No kidding! Lehigh BS '03 & MS '05
So, how did it go?
- Thread starter TehMightyEngineer
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TehMightyEngineer
BRB Starting an Engineering Firm
You might but that's going to be hard. If you get 75% of your solved questions right and about 50% of your guesses right then you MAY be just inside the passing range, but that's going to require a lot of lucky guesses. Then, for the afternoon you'll probably get one acceptable and two needs improvement. I believe neither of the morning or afternoon will be sufficient so I'd definitely plan on having to take it again.
CRNewsom
Well-known member
If I read you correctly, the second question was left unanswered. If that is the case, it will likely be scored "unacceptable". From what I have seen, one "unacceptable" is enough to knock you out completely. Not trying to be a downer, but the odds are certainly tilted against you.
For the second quesion of the afternoon exam, i just wrote some notes at each sub-quesitons about what i was trying to do.
On the remaining sub-questions of Q#3 i did the same. I think i left 3 out of 10 something on Q#2. If i have answered correctly for all of the morning segment of i solved (26 questions) May i have some hope?
On the remaining sub-questions of Q#3 i did the same. I think i left 3 out of 10 something on Q#2. If i have answered correctly for all of the morning segment of i solved (26 questions) May i have some hope?
TehMightyEngineer
BRB Starting an Engineering Firm
I don't believe so, hate to say it.
Congratulations! I went to Lehigh too.
I took and passed Vertical/Bridge (4/2012), Lateral/Bridge (10/2012) and Civil/Structural (4/2013)
If you do not solve the problem, do you get credits (acceptable) for
- writing the steps of solution
- writing applicable code sections
- drawing a rough sketch (very rough due to lack of time) but with meaningful information.
that's my only hope to get some points on one question......
- writing the steps of solution
- writing applicable code sections
- drawing a rough sketch (very rough due to lack of time) but with meaningful information.
that's my only hope to get some points on one question......
TehMightyEngineer
BRB Starting an Engineering Firm
My understanding was you could not get "acceptable" for items that were not completed. You could only get partial credit for those. If the majority of the problem was solved then I suspect you could get an "acceptable" but only if sufficient work was done on the problem (and the remainder was outlined like you said NJ1). If you did not complete the majority of the problem then I doubt you can get an "acceptable" or even a needs "improvement".
Background:
There were only two of us taking the SE. I think I intimidated some of the PEs on Friday with my three milk crates full of books. Saturday was just the two SE takers and two proctors, so I feel like I at least got my money's worth.
AM Gravity
Felt great after this. Only had to guess on one problem. Finished with about 5 minutes left and just made sure my circled answers matched my bubbled answers.
PM Gravity
Harder than expected, but still felt pretty good about it. I finished with about 5 minutes left and fully answered every part of every question. The first problem took 1.5 hrs which made me panic a bit, but I was able to make that up with the other 3 problems.
AM Lateral
Felt great after this. No guesses. Finished with 10 minutes or so left.
PM Lateral
Felt pretty good about this. Fully answered every part of every question. Finished with about 15 minutes left and then called it good and closed my eyes for the remaining time. Felt great to be done.
Overall, I feel pretty confident about the exam, but you never know. If the test was only based on the multiple choice portion, I would say I passed for sure. However, it's hard to tell exactly what the afternoon graders will be looking for. I feel like my bridge experience really helped during the morning exams. I think lateral was easier than vertical, but that's mainly because I do seismic and wind calcs all day long.
Best of luck to all!
- BS, MS in Civil w/ structural focus (took every structural class offered at my school)
- Bridge engineering focus w/ some buildings for 2.5 years
- Seismic/wind for buildings and non-structural components focus in CA for past 2 years
- Passed PE and CA seismic/surveying with no problem
- Studied two full weekends leading up to exam plus probably 25-30 more hours after work or on planes during the 3 weeks leading up to the exam
- Only practiced multiple choice problems from NCEES and PPI practice exams (no afternoon problems) and tabbed the heck out of the most important references
- I spiral bound several of the references (ASCE 7, IBC structural portions, AASHTO broken into 5 pieces, practice exams) to make referencing during the exam easier
There were only two of us taking the SE. I think I intimidated some of the PEs on Friday with my three milk crates full of books. Saturday was just the two SE takers and two proctors, so I feel like I at least got my money's worth.
AM Gravity
Felt great after this. Only had to guess on one problem. Finished with about 5 minutes left and just made sure my circled answers matched my bubbled answers.
PM Gravity
Harder than expected, but still felt pretty good about it. I finished with about 5 minutes left and fully answered every part of every question. The first problem took 1.5 hrs which made me panic a bit, but I was able to make that up with the other 3 problems.
AM Lateral
Felt great after this. No guesses. Finished with 10 minutes or so left.
PM Lateral
Felt pretty good about this. Fully answered every part of every question. Finished with about 15 minutes left and then called it good and closed my eyes for the remaining time. Felt great to be done.
Overall, I feel pretty confident about the exam, but you never know. If the test was only based on the multiple choice portion, I would say I passed for sure. However, it's hard to tell exactly what the afternoon graders will be looking for. I feel like my bridge experience really helped during the morning exams. I think lateral was easier than vertical, but that's mainly because I do seismic and wind calcs all day long.
Best of luck to all!
I also want to add that this was a very very difficult test. Although I felt I had enough time, it was just barely enough. It was an all out sprint (what kind of sprint lasts 16 hours?). The exam was much more intense than I even imagined. It was an exhausting 16 hours, and I am very glad to be done.
I should have practiced PM problems to develop my strategy for where I was going to put code references, what size margins to use, etc. I wasted a lot of time on the first PM problem just developing my standard way of answering the questions. I think if you went in with a plan for all of the stupid little things that have nothing to do with the actual engineering, you could save at least 20 minutes.
I should have practiced PM problems to develop my strategy for where I was going to put code references, what size margins to use, etc. I wasted a lot of time on the first PM problem just developing my standard way of answering the questions. I think if you went in with a plan for all of the stupid little things that have nothing to do with the actual engineering, you could save at least 20 minutes.
TehMightyEngineer
BRB Starting an Engineering Firm
Andy Lin
Founder of Structural Engineer HQ
I would say "Yes" to these!
I passed my SE last October - a couple of the questions I was sure I wouldn't have enough time to calc out everything so I ended up doing exactly what you described: writing out all of the equations/references/my next steps/sketches...etc. Worked out fine.
Good luck!
TehMightyEngineer
BRB Starting an Engineering Firm
Very, very interesting. About how much of the problem do you estimate that you completed?
Sounds like you did well -- hopefully you passed.
My work experience is entirely outside of "standard" structural engineering (blast, impact, fire, etc.) so I had to study by butt off to pass the SE. But I can see how, if you do this every day, you could get by with the amount of studying you did. Good for you for being good at your job and confident enough to do both in one sitting. I did that too but failed half
Here's hoping you are completely done!
Andy Lin
Founder of Structural Engineer HQ
I would say that I had enough in there that someone could just plug-in the numbers and calc out the solution in 15 minutes or so without much thinking.
Is that making sense...
TehMightyEngineer
BRB Starting an Engineering Firm
Yep makes sense. I hope that's good enough for one of the problem on buildings lateral for me.
We'll see if this worked, but the following was my strategy:
TEST
-For the test, my main strategy/mindset was that it's more important to be able to find the answer than know the answer (knowing is just a quick bonus). Even if I knew the answer 100%, I would still look it up just in case.
-Bring more books than necessary. Bring EVERY required reference. This seems like a given, but I bet there are one or two from the NCEES list that are typically left behind. There was a very easy morning problem if you had one of the obscure required books, but you had to have the book to get the answer. I had three milk crates stacked like a bookshelf with ~30 books. I used 100% of the top shelf, 75% of the middle shelf, and 20% of the bottom.
STUDYING
-Spend time going through each required reference and tab everything that seemed important. The tabs needed to be organized neatly so every tab was visible (write small, cut the tabs small).
-Do practice exams in 2-hr (20 problem) blocks. Write quick notes during the block about things that need to be tabbed or researched. At the end of each block, go through EVERY answer and make notes for anything that should be tabbed or referenced. Repeat. Then do research and tab whatever was in the notes.
-Read through afternoon problems and solutions to see methodology, amount of writing, etc. If I have to do it over again, I will practice these more.
The overall strategy was to familiarize myself with important parts of each reference, then rely on my background and skills to apply the code sections in the exam. I spent more time preparing than studying: tabbing, printing/copying and spiral binding large references into manageable books, getting my milk crate setup so books would stay upright, seeing what kinds of questions NCEES might actually ask. It was also very beneficial to practice in a timed, test-like setting with my book setup, old NCEES pencil (for fun) and quiet room.
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