one in the specification are illustrative rather than exhaustive. Expect to be tested on adjacent material. A full domain-by-domain breakdown lives in PE-M:MD&M Exam Domains: Complete Guide to All 6 Content Areas.
Key Takeaway
Mechanics of Materials (17-26) and Mechanical Components and Assemblies (16-24) are the two heaviest ranges. Together they can account for a large share of the 80 questions, so they deserve the most calendar time, but the smaller domains still matter because every item is scored with no partial credit.
Concrete Topics You Must Be Able to Work
The blocks below translate the six objectives into the kinds of problems a machine-design candidate should be able to set up and solve. They are illustrative, in line with the specification's own non-exhaustive subtopic lists.
Domain 1: Basic Engineering Practice
The professional-judgment layer around the calculations.
- Applying codes, standards, and engineering-practice conventions to design decisions
- Reading and interpreting drawings, tolerances, and specifications
- Safety, reliability, and ethical-practice reasoning in a design context
Domain 2: Mechanics of Materials
The largest question range and the foundation for nearly everything else.
- Combined loading, principal stresses, and Mohr's circle for stress states
- Failure theories for ductile and brittle materials, and how to choose between them
- Fatigue: endurance limit, modifying factors, stress concentrations, and cumulative damage
- Fracture, creep, and deflection of beams and shafts
Domain 3: Mechanical Attachments
How parts are joined and how those joints fail.
- Bolted joints: preload, joint stiffness, and separation under load
- Welded and other permanent joints under static and fatigue loading
- Fasteners in shear and tension, and load sharing across a pattern
Domain 4: Power Transmission
Moving torque and speed through a machine.
- Gear geometry, tooth loading, and gear-train ratios
- Belt and chain drives and their capacity limits
- Shaft design under torsion and bending, including keys and couplings
Domain 5: Mechanical Components and Assemblies
Selecting and sizing the building blocks of real machines.
- Bearings: rolling-element life calculations and journal-bearing behavior
- Springs, brakes, clutches, and seals
- Assembly-level reasoning: how component choices interact within a system
Domain 6: Supportive Knowledge (Machine Design and Materials)
The materials and supporting science that inform every other domain.
- Material properties, heat treatment, and selection trade-offs
- Corrosion, wear, and environmental effects on components
- Supporting mechanics and manufacturing considerations that affect design
Notice how the domains lean on one another. A power-transmission shaft problem is simultaneously a mechanics-of-materials problem (combined stress and fatigue) and a components problem (bearing and gear selection). Studying them in isolation leaves gaps that integrated exam items will find.
Fees, Pass Rates, and Pay: What the Numbers Say
Cost
The NCEES exam fee is US$400 per attempt. Separate board application fees can apply on top of that, and they vary by jurisdiction. The official NCEES practice exam e-book is $59.95. For a fuller budget, including retake math, read PE-M:MD&M Certification Cost: Complete Pricing Breakdown.
Pass rates
NCEES's table, updated July 2026 and covering the January-June 2026 testing population, shows a 61% first-time pass rate (401 examinees) and a 39% repeat pass rate (140 examinees). Treat these as a snapshot of one half-year window, not a long-run guarantee. The gap between first-time and repeat takers is worth noticing: repeat examinees pass at a markedly lower rate, which is a reason to prepare thoroughly the first time rather than treating the first sitting as a trial run. The deeper analysis is in PE-M:MD&M Pass Rate: What the Data Shows.
Passing score
NCEES does not publish a numerical passing score. Results are reported as pass/fail against a minimum-competence standard, and wrong answers carry no deduction. That means you should never leave an item blank. If you are stuck on a numerical fill-in, an educated estimate costs nothing. See PE-M:MD&M Passing Score: Exactly What You Need to Pass for how scaled scoring works.
Pay
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of $104,110 for mechanical engineers as of May 2025. That figure describes the occupation as a whole. It is not a salary specific to this exam track, and it does not measure a licensure premium. Anyone claiming a precise dollar bump from passing this exam is going beyond the data. For a careful treatment, see the PE-M:MD&M Salary Guide and the ROI analysis.
Who Hires Engineers Who Hold This License
A PE license is most valuable where engineering work must be signed off, reviewed, or offered to the public. Machine design and materials skills map to a wide range of employers:
- Manufacturing and industrial equipment firms that design presses, conveyors, gearboxes, and custom machinery
- Engineering consultancies that perform failure analysis, forensic investigation, and design review
- Power, process, and heavy-industry operators with rotating equipment, pressure-containing parts, and structural supports
- Transportation and aerospace suppliers that qualify components for fatigue life and material compliance
- Testing laboratories and materials-engineering groups that evaluate metals, joints, and wear behavior
Many mechanical engineers work for years without a license, particularly in industries where an exemption applies, so the value depends on your path. Consulting, independent practice, and roles requiring authority to approve designs lean most heavily on licensure. More on role types appears in PE-M:MD&M Jobs.
Sequencing Your Preparation Around the Blueprint
Rather than a generic schedule, order your study by dependency. Materials mechanics feeds every other domain, so it comes first. A sample progression for a motivated candidate:
Mechanics of Materials
- Stress transformation, failure theories, and fatigue methodology
- Work numerical fill-in problems with no answer choices to check against
Mechanical Attachments and Power Transmission
- Bolt preload and joint analysis, then shaft and gear problems that reuse fatigue skills
Components and Assemblies
- Bearing life, springs, brakes, clutches, and system-level interactions
Basic Practice, Supportive Knowledge, and full-length review
- Materials selection and codes, then timed practice using the electronic handbook
Adjust the length to your own experience. A candidate who designs gearboxes daily may compress Domain 4 and spend longer on materials and fatigue, while someone from a thermal or fluids background will need more time on machine elements. For a fuller plan, see the PE-M:MD&M Study Guide, and for a realistic sense of the challenge, How Hard Is the PE-M:MD&M Exam?. When you are ready to test yourself under realistic conditions, the PE-M:MD&M practice tests let you drill each domain and practice the alternative item types.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. It is a licensure examination. Once you pass and are licensed, the issuing state or territorial board sets your PE license renewal period and continuing-professional-competency requirements. NCEES does not run a separately renewable certification for this exam.
There are 80 questions, including unidentified unscored pretest items, with 8 hours of testing time inside a 9-hour appointment. The appointment includes a 2-minute nondisclosure agreement, an 8-minute tutorial, and a 50-minute scheduled break.
Mechanics of Materials has the largest range at 17-26 questions, followed by Mechanical Components and Assemblies at 16-24. NCEES publishes question-count ranges rather than fixed percentage weights, so do not rely on percentage figures from unofficial sources.
No. The exam is closed book. You receive a searchable electronic reference handbook, and personal reference materials are prohibited. You may use one NCEES-approved calculator. Practice with the official handbook format ahead of time.
The NCEES exam fee is US$400 per attempt, and separate board application fees can apply depending on your jurisdiction. Check your licensing board for its exact charges, and see the cost breakdown article for a full budget including retakes.