Best Tranportation Review - 2 fails...

So, I am not an engineering major.  I have a science degree in Architectural technology and have worked under an engineer for many years.  I took the FE exam and with my degree, as well as experience and success with the FE, I was eligible to take the PE.  So that's the backstory.....

I chose transportation because I was always good with horizontal curves, vertical curves, super elevations, etc....(or at least I thought I was)  I have taken the PE twice with no success.  In fact, identical scores on 2 TOTALLY DIFFERENT TESTS!!!  I was extremely frustrated because I bought a review, studied my butt off and scored a 62/80 and 59/80 on the two practice exams, (one was the ncees official practice exam).  I used school of pe.  On the ACTUAL EXAMS I received 2 matching scores of 46/80.  How in the "bad word" could these tests be SO different from the review questions and practice exams?!

Morning session on the first exam I got 28/40.  Afternoon I got 18/40.  The afternoon had maybe 15 questions that I was confident on.  I was sick to my stomach.

Morning session on the second exam I got 26/40.  Afternoon I got 20/40.  Both the morning and the afternoon were uncomfortably foreign and I was discouraged early on in both am and pm sessions.

My question is, what is your advise on raising the score on my transportation pm?  I'd like to see my am score go up as well, but some of that will be luck of the draw on the test and the rest, more preparation.  My transportation score has some serious increasing to do in order to have a shot at this thing.  I mean, safely I need 12 points between the two.  It's not as if I'm not understanding the review notes and material that I'm studying.  That's not the case at all.  The tests just seem like a curve ball and I'm looking for different prep material.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

EET

Did some research on EET.  Seems they are the afternoon specialists.  They may be the help I need to get through the afternoon.  I don't have 6 minute solutions.  I hear that is a great study material to make the exam questions in the am seem much easier. 

plansource said:

I used school of pe.  On the ACTUAL EXAMS I received 2 matching scores of 46/80.  How in the "bad word" could these tests be SO different from the review questions and practice exams?!




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Sorry to hear this. Please call us at 614-873-7475 or email [email protected] if you would like to discuss free repeat options or express any opinions on how we could improve our review courses.

If cost is an object, take SoPE up on their free repeat offer.  If cost is no object, try EET.  How many study hours have you put in?  What materials are you using to study?  Which of the NCEES-listed Transpo references have you acquired?  

Are you able to tell by your practice exams or problems where you get hung up (remembering unit conversion, answering what they ask for and not what you assume, utilizing the correct formula, etc)?

Were you doing practice exams in a timed environment or allowing yourself to take longer to find the answers so the actual test suffered from that?

Also, in general did you change up the way you studied much from the 1st to the 2nd attempt?

I personally really enjoyed the layout and way the All-In-One (AIO) book by Goswami was written; it was the source I relied on most of all.
Maybe if you can redo SoPE and also have time to work through the AIO's relevent chapters it will turn out to be a good tool on the next exam.

I have seen people really speak highly of EET and had I not passed the first time, I would have decided to invest in the EET program to make my second attempt be my last.

EET. You will not regret it. And they too offer free retake of the course if you do not pass. Best of luck!

You say you are taking the PE in transportation due to being good at horiz and vert curves and superelevation.  Is this what you do in a day to day job?  The best test you can take is what you do on a day to day basis.

I used School of PE and was able to pass on the first try.  I like the theory of working to max your morning score as the questions cannot be very in depth as they cover such a wide breadth of topics.  This way if curve balls come in the afternoon, its not as big of a problem.

I would say work to improve your morning scores and that should help your overall performance.  As previously suggested, look at your practice tests and see where you made mistakes and work to improve your knowledge and/or test taking tactics in those areas.