do you think civil pass rates are low?

[SPSUEngineer]

Just curious what everyone thinks of the pass rates for the civil exam. Last fall it was 60% for first timers and 25% for repeat takers. Seems low to me compaired to mechanical (70%) and electrical (70%).

Just wondering why it is that civil is lower than some of the others. Is our education lacking or is the exam just really difficult for most people? The poor structural 1 guys only have 46%.

 

[GR84W8]

maybe its the required texts. i took civil transpo and my suitcase and i were so jealous of the people in there with one or two books. only people i saw with a lot of references were civil and structural.

 

[vhmehta]

Structural 1 is a more in depth exam and it includes design of Timber, Bridges and other building materials. It is hard to find a engineer who has practised in all of this areas. Structural engineer would either deal with buildings or deal with Bridge. A person working in bigger firms may never have been exposed to Timber design.

And above all, the questions included in the exam are in depth questions.

This is primary reason why Structural 1 exam has low pass rates.

 

[SPSUEngineer]

I kind of feel civil is the same way. If you take a civil engineer in site development for example; you have transportation, structural, construction, water resources/environmental, and geotechnical. A site designer does not really specialize in any of these areas. They may focus on little tibbits of each area but not enough to really remember all the formulas and methodology of each subject for the exam. I basically had to relearn many subjects and formulas I have not seen since college 7 years ago. This is not really a test of what I do on a daily basis at all. If the test was on site design (stormwater, water/sewer, grading, erosion control, zoning, etc.) I would tear it up for sure.

 

[GR84W8]

DITTO. I WAS HOPING FOR A STORMWATER EMPHASIS. INSTEAD I WENT WITH TRANSPO (WHICH IVE DONE TWICE IN FIVE YEARS) BECAUSE ITS VERY BY THE BOOK.

 

[mattsffrd]

I kind of feel civil is the same way. If you take a civil engineer in site development for example; you have transportation, structural, construction, water resources/environmental, and geotechnical. A site designer does not really specialize in any of these areas. They may focus on little tibbits of each area but not enough to really remember all the formulas and methodology of each subject for the exam. I basically had to relearn many subjects and formulas I have not seen since college 7 years ago. This is not really a test of what I do on a daily basis at all. If the test was on site design (stormwater, water/sewer, grading, erosion control, zoning, etc.) I would tear it up for sure.

yeah, i do 100% transportation, and i have some construction experience from working with my father, but the rest of it was basically new to me before i started studying.

 

[IlPadrino]

yeah, i do 100% transportation, and i have some construction experience from working with my father, but the rest of it was basically new to me before i started studying.

Wouldn't this improve pass rates? I mean, just about everything you need to know can be learned from a book...

oking:

 

[roadwreck]

Wouldn't this improve pass rates? I mean, just about everything you need to know can be learned from a book...
oking:

I've heard that all you need to pass the transpo exam is the CERM. It's clearly the easiest of all the disciplines.

 

[kevo_55]

Structural 1 is a more in depth exam and it includes design of Timber, Bridges and other building materials. It is hard to find a engineer who has practised in all of this areas. Structural engineer would either deal with buildings or deal with Bridge. A person working in bigger firms may never have been exposed to Timber design.
And above all, the questions included in the exam are in depth questions.

This is primary reason why Structural 1 exam has low pass rates.

I would say that the SE1 is a breadth exam while the SE2 is a more depth exam.

Just my :2cents:

 

[mattsffrd]

Wouldn't this improve pass rates? I mean, just about everything you need to know can be learned from a book...
oking:

uh...what? not having any experience with a topic is going to improve pass rates?

 

[mattsffrd]

I've heard that all you need to pass the transpo exam is the CERM. It's clearly the easiest of all the disciplines.

you are wildly misinformed my friend, unless you're being sarcastic

 

[IlPadrino]

uh...what? not having any experience with a topic is going to improve pass rates?

Yeah... because you don't need any first-hand experience - it's just looking stuff up in tables. How hard can that be? It's not like storm water modeling, where you need YEARS of experience.

 

[GR84W8]

i'd say transpo is hard just because its very by the book. theres little wiggle room. and when your flipping thru 8 books in the afternoon to answer potentially one question your're not thinking "wow, this will all be in these book" you're thinking "wow, what a time suck looking all this up"

 

[djshortsleeve]

I think its def by design. I think Civil eng is the most popular. When I look around the test room, it seems like I see several civils and structurals. I maybe see one other mech and a couple elec.

 

[vollEngineer]

There was a structural II at my table. He got booted. I guess he was using a card or a wheel or something - but next thing I knew - booted. There's my first piece of advice to the new people taking it in October: Read the examinee instructions and do not bring anything they say not to. I felt bad for that dude. But it was nice to have all of that space to myself It didn't help

 

[mattsffrd]

Yeah... because you don't need any first-hand experience - it's just looking stuff up in tables. How hard can that be? It's not like storm water modeling, where you need YEARS of experience.

i'm not sure i follow...i'm talking about the morning session, i.e. i've never done geotechnical work yet i'm taking a test on it. geotech, structural, water resources, etc. questions are not "looking up tables." and very little afternoon transpo is "looking up tables."

 

[djshortsleeve]

There was a structural II at my table. He got booted. I guess he was using a card or a wheel or something - but next thing I knew - booted. There's my first piece of advice to the new people taking it in October: Read the examinee instructions and do not bring anything they say not to. I felt bad for that dude. But it was nice to have all of that space to myself It didn't help

I "heard" someone cracked open a borrowed ASHRAE book and a scratch paper started to fall out. S/he quickly closed the book and threw it back into the crate.

 

[SPSUEngineer]

that would suck big time. I borrowed a book and almost had the same thing happen. Glad I checked it the night before.

 

[worried46]

There was a structural II at my table. He got booted. I guess he was using a card or a wheel or something - but next thing I knew - booted. There's my first piece of advice to the new people taking it in October: Read the examinee instructions and do not bring anything they say not to. I felt bad for that dude. But it was nice to have all of that space to myself It didn't help

How was the root canal?

 

[vollEngineer]

Awww, that's sweet of you to ask. So far, so good. I keep poppin' the pills and waiting to go to sleep. It was kind of nice to have something else to think about for an hour and a half! C'mon results. Tomorrow fer sher!!!