October 2018 Exam Study Progress

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txjennah said:
It was really the review itself that I had issues with. I'd been out of school for years so neither the review nor the practice set really helped me grasp the concepts.  If kncumber is a recent graduate then they are probably okay. But if they are like me and graduated years ago, then they may reconsider.
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That seems to be the #1 common complaint with SoPE. From what I've read ( I've only took EET Depth course), SoPE is more of a refresher and assumes you know certain things.  It is not an in-depth review from A-Z of everything you should be familiar with for the exam like other courses are.

 
youngmotivatedengineer said:
That seems to be the #1 common complaint with SoPE. From what I've read ( I've only took EET Depth course), SoPE is more of a refresher and assumes you know certain things.  It is not an in-depth review from A-Z of everything you should be familiar with for the exam like other courses are.
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What other courses are you referring to?  Seems pretty difficult for any course to possibly cover everything from A to Z, and even if there were such a course how much could one even retain?  Besides, I highly doubt anyone in Env. Engineering is going to be an expert in ALL fields.  If you're taking the PE you've been working for a while and even if you've been exposed to a lot of different areas no one is going to have sufficient experience and background to know everything about everything, but it's understood that you should have at least a rudimentary understanding of "certain things" and basic engineering concepts (or else why would you even be taking the exam?).  Taking a course to learn everything from scratch that *might* be on the exam kind of defeats the purpose and spirit of being a PE in the first place, doesn't it?

 
Hockey Eng said:
What does this even mean?  "I heard..."  From WHO?  Just LOL.  Come on.
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Some NCEES officials have accounts here. Apparently they strive to keep pass rates around 60%, but last April they were high, leading them to believe the exam was too easy (it was easy, I took it). So the mechanical and environmental exams will be harder this round...

 
Hockey Eng said:
What other courses are you referring to?  Seems pretty difficult for any course to possibly cover everything from A to Z, and even if there were such a course how much could one even retain?  Besides, I highly doubt anyone in Env. Engineering is going to be an expert in ALL fields.  If you're taking the PE you've been working for a while and even if you've been exposed to a lot of different areas no one is going to have sufficient experience and background to know everything about everything, but it's understood that you should have at least a rudimentary understanding of "certain things" and basic engineering concepts (or else why would you even be taking the exam?).  Taking a course to learn everything from scratch that *might* be on the exam kind of defeats the purpose and spirit of being a PE in the first place, doesn't it?
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No, of course we don't need a course to start from scratch.  But some exam takers (myself included) have been out of school for years and need a more in-depth refresher on topics we don't do day to day and aren't exposed to.  After taking both EET and SOPE, I'd say there's a clear difference between the two.  EET provides a great refresher of the basics and has a lot of in-depth practice problems.

 
youngmotivatedengineer said:
That seems to be the #1 common complaint with SoPE. From what I've read ( I've only took EET Depth course), SoPE is more of a refresher and assumes you know certain things.  It is not an in-depth review from A-Z of everything you should be familiar with for the exam like other courses are.
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Yeah, I'm taking the water depth course from EET because I was so weak in water.  EET does a much better job of providing an in depth refresher than SOPE. 

 
ME_VT_PE said:
Some NCEES officials have accounts here. Apparently they strive to keep pass rates around 60%, but last April they were high, leading them to believe the exam was too easy (it was easy, I took it). So the mechanical and environmental exams will be harder this round...
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Have the NCEES officials that have accounts here actually stated that?  I'd love to check that out.  This goes back to my question in another thread - why the switch from 100 questions to 80?  Pass rates were in the mid-60's for several years prior to the change, so if that's right where they wanted it why would they make it easier?  Pass rates for other discipline exams are consistently in the 70's or even 80's, why these arbitrary pass rates for different exams?  Seems to me if you know the material you should be allowed to pass, regardless of how well everyone else does.

As they say, I guess NCEES works in 'mysterious ways'.

 
txjennah said:
No, of course we don't need a course to start from scratch.  But some exam takers (myself included) have been out of school for years and need a more in-depth refresher on topics we don't do day to day and aren't exposed to.  After taking both EET and SOPE, I'd say there's a clear difference between the two.  EET provides a great refresher of the basics and has a lot of in-depth practice problems.
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EET seems to be getting a lot of love on this forum (and others on the board in general).  I guess something to look into if things don't go well this time around....assuming they adjust appropriately for the transition to CBT.

 
Hockey Eng said:
Have the NCEES officials that have accounts here actually stated that?  I'd love to check that out.  This goes back to my question in another thread - why the switch from 100 questions to 80?  Pass rates were in the mid-60's for several years prior to the change, so if that's right where they wanted it why would they make it easier?  Pass rates for other discipline exams are consistently in the 70's or even 80's, why these arbitrary pass rates for different exams?  Seems to me if you know the material you should be allowed to pass, regardless of how well everyone else does.

As they say, I guess NCEES works in 'mysterious ways'.
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Not sure. You can contact NCEES directly and they will tell you the same thing I did. They love getting phone calls, especially a few days after the exam.

 
Hockey Eng said:
Have the NCEES officials that have accounts here actually stated that?  I'd love to check that out.  This goes back to my question in another thread - why the switch from 100 questions to 80?  Pass rates were in the mid-60's for several years prior to the change, so if that's right where they wanted it why would they make it easier?  Pass rates for other discipline exams are consistently in the 70's or even 80's, why these arbitrary pass rates for different exams?  Seems to me if you know the material you should be allowed to pass, regardless of how well everyone else does.

As they say, I guess NCEES works in 'mysterious ways'.
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@Baconator works for NCEES. Just saying...

 
Hockey Eng said:
EET seems to be getting a lot of love on this forum (and others on the board in general).  I guess something to look into if things don't go well this time around....assuming they adjust appropriately for the transition to CBT.
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I really wish they did an environmental review...I could use a thorough air review for sure. They're great, a lot of practice problems and several practice exams. I think there's enough overlap between the water resources/environmental and our exam that I don't think it was a wasted effort...yet. Fingers crossed.

 
Hockey Eng said:
Have the NCEES officials that have accounts here actually stated that?  I'd love to check that out.  This goes back to my question in another thread - why the switch from 100 questions to 80?  Pass rates were in the mid-60's for several years prior to the change, so if that's right where they wanted it why would they make it easier?  Pass rates for other discipline exams are consistently in the 70's or even 80's, why these arbitrary pass rates for different exams?  Seems to me if you know the material you should be allowed to pass, regardless of how well everyone else does.

As they say, I guess NCEES works in 'mysterious ways'.
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Lol exam pass rates have hovered around 70%, at least since I first took the exam in April 2017.  Everyone is eager to start trolling early.  

I am honestly am not sure why the switch was made to 80 questions.  Maybe to make it more consistent and fair with the other exams?  I am relieved not to have 100 questions this time.

 
or if I even need it? @txjennah deferring to you since this is your area of expertise (and my weakest area). would that help me in the exam?

 
Ooooof, my entire weekend was spent sleeping, eating, or studying.  Got through all my air and water treatment sections, spending some extra time tabbing and reviewing parts that SoPE didn't really go through.  Still having some trouble with the air sections, but that is mostly due to the way SoPE organizes it...which is fairly poor.  My orgo background is really helping me with understanding some stuff and make some things (like converting masses/concentrations through a balanced formula), pretty easy.  Not going to lie, finished the SoPE assessment/remediation/safety section and it was all stuff that I do at work!  So not feeling totally positive, but I do feel like I won't be in too bad shape if I keep studying!

Going to start doing some tabbing during the week as well as I lurk in the forum.

 

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