Water Resource and Env. April 11, 2011 PE Exam

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PEmarsh

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I am just curious as to what everyone who took the water resource and environmental exam thinks about it?

I felt like the AM portion was weighted strongly towards structures and geotechnical (for which I did not prepare very well for).

The PM portion I felt was reasonable and actually easier than what I thought it would be. :sharkattack:

 
THought morning was easier than Oct 2010 exam but geotech was the hardest for me. The afternoon seemed more diffcult than last time but they had a better variety of questions. It'll be close.

 
I agree that the morning felt heavy on the structural and geotech. I had about 5-6 problems in the morning that I was really “iffy” on, and they rocked me. I know it’s a small percentage of the overall test but it broke my concentration quite a bit that I couldn’t come up with answers for them. I felt much better at the end when I checked through my answers and felt really good about all but those 5 or 6 problems (mostly structural with one geotech).

The afternoon section went pretty well, I felt really confident as I started out. I went through the same thing in the afternoon, counting about 8 that I was not too confident on, three of which that were outright guesses. Overall I feel pretty good about the exam, but not as confident as when I took the FE. I remembered the majority of the questions that did not require calculations and googled them after my exam to confirm they were right. A funny note on that, I decided to bring a science desk reference in, and when I was looking at them I picked a random term on the syllabus, and would only choose a reference that had a definition for that term. Out of all of the questions in environmental engineering that they could have asked, they asked a definition question on the term I used to find the book!

I’m hoping that I’m right in my estimation of what I was right and wrong about, I figure even if I was iffy on that many and was able to eliminate an answer or two I have a better than 25% chance of getting the ones I took a stab at and should be fine.

Without getting specific, were there any questions in the afternoon that you have considered submitting comments to NCEES on? I had two that I’m considering submitting on, but wondered if anyone else had the same issue.

 
There was a question in the afternoon that I just couldn't get and I knew how to do it. Could have been calulator error. There was another question that had a picture and it was a bit confusing to me. Maybe it was just me though.

 
I agree totally that the morning was heavy with Structural and Geotech. I did not take structural in college (I was not a civil major), so I am weak in structural. I had statics, dynamics, and geotech though.

I did feel good about the afternoon portion though! I just hope it was enough to make up for the morning!!

 
I agree with you all; morning session was a little bit tough in Structural, Geotech, and couple of problems in Construction. I am also as Marie925 never had structural or construction classes in college. However, I felt that the 8 questions in water resources/enviro were pretty straightforward. Transportation was not that easy but I feel I did very well. Afternoon was easier than what I expected especially in wastewater portion.

Back in school days I used to guess my grades in exams correctly most of the time.

Here is my guess for this exam:

Morning:

Construction: 5/8

Structure:4/8

Geotech:4/8

Transportation:7/8

Water Resources:7/8

Afternoon:

Closed Conduit: 5/6

Open Channel: 6/6

Hydrology:4/6

Groundwater:2/3

Wastewater :4/6

Water Quality:4/6

Water Treatment:4/6

Engineering Economics:1/1

 
Marie,

I, too, was not a Civil Engineering major and I never had a structures class or geotechnical engineering class. I do agree that there were a few "non-numerical" answers that took some thought and or a good dictionary to solve on both the morning and afternoon sessions.

I hate this 10 week wait! I get more nervous everyday...especially when everyone keeps asking me how I did...I feel like I did worse and worse every time someone asks. Hurry up week 10!

 
Marie,
I, too, was not a Civil Engineering major and I never had a structures class or geotechnical engineering class. I do agree that there were a few "non-numerical" answers that took some thought and or a good dictionary to solve on both the morning and afternoon sessions.

I hate this 10 week wait! I get more nervous everyday...especially when everyone keeps asking me how I did...I feel like I did worse and worse every time someone asks. Hurry up week 10!
Actually what is worse for me is when people ask how I did and I say I am on the fence then they say "I'm sure you did fine"

I just want to say, HOW do you know how I did?! I know they mean well and it is meant as encouragement, but it just makes me feel like I am going to disappoint more people!

The wait is going to be hard!

 
HAHA, SAME HERE! The thought of disappointment is brutal.

Yea I already went thru the disappointment feeling once and it sucked. I did better this time than in Oct but I think this exam was easier overall so I'm going to guess no curve on the morning and maybe one or 2 throw out questions in the afternoon. I'll be right at 70% and that's if everything goes well. I have this nagging feeling that I'll be 2 questions short. At least I have a chance this time unlike Oct. There's no better feeling than walking out of the exam and knowing there's no point in waiting to see if you passed. :(

 
Hey guys, I've been through this twice (failed in April 2010 and passed in October 2010.) Here's some advice I can offer you....the first time waiting was brutal. I was worried about how I did cause I knew it would be borderline. Yes, many asked how I did and I told them it could go either way. This pretty much stressed me out all the way till June when the results came in. However, when waiting for the October Exam, I knew there was nothing I could do to speed up the results to I forced myself to forgot that I even took the exam and enjoyed my everyday life.....this was great until that month of January but that's inevitable. Don't worry guys, if things don't work out this time, make it a point to study even harder and more material. You should already know how to do the material you studied the first time so it will come as second nature the second time. When I took the October Exam, it felt at least 50% easier than April. At first, I thought the exam was easier but later realized all the time I took to grind out the problems paid off. Practice makes perfect guys and keep working those problems until you can do them in your sleep. Good luck!

 
I passed, do not know if my guess was right though.

 
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