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So we all know that the test sucked...but anything else about your testing experience that you want to share? Anything funny, frustrating, etc? My husband dropped me off at the exam site Friday morning, and every entrance we drove up to had a locked gate. There wasn't any sign directing us to the correct entrance. We made it to another entrance, thinking that we could finally drive through it, only to find that it was locked, too. It was around 7:30 at this point, and I was trying to quell my panic. Fortunately, there was a gap under the fence and I saw another test taker grab her suitcase, roll it under the gate, then drop to the ground and squeeze underneath the gate. So that is what I did, too. It was so ridiculous that I couldn't help wearing a grin as I stood in line to get checked in.

I Agree. Study the day before is not very productive. I know of two others in April that panicked themselves by doing that. As I recall during that blur of a very long week, I spent the Thursday just getting everything organized into the two plastic crates I used to hold all my material and supplies. I suggest the following last minute checks of what you are bringing" Make sure you have your government issued picture ID with you - A co-worker of mine told me about someone at his test center in Albany NY who was not allowed to sit for his test because he forgot his ID. Be sure to bring some headache medication if you are prone to seasonal sinus issues like myself. Bring wrap-around hearing protection - my test was in a huge gymnasium and the noise/echoes was extreme at times. Make sure you have a watch that is not too high-tech which could cause them to put it through extra screening, and that it is comfortable to wear during the test. A second calculator, even though you never bring it out, is a comfort to have (well worth the 18-20 dollars it will cost at WalMart) Put Tabs at the start of the Index sections for each of your books - that will be the 'most used' tab. Leave you cell phone in your car. At the center where I took the Exam in Queens NY, the made everyone put their cell phones in plastic bags that stayed with a group proctor, and they would not give them back during the lunch break - however I had mine in my car so I was able to get to it and check for any critical messages. Be careful about bringing very large spiral binders filled to near capacity. A Civil engineer examinee next to me accidentally dropped one of his 5" binders between our individual desks and it burst open throwing paper all over the place. I felt guilty not helping him and the proctor pick it all up, however I was busy trying to do well on my test. Take a dry-run trip this week to make sure you know where the test center is and where you can park or get off of public transportation. I got to my test center an hour early and I still could not find a parking spot less than 3/4 of a mile away - not the best time to be running to the entrance of the building. At least two hours early would have been better for me that day. last but not least, if you are a person of faith even as a younger person, I honestly do not think it hurts to spend some time asking for help from a higher authority. I wish everyone the best of luck. Focus on 'Mind Over Matter' and make it "Once and Done."

Welcome to the post October 2018 PE post-exam wait period. A.K.A “Welcome to the Suck”. If you thought studying for the exam and taking the exam was the hard part, well you were wrong. Waiting for the exam results is the worst part of this whole process. A few years ago @Dexman PE PMP wrote a famous post ( http://engineerboards.com/topic/21356-feel-good-about-how-you-did-on-the-exam/ ) outlining the stages of the post-exam emotional roller-coaster. I’ve reproduced his immortal words (italics) and added a few new insights and advice below. Phase 0 (Emotional Hangover) This happens immediately after the conclusion of the exam. You spend the next few days bouncing between phases 1-5, either individually or at the same time. You are Heisenberg's test result, simultaneously convinced that you passed and failed at the same time. You'll find yourself suddenly with a lot of free time and no idea what to spend it on (hint: spam thread here or burn off the stress at the gym). You'll be looking at which PE stamps to order, and which PE study classes to take for the next exam. After a few days your brain will slow down and you settle into... Phase 1 (CALM) This stage will last a few days. You are mostly recovered from the mental marathon of the exam and post-exam emotional roller coaster. The full weight of what has just happened hasn’t really set in and you are probably a bit relaxed thinking that the worst is over. Phase 2 (SECOND-GUESSING) will start to set in over the next few days. You will start to forget small (but important) pieces of the exam and forget how you answered the question, but will remember just enough so that you keep trying to re-calculate the answers in your head. You will slowly begin to convince yourself that you got it wrong. Phase 3 (WORRY) will follow within a few weeks. At this point, you've convinced yourself that you've missed a few problems, but you *should* still be ok. Phase 4 (DOUBT) After worrying for about a month (we're now within 2-3 weeks of results at this point), you'll jump into full blown doubt. You are now certain that you missed way too many questions to stand a chance at passing. Phase 5 (ANGER) Once you've lost hope of passing, you'll move into Phase 5 (anger) over the fact that it's taken way too damn long to grade a simple scantron and the guys at NCEES are morons for taking so long. I mean, really, 6-8 weeks to feed a scantron into a f*ing machine, COME ON!! Another source of anger stems from all of the "Not this shit again" and "Don't try to calc it because it's worthless" responses to all of your cut-score and release date posts. BTW, want a sanity check of why it takes so long to “just score a scantron”? look here: http://engineerboards.com/topic/29578-ncees-news-update/?page=8&tab=comments#comment-7463208 Phase 6 (RESULTS) Finally, you'll hit Phase 6 (results). Each person reacts differently at this point whether they passed or not, how many times they've taken it, financial implications, expectations, etc. Regardless of how the results come out, at this point you will find that the CAB of your choice is very welcomed to either celebrate or cry into. Then there are the sub-phases. These can happen anytime during phases 2, 3, 4, and 5. The order of the sub-phases is arbitrary Sub-phase A (Trying to calculate the cut-score) you’ll start speculating on the cut score, as if it’s universal for all exams. Maybe discussing a question in a nebulous way and convincing yourself that it will get tossed. You start spouting conspiracy theories that there is a quota for maximum and minimum number of passers (there isn’t), or that NCESS wants you to fail to get more of your money (meh, not really). The cut score will vary from exam session to exam session and from one engineering discipline to another. The cut score is based on what the minimally competent PE would get for that selection of test problems. Yes, PEs and other SMEs take practice exams with those problems to establish a baseline. It’s futile to try to guess the “cut score”, and even if you could you don’t know your own score anyway, so it really doesn’t matter. Want a little more elaboration? Look here: http://engineerboards.com/topic/30365-the-wait-is-killing-me/?do=findComment&comment=7485676 Sub-phase B (trying to figure out how to get results before they come out) You’ll start trying to figure out ways to learn of your results before they come out. This will include searching your state’s PE license lookup or another state website, spam calling and emailing NCEES or the state board, etc. First: Please be nice to your state board workers! You are taking this test to become a professional, so act like a professional. NCESS won’t tell you anything beyond “8-10 weeks” until after they released the results. The state boards won’t tell you much more and NCESS usually doesn’t share anything firm with them anyway. The boards will often get surprised with the results too. No state starts updating their license lookup prior to the initial release of results. So don’t bother searching there until at least one state has released first! Some states (Mass, NJ, and a couple others) have other websites like where you can divine a pass/fail, but it won’t happen until other states have already started releasing, and those states tend to release after everyone else too. Sub-phase C (guessing the release date) This is another favorite pass time. You’ll start looking through old map threads to try to guess the release date. Maybe you’ll look at state board meetings dates and try to cross reference with the past results to figure out when’s this years’ will come out. Multiple posters look at the (lack of) data and come to a “conclusion” that a given date is “it”. The OG’s tell you that the wait will last a little bit longer, but group-think sets in and the vets get mocked for “trolling”. Things get even worse when the “sure thing” date passes without a release. No one can say with certainty when the results will be released this early after the exam. With that written, we have been following things for a while and we have an idea of when the release will generally happen. Fall results take longer than spring results because of the holidays and time available to schedule cut score meetings. The vets may not know the exact date ahead of time, but we generally know the signs and can confidently give a “no earlier than” date. This is not the same as a release date. We’ll also know when things are imminent. Still want to scratch the itch? @Duckdude actually took the time to make a spreadsheet of known release dates for all states for all exams sessions going back for over a decade. And he did it AFTER he got his results back. Great dedication and work on his part! You can browse it here if you are curious. Sub-phase D (reading the tea leaves) This is a variation on subphases B and C, but warrants its own category. You’ll start scrutinizing every NCEES tweet or facebook post, take screenshots and discuss minor tweaks to the dashboard layout, or get over excited when a state board has called an emergency meeting. You look for any clue or edge to see if you passed/failed or when the results may come out. Sometimes these signs are legit, often they’re not. The OG’s have been tracking things for years and know how to separate the signal from the noise. For instance @knight1fox3 has been playing close attention to the correlations of getting an exam survey back a week after the exam and a pass/fail score. Sub-phase E (harassing NCEES and state board employees) The title says it all, it's an aggravated version of subphase B. Don't be a d$%K and try to avoid this subphase. You aren't doing yourself any favors by acting unprofessional. Sub-phase F5 (spam reloading the NCEES dashboard) During this phase you are continuously reloading the NCEES dashboard and/or refreshing your email. FWIW, we can confirm that sometimes the examinees' dashboard will update with the result prior to the NCESS email going out. The time difference is anywhere from no-delay to a couple hours. Go ahead and spam F5 the dashboard to blow off steam. Speaking of blowing off steam, trying the Oct 2018 spam thread: or any of the other game threads. And all this leaves out the post-results passed and failed phases, which I’ll post about later. How does everyone feel about the exam yesterday?

Apparently I woke up in the middle of the night last night, rolled over, asked my wife if I needed to divide by the square root of 3 then rolled back over still asleep. I think I was still trying to figure out some of the problems in my sleep...

This is my third attempt, so definitely cycling between "THIS IS MY TIME TO MAKE ALL MY DREAMS COME TRUE" to "Well, I might be back in there a fourth time." Do yourself a favor and give your brain a rest. You will definitely have more clarity and focus tomorrow with a well-rested brain rather than a stressed one. It's hard not to let the nerves get to you, but find something you really like doing and focus on that. Currently shoving my face with food and then going to buy some yarn at JoAnn. Do I need more yarn? NO. Is shopping for yarn soothing? YES.

A shout-out to the men and women that have visited these boards and either just read along or actively seeked advice and/or help. I hope you found value in the group effort we all put around here in helping out. Be sure to come back later to share stories from the trenches!

Its pretty much a rule that any time there is a live band going on someone should scream out Freebird, I even did this at the Rod Stewart show in Vegas last Summer, he actually stopped and just said "I don't think so" as he was walking around stage (My wife hid under her seat)

honestly part of my exam prep is watching this gif 20 times/day

All the best to all of you on Friday. Good Luck

I just checked, and I still passed. I'm so happy to be at work today and NOT taking the PE exam.

White Claw seriously needs to sponsor this forum.

Do you know if not showing up will count as a fail? You should call the board. If it will count as a fail, you should sit for it anyway and consider it a "practice" exam.

I think I was so nervous I skipped dinner. But on exam day I think I had a Kind bar, Red Bull, and a Mountain Dew while waiting for the gate to open at the California Expo Center. Kinda-sorta intentionally trying to keep it light. My first couple of attempts I ate too much for sure. Not blaming the food for the fails, but still didn't feel good.

I'm super curious if they're staying with the side clicker or going back to the original Bic Matic. For me, the geometry of my head makes it really comfortable to tuck the pencil behind my ear at work. The April 2018 pencil was fatter and keeps falling off my head. These are the important things...

lololol me at goodwill "hello there, just dropping off this perfectly fine yet cursed mechanical pencil."

Trolling is strictly forbidden. We would never engage in it here. Totally

It’s a proven fact that the amount of spam you post on here, especially post-exam, your likelihood of a passing increase proportionately.

Nah, it's seriously a lot of fun. And it really helps with the stress of waiting for the results. Just be prepared for a LOT of troll attempts

You Enviros are so supportive! I love it! Three cheers from your friendly neighborhood Mechanical. You can do it! Air? Easy! Water? Piece of cake! You guys will turn this exam into solid waste! Remember you all have SPAM waiting for you when you're done! @vee043324 @txjennah@daydreambeliever Did I forget anyone? Also, remember to bring a chocolate bar or other candy bar for a mid session snack to keep the brain sugar topped up. LadySquare suggested this and it really helped. Also, hydrate. Your brain is working overtime and needs to stay soft and squishy to crunch those remediation problems. I nearly died of thirst on my first attempt. You guys got it!

Your name is not Baconator. You do not pass go. You drift slowly into the dark realms of ambiguity, this post forgotten and discarded like a politician's pre-election promise, never to be uttered again in light of day.

Me after matching the Mega ball or whatever it's called:

Taco Bell, sweetened with xylitol is my personal recommendation.

don't be surprised if it comes back and stands over your bed thursday night.

Should be getting my new bike this weekend! Might post a picture if I remember.