October 2018 - Funny Exam Stories

Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum

Help Support Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I don't know how anyone would pass without a single reference. I had enough books to fill a small library. Reference manual, class binders, 6 min solutions, Betty Crocker 15 min meals, chiltons repair manual to a 94 Chevy Tahoe....I came prepared.

I did feel really bad for the woman next me taking transpo. We chatted a little before the exam. Both took review classes and felt pretty prepared. Test time started and she went to pull out her giant binder and it came open and every page fell out. They let her cram what she could back in but the rest fell into her tote and was told she couldn't use them because of the loose paper rule. The salvaged binder was in no kind of order. She stuck it out but was obviously not doing well. Ended up ripping her scantron erasing an answer and by the end was crying. 

I ended up passing. Can't speak for my tablemate. 
I would be physically sick after something like that, but for me a triple checked all my binders the morning of to make sure everything was secure. Only thing at my exam is we had a no show in the room I was in so this civil structural exam taker had a whole table to themselves....lucky!

 
I would be physically sick after something like that, but for me a triple checked all my binders the morning of to make sure everything was secure. Only thing at my exam is we had a no show in the room I was in so this civil structural exam taker had a whole table to themselves....lucky!
THIS civil structural had a whole table to herself also.  But I guess that is the beauty of taking the test in Iowa, everyone had a 6' table to themselves.

 
THIS civil structural had a whole table to herself also.  But I guess that is the beauty of taking the test in Iowa, everyone had a 6' table to themselves.
That would be really nice! I had a 2'x2' part of a table.

 
THIS civil structural had a whole table to herself also.  But I guess that is the beauty of taking the test in Iowa, everyone had a 6' table to themselves.
I wish I had a table to myself, that's great! The guy sitting next to me during this latest attempt must have thought that his chances of passing increased with the amount of force he applied to his calculator.

 
I wish I had a table to myself, that's great! The guy sitting next to me during this latest attempt must have thought that his chances of passing increased with the amount of force he applied to his calculator.
Or maybe that if you punched it harder, the answers would come out right?

 
I wish I had a table to myself, that's great! The guy sitting next to me during this latest attempt must have thought that his chances of passing increased with the amount of force he applied to his calculator.
One of my attempts I shared a table with a guy taking one of the civil exams. We're in the armory and the tables are kind of old as **** and rickety. He was an aggressive eraser-er. Which I informed him of at the lunch break, whole **** table shook 

 
One of my attempts I shared a table with a guy taking one of the civil exams. We're in the armory and the tables are kind of old as **** and rickety. He was an aggressive eraser-er. Which I informed him of at the lunch break, whole **** table shook 
Hmm...I burned through an entire eraser the morning session...I might have been that aggressive eraser-er too.

200w.webp


 
I was pretty careful about minimizing erasure marks on the scantron.  It was mostly from reworking problems in the booklet.
Good deal.

I didn't bother erasing many things in the booklet. Erasing things takes time. I just crossed through it and wrote in the nearest empty space. They don't score the book, so I didn't care if it looked pretty, so long as I could legibly follow my own work.

OTOH, they do keep the exam books and may review whats written if a) they suspect cheating; b) want to investigate a certain problem and the thought process that examinees went through; c) other QA

 
During lunch I was sitting with a colleague on the back of his truck eating lunch and a bee kept hovering around us. I said "Wouldn't that be inconvenient to get stung by a bee right before going into the PM session". Well ironically enough the bee followed me into the test and kept flying around me. I'm not afraid of bees but it was obnoxious and I couldn't leave my chair. The only thing I could do was shoo it away whisper "F*** off bee!". The proctor gave me the look you would expect thinking I could be secretly plotting to steal exam questions by somehow taming a bee. Luckily it went away and I only wasted 1 minute. Crisis averted!

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Any idea which test he took? You could sort of figure it out based on the exam front sheet color? Some exams need less references than others.
Negative. I didnt know about the colors. I could tell others around me based on the books (ie civil reference manual, vs NEC codebook etc) but with nothing on his table but a single calculator, it remains a mystery.

 
I know I'm late with the PE day stories. This isn't much of a story but silly.

I had to lug my cart of books up the stairs to the exam building, there were two guys that offered to help...which was so nice but I managed to do it by myself. So during lunch I'm eating my sandwich trying to relax and I glance over and what do I freaking see...a ramp! I couldn't believe it. It was so early and dark when I arrived to the exam location that I only saw the stairs leading up to the building.

After the test, my husband met me inside the building lobby and he saw everyone leaving and he was like it looked like everyone departing a long flight with their luggage and I said it was!

Hopefully the flight wont need to be taken again.

 
I was so nervous for the exam that I forgot to take two of my daily medications (asthma) before being admitted to the exam. I left the medication in my car and had to ask my proctor if I could go take it really quick before the exam started. She replied “why did you forget to take your medicine?” To which I wanted to reply “have you ever taken this exam?” I should have said that.

Anyway, they let me go to take my medicine and I realized when I got to my locked car that I left my car keys in the exam room 🙄😐😑. Soooo I ended up taking my meds on lunch 🤣🤷🏽‍♀️

 
I was so stressed out before the exam just like most PE candidates. Despite all the advise, i along with my friend studied until 8pm the day before the exam.

Anyway, i forced myself to bed around 9pm. Fell asleep only for a short while and woke around 10pm. Then, I couldn't fall back to sleep, tried various approach, not much happened!.  I started to panic around 1:30am and decided to abscond from the exam. Just that thought of not having to take the exam relieved me a great deal. Went for a run around the hotel i stayed, took a hot shower and slept around 2:30ish. Slept about 3 hours max, i wasn't feeling energitic at all in the morning so i decided to stick with my decision (Not take the exam!). My friend advised me to consider taking the exam regardless of the result. 

Bought a red bull and took the exam with no expectations or pressure. Today i am delighted to see that word highlighted in green "PASS". This is a story i will relish all my life. 

Good luck to all. Never lose hope. keep trying !!.

Go PE!!.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I was so stressed out before the exam just like most PE candidates. Despite all the advise, i along with my studied until 8pm the day before the exam.

Anyway, i forced myself to bed around 9pm. Fell asleep only for a short while and woke around 10pm. Then, I couldn't fall back to sleep, tried various approach, not much happened!.  I started to panic around 1:30am and decided to abscond from the exam. Just that thought of not having to take the exam relieved me a great deal. Went for a run around the hotel i stayed, took a hot shower and slept around 2:30ish. Slept about 3 hours max, i wasn't feeling energitic at all in the morning so i decided to stick with my decision (Not take the exam!). My friend advised me to consider taking the exam regardless of the result. 

Bought a red bull and took the exam with no expectations or pressure. Today i am delighted to see that word highlighted in green "PASS". This is a story i will relish all my life. 

Good luck to all. Never lose hope. keep trying !!.

Go PE!!.
Way to go!  Glad you decided to take it after all :)   I had a similar experience the night before the SE exam this cycle... don't know how that played out yet tho...

 
Back
Top