Just took it for my first time but I agree with your take on the morning. No crazy questions and very little need to go outside of the CERM. In the morning, I finished like 45 min early which was nice since it allowed me to review all of the problems that I had any second guesses on. This actually allowed me to catch a few mistakes. I took the Construction PM. This was a little tougher than I expected, mainly because the problems took a lot longer than I would have liked. Cut it close with time in PM but finished. Now the waiting begins... Good luck everybodyHow did it go this weekend? I thought the morning was very cut and dry. I took the Structural Depth in the afternoon and thought it was mostly straightforward. There were a few curveballs for Structural. I'm hoping that the fact I did well in the morning will carry me through to a passing score. Is it true that there are different cut scores depending on the depth module you took? If the cut score is 55/80, I'm pretty sure I passed.
I feel like I knew on the lower end of that 80-90%. I knew how to solve about 80% of the problems. I'm hoping that it gets me by. Any idea on cut scores? Is it typical to assume 70% is the minimum passing score?This was my second time taking the exam (Civil/WR). I thought the morning was about the difficulty I was expecting, but the afternoon was very easy compared to October. I felt like I knew 80-90% of this exam, and hope my feelings are on par with my results. Last time I felt I got about 50% correct, and ended up scoring a 68.
Overall, I'm glad I studied for the depth more than the morning. I could see how someone would find the structural depth hard if they didn't study. If you study the NCEES sample questions and solutions (for structural depth and structural I), the structural depth is a breeze.
It's rare that anyone can say they studied just enough to pass. People either study too much or not study enough. It's better to be a bit afraid of the exam and over-prepare since there's a better chance of passing than it would if you just put in a minimum effort.Overall, I'm glad I studied for the depth more than the morning. I could see how someone would find the structural depth hard if they didn't study. If you study the NCEES sample questions and solutions (for structural depth and structural I), the structural depth is a breeze.
I agree with Jay. I spent way too much time preparing for the morning portion. Focusing more on the structural afternoon would have benefited me more.
I was surprised that time wasn't more of an issue, I had been told that I wouldn't have time to look up a lot of problems, but I actually had about 1 1/2 hrs in the morning and 30 min in the afternoon to go back and look up things I wasn't sure of. Because of this I would recommend the mindset of "bring all that you can muster" when it comes to references, you never know what appendix might have the term that you are looking for.
I used the NCEEES sample questions as a practice (half length) test and only got 5/20 on the pm structural section a week before the test. I was freaking out, but it turns out that the actual structural PM was a lot easier than the sample questions. However, I am glad that I looked at the sample questions because it made me decide to spend the last week of studying on material specific structural topics (specifically NDS, AISC, ACI) which was very productive.
Overall, I have to say that I think the test was pretty straightforward. Good luck to everyone.
Jaime,i thought the whole test was pretty straight forward. the morning section went well, I took geotech in the afternoon, which i had done a ton of practice problems for and felt like I could do most of the problems. i felt pretty good about it coming out of test.
WSU_Coug: I think I know which question you are referring to. It seemed really simple but the answer wasn't there. Oh well, its only one point, hopefully they will throw that one out when scoring.TJfromWA, I had almost the same exact experience as you for the Civil PE with structural depth. I finished with about the same amount of time for the morning and afternoon portions as you did, and agree that the structural portion was easier than I was thinking after taking the NCEES sample exam the previous weekend. I got about 8 questions right on the structural portion and a lot had to do with the little nuances of the codes you mentioned. I also was in freak out mode after that, especially since people were saying the NCEES sample exam was supposed to be like the actual exam! Do you recall a problem on the structural portion where the right answer was not listed? I know I can't go into specifics about it, but the answer I got was about 33% higher than the highest choice they listed, and I'm pretty sure I was doing it right as it was a fairly simple problem.
Saw that you took it in California as well, how did the seismic go for you? I think the only one I'm really sweating is the surveying, just got crunched for time.
No it wasn't a direct comment to you. My comment was a general statement that no one can go into the PE exam and think they can pass if they barely studied. The PEs I know who thought they didn't pass confessed that they didn't spend enough time preparing for the exam; but there are those who thought they failed and ended up passing and knew some luck was on their side. The ones I know who have failed once or many times weren't surprised they didn't pass.To sac_engineer: were you referring to my post when you commented on studying just enough to pass? Just curious because I felt like I studied plenty and am confident that I passed the general 8 hr exam. I don't know what gave you the impression that I felt like I studied just enough to pass, my previous quote was regarding how I thought I could have studied more effectively, not about the quantity of studying that I did. Just curious if I just miscommunicated or if you were referring to something else.
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