Transportation afternoon - April 2104

What did you guys think? My first time sitting for the exam. Harder than the NCEES practice exam I thought. I had struggled to find the MUTCD stuff, however I eventually found everything. Stuglled with another "look up" problem and checked another reference and found it. That cost me a solid 30 minutes.

While I did not have a chance to go back through and check, I think maybe a 35 out of 40. Worst case 30 out of 40.

Now the waiting.

Do you remember ALL the questions? We have a special place here for those who do.

j/k

Good luck Predgw. If things are like you say you are in the drivers seat.

Yeah time will tell. Thanks

You spent 30 minutes on one look-up problem? Did I understand that correctly?

Yup. STUPID. Guess what.. I found it. Hard to explain but I started out in the HCM which bounces you from one section to another. Finally I looked in the green book and within 5 minutes I found it.

Poor execution. BAD BAD BAD.

Predgw said:

Yup. STUPID. Guess what.. I found it. Hard to explain but I started out in the HCM which bounces you from one section to another. Finally I looked in the green book and within 5 minutes I found it.

Poor execution. BAD BAD BAD.

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I don't know whether to yell at you or commend you for still pulling off 30-35 correct after a stunt like that!

Well, the 30 to 35 is a guess. More likely a 30, and maybe a 28. Who knows right? The good news is, there was only 1 question in the afternoon that I guessed at. I was happy about that. There was another where I worked backwards from the answers and worked it till the equation balanced. So while I did not feel confident about that, the math worked.

There were a coupe other qualatative questions that I ran out of time on but I'm 80% confident about those.

Do you have enough confidence to start selling off your books? I really need to start buying these.

ahhh, no. I'm at the post exam phase of; did I calculate this correctly? Did I convert MPH to FT/sec. Ect. ect.

Honestly, unless money is an issue ( and in the end it could cost more anyway) you are better off buying books that you highlight and tab yourself. I think that is part of the earning process.

But, just as important; all the reference material I had referenced the incorrect HCM. So the benfit to buying new, is you may see depth refernces with the 2010 HCM listed. I would wait a little bit before buying.

Likewise, I feel pretty good for the transportation depth. Hopefully, the pass line will not climb to 56/80 or even higher given the level of difficulty.

Does Transportation ever have a different passing score from other civil topics (say Water Depth/Geotech Depth)? Any idea? Thanks

Sammy

I have searched the boards on this topic and it can vary a bit. I get the feeling it usually 56/80 somethimes maybe 55/80. I don't remember reading a failing score of above 54 actually. So probably 55.

Additionally, it does very slightly from depth to depth. But I'm sure not to much. We are all taking the same morning exam, so it must be close. I get the feeling if you scored 55 or higher you are good to go.

Predgw said:

I have searched the boards on this topic and it can vary a bit. I get the feeling it usually 56/80 somethimes maybe 55/80. I don't remember reading a failing score of above 54 actually. So probably 55.

Additionally, it does very slightly from depth to depth. But I'm sure not to much. We are all taking the same morning exam, so it must be close. I get the feeling if you scored 55 or higher you are good to go.

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I think the cut off can vary from exam to exam.

From NCEES:

Determining passing scores

When an exam is introduced or when its specifications change, a committee of subject-matter experts works with experienced psychometricians (testing experts with a background in statistics) to determine the level of performance that corresponds with minimal competence in that discipline. This becomes the passing score. NCEES does not publish passing scores because they change with each administration. NCEES scores each exam with no predetermined percentage of examinees that should pass or fail. All exams are scored the same way. First-time takers and repeat takers are graded to the same standard.

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Read more at: http://ncees.org/exams/scoring/

Predgw

Your post is a relief. As well, 54/80 was highest failing score I heard of. I think I also read an article about the basic idea why NCEES fails a candidate - one of the reasons was "not worth being licensed" or something like that. I think correctly answering 70% of the questions should be deemed as "worth" - with 70% being a typical cutting point in many kinds of exams. I guess it is not only a game between candidates but also something between candidates and a certain cutting point that exists in NCEES's mind.
I really should have got back to life and stopped thinking about it... What's wrong with me... Sighhh

rejectedbytexas said:

Predgw


Your post is a relief. As well, 54/80 was highest failing score I heard of. I think I also read an article about the basic idea why NCEES fails a candidate - one of the reasons was "not worth being licensed" or something like that. I think correctly answering 70% of the questions should be deemed as "worth" - with 70% being a typical cutting point in many kinds of exams. I guess it is not only a game between candidates but also something between candidates and a certain cutting point that exists in NCEES's mind.
I really should have got back to life and stopped thinking about it... What's wrong with me... Sighhh

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I think we'd all be interested in reading this article. I would find it difficult to believe that ncees would say something like that. But he article you're quoting might make for some interesting discussion.

It is pefectly nomal to worry. I know I feel better about the exam today than I did last Friday night. It will haunt me if I fail by one or two points as I can think of two points that I gave away. However, what are you going to do. If I take it again, I will need to just slow day and manage my time better. Either way I'm happy with the fact that for my depth section there were basically only 2 questions that I did not know how to do. One of those I believe I figured out last night. The other, is so annoying I'm protesting trying to figure it out. LOL. Many of them I did very very quickly, which scares me a little because I never re-checked. I keep thinking; did I convert the speed from MPH to Ft/sec? ect ect. Personally, I would like to see an exam that was maybe a little harder where they graded your work, than one that is worded such that you need to double check and make sure you didn't miss a key word in the question, or you had a unit conversion error. In the real world, engineering work is almost always checked and then re-checked. I would rather have the engineer who knew the concept of all 10 problems but made a few converting errors or calculator key stroke errors, than someone who only knew 5 of the concepts and guessed on the other 5. But, saying that, I understand the logisitics behind scoring that way across the country. It is, what it is.

Just try to forget about it ( yeah right) and see what happens.

How did morning portion compare to NCEES sample?

I thought the morning was harder than the sample exam. Could be the stress of taking the exam though. Seemed harder.

ohh I am planning on taking exam in October, seems like they are making exam harder. I read in Geotech section ppl saying it was very different from the practice exam they took

There are about 9 questions from the afternoon that I can't remember, however I never opened the guide for planning design and operation for ped facilities. Anybody else?

I used the Green Book, HCM, Roadside Design Guide, MUTCD, CERM and the Goswami All in One. Though the last one I should have used even more as one of the problems I could not get last during the exam I figured out quickly on Monday morning. I think.

Thanks

Somehow, I can only remember those questions that bugged me because I thought I should have got them firmly in hands but I have to guess at last. Poor memory capacity - a sign of aging...