Good luck, everyone!

[Civil Dawg]

Buildings vertical 1st time taker here.  I took the PE 2 years ago and finished both morning and afternoon in 3 hours confident I had passed.  You could have given me 6 hours to take the afternoon SE exam and I still don't think I would have had time.  Hopefully they give tons of partial credit because I will absolutely need it.  The morning I fell like I'm probably somewhere in the mid-high 20's correct but don't feel like I deserve an "acceptable" on any of the afternoon portion.  We'll see in about 8 weeks I guess but I would be very surprised if I passed.  And the thing is, after taking the exam, I'm not sure I could study for 6 more months and go in to the exam in October and do any better.  The time crunch is very real.

 

[Mithrandir918]

Any bridge guys weigh in on their thoughts?

 

[NEK ENGINEER]

Bridge vertical and lateral first time. I took EET Review class (both vertical and lateral). The review classes helped me a lot especially the lateral afternoon. The test was very similar to what they covered. I felt very confident in the afternoon (both days). But the morning properly will kill me. 

 

[Lomarandil]

Bridge vertical and lateral, first time here too.

There were definitely a lot of curveball questions -- just unusual circumstances to apply the concepts. A couple of AM questions were tough for me (having never done those particular types of projects before), and the vertical afternoon questions weren't quite what I expected (though not too bad in the end -- as long as I didn't overlook some obscure code provision). I also felt the time crunch, which isn't usually an issue when I take tests.

I also thought there might have been a typo on an AM seismic question that had a very low design parameter... or maybe I just messed up the code minimums. Who knows?

I was definitely thankful to be taking Bridges instead of Buildings. I didn't think the 2hr problems really took that long, so I was able to reallocate some extra time into the two shorter problems.

 

 

[Mithrandir918]

I was definitely thankful to be taking Bridges instead of Buildings. I didn't think the 2hr problems really took that long, so I was able to reallocate some extra time into the two shorter problems.

 

How did you feel about the 2hr Lateral PM problem?

 

[Lomarandil]

The twist they threw in was unusual and took me a little while to wrap my head around (like, how do you even detail that physically?). And of course I wasn't a fan of how it changed the method we had to use, I prefer the other one. But in the end, the result I got was reasonable, so it didn't seem too bad.

 

[Mithrandir918]

The twist they threw in was unusual and took me a little while to wrap my head around (like, how do you even detail that physically?). And of course I wasn't a fan of how it changed the method we had to use, I prefer the other one. But in the end, the result I got was reasonable, so it didn't seem too bad.

Sounds like you feel pretty good and thats good!

 

[ZEZO4]

First time took both of the (Building_Vertical&Lateral), vertical  morning was not easy not hard was reasonable, but the time was not enough for my, I did around 6 to 7 questions randomly), lateral morning was hard, the time was enough but the questions were hard, some questions need more information's, the afternoon was not easy both of them, I don't know how they will credit us for the afternoon, but I feel in the middle. 

 

[EZBuilding]

First time sitting for the exams, I took both the Vertical and Lateral Buildings test. I feel for the poster above who had a party next door to the test site, this is a tough enough exam without dealing with those distractions. We had a fire alarm and a late test delivery but neither caused more harm than delaying the start of the test.

I feel better about my chances after having left the exam than going into it. I thought the gravity morning was challenging, I guessed on two AASHTO problems and was not able to get a close enough answer on two buildings problems. I was able to arrive at answers for all other problems, but you never know with the exam's tricky answer paths if what you got was the correct answer. Gravity afternoon felt easy, I was able to finish every part of the problems with the exception of half of one part. Also had enough time to go back and list references for all my equations. Lateral morning was hard but not as bad as gravity. I agree with one of the above posters, there was one error on the exam (very small S1 value incorrect given value). This actually sucks because it should have been an easy question that now likely gets erased from the exam. There was also a masonry questions that provided some questionable parameters. Lateral afternoon was very hard. I was able to solve all problems but was not confident with some of my answers, especially of the detailing that was asked. Also was surprised on how once of the questions was asked, don't want to give too much up but it was something I expected not to be tested on.

I was happy to be able to at least finish all problems and not have to guess on too many of them.

In order of difficulty:

Lateral Afternoon >>> Gravity Morning > Lateral Morning >> Gravity afternoon

I took the PPI and NCEES practice exams and thought they were representative of the morning questions. The range of difficulties on the afternoon questions seems to be part of the challenge with the exam. The luck aspect of what type of questions you get on the afternoon is a big factor in the exam.

Now the wait begins...

 

[dvtn]

This was my second time taking Buildings Lateral. The morning portion seemed easier this time compared to October's exam. However, to make up for it they made afternoon portion harder than October's exam.

Some questions in the morning seemed too easy and when going back to a couple of them I found that I had errors, which is making me paranoid because it seems like they tried to make a lot of questions a gotcha question with some obscure exception that you had to check for. For two of the morning questions I could not come up with an answer based on the options given so either there was a typo in the answers or I was just too dumb to figure out what went wrong after going back to those two supposedly straightforward problems multiple times.

They seemed to to use completely different topics this time too with the exception of a few morning questions.

 

[Hugh Jass]

look at that. everyone on here was polite to each other and co-incidently have very few posts.

...now the wait for the condenscending replies from those with tens of thousands of posts (and no life)

 

[Hugh Jass]

First time took both of the (Building_Vertical&Lateral), vertical  morning was not easy not hard was reasonable, but the time was not enough for my, I did around 6 to 7 questions randomly), lateral morning was hard, the time was enough but the questions were hard, some questions need more information's, the afternoon was not easy both of them, I don't know how they will credit us for the afternoon, but I feel in the middle. 

do yoi have any study material you are willing to sell? 

please send me a privste message

 

[Mithrandir918]

Yes I agree with the mistake in the small S1 morning question, which is a shame because that not only gets tossed out but it wasted probably more than 6 minutes for most because it would have been an easy problem but would make you go back a second time and check your answer which takes away from other problems.  Figure with all that money they can offer a error free morning exam.

 

[ZEZO4]

not only this mistake, in the vertical exam, one of the questions need to a value where I had to assume a value that was needed.

 

[EZBuilding]

@Mithrandir918, I agree. I spent a lot of time on that problem re-calculating it trying to see if I could come up with what the issue was. I struggled on a problem in the morning, I probably re-did the problem a dozen times and could not arrive at the answer. 

Zaidfadhill I don't recall having to calculate that factor. Now you're making me worried hehehe

 

[ZEZO4]

EZBuilding, hahaha in the wood question, as my knowledge we have to calculate those values with assumptions also.

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

Folks, edit your posts. You're straying a bit close to NDA territory there. NCEES does check this forum.

 

[ZEZO4]

 

[Ramnares P.E.]

Gents, please remember your NDA.  Some of the posts are disclosing too much information about exam question specifics and have been edited accordingly.  

 

[ZEZO4]

I don't know if these information's considered as a disclosed information, anyway I'm trying to updated or delete it but I can't!