just took the lindeburg practice test

[mattsffrd]

it didnt go well...got solid answers for about 55% of them :smileyballs:

i've heard that this test is a lot harder than the actual test, is that true? should i not be worried? i'm doing the NCEES one sunday, i'm hoping that goes better.

just a few thoughts, off the top of my head:

is the morning structural really that hard? i pretty much just skipped all of them, i didnt have a clue.

i did transportation for the afternoon session...where is a good place to get all the planning/trip generations stuff? i dont know of any methods to solve these problems in any of the design standards or the CERM. i'm talking about problems 183, 185-187

is there still pavement stuff in the trans. afternoon session? its not listed in the outline. from what i can tell its just morning geo.

i'm going to go have a few beers now, i'll probably post more tomorrow when my head is clearer

 

[Daisy]

I did the Lindeberg exam last Friday, I got a 60%...I too have heard it's harder than the actual exam, at least I'm really, really hoping it is.

For the transportation, you need to have the latest copy of the HCM for the afternoon portion. I'm not taking transportation for the PM, but my friend who took it in October (transpo PM) said it was a necessity.

Good luck to you on Friday!

 

[GulfCoastCivil]

Which edition did you take? I have the fifth edition and not very much structures at all. Maybe I should be concerned.

 

[mattsffrd]

i took the second edition...which is odd because i just ordered it a couple months ago, i would think they would send me the most recent one

 

[mattsffrd]

I did the Lindeberg exam last Friday, I got a 60%...I too have heard it's harder than the actual exam, at least I'm really, really hoping it is.
For the transportation, you need to have the latest copy of the HCM for the afternoon portion. I'm not taking transportation for the PM, but my friend who took it in October (transpo PM) said it was a necessity.

Good luck to you on Friday!

i have the 2000 HCM, i should probably check for errata though...

and thanks, you too!!!

 

[GulfCoastCivil]

I went looking around. There is the Civil Engineering Sample Examination by Lindeburg (which is what I have the fifth edition of) and then it looks like they changed the name to Civil PE Sample Examination by Lindeburg which I think the newest is the second edition. So I probably should have ordered the one you have. I wonder if I can get my hands on it tonight.

 

[GulfCoastCivil]

I can get it super shipped to me for tomorrow. Do you think it's worth it? Are they much different?

 

[GulfCoastCivil]

Ordered it. I'm almost finished the edition I have anyway, and I really don't like 101 Solved Civil Problems at all, so this will give me something to pore over on Sunday.

 

[EnvEngineer]

Be sure to check the NCEES outline, they took all the traffic related stuff off the morning test but it will be heavy on calculating all aspects of highway curves. I am with you on the structural, I hope for 2-3 easy. I have heard focus on beam deflections (there is a nice appendix in CERM, braced frames, and be able to pick a shear and moment diagram for a given beam and load and you may live to see another structural problem.

 

[mattsffrd]

I can get it super shipped to me for tomorrow. Do you think it's worth it? Are they much different?

couldnt really tell you...this is the only one i've used. there are some good afternoon construction problems though

 

[mattsffrd]

Be sure to check the NCEES outline, they took all the traffic related stuff off the morning test but it will be heavy on calculating all aspects of highway curves. I am with you on the structural, I hope for 2-3 easy. I have heard focus on beam deflections (there is a nice appendix in CERM, braced frames, and be able to pick a shear and moment diagram for a given beam and load and you may live to see another structural problem.

thats good for me...i can do vertical and horizontal curve problems with my eyes closed. and i'm pretty comfortable with the deflection stuff too.

 

[humner]

I did the Lindbergh practice exam, got 57% right, 7 of my wrong answers were off of the "easy" ones that I did not read through to well. I did take the Structural last year, dong the construction this year. It does look like the Lindbergh is tougher. On another note, there is another site you can download sample exams, www.pereview.net I bought 2 of the 3 for construction, only have the time before the test to tackle those two. Good luck everyone!

 

[Daisy]

Does anyone feel less prepared now than they did a month ago. I think I'm overthinking everything. I took the NCEES exam yesterday and made a bunch of stupid mistakes on the 'easy' problems. I hope I can keep it together at exam time!

 

[GulfCoastCivil]

I swing between feeling totally confident and totally screwed.

I ordered that book on Friday and paid extra for Saturday delivery. According to the tracking info my book was in the city I was in for 8:30am on Saturday, however was not scheduled for a delivery attempt until Monday. I called the UPS warehouse and they said they did have it but I could not pick it up until a delivery attempt was made for security reasons. I explained my plight and no dice. Wrote a long email to amazon and will be returning it next weekend. Can't just pick it up today because it's 2 hours away from me at my grandma's house.

 

[VA_NowPE]

I took and passed the Civil PE Exam back last October - in preparing I took both the Lindeburg Sample Civil PE Exam (2nd Edition) and the NCEES sample exam. Additionally, I also did a lot of Lindeburg's Practice Problems in his companion book to the CERM. From my experience, Lindeburg's problems are almost always harder then what you need to do for the actual exam (although Lindeburg states that in the CERM). In particular Lindeburg's structural problems are more difficult. I feel like taking the NCEES practice exam and the 6 minute solutions are a better way to prepare for the actual exam. Hope this helps!

To everyone preparing I wish you all the best - try to take a few days off ahead of time, relax, get everything in order (making sure you have a suitcase or crates to carry in all your books) AND above all RELAX.

 

[mattsffrd]

i took the NCEES test and did WAY better...i got like 90%. so that helped my confidence a little. i just wish it was full-length instead of half.

 

[csb]

Just about everyone who failed the Lindeberg exam PASSED the real exam. Just remember that that exam is way tougher than what you will encounter. Don't start to doubt yourselves now...you've prepared and you now know WAY more then when you started studying. Relax and know you have it in the bag!

Best wishes!

 

[T2D4]

Posted this elsewhere, but in my experience, having worked with all the Lindeburg exam prep material, 6 Minute Solutions, and the NCEES sample exam, the NCEES sample exam was the only thing remotely representative of what was on the exam.