I thought I was getting dismissed from exam........scary

[iwire]

I thought I was getting dismissed when suddenly i looked up and saw 4-5 proctors surrounded near me. The guy next to me got dismissed from the exam. It's crazy and scared the same time. I heard a quite of people got dismissed.

 

[wilheldp_PE]

Do you know what your neighbor did to get booted?

 

[iwire]

Do you know what your neighbor did to get booted?

I think from what I heard he got booted from having some sort of pencil marks in his reference materials - old marked, apparently they do check!

 

[wilheldp_PE]

When you're a proctor, you have a few minutes worth of work to do, then 7+ hours of boredom. Of course you're going to be looking for every little banned thing.

 

[mudpuppy]

Wait, so you're not allowed to have pencil marks in your books now? Back in my day--I took plenty of notes in pencil in my references. I also brought in handwritten notes on paper, as far as I recall this was ok as long as it was bound. What do they expect people to do, mark up their books in red pen?

 

[nicoga3000]

I honestly had no idea you couldn't make marks in your references. I guess the idea is that since they only give you a pencil, any pencil marks could be misconstrued as trying to copy down material to take out of the exam?

 

[iwire]

That's what I thought but I guess they are assuming you are marking /copy....it's crazy

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Wait, so you're not allowed to have pencil marks in your books now? Back in my day--I took plenty of notes in pencil in my references. I also brought in handwritten notes on paper, as far as I recall this was ok as long as it was bound. What do they expect people to do, mark up their books in red pen?

All notes had to be in ink when I took it. No pencil notes allowed.

 

[mudpuppy]

Ut oh, I've said too much. I hope they don't take away my license.

 

[John QPE]

I honestly had no idea you couldn't make marks in your references. I guess the idea is that since they only give you a pencil, any pencil marks could be misconstrued as trying to copy down material to take out of the exam?

This is exactly it...and if it weren't for this board I'd have never known

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Ut oh, I've said too much. I hope they don't take away my license.

NFS, dude. I bet the NSA is turning this over to NCEES right now. They'll have a BOLO and an APB on you ASAP from the PTB,

You're SOL, you poor SOB.

 

[PE_2_Be]

There are other older threads on this forum about this. This rule varies by state. My state has a second state-specific candidate agreement that mentioned this issue in a confusing way. After I saw this thread, I called my state board today. We ARE allowed to have pencil handwritten notes in our reference books. As long as we don't write in our reference books during the exam, we are fine. I got scared for a minute because I am studying write now for the April 2014 PE, as a first time taker, and making pencil notes in my books.

 

[PSU09Vet]

Do you know what your neighbor did to get booted?

I think from what I heard he got booted from having some sort of pencil marks in his reference materials - old marked, apparently they do check!

What state did you take your exam in, iwire?

 

[Peele1]

I honestly had no idea you couldn't make marks in your references. I guess the idea is that since they only give you a pencil, any pencil marks could be misconstrued as trying to copy down material to take out of the exam?

That's the theory.

If you have no pencil marks, then you can't be accused of writing in your book during the exam. If you have them, you have a hard time proving that you didn't make them during the exam.

It is like having a good alibi.

 

[PSU09Vet]

I honestly had no idea you couldn't make marks in your references. I guess the idea is that since they only give you a pencil, any pencil marks could be misconstrued as trying to copy down material to take out of the exam?

That's the theory.

If you have no pencil marks, then you can't be accused of writing in your book during the exam. If you have them, you have a hard time proving that you didn't make them during the exam.

It is like having a good alibi.

And every state is different, or at least most states DGAF. The handful that do either expect everyone to know that already like common knowledge, or don't always do a very good job of telling everyone before the test.

 

[engrstructural11]

It seems pretty silly to impose such a strict rule. If somebody was hell bent on transferring information from the test they wouldn't need to write anything down in their references. I personally can remember 75% of the questions from the afternoon session just off the top of my head. Does NCEES think that people immediately forget the test the moment they leave the testing area? If somebody wanted to copy test material, they could simply copy the information the minute they get back to their car all the problems they remember where their memory is the freshest.

I do agree with the rule that you can't write on anything other than the test booklet though because this infers evidence of intent to transfer information. But a rule that all your references need to be in pen or typed? That is way over the top and accomplishes nothing except handicapping test takers who have a good reference from a class where they took notes all semester.

 

[palvarez83]

Yeah as long as you don't make notes during your exam, you are fine. This is tough for Mechanical if you bring your own psychrometric charts.... I know a guy that got booted for it. During the exam last friday I noticed I had made a mistake on one of the practice problems I had worked out(in pencil) on the practice exam. I was about to erase and change... when I realized what I was about to do... Nevermind.

 

[snickerd3]

give it a couple more years and the PE will also be CBT and it will be a closed book exam and then you wont have to worry about notes in references

 

[ptatohed]

Since when are we using the word 'dismissed'? I've always preferred 'ejected'. 'Dismissed' is "Ok, you are free to go". 'Ejected' is a big black leather boot in your back kicking you out the door so hard you fall face down on the concrete.

 

[iwire]

Sorry..i was kind of busy for past few days..trying to catch up with work and life...I took the test in MD. We received the notification/paperwork to take the exam maybe like 2-3 weeks before the exam. On fine print, it's stated no pencil marking...

It's crazy that the proctors going around and checking people's book/reference though..randomly