What are the chances that I passed the PE?

[mizzoueng]

I took the ME- Mechanical Systems & Materials test.

The morning was pretty good, I had 3-5 that I was unsure of and 1-2 that I KNEW had errors in the problem itself. Since we can't talk about the problems I can't say which ones. I know some will be thrown out.

the afternoon session kicked my butt! I had to skip 10 problems right off the bat due to excessive length or I was unfamiliar with the topic. Once I got the others I was able to calm down and either work out the others or make educated guesses.

I think I did okay, but we'll see after the new year!

Oh, the pencils were white with green letters. We got to keep ours and were told that.

 

[abourne]

Don't you guys know that they just throw all of the exams in a giant hat, and pick out 70% of them?!?!

Are you serious?

I'm not sure because you didn't use the sarcasm font.

 

[Bean PE]

Does anyone have any guesses as to why the repeat takers passing percentage is so much lower than first time takers?

Because if someone isn't capable of passing the first time, they probably aren't capable of passing the second time. Remember, only the bottom third of examinees have to retake the test.

 

[Dark Knight]

Does anyone have any guesses as to why the repeat takers passing percentage is so much lower than first time takers?

Because if someone isn't capable of passing the first time, they probably aren't capable of passing the second time. Remember, only the bottom third of examinees have to retake the test.

Ouch!!!!!!!!

 

[cableguy]

Because if someone isn't capable of passing the first time, they probably aren't capable of passing the second time. Remember, only the bottom third of examinees have to retake the test.

Now I don't know about that. I think it also has to do with study habits. A coworker of mine didn't pass the first time. He relied on Testmasters course exclusively, and didn't study much outside of class. He failed. He took the exam a second time - and this time he applied himself to studying - and he passed.

That said, if someone studies like crazy and fails, then I'd wonder about their techniques for studying, and if they're studying the right material. I took the Testmasters course; I honestly don't think I would have done as well going at it "on my own" as having the course in my corner. The course made me dig in and study (err, rather, my attitude about the course made me dig in - after all, the $1700 course was paid out of my own pocket, you bet I'm going to apply myself!). The course forced me to look hard at stuff I probably would not have emphasized.

 

[Bean PE]

Because if someone isn't capable of passing the first time, they probably aren't capable of passing the second time. Remember, only the bottom third of examinees have to retake the test.

Now I don't know about that. I think it also has to do with study habits. A coworker of mine didn't pass the first time. He relied on Testmasters course exclusively, and didn't study much outside of class. He failed. He took the exam a second time - and this time he applied himself to studying - and he passed.

That said, if someone studies like crazy and fails, then I'd wonder about their techniques for studying, and if they're studying the right material. I took the Testmasters course; I honestly don't think I would have done as well going at it "on my own" as having the course in my corner. The course made me dig in and study (err, rather, my attitude about the course made me dig in - after all, the $1700 course was paid out of my own pocket, you bet I'm going to apply myself!). The course forced me to look hard at stuff I probably would not have emphasized.

I didn't say not smart enough, just not capable - and the statistics back that up. It could be study habits, it could be an issue of time available to dedicate to the test, it could be test-taking skills, or it could just be an inability to "get" the material. But when people are trying and failing multiple times, it says something about that group and why the pass rate for re-testers is sub-40%.

 

[Dark Knight]

Because if someone isn't capable of passing the first time, they probably aren't capable of passing the second time. Remember, only the bottom third of examinees have to retake the test.

Now I don't know about that. I think it also has to do with study habits. A coworker of mine didn't pass the first time. He relied on Testmasters course exclusively, and didn't study much outside of class. He failed. He took the exam a second time - and this time he applied himself to studying - and he passed.

That said, if someone studies like crazy and fails, then I'd wonder about their techniques for studying, and if they're studying the right material. I took the Testmasters course; I honestly don't think I would have done as well going at it "on my own" as having the course in my corner. The course made me dig in and study (err, rather, my attitude about the course made me dig in - after all, the $1700 course was paid out of my own pocket, you bet I'm going to apply myself!). The course forced me to look hard at stuff I probably would not have emphasized.

I didn't say not smart enough, just not capable - and the statistics back that up. It could be study habits, it could be an issue of time available to dedicate to the test, it could be test-taking skills, or it could just be an inability to "get" the material. But when people are trying and failing multiple times, it says something about that group and why the pass rate for re-testers is sub-40%.

It could be the ozone layer, or maybe that they were not capable the first ime but the second time or the third time. Maybe the planets were not alligned correctly. How about the bio-rythm?

 

[navyasw02]

I think part of the problem is that there just isnt much good study material out there. Unlike the GMAT/GRE/SAT/Whatever, there's literally more problems out there that are exactly like the ones on the test than you can possibly do. With the PE, I feel like the sample exam was the only thing that really represented the test. Everything else was overkill and frustrating. Sure, I felt prepared, but at the same time I would have felt better prepared if there were thousands and thousands of realistic problems out there instead of 2 NCEES practice exams.

 

[Bean PE]

Actually I think the problem is most likely a failure to accurately count how many problems they know they got right, and miscalculating the cutscore from earlier failures.

 

[mizzoueng]

I think part of the problem is that there just isnt much good study material out there. Unlike the GMAT/GRE/SAT/Whatever, there's literally more problems out there that are exactly like the ones on the test than you can possibly do. With the PE, I feel like the sample exam was the only thing that really represented the test. Everything else was overkill and frustrating. Sure, I felt prepared, but at the same time I would have felt better prepared if there were thousands and thousands of realistic problems out there instead of 2 NCEES practice exams.

+1

NCEES and PPI would make a LOT more money if there were more sample tests.

 

[navyasw02]

I think part of the problem is that there just isnt much good study material out there. Unlike the GMAT/GRE/SAT/Whatever, there's literally more problems out there that are exactly like the ones on the test than you can possibly do. With the PE, I feel like the sample exam was the only thing that really represented the test. Everything else was overkill and frustrating. Sure, I felt prepared, but at the same time I would have felt better prepared if there were thousands and thousands of realistic problems out there instead of 2 NCEES practice exams.

+1

NCEES and PPI would make a LOT more money if there were more sample tests.

Yea but then they'd have to go to the mattresses with the Lindeburg "family."

 

[abourne]

2 NCEES practice exams.

Where is the second one?

I have the 2008. It would have been nice to have another.

 

[mizzoueng]

I think part of the problem is that there just isnt much good study material out there. Unlike the GMAT/GRE/SAT/Whatever, there's literally more problems out there that are exactly like the ones on the test than you can possibly do. With the PE, I feel like the sample exam was the only thing that really represented the test. Everything else was overkill and frustrating. Sure, I felt prepared, but at the same time I would have felt better prepared if there were thousands and thousands of realistic problems out there instead of 2 NCEES practice exams.

+1

NCEES and PPI would make a LOT more money if there were more sample tests.

Yea but then they'd have to go to the mattresses with the Lindeburg "family."

I don't think they would care if there was enough $$$ on the table. Or mattress, to cushion the blows, of........ <insert horrible mental image>

 

[navyasw02]

2 NCEES practice exams.

Where is the second one?

I have the 2008. It would have been nice to have another.

There's a 2001 for mech. Not that great because it's only english units and I thought it was way easier than even the 2008.

 

[Bean PE]

There's a 2001 for mech. Not that great because it's only english units and I thought it was way easier than even the 2008.

Why do you think you need anything but english units?

 

[navyasw02]

There's a 2001 for mech. Not that great because it's only english units and I thought it was way easier than even the 2008.

Why do you think you need anything but english units?

Because recently the test was changed so that it uses english and metric units. It's not a huge deal, but it is nice to have a practice exam represent the same format as the actual exam. My biggest complaint as I mentioned before is that it is even easier than the 2008 sample exam.

 

[Relvinim]

I took the ME- Mechanical Systems & Materials test.
The morning was pretty good, I had 3-5 that I was unsure of and 1-2 that I KNEW had errors in the problem itself. Since we can't talk about the problems I can't say which ones. I know some will be thrown out.

the afternoon session kicked my butt! I had to skip 10 problems right off the bat due to excessive length or I was unfamiliar with the topic. Once I got the others I was able to calm down and either work out the others or make educated guesses.

I think I did okay, but we'll see after the new year!

Oh, the pencils were white with green letters. We got to keep ours and were told that.

I also took the Mech Systems depth and actually felt like I did better with that than the morning session.

I am trying not to go over the test in my head because I am second guessing myself and there is no point...it's out of my control now. The good thing is I felt like 80-85% of all the problems I got an answer that matched one of the solutions. Bad part is now I wonder if I fell for some traps. This is why I try not to think about it.

 

[mark.herrmann]

Don't you guys know that they just throw all of the exams in a giant hat, and pick out 70% of them?!?!

Are you serious?

I'm not sure because you didn't use the sarcasm font.

˙əʞɐʇsıɯ ʎɯ

 

[ptatohed]

Keep in mind that you may have gotten a problem here or there wrong that you "know" you got right. Trying to estimate the number of problems you got correct is an exercise in futility in my opinion.

I still think it's worth doing. What I do is put a check mark next to the ones I feel really, really good about. Even if I only felt fairly good about a question or felt like I was able to eliminate an answer or two, it does not get a check mark. I give myself full credit for the checkmarked questions and then, I give myself 25% for all of the remaining problems. I hope that the problems a felt fairly good about but didn't checkmark will balance out the few that I checkmarked but still got wrong. With that said, here are more scores:

Survey: 75.5% Seismic: 35.5% 8-Hour (Transpo): 64.4%

 

[maximus808]

This is my second time taking the exam. The first time I spent so much time analyzing the problems I could have gotten wrong. I knew if I missed it, it would've been close and sure enough if the passing was a score of 56, I got a 52 and missed it by 4.

This time, I felt so much more confident in both the morning and afternoon. I had an hour to spare in the morning and 2 hours to spare in the afternoon. I double checked both sections and felt like I missed about 5 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. Of course, there will be a few here and there that I though I got correct that I probably got wrong but 8 total is much better than 25 unsure like last April. I have a good feeling about this exam and I know I needed about 4-5 more points improvement to pass. So lets hope for the best

Does anyone know if this test is averaged nationally, locally, or not at all? Thanks