Thoughts from a First Time Exam Taker

As a first time taker (First opportunity to take PE or SE). I expected a good amount of bridge questions but there was even more than I had originally expected. Additionally, I thought some of the word problems were very ambiguous just depending how exactly you interpreted the question. In the afternoon exams i had a little trouble in a few parts understanding exactly what they were looking for. Overall the test was very difficult. Very hard to manage time in the afternoon and stay neat. One of my real worries is the last two problems of each day I ended up trying to make sure i got them completed and stopped worrying about putting code references and being neat. I truly hope the grader can clearly follow the solutions, however, i thought i was more important to complete the problems than to list all the code references and equations. (I hope this doesn't hurt me to bad in comparison to not even answering a part of the problem). The morning section i did not feel like time was much of an issue. I feel like they are extremely tricky with their answers and they try to trick you with false answers that you will encounter as you solve the problem (or if you apply an additional factor). This to me made me worry about a lot of bridge problems (not a bridge guy) getting correct answers but then second guessing that maybe you selected the "fake answers" and did not completely solve the problem.

We will see how it turns out though. Was curious how others in the past who have taken it did on time in terms of the afternoon and those that took it this time?

I sat for both Vertical and Lateral last October - passed Vertical so just sat for Lateral this time. When I took Vertical - I really didn't have any problem with time or the questions being tricky. The afternoon portion probably got pretty sloppy towards the end with less code references - but it turned out alright apparently.

As for Lateral - both times the morning portions were pretty similar in terms of timing. I was able to do all of the problems and finished both times right as time expired. The number of bridge problems were similar both times and in line with what I expected. I agree that you really have to be careful with which factors you use, and they do provide answers that you'd get without applying certain factors. The questions themselves, I felt, were fairly straight-forward though.

Lateral PM - I really struggled with time the first go-round. I think this was due to a lack of preparation. This time, each problem took me right at an hour to do and I was able to code-ref everything.

This is my 3rd time taking the Lateral portion. I will say that I thought the morning was a lot more on par with what I was expecting, though there were a lot of question I was not prepared for that hurt me.

The questions utilizing the new wind section of ASCE 7 really threw me through a loop. I thought I had prepared enough and knew where to find the information, but I really struggled finding specific factors etc. I was able to eliminate some of the answers, but I hope It was good enough. I think I answered 30-40 questions, got all the bridge questions (bridge guy). I was able to intelligently guess about 4 more before 1 minute was called.

Afternoon, first 2 questions were very fair. I think the questions and information given was extremely vague, I found myself stating what I assumed multiple times. Again, my work was VERY sloppy because I panicked a little when I got a answer not even close on problem 2...then realized I multiplied by a wrong number because my calculators button stuck, but I fixed it.

Problem 3 for bridge (personal opinion), was not remotely fair or reasonable to ask. I consider myself a pretty smart guy and even went "huh???" after I read the problem statement twice. I slapped something together as best I could, stated I didn't get close to what it should be from my experience, how I would fix it, and what I would do to solve the last part I didn't get to. I am hoping for the best. This is the best ive felt walking out of the test in a long time, but the first time I didn't feel good coming out of the essays. Really don't want to do this again, but I think i know i have some new weak areas from the new code.

Being a Bridge guy myself, I concur with "bassplayer45" comments on the test. This was my 3rd time taking the test and am hoping that it is my last.

I felt I was more prepared for this time than the previous two combined. The new wind was a little changing for me too. Overall, I feel good about the morning questions.

The first two afternoon bridge problems seemed to me to be challenging but fair. The third problem (the 2-hr one) extremely different from anything I prepared for or have seem, never seem anything close to it on any of the practice problems I did. To me it looks like a structure you would see in CA. I think I might have gotten the first two parts partially correct but had to make statements on how to solve the remaining questions. It took me a while just to figure out where to start the problem.

Overall I felt good and hope I did enough to pass. I got my fingers crossed!

I wouldn't worry too much about not being neat and referencing codes. When I took and passed the vert and lat buildings in April 2014, I didn't reference a single code in my afternoon sections, I just wrote the equation direct from the code and then substituted in my values on the next line down and solved.

phecke said:

I wouldn't worry too much about not being neat and referencing codes. When I took and passed the vert and lat buildings in April 2014, I didn't reference a single code in my afternoon sections, I just wrote the equation direct from the code and then substituted in my values on the next line down and solved.

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That's very interesting to know. I guess if you do it correctly, then they assume you pulled from the right code section.