Any Spring 2016 CA-Survey/Seismic exam takers?

You guys have been way too quiet!  I know you are out there.  How'd it go?   

Civil exams are still being taken through the end of the day Wednesday this week.

CAPLS said:

Civil exams are still being taken through the end of the day Wednesday this week.

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That's right.  I forgot about the generous test window.  Still curious why this forum has been so dead this administration. 

I was wondering who else is going through this hell. Mad quiet!

I took Survey the Friday before the 15 April 8-hr. Seismic on Tuesday. Let's see how well I do at random guesses and keeping up with the clock this time. Blehhhkk! I've decided that I'll alternate between C and A.

Just got done with Seismic yesterday, and Survey last Monday.

hey guys! I took the CA Survey exam on Monday (april 25th ) for the second time! I can tell you i was super prepared but just with Cuomo books (all three of them: Surveying Principles for Civil Engineers,120 Solved Surveying Problems , Civil Surveying Sample Exams). i could read and solve the questions backwards!!! i put so much time into them. However, I found out AGAIN that exam questions are super different from whats in these books!! It just took me long to interpret some of the questions. I'm not sure about my performance. it is a really different animal. I have passed a lot of other difficult exams but this one is really annoying. i don't understand if this test is supposed to test basic knowledge why they make it so **** hard?!! 

After test i really went out to seek help to see what i am doing wrong. and through some of my browsing i came across this forum and some valuable information in it. please share your experience or suggestions about strategies, references, etc.

thanks.

I took the survey on the 6th.  I Didn't think it was too bad material wise. I studied for it with the Monsour and Cuomo books. But at 2.5 mins per question, I just didn't have time to finish all the problems. Seismic is scheduled for tomorrow. 

I took Surveying  and Seismic this week. I agree with Jesus-aka christ about the content of the books. I bought Mansour's book and his test, totally useless, wouldn't recommend it to anybody, total wastage of money. The practice questions are no way close to the actual test. I thought the test questions were hard and shouldn't be this hard since most of us won't use Surveying in our daily work, at least i wont. In seismic i think i didn't use my time wisely and ran out of time.

When will they announce the results.

Rajni said:

I took Surveying  and Seismic this week. I agree with Jesus-aka christ about the content of the books. I bought Mansour's book and his test, totally useless, wouldn't recommend it to anybody, total wastage of money. The practice questions are no way close to the actual test. I thought the test questions were hard and shouldn't be this hard since most of us won't use Surveying in our daily work, at least i wont. In seismic i think i didn't use my time wisely and ran out of time.

When will they announce the results.

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I think every civil engineer should know how to calc slopes/grades, calc elevations, read contour maps, read plan/profile plans, understand plan scales, calc quantities, etc.  I don't see how you can do civil work and not deal with these things.   

I believe 27th is the last day for seismic and surveying at Prometric Test centers. I took both yesterday. I took the surveying first and then the seismic. (Brain was about to explode at the end)  Before taking the test, I felt confident on both tests because I took EET Seismic class and CPESR surveying class. They both provided many practice tests.  For surveying, I didn't have time to answer 3 questions. (Blindly guessed)  For seismic, I was able to answer all questions on time.  Hopefully good results will come.

For surveying you need to get Reza. His problems are tougher and more akin to what you would face on the actual exam.  I did use Mounsour, but  I worked with Shahin and I get the way he explains thing. I do agree that his questions are basic.  Cuomo is useless.

For seismic EET and Dr. Ibrahim are the only way to go. I know ptatohed will agree with me on this, Dr. I rocks.  I am older and have not been in school for a very very long time. I loathed structures then and I still hate the subject as vehemently as I did in the 80s. Dr. I got me through. And if I can do it, anyone can.

ptatohed said:

I think every civil engineer should know how to calc slopes/grades, calc elevations, read contour maps, read plan/profile plans, understand plan scales, calc quantities, etc.  I don't see how you can do civil work and not deal with these things.   

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Yes.. A thousand times over. I don't care if you never go out in the field, you need this basic knowledge.  And in that same stream of thought, although not vital, there is value in learning the basics of seismic engineering.

I took the Surveying exam on Monday.

I took both survey and seismic last week for the second time. This time around I felt extremely prepared before I took the exams, but the 2.5 hour time limit had me feeling like I didn't solve enough questions in time. This is very frustrating. I took Reza Mahallati Survey class which came with a study guide and plenty of practice problems much like what I saw in the exam. For seismic I took a course through EET which was exceptional. I felt more prepared than the first time around and really felt like I had a superior understanding of the material. BUT I left both exams feeling defeated because of the timing. I think maybe I need to work on solving the problems more quickly (if I didn't pass again). My strategy for both exams was to use the first 7-10 minutes to go through each question and mark the "easier" ones. Seemed like everything was working out great as I was going through, but in the last 20 minutes it still felt like I had 15 or so questions left unanswered and had to guess. I just hope the guessing worked.

Moral of the story... I have no idea if I passed or not even though I studied very hard for 5 months and felt very comfortable when I went in. So. Frustrating!

lcrmer said:

I took both survey and seismic last week for the second time. This time around I felt extremely prepared before I took the exams, but the 2.5 hour time limit had me feeling like I didn't solve enough questions in time. This is very frustrating. I took Reza Mahallati Survey class which came with a study guide and plenty of practice problems much like what I saw in the exam. For seismic I took a course through EET which was exceptional. I felt more prepared than the first time around and really felt like I had a superior understanding of the material. BUT I left both exams feeling defeated because of the timing. I think maybe I need to work on solving the problems more quickly (if I didn't pass again). My strategy for both exams was to use the first 7-10 minutes to go through each question and mark the "easier" ones. Seemed like everything was working out great as I was going through, but in the last 20 minutes it still felt like I had 15 or so questions left unanswered and had to guess. I just hope the guessing worked.

Moral of the story... I have no idea if I passed or not even though I studied very hard for 5 months and felt very comfortable when I went in. So. Frustrating!

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I wouldn't worry about it lcr, I was in the same boat.  Time is the biggest hurdle for these exams.  When I took the exams, there were only 50 questions and I still left plenty unaddressed.  I remember clearly, I felt very good about 32 (of 50) for Survey and 27 (of 50) for Seismic.  The rest I either skipped and guessed, narrowed it down and guessed, or didn't even get to in time and guessed.  I passed.   

Time is the main challenge in Seismic and survey. This was my second time. I agree with most comments by others above.

I took survey on last monday however i was a little rushed going into the test. In a panic drank too much water, and most of the test i was not too comfortable. (honestly, I did not want to take a break and lose any time during the test ).

Survey prep was on my own, i used Cuomo, Mansour books, along with 120 problems, and 2 practice tests. Additional tests from Mansour - 3 CBTs. Cuomo was used for quick refresher since i already studied Mansour material once before. Despite all this still felt Survey more challenging mainly due to bad time management on my part. I had a strategy. But my cheat sheets were not well organized - especially the various units and their conversions. Retrospect, i would spend a little more time organizing my cheat sheets than go through  more tests or more material. Additionally, though i took a protractor, etc. with me, i did not use it, i probably could have used it and save some time. BTW, they did not allow taking in a magnifying glass at prometric. I did well in practice tests, however i did not think that these tests were as tough or as unfamiliar as the exam was.

I took EET Seismic class, Dr. Ibrahim had an excellent time management strategy. I did feel much better with Seismic using this strategy. And since i forget all the time how many questions i got right, i started tracking and after 20 lost count. Also using cheat sheets rather than the book was a real time saver. In the end, i think i did much better in Seismic, going in with a lower expectation.

I took the EET Seismic with Dr. Ibrahim too and I felt way better this time. A lot of the questions were very similar to his practice exam and I even got one identical question. During the lectures, he would mention the specific topics/ideas/laws that he feel would be potential exam questions and the variations of them. A good amount of those came up for me and I was able to plow through those without looking up the answers. 90% of the time, I was able to use only his book and the formula sheets he provided. 

During the 10 minutes tutorial time, i wrote down 1 to 55 on the last sheet of my scratch paper, drew horizontal lines to group them into 5s, and made 3 columns to mark (yes / maybe / no idea). I found this is easier to track my progress and mark the questions on top of the "marked" function on the computer. 

I also labeled my work as I go, I found it way easier to go back and check / pick up where I left off for each problem. Last time it was chicken scratch everywhere and it was hard for me to quickly find where my previous calculations where. 

I surprisingly did most of my calcs in the first booklet, which was different from the previous exam. 

Also, I want to echo what everyone is saying about  Dr. Ibrahim. He treats everyone with respect and truly wants you to learn the material to pass it. He is very accommodating with your schedule. If you can't make it to the live webinar / mini exams / simulated exams, you can watch the recordings and his tips / explanations. The booklet of 3 exams plus the CBT simulation was on point. The weekly homework can get overwhelming and it is easy to fall behind if you have work/family to take care of as well. The answers for these problems were top notch too. It shows all the steps / alternative methods to get to the correct answers and why the other 3 answers are incorrect for the theory questions. It helped me picked up some of the "gotchas" in the actual exams. 

Do they allow you to write on our scratch paper before you begin the exam, ie during the tutorial? I'm hoping I don't have to take the seismic exam for the 3rd time but using that strategy to track progress is a good idea.

Anthony

anthonyg7 said:

Do they allow you to write on our scratch paper before you begin the exam, ie during the tutorial? I'm hoping I don't have to take the seismic exam for the 3rd time but using that strategy to track progress is a good idea.

Anthony

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At least two people said they wrote out 1 - 55 on their paper during the tutorial. 

ptatohed said:

1 hour ago, anthonyg7 said:

Do they allow you to write on our scratch paper before you begin the exam, ie during the tutorial? I'm hoping I don't have to take the seismic exam for the 3rd time but using that strategy to track progress is a good idea.

Anthony

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At least two people said they wrote out 1 - 55 on their paper during the tutorial. 

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Doesn't necessarily mean it's allowed.

Anthony