Overall exam- April 2014

[TehMightyEngineer]

what has a 30% pass rate??!! I thought pass rates for most disciplines for first time were in the 60s and 70s?

I took enviro, first time, and feel pretty rubbish about it I would say my flat-out-wtf-guess-rate was about 15-20% solid. But I ran out of time in an up-to-the-last-second manner (think Chopped-style except instead of garnishes I had a mechanical pencil) so I didn't have time to really reconsider how many I thought were in the ABCD categories above.

On the bright side the test center is only 10 minutes from my house. I met lots of folks who had to overnight it. So there's that for next time.

I'm pretty sure pirate was talking about the 16 hour SE exam. The pass rate has gone up a bit in the past year or so, but last year I remember the pass rate for the lateral exam was 25% for first time takers and 16% for repeat takers. Now it's about 40%.

That's the one! Hardest friggin' test you could ever ask for. Last year the pass rate was 38% for lateral first time takers (me). Strangely enough, repeat takers for lateral was 43%. Still, it's pretty abysmal. I wouldn't say they're making the test too hard but rather it reflects how difficult structural engineering can be.

 

[ATL Derek]

Any test takers who took the Thermal / Fluids depth? How did the exam compare to Six Minute Solutions and NCEES sample material?

Yep. The NCEES practice book is a good representation of the morning section, but the afternoon is probably more representative of the 6MS. NCEES is good at giving you just the right amount of information to THINK you have it nailed until you get halfway through the problem and hit a wall. They are good at making sure you fully undertand the process / cycle, etc.

There were a few afternoon questions I had never seen before and had to flat out guess.

 

[Ramnares P.E.]

Thanks for the feedback. A couple of my friends took the Thermal / Fluids depth and agreed that the NCEES was representative of the morning section. The consensus seems to be that preparation should be a combination of SMS and NCEES. Currently working through the Lindeburg Mechanical Sample Exam and it's a bit demoralizing, particularly since I did so well with the SMS. The Lindeburg is very difficult to use as a study tool. The chemical resistance question, I think it's the very 1st question in his sample, isn't covered in the MERM. Neither is the project management tool question he asks later on. It would be helpful if the Lindeburg Sample was cross referenced to the MERM. Sorry for the rant, guess that belongs in another forum...

 

[GaryD]

Exam was a lot harder than I thought - HVAC depth

 

[jt74]

Water Resources.

I feel good. Save 3 to 5 questions, I got numbers for every numeric solution. That said, all the right wrong answers are provided and I'm sure I made some stupid mistakes. After countless hours working numeric problems, I found I struggled with some of the definition type problems.

Fingers crossed . . .

 

[Mike M PE]

HVAC depth took my pride from me.

 

[GaryD]

HVAC depth took my pride from me.

I think I would have done better if I guessed for every single question lol

 

[Mike M PE]

HVAC depth took my pride from me.

I think I would have done better if I guessed for every single question lol

I thought that I was good after the morning session but then the afternoon came...

Lol

 

[SNAPE/SMOTT PE]

From what others have said and my experience, the mechanical morning went well, but afternoon kicked a lot of arses, across the board, for all three depths!

 

[Predgw]

Any other civil takers out there? What did you think?

 

[Golden Eagle PE]

I am glad I am not the only one who thought the mechanical was hard.

 

[goldust]

Electrical and Electronics here; the difficulty level was about what I expected. I felt quite well prepared. FWIW, in my exam room of 140+ people, I don't think I noticed a single person leave early. I contrast this with my FE bout (October 2013), where about 15% of the test-takers in my room left before the 15-minute mark in the AM and PM. While I was more intimidated by the FE (having not studied topics like thermo or fluids before), the PE was much more daunting for me. I was supposed to know how to solve those problems.

Well, we'll see.

 

[bflem]

I felt civil morning was relatively straight forward. Structural afternoon on the other hand was rather difficult.

 

[Memozee]

[SIZE=medium]I took Mechanical - Thermal / Fluids depth and as most of us here my morning went good but the afternoon kicked my left nutt. I had similar feeling of thinking "where to hang my PE license" after the morning exam but the afternoon session has taken all that joy away.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]On my way back from exam I started calculating what the "cut-score" would be...in an attempt to see if I stand a chance on passing my exam. It’s later that I realized that I am trying to arrive a number with very few knowns and bunch of unknowns...so thats out. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Morning Exam: I felt that I might have scored about 70% [/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Afternoon Exam: 15 (solid) + 15 (good engineering guesses..have spend a lot of time trying to solve but ended up guessing on the closest numbers I computed) x 0.4 + 10 (random guess as I ran out of time) x 0.2. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Therefore: [/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Morning: 40 x 0.7 = 28 [/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Afternoon: 15+6+2 = 23 [/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Total: 51 / 80 ~ 63% raw..NOT SURE IF THIS IS ENOUGH!!! [/SIZE]

 

[Predgw]

The morning had more gottcha questions than the afternoon ( transportation) IMO. There were 3 or 4 that were very strightforward but they were either; worded such that you had to pay attention to what they were actually asking for, or the math part was so easy that if you flew through this you would get it wrong. In my opinion there were two construction problems like this. Very easy problems, nothing you would/should have to study for, but if you speed through the problem it was easy to make a mistake. I think this explains the mystery of peope who thought they did very well and then failed. Missing 5 problems you had no clue about is worth the same amount of points as missing 5 problems you thought were super easy and messed up.

 

[marysaurus]

I took the Civil - Water Resources/Environmental, this was my first time taking the exam so I wasn't exactly sure what I was in for. I felt really good going into the exam. I felt super confident after the morning session as I found most of the problems to be very easy and straightforward and fairly well represented the things I had studied. The afternoon was another story. There were maybe a handful of questions that were quite similar to the practice problems I had done, otherwise it was a lot of scrambling to try to figure things out/look up somewhat unfamiliar equations or topics. I don't think I bombed the afternoon, but I don't think I dunked in its face, either.

Anybody else feel (on at least some of the questions) that the solution you got just couldn't be right because it was too easy/straightforward?

What books did you study from? What practice problems did you do? Did you take a class?

I'm looking to take the Civil-Water next April. I do not like surprises.

I hope you passed. Hand tight, it's going to be a long 40 days.

I know you didn't ask me, but I took an Excel Test Prep class (Fremont, CA, not sure if they offer classes elsewhere) and used their materials plus and environmental dictionary (not really necessary) and Lindeburg. For what it's worth, my background isn't in Civil at all, and just taking that class prepared me well enough to feel VERY confident that I passed.

I was surprised in the test, though, by the number of qualitative questions regarding water/wastewater treatment. I'm not sure how I could have better prepared for that stuff?

 

[matt267 PE]

I took the Civil - Water Resources/Environmental, this was my first time taking the exam so I wasn't exactly sure what I was in for. I felt really good going into the exam. I felt super confident after the morning session as I found most of the problems to be very easy and straightforward and fairly well represented the things I had studied. The afternoon was another story. There were maybe a handful of questions that were quite similar to the practice problems I had done, otherwise it was a lot of scrambling to try to figure things out/look up somewhat unfamiliar equations or topics. I don't think I bombed the afternoon, but I don't think I dunked in its face, either.

Anybody else feel (on at least some of the questions) that the solution you got just couldn't be right because it was too easy/straightforward?

What books did you study from? What practice problems did you do? Did you take a class?

I'm looking to take the Civil-Water next April. I do not like surprises.

I hope you passed. Hand tight, it's going to be a long 40 days.

I know you didn't ask me, but I took an Excel Test Prep class (Fremont, CA, not sure if they offer classes elsewhere) and used their materials plus and environmental dictionary (not really necessary) and Lindeburg. For what it's worth, my background isn't in Civil at all, and just taking that class prepared me well enough to feel VERY confident that I passed.

I was surprised in the test, though, by the number of qualitative questions regarding water/wastewater treatment. I'm not sure how I could have better prepared for that stuff?

Thanks for the info. I'm definitely going to take a class to help me study.

 

[I M A PE]

For sure, I believe I'd have had a zero chance of passing without my review course. It was extremely helpful by all measures. Helpful as a review, helpful knowing what to expect, helpful assembling relevant reference material and MOST importantly because of those first three, it was helpful keeping me from panicking during the test. LOL.

Did I pass? It's hard to say I'm confident that I did. But I'm confident that I have a shot.

 

[matt267 PE]

For sure, I believe I'd have had a zero chance of passing without my review course. It was extremely helpful by all measures. Helpful as a review, helpful knowing what to expect, helpful assembling relevant reference material and MOST importantly because of those first three, it was helpful keeping me from panicking during the test. LOL.

Did I pass? It's hard to say I'm confident that I did. But I'm confident that I have a shot.

What class did you take?

 

[Golden Eagle PE]

School of PE was good. Helped me out a lot.