So how was it?

[geno34]

I took the Civil - Construction.

The morning was not bad. This was my first try at the PE and I found myself very nervous and had a hard time concentrating during the beginning of the test. However, I gained my composure and I finished the morning in 3 hours and spent the last hour checking my answers. I’m glad I had the extra time because I found a couple of mistakes. I would guess I got anywhere from 30-34 right in the morning.

The afternoon was tough and I only had a handful of problems completed in the first half hour. I also, had to guess on more than I wanted too in the afternoon. I did not have any time to check my answers, which hurts. I am hoping I got 25 right, but that would be on the high side. It is going to be close. I just hope I pass so I don’t have to go through this again. I began studying in October for this test. Hopefully I took some good educated guesses to pull me through.

 

[FF8256]

Civil trans. Famous last words but I felt it went pretty well and I was only surprised by a few questions. So I think I either did really well or the test totally blidsided me and I didn't even know it. I studied like an obsessed professor for a few months, and really don't wanna do that again. Worst part about the whole experience? Feeling guily for having books open on my lap since the table was only 24 inches deep and could barely hold the cerm and test book at the same time. Oh and holding a pencil while looking through books. I could feel the stares of the proctors burning me!

 

[Glen_PE]

Ca Seismic Only. Studied like a mad man for the last two months every night for two hours. I took Heiner's review course, did hundreds of questions, read the IBC 2009 and the ASCE 7-05, and did two practice exams. There were only two questions that I know I flubbed. Otherwise, I nailed it.

This is the last part of the Ca PE I need.

 

[monsterbbb]

Took Power,

I only have about 22 sure answers for morning section, and had 4-5 very good guesses. So I guess that was bad.

the afternoon section at first caught me off guard. I was in panic mode the first hour; somehow I manage to calm down during 2nd hour and decide to do all the questions that I can actually understand what it asked for. Then go back to those questions once seem impossible to solve, and found out there were alot of questions are very easy actually. So I manage to have about 29 sure answers + 2-4 very good guesses.

my guess method is use my sure answer as reference, picked the least chosen one as my guess to avg back the answer distribution.

 

[PJ3346]

Civil - Geotech

The morning section wasn't too bad got at least 30-35 right. PM was another story, was on a roll for the first 10 or so and then bam hit a bit of a road block and the hard problems kept on coming. There were problems that I never even reviewed or saw before and luckily was able to figure out an answer, I think it could go either way, but am hoping I got enough right to pass!

 

[1-3-2-4]

I guess I'll be the first downer of the group, but I felt the AM section was extremely difficult. I took the Mechanical Machine Design test, and based on feedback from co-workers and friends, I was not expecting as much thermo/fluids/hvac as I encountered. The percentage of those problems and the general lack of other problems I was SURE was going to be on there was depressing. Having done a lot of prep with the MERM, Lindeburg's practice problems, and the 2001 sample exam, I went in feeling very confident; I did pretty well on the sample exam. The AM sapped my confidence, which weighed on my mind during the PM. The PM was challenging, but I feel I could have done better had I been more focused. Oh well.

I'm pretty sure I'll be taking it again...and hoping for less thermo. I'd like to think other ME's may have had a hard time as well, but I know in reality that most of the ME test-takers are HVAC/AE/fluids guys...MD types like me typically don't get their PE's because it simply isn't required.

 

[ezmorningrebel]

I took Civil/Structural

I thought the morning portion wasn't bad. Finished in about 2.5 hours and had a chance to go back through. Actually found a couple of math mistakes I had made early in the morning before my brain was warmed up.

Afternoon was pretty rough. One of the topics I am most familiar with wasn't even represented and is supposed to comprise a certain percentage I thought. There were a couple really time consuming problems too that I saved until the end but couldn't get through. All in all I think I did OK but I can't say for certain if I passed or failed. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[JMcG]

Civil - Geotech
The morning section wasn't too bad got at least 30-35 right. PM was another story, was on a roll for the first 10 or so and then bam hit a bit of a road block and the hard problems kept on coming. There were problems that I never even reviewed or saw before and luckily was able to figure out an answer, I think it could go either way, but am hoping I got enough right to pass!

Took the Geotech as well. Second time taking the test. The first time I took it, I could have sworn that the morning was easy, the afternoon crushed me. When I got my diagnostics, apparently it was the other way around. So I'm hesitant to go on my gut feelings for how I did. Again this time the morning part I felt really good about; and this time I was able to determine how they were able to arrive at almost every answer for each question (A-D) so I felt I knew the material better. Afternoon I feel I bombed again. Like is stated above, there were problems I never saw before. I felt the same way on the October afternoon exam.

 

[Boomer01 PE]

Civil/Transportation

This was my second time to take the test and I felt much better than I did the first time. (I got a 46 on it last time.) The morning went smoother and the afternoon was about the same level of difficulty. It will be close.

 

[Hatchet]

Took Mechanical Systems & Materials

Morning went well, only blew a half hour on a problem when i was an hour ahead. Got reasonable answers for the most part. was mad i had to guess on some i knew were gimmies but couldn't trip over an exact answer.

Afternoon, needed all the time for the harder problems that i'd made up from the simple 30 second problems.

had to restrain myself from laughing out loud when i got to one particular problem. i'd caught myself rifling through bins of college material two nights before the test, most likly due to anxiety.

i came accross an old ~50pg report complete w/ cad drawings, generic equations, ect regarding the design of the ............ in question.

and sure enough one of the two pages i'd tabbed on that repor and got an answer in under 2min.

ah, the sweet vindication of a semester project we all thought was an over written load of hot air; most likly graded on number of pages and number of colors used.

i did mark the psychrometric chart w/ a few dots as i was doing other problems and was hopeing it wouldn't be grounds for dismissal?

so, i'm at a coin flip either way.

i'm with ya bingcrosbyb, what's the divorce rate for re-takers? that should be an NCEES published statictic.

 

[ME-TFHt2011]

Mechanical Thermo Fluids- left the morning feeling really good, left the afternoon asking "wow, what was that?"

I started studying 3 nights a week back in September, and increased to every night, every weekend for the last two months. Leading up to the exam I had a (false) sence of over prepardness (apparently). I took a review class, intimately knew my way through the MERM, reviewed all of my old coursework and tabed my old text books and other reference material, figured it would be a slam dunk. needless to say i was the one who felt slammed during the pm section.

After some brief early morning jitteers, I thought the morning section was really fair. I only flat out guessed on 2 and had an hour to check my work. This was really efficient because I wrote my references next to the question in the test booklet as I worked.

However I was thoroughly amazed at some of the depth questions. Upon reading several of the problems I would write down the basic equations I figured I'd be using and then skip ahead. I felt way many of them would take too much time to answer while sitting in that room. I was so pressed for time I ended up flat out guessing on about 15 in all in the afternoon.

I am so nervious... I think I knew how to do enough of the questions... but the thought of going through that much studying again is enough to haunt me every hour for the next 10 weeks.

 

[Clydeman]

Mechanical Thermo Fluids- left the morning feeling really good, left the afternoon asking "wow, what was that?"
I started studying 3 nights a week back in September, and increased to every night, every weekend for the last two months. Leading up to the exam I had a (false) sence of over prepardness (apparently). I took a review class, intimately knew my way through the MERM, reviewed all of my old coursework and tabed my old text books and other reference material, figured it would be a slam dunk. needless to say i was the one who felt slammed during the pm section.

After some brief early morning jitteers, I thought the morning section was really fair. I only flat out guessed on 2 and had an hour to check my work. This was really efficient because I wrote my references next to the question in the test booklet as I worked.

However I was thoroughly amazed at some of the depth questions. Upon reading several of the problems I would write down the basic equations I figured I'd be using and then skip ahead. I felt way many of them would take too much time to answer while sitting in that room. I was so pressed for time I ended up flat out guessing on about 15 in all in the afternoon.

I am so nervious... I think I knew how to do enough of the questions... but the thought of going through that much studying again is enough to haunt me every hour for the next 10 weeks.

I was waiting to hear from a fellow Mechanical TF. I think we had nearly the same amount of prep time. I keep a detailed calender of how much time I studied. I started studying in mid November and studied about 425 hours total (getting up at 4:30 in the morning to study nearly every day).

I too knew MERMs like the back of my hand. I ended up tabbing the thing a few weeks before, more because I felt I had to rather than I needed to. I had most chapter subjects memorized.

I had the exact same experience. The morning went quite well. I don't think I missed that many. But the afternoon did not go well. I started off in the beginning of the pm session with a bunch of problems in a row that I had never seen. I though I knew that area quite well, but apparently I did not. This resulted in me getting a little panicked for about 30 minutes or so). There was one problem where I must have typed the same equation into my calculator 10 times. It was not going well. But I moved on and after that things went pretty well. I ended up guessing on 5 or so. I studied everything I could get my hands on 2001 and 2008 NCEES sample (working all disciplines), Lindeburg, Kaplan, all 6MS books and a PE review course. A few of the depth problems left me completely baffled.

In the mechanical forums they said that diciplines go in waves. Hopefully we caught the worst and ended up doing better than we thought!

Anyway I feel kind of down about the whole ordeal. I thought I was so ready. I hope I don't end up being another one of those stories about people that studied over 400 hours and failed, but I might be. Just take solace in the fact that it is somewhat of a game. It is not a reflection of you as an engineer if you fail.

 

[ME-TFHt2011]

I was waiting to hear from a fellow Mechanical TF. I think we had nearly the same amount of prep time. I keep a detailed calender of how much time I studied. I started studying in mid November and studied about 425 hours total (getting up at 4:30 in the morning to study nearly every day).
I too knew MERMs like the back of my hand. I ended up tabbing the thing a few weeks before, more because I felt I had to rather than I needed to. I had most chapter subjects memorized.

I had the exact same experience. The morning went quite well. I don't think I missed that many. But the afternoon did not go well. I started off in the beginning of the pm session with a bunch of problems in a row that I had never seen. I though I knew that area quite well, but apparently I did not. This resulted in me getting a little panicked for about 30 minutes or so). There was one problem where I must have typed the same equation into my calculator 10 times. It was not going well. But I moved on and after that things went pretty well. I ended up guessing on 5 or so. I studied everything I could get my hands on 2001 and 2008 NCEES sample (working all disciplines), Lindeburg, Kaplan, all 6MS books and a PE review course. A few of the depth problems left me completely baffled.

In the mechanical forums they said that diciplines go in waves. Hopefully we caught the worst and ended up doing better than we thought!

Anyway I feel kind of down about the whole ordeal. I thought I was so ready. I hope I don't end up being another one of those stories about people that studied over 400 hours and failed, but I might be. Just take solace in the fact that it is somewhat of a game. It is not a reflection of you as an engineer if you fail.

Yea, Im sure we did fine. I think I did a good job of making educated guesses on those I didnt have time to tackle in the afternoon. I felt alot of different things during the test, some that did actually seem like the exam was a game, you know me against the test writer. It was very strange. Might have just been the adrenoline, snickers bars, mountain dew, and coffee though?

It is so strange having free time again. I really appreciate being outside mountain biking now! Was out riding all weekend.

How have you adjusted to not studying anymore?

 

[Hatchet]

no kidding on that free time again feeling. was playing on the slide and swinging on the swing-set w/ my 3yr old, feeding my 1 yr old before bed tonight thinking how wonderful life is again. and that i was thankful for that last snowstorm that made outside less appealing that an early spring would have. though having the **** snowmobile keep calling my name from the garage all-winter-long was getting really old.

 

[DannyV]

I had a slight scare myself. At 10:00 my watch beeped, catching the ears of three vigilant proctors. I held my breath as they marched toward me. Luckily, though, they just confiscated my watch and allowed me to continue.

I had the same thing happen to me. My watch beeped at 9am and at 10am after the second time a proctor asked me to turn it off. Since I don't usually use a watch I had no idea how to turn it off, I actually say to him "Here, its all yours" He laughed and took it. After I was done with my exam he came over with the watch. The proctors were a bit picky with little stuff but they were very professional and organized. They actually helped me get in the "test-taking spirit" LOL

 

[Relvinim]

Wow...reading all these posts about your experiences reminds me of how stressful it was but no doubt well worth it...especially if you pass. It was an experience I will never forget and the excitement that comes from reading that passing letter from NCEES...is priceless.

 

[knight1fox3]

Wow...reading all these posts about your experiences reminds me of how stressful it was but no doubt well worth it...especially if you pass. It was an experience I will never forget and the excitement that comes from reading that passing letter from NCEES...is priceless.

AMEN TO THAT! lusone:

 

[RobertR]

Wow...reading all these posts about your experiences reminds me of how stressful it was but no doubt well worth it...especially if you pass. It was an experience I will never forget and the excitement that comes from reading that passing letter from NCEES...is priceless.

Exactly my feelings. I remember how I essentially had no life on the weekends outside of studying for several months. What a great feeling to have loads of free time. The first time I took the test, I knew I hadn't passed as soon as I walked out. But for this time (October 2010), I walked out feeling extremely confident. With only 2 or 3 exceptions, I knew how to answer every question. There is no better feeling than having those two letters after your name.

 

[Jacob_PE]

Something I've been wanting to ask about the April 2011 exam... were the 2011 NCEES sample questions for each depth topic available prior to the exam? If so, I'd like to see opnions on the difficulty level of the exam compared to those sample questions. People have posted that they studied everything: the CERM, the NCEES sample questions and then the afternoon was a bloodbath of questions that they had never seen before. How can that be the case if the NCEES sample questions are representative of what we will see on the exam. The depth questions for the WR/ENV sample questions are covered in the CERM so I'm a little confused about what you guys mean.

 

[ptatohed]

Something I've been wanting to ask about the April 2011 exam... were the 2011 NCEES sample questions for each depth topic available prior to the exam? If so, I'd like to see opnions on the difficulty level of the exam compared to those sample questions. People have posted that they studied everything: the CERM, the NCEES sample questions and then the afternoon was a bloodbath of questions that they had never seen before. How can that be the case if the NCEES sample questions are representative of what we will see on the exam. The depth questions for the WR/ENV sample questions are covered in the CERM so I'm a little confused about what you guys mean.

Jacob, I was going to call you a grave-digger but I guess this thread isn't that old.

I'll try to address your questions:

Yes, I had the NCEES sample exam prior to the April '11 exam.

Of all the practice problems I saw/did, the NCEES was the most accurate as far as difficulty level and completion time required, as compared to the actual exam. All the other stuff I did (Goswami's practice exams, Lindberg's, 6 Minute Solutions, etc.) were sometimes taking me 20 minutes and more, each. You should still do them because they help over-prepare you (a good thing) but don't get discouraged if you can't do them in 6 minutes. So, yes, the NCEES sample exam was realistic.

I disagree. I felt the AM and PM were equal difficulty for both the Oct '10 and Apr '11. In fact, my diagnostic for Oct '10 showed me with equal scores for AM and PM (25/40 and 26/40 I think) (Transpo PM). I passed the Apr '11 so no diagnostic but, using my best own personal "check" system, I feel I got in the high-20s/40 for both AM and PM.

I think you might be missing the intention of the NCEES practice exam when you say: "How can that be the case if the NCEES sample questions are representative of what we will see on the exam." They are not representative as far as the exact type of questions, they are representative of the possible topics you can be tested on and they are representative of the level of difficulty. Does that make sense?

The main thing I can suggest to you is to take your NCEES syllabus and study and practice those topics repeatedly.

Good luck.

PS You inspired me to add a pic of me and my son to my profile.