Funny exam site stories of April 2014

[matt267 PE]

He took the morning section without a calculator and bought one at staples at halftime.

Wow. That sucks for that guy.

 

[ajm]

Don't know that it's exactly funny, but was very surprised that I saw a couple of empty seats. One was almost directly in front me, and I kept thinking before the exam started that the person would show up...but nope.

 

[Sapper PE LS]

He took the morning section without a calculator and bought one at staples at halftime.

Wow. That sucks for that guy.

Ah, I don't know, kind of hard to feel compassion for a guy who doesn't care enough about his career and one of the single most important events of his career to read what the basic minimum requirements and prohibitions are. Is this the guy you want following complex standards during design?

 

[NJmike PE]

So my wife was pregnant during this last time that I took the PE (Oct 2013). Pretty far along too. I kept my phone with me in the exam room but handed it in to the proctors with the notion that I needed to know how she was doing. I I put the phone on silent (no ringer or vibrations) and asked that they monitor it for me in the event that my wife did try to contact me due to an emergency. Reluctantly they obliged on the account that it was a situation that they had never considered before. All good through the morning session. Nothing to report from the baby front. I went to lunch, came back and the same. I handed in my phone, same conditions. Then, around 3:30 in the afternoon the proctor informed me that my wife had text that she was experiencing labor pains. I ignored at first, but then a few more messages came through within the next 60 minutes. I had a decision to make. I was more than half way through and feeling pretty optimistic about my chances of passing. Do I stay or go home to her? Final decision: it was our third kid. She knew what she was doing. I stayed and finished. I passed. She didn't have the kid that day or for many days to follow.

:true:

 

[frazil]

Dang! That's hardcore nerdy.

 

[matt267 PE]

So my wife was pregnant during this last time that I took the PE (Oct 2013). Pretty far along too. I kept my phone with me in the exam room but handed it in to the proctors with the notion that I needed to know how she was doing. I I put the phone on silent (no ringer or vibrations) and asked that they monitor it for me in the event that my wife did try to contact me due to an emergency. Reluctantly they obliged on the account that it was a situation that they had never considered before. All good through the morning session. Nothing to report from the baby front. I went to lunch, came back and the same. I handed in my phone, same conditions. Then, around 3:30 in the afternoon the proctor informed me that my wife had text that she was experiencing labor pains. I ignored at first, but then a few more messages came through within the next 60 minutes. I had a decision to make. I was more than half way through and feeling pretty optimistic about my chances of passing. Do I stay or go home to her? Final decision: it was our third kid. She knew what she was doing. I stayed and finished. I passed. She didn't have the kid that day or for many days to follow.

:true:

And you have been sleeping on the couch ever since.

 

[knight1fox3]

^ LOL! BURN!

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

I was surprised to see a ton of people I went to school with at the exam. The biggest surprise was the fact that I shared a table with one of my college buddies. We had taken several classes together and have stayed in contact since then. In fact, I'm meeting up with him for lunch today.

He graduated one semester before me, but I got my PE 6 months before him. When we took it together, I passed and he failed.

 

[Larry]

I had an issue with one of the questions. I think there was a typo and none of the answers were correct. So I asked the Proctor for a comment form so I could challenge it, or whatever those comment forms do. Unfortunately someone else had asked for a comment form and they didn't have any forms left.

That's a pretty good way to avoid getting too many comments from the test takers.

 

[Golden Eagle PE]

I had an issue with one of the questions. I think there was a typo and none of the answers were correct. So I asked the Proctor for a comment form so I could challenge it, or whatever those comment forms do. Unfortunately someone else had asked for a comment form and they didn't have any forms left.

That's a pretty good way to avoid getting too many comments from the test takers.

Just contact NCEES. That is what I did yesterday. They respond pretty quickly.

 

[Ships]

Do you have an email? There was one question I would like to challenge or protest as well.

 

[Predgw]

Leave a message on the NCEES site after you log in.

 

[ptatohed]

I don't know about other states but CA has a exam comment form available on their board website (you can make comments on the CA exams as well as NCEES exams).

http://www.bpelsg.ca.gov/pubs/forms/examcomnts.pdf

 

[I M A PE]

Any chance you guys are talking about a problem on the afternoon mechanical systems and materials exam? I discussed one particular problem with 3 people that I know on the way out of the room, one of them absolutely brilliant and another whose expertise is right in line with this particular problem, and none of us got a numerical answer consistent with any of the choices. It was a pretty straightforward problem and I must have done it 5 times to see if my answer would change during the exam. My answer was within the range of answers but the range was fairly wide and certainly not close enough to any of the choices for it to be rounding error.

 

[knight1fox3]

I discussed one particular problem with 3 people that I know on the way out of the room,

Which is in violation of the NCEES agreement you signed.

To quote directly from the candidate agreement document:

Fraud, deceit, dishonesty, unprofessional behavior, and other irregular behavior in connection with taking any NCEES exam is strictly prohibited. Irregular behavior includes but is not limited to copying or allowing the copying of exam answers; failing to work independently; possessing prohibited items; communicating with other examinees or any outside parties by way of telephones, personal computers, the Internet, or any other means during the course of an exam; surrogate testing or other dishonest conduct; disrupting other examinees; creating any safety concerns; failing to cease work on the exam when time is called; and possessing, reproducing, or dis-closing nonpublic exam questions, answers, or other information regarding the content of the exam without authorization, before, during, or after the exam administration.

 

[frazil]

Is it considered disclosing if they took the same test?

 

[knight1fox3]

Generally I've been told, if it's questionable, simply refrain from doing it altogether.

 

[I M A PE]

I discussed one particular problem with 3 people that I know on the way out of the room,

Which is in violation of the NCEES agreement you signed.

To quote directly from the candidate agreement document:

Fraud, deceit, dishonesty, unprofessional behavior, and other irregular behavior in connection with taking any NCEES exam is strictly prohibited. Irregular behavior includes but is not limited to copying or allowing the copying of exam answers; failing to work independently; possessing prohibited items; communicating with other examinees or any outside parties by way of telephones, personal computers, the Internet, or any other means during the course of an exam; surrogate testing or other dishonest conduct; disrupting other examinees; creating any safety concerns; failing to cease work on the exam when time is called; and possessing, reproducing, or dis-closing nonpublic exam questions, answers, or other information regarding the content of the exam without authorization, before, during, or after the exam administration.

Really? Asking a friend "How do you think you did?" and "Do you think you got the one about 'XXX'?" is a violation of policy? I'm reading the candidate agreement with a fine tooth comb right now and cannot find a single thing that indicates this is a violation of policy. Nobody recorded the question. It wasn't distributed publicly. Nobody disclosed the question to anybody else. All four of us had the question on paper right in front of our faces not 20 minutes prior.

 

[matt267 PE]

dis-closing nonpublic exam questions, answers, or other information regarding the content of the exam without authorization, before, during, or after the exam administration.

I'm not a lawyer. And if you asked 3 different lawyers you're likely to get 4 different answers, but the above is enough to not even risk it.

In my non lawyer humble opinion.

 

[knight1fox3]

^ precisely.