State Specific exam info

We are trying to build a state specific FAQ thread that would contain specific information for each state.

For example I think some states will not allow you take into the exam 6 minute solutions and other material.

I think it would be a benefit to future exam takers if we could help each other out and have some state specific exam info. Also if you know a good hotel close to the exam site, or anything else logistics wise please state that as well.

We will clean up the thread when we have enough information to build the FAQ thread.

Thanks to Chris for the idea..

Here is some more specifics we could go with (thanks to jr for the idea)

Quality of Location

Materials Allowed

Materials Expressedly Forbidden

Parking

Hotel/Travel Accomodations

Places to Eat (during break)

West Virginia - you can't bring alchohol into the exam. DIAZWV tried. (j/k)

Seriously, in WV you can bring in anything as long as it is bound. If you prepare your own notes, they must be in pen and bound in at least a 3-ring binder. No loose paper at all, no cell phones, electronic devices, etc. etc.

WV's room is an interior room with great lighting and no windows, but is on 2nd floor. There is an elevator.

There are 8 foot tables with two candidates per table, plenty of room really. Room temp is always on the cooler side which is perfect, if you get cold, bring a zip-up sweatshirt. Room has NO clock, remember to bring a watch. I forgot.

Parking in the garage is $3. The mall is next door with a food court to eat lunch at.

Holiday Inn Express is about 150 yards from test site, I stayed there and parked there too.

WV needs a 2nd test site in Morgantown. I feel really bad for someone from Wheeling or Martinsburg having to go to Charleston to take the exam. That is only site as of now. FE is in both Charleston and Morgantown.

SIDEBAR: I took many problems out of PPI's sample exam and NCEES sample exam, zeroxed them and worked out the answers next to the problem, then arranged the problems in the binders by discipline. I only had one problem that was almost identical from the 6 min solutions, but many others helped get me started in the right direction.

Virginia lets you bring any number of reference material as long as its bound or in a 3 ring binder. As DVINNY said, in Northern VA test center, there are 2 examinees on each table. The table is pretty big, so you have plenty of room for your material. The temp was fine, but lighting wasn't all that good. One other problem with this test site is that there is nothing within walking distance for lunch, although the parking is free. Don't know about the proximity of good hotels in the area since I didn't live that far.

Illinois has the standard restrictions on cell phones, pagers, etc. They also prohibit compilations of solved problems such as the 6 Minute Solutions, the NCEES sample problems and solutions. They also prohibit the NCEES FE reference handbook.

The test site for the April '07 exam was in the lower levels of a senior citizen apartment complex. The test room is on the second floor and there is an elevator. The layout was 2 examinees per 8-ft table. The room I was in had no clock.

There is no food within walking distance and I didn't see any vending machines either. The ISPE was selling sandwiches for lunch.

Parking was free and there was a small shuttle bus to assist with transporting books to/from the car.

If you're not familiar with the area, I would strongly advise taking a drive by the site prior to the exam date. The interchange there is not very user friendly and Chicago rush hour is a bad time to be trying to figure it out for the first time.

Jim

IFR_Pilot said:

Illinois has the standard restrictions on cell phones, pagers, etc. They also prohibit compilations of solved problems such as the 6 Minute Solutions, the NCEES sample problems and solutions. They also prohibit the NCEES FE reference handbook.
The test site for the April '07 exam was in the lower levels of a senior citizen apartment complex. The test room is on the second floor and there is an elevator. The layout was 2 examinees per 8-ft table. The room I was in had no clock.

There is no food within walking distance and I didn't see any vending machines either. The ISPE was selling sandwiches for lunch.

Parking was free and there was a small shuttle bus to assist with transporting books to/from the car.

If you're not familiar with the area, I would strongly advise taking a drive by the site prior to the exam date. The interchange there is not very user friendly and Chicago rush hour is a bad time to be trying to figure it out for the first time.

Jim

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The test in Illinois is offered in several locations besides the Chicago Area. I took it in Champaign. There was also a southern IL location as well.

I took the Oct 2006 PE exam. The test location was a hotel..slightly on the older side, very narrow wooden table only like 18inches wide. Two people per table. Looks like we were in the breakfast/cocktail room. The proctors said the room was larger than the last time.

I took my exam in April '06 in Northfield, VT (Norwich U). It's the only site in the state.

I don't recall any specific rules beyond the general NCEES requirements. There wasn't any funny business that went on. I can't report much on the exam site because they moved it off campus last minute. It wasn't at the typical site.

There were a couple places in town where you could get some lunch or extra batteries if you needed. It would have been farther to get to these places if the test was given on the university campus.

EDIT: In the event they offer it where I took it again, here is my take. It was at the Masonic Temple right on the main drag in Northfield. There strangely wasn't really any on site parking there. You had to park on the street either in front of the building or on a residential side street. I got there at 6:50 AM and was among the first to arrive and it was still a pain.

The test is given in a meeting room in the basement. There are several rows of plain 8 foot tables, 2 examinees to a table. The room was fairly comfortable. The lighting was poor and it got a little stuffy after a while. Outside noise wasn't a big issue, but if construction or something was going on on Main St., you woulda heard it. Restrooms were located just outside the exam room.

Pennsylvania - You can bring in whatever information you would like to bring in as long as it is bound or in a three ring binder. No loose leaf paper. 6 minutes solutions and NCEES sample problems are all fine. Don't really have a problem if there is stuff written in the books either in pencil but I would recommend writing everything in pen just in case. I was at the Harrisburg site though so I'm not sure about the other sites. Also the Harrisburg site is on a college campus so there is food (cafeteria) across the campus but the parking lot is closer so I would recommend bringing your food. Not a far walk to the building so it isnt a big deal to carry your references. No charge for parking. Bathrooms were close so it isn't a far walk to the bathroom.

The hotels are a little bit away but still close enough to get there in a few minutes (10-15).

You have a table all to your self. Probably a 6-8 ft table (some were smaller). All your materials had to be under your table or on top of the table. No aisle way references. No pager, cell phones standard restrictions. Must use there pencils so don't even bring your own in. Room is quiet and comfortable. Regular cushioned office type chairs. The only problem was it was way to quiet. The only noise was the proctors whispering to each other and that was kind of annoying.

Again this was the Harrisburg site. I am not sure about the other sites.

Oh yeah - the lodging comments reminded me...

If you are taking the test in VT, the easiest place to find a motel and dinner the night before is in Montpelier, which is about 10-12 miles on local roads from the site.

Puerto Rico had two sites for the October 2006 test: Mayaguez and Guayama.

You can bring anything to the test as long as it is binded. No loose papers and you will be OK. References? Bring them... on as long as you know how to use them there are no limits.

The proctors were pretty strict but tried not to bother too much ( I took it in Mayaguez). I remember I had chocolates, mini Snickers, and before we started the afternoon I opened one to take away the taste of lunch. The guy two tables behind me, who knows me from school, called me: "Hey Luis....throw me one!!!!." I did and then another guy asked me for one and a few more did the same. I emptied my mini Snickers bag but it was fun...chocolates flying thru the room( I saved a couple). The lady proctor for our section came and looked at me. I thought I was in trouble but she just asked me a chocolate bar for her. She was laughing because she knew she scared me.

The most annoying thing was the voice of the lady in charge. She sounded like the Concentration Camps movies. "Candidates...you have 1 hour left"....ughhhh...she was creepy. Ahhh....it was cold in the room so P.R.s...take a jacket to the test.

Other than that everything was OK.

GUAM (and Northern Mariana Islands)

Quality of Location - The Oct. 06 exam was given at the Mariott Hotel in Tumon. It was an OK test site, except for a couple of things: One, they used those skinny little hotel conference tables, so there was no space to spread books out in front of you - only to your sides. Two, there was a wedding reception at the hotel that same day, so they had to move us to another room after lunch. That was pretty disruptive - having to pack all your books up and move again.

Materials Allowed - I had no trouble taking in any of the sample exams. Also, I had no trouble for all the hand-written notes that I had placed in the margins of my ENVRM and other references. I was also able to bring in a small ruler.

Materials Expressedly Forbidden - I had some trouble in the weeks leading up to the exam with tabs - Guam PEALS initially said that tabs were not allowed, in the letter they sent out to all examinees. This was about 3 weeks shy of the exam, and there was no way I was going to let that go without questioning. It turned out that they had somehow mixed up the PE and FE exam rules, which say you can't tab the reference manual they give you during the FE exam. So they allowed tabs on the PE exam. I used the colorful little flexible tabls made by Post-It, and just to be sure, I taped them down to the page the week before the exam to make them "permanent." Hopefully the tab issue will not be a problem with future exams on Guam now.

Places to Eat (during break) - The hotel itself has an excellent restaurant (or two). As I recall it was around $20 for the main buffet lunch, in a nice room with a beautiful view. It was a good chance to relax a little and chat with the other examinees.

Proctors: The Guam PEALS personnel administered the exam themselves, and were courteous and reasonable. They kept a close eye on us and even took one guy's calculator away, but they asked the room if anyone would lend him a replacement, and just about everyone's hand went up. So the guy was able to take the test. They didn't follow us to the bathroom or anything like that (would have been tough, though, since we were all men, and they were all women)

IFR_Pilot said:

Illinois has the standard restrictions on cell phones, pagers, etc. They also prohibit compilations of solved problems such as the 6 Minute Solutions, the NCEES sample problems and solutions. They also prohibit the NCEES FE reference handbook.
The test site for the April '07 exam was in the lower levels of a senior citizen apartment complex. The test room is on the second floor and there is an elevator. The layout was 2 examinees per 8-ft table. The room I was in had no clock.

There is no food within walking distance and I didn't see any vending machines either. The ISPE was selling sandwiches for lunch.

Parking was free and there was a small shuttle bus to assist with transporting books to/from the car.

If you're not familiar with the area, I would strongly advise taking a drive by the site prior to the exam date. The interchange there is not very user friendly and Chicago rush hour is a bad time to be trying to figure it out for the first time.

Jim

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I agree with Jim. One thing I would like to mention is that I had read in the past that some places only allow you to have a few books on the table at a time and the rest had to be on the floor in a box or something. We had to pull everything out and place it on the table. Some people had brought those metal book ends to use on the table which seemed like a good idea. I am just glad the table held with all of the books I brought with me!

They also said that had said that other kinds of PE review or PE Test prep books were not allowed, only the CERM.

Any info on Texas? Specifically Houston. I live about 35 miles from the test site, and I'm trying to decide if it's worth getting a hotel for the night before. I figure that 35 miles will take a minimum of 1hr, probably closer to 1.5hr on a Friday morning. I don't know if I wanna do that drive and then have to take the exam!

Also, I need to figure out how to get my caffeine during the exam. I am SERIOUSLY addicted (as in, I get withdrawel headaches and the shakes if I go without caffeine for more than 2.5hrs or so) so, I normally take a lunch bag filled with ice packs and cans of soda wherever I go. Does anyone think I'd be able to get away with that for the exam? The other option is something like no-doz, but I'd much rather have my soda. I realize that the best option would be to kick the caffeine habit, but with my current schedule, that just ain't gonna happen...

Finally, other than electronics and loose paper, is anything banned in TX (like 6-minute solutions)? I know I could just wait til I get my instructions, but I don't wanna get used to studying with the solutions books and then not be able to use them.

Thanks

Took the test in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at the River Center. Here is what I remember:

1. General - Parking was easy - $5. Two examinees per table. The table was very large with plenty of room to get comfortable. The chairs were slightly padded, which was nice. It was pretty quiet in there as well.

2. Books and Extra Material - All books were allowed, including solution manuals. I also brought in a 3 ring binder with all my personal notes and collection of graphs and charts. It was stated on the entrace paperwork that no loose papers were allowed, but anything bound was fine. They didn't waiver from this.

3. They carefully checked all calculators. Make sure you have the right one. (I brought two in case mine died...)

4. They only thing that they didn't allow me to have was my small (I mean very small) digital kitchen timer/clock. I had used the same clock while taking all my practice tests, so I was dissappointed to put it away. I had my watch on, so no big deal. Also, I staged my MERM and a few other references on the table, and left everything else in the suitcase. This was what most people did and the proctors had no problems with it.

5. As for food and snacks, I packed my lunch with water, powerade, a sandwich and lots of snacks. I made sure that I had snacks of a non messy variety for easy eating during the test. They only thing they asked was that you not leave bottles of liquid on the table (duh). I left my lunchbag in an easily accessible location. I was definitely thankful for the snacks come 10am!

6. Downtown BR has restaurants, but nothing that you could get in and out of that easily in an hour. Most people hung around outside and ate either a lunch they brought or something they bought from the concession stand (which they did open at lunchtime). Not sure what all was available, but if you didn't bring anything I am sure it was better than nothing.

Also, I am a local resident so I didn't have any out of town travel to arrange. There is for sure two hotels downtown, but LSU isn't that far away (less than 5 miles) and there are lots of hotels in and around campus.

Hope this helps!

I took the test in San Diego, CA. It was at the Convention Center, so lots of parking available. There are also lots of places to eat in the area. And there's a hotel right across the street. However I didn't stay there.

We were allowed to bring our notes and any books we wanted. Notes had to be in three-ring binders. No cell phones etc. And only approved calculators.

I thought it was a little cool in the room, so if you freeze easily bring a jacket.

Food and drinks were not allowed on the table but if you really couldn't go without you were allowed to take your food/drink to the restroom area.

SAN DIEGO, CA--

Put you reference materials in a cart with wheels! I had to cary my 40 lb crate over half a mile from the nearest parking to the test!

Orlando, FL -

If you're taking it at the Orlando Convention Center, there is plenty of parking (which is $10 by the way), but once you're out of the car, be prepared to walk. Including up and down stairs (or elevator thankfully). It is quite a walk, so don't forget anything, do bring some sort of cart to wheel your material, and do leave your cell phone in the car unless you want to leave it on the table with everybody elses. But it is quite a haul!

Georgia Civil PE:

Are we alowed to bring a 3-ring binder with problems and solutions that we solved? This would be much more helpful to me than trying to find a solution to a problem in the CERM.

Eugene, Oregon (Lane Events Center) was a straightforward exam site. Plenty of parking and a walk of no more than 200m to your seat. The tables were sufficiently large and spread out. The proctors were reasonable and polite. Bathrooms were just outside the exam room. No problems with traffic in the morning. There was plenty of time to drive somewhere for lunch (I went to downtown Eugene) but nowhere within walking distance (at least that I could tell). I know some will tell you to bring a lunch to the exam, but I appreciated the time to clear my head before the second half.

TXengrChick said:

Any info on Texas? Specifically Houston. I live about 35 miles from the test site, and I'm trying to decide if it's worth getting a hotel for the night before. I figure that 35 miles will take a minimum of 1hr, probably closer to 1.5hr on a Friday morning. I don't know if I wanna do that drive and then have to take the exam!
Also, I need to figure out how to get my caffeine during the exam. I am SERIOUSLY addicted (as in, I get withdrawel headaches and the shakes if I go without caffeine for more than 2.5hrs or so) so, I normally take a lunch bag filled with ice packs and cans of soda wherever I go. Does anyone think I'd be able to get away with that for the exam? The other option is something like no-doz, but I'd much rather have my soda. I realize that the best option would be to kick the caffeine habit, but with my current schedule, that just ain't gonna happen...

Finally, other than electronics and loose paper, is anything banned in TX (like 6-minute solutions)? I know I could just wait til I get my instructions, but I don't wanna get used to studying with the solutions books and then not be able to use them.

Thanks

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Houston: You can bring any bound material in that you would like. No writing instruments of any kind, nothing written in pencil, erasers, phones... etc. I've heard rumors that you can only take in 10 books, but nobody was checking and I couldn't find it in writing anywhere. Unless you are taking Transportation or Structures you probably won't need that many books. To be on the safe side, I punched holes in my 6 minute solutions and put them all in one ring binder. Make sure your calculator is on the list. They actually compared it to a photo of one. If you accidentally bring in something illegal, turn it over to the proctor before the exam. Don't chance it!

The exam is usually at the Reliant Center, but the Houston Grand Prix was going on (yes, loud racecars going around a track during the exam) so it was on the club level of the stadium. They handed out earplugs, but the noise wasn't as bad as everyone thought it would be.

I live 20 minutes away, gave myself an hour, and I got there in plenty of time. There were tons of people already there waiting outside. I think we had to be there at 7 or 7:30, so the traffic wasn't that bad. I'd give yourself at least an hour though and map out a back way just in case there's a wreck. Also, you might want to weigh out the difference between getting a good night sleep in your own bed vs getting up a little earlier. Had to pay for parking and it was across the street.

You can bring snacks in as long as they aren't distracting. You can take in drinks if they have a screw top. I took a coke, water, and lifesavers. A friend of mine brought energy bars. I also took advil incase I got a headache. I'd bring your lunch. There are a few places to eat, but I wouldn't want to risk being late. It was nice out so alot of people were eating at their cars/pick-ups.

sschellhase said:

SAN DIEGO, CA--
Put you reference materials in a cart with wheels! I had to cary my 40 lb crate over half a mile from the nearest parking to the test!

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Hey, you were in San Diego, too ? Cool, maybe I saw you.