$1500 advice

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Road Guy

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As a bonus for the $1500 prep class fee, they emailed me these "tips" I am posting these to you for free. Please feel free to send me any money via paypal if you think it will help you

:duhh:

STRATEGIES FOR PE EXAMINATION

1. Take two calculators into the exam. Don't forget to take the admission ticket from the PE Board and your ID.

2. Prepare and take one or two page summary sheets of formulas, conversion factors etc. for each subject.

3. During the first fifteen minutes of each session, read all questions very carefully. Mark the questions 1(easy), 2(medium), and 3(very hard). First do all questions you have marked 1(easy), then do all questions you have marked 2 (medium). After you have have finished all questions you have marked 1 and 2, then and only then, attempt the problems which you have marked 3(very hard). Every question is worth only one point. Initially, never waste time on hard questions.

4. In the afternoon session, select the depth exam carefully.

5. Keep track of time. By the end of the first two hours of each session you must answer at least twenty questions. Never... never... never get bogged down on any one question. Remember, every question in each session is worth only one point.

6. Be very careful about the calculation and units. If you don't make any calculation or units mistakes, you will pass. More mistakes are made on easy questions than on hard questions.

7. Unless you must, never redraw the figures. Also, do minimum writing. All these waste time.

8. Use the last ten minutes to check that you have answered all the questions. No points are deducted for incorrect answers.

9. When proctor calls out the time, you must stop. If you don't, your test paper may be voided.

10. Leave your mobile phone or pager in your car. You are not allowed to bring them in the exam room.

11. Always make sure that you are bubbling in the correct number on your answer sheet. If you do erase an answer, make sure to not leave any marks.

12. Just to remind you that the examination is on Friday, October 27, 2006.

 
I agree with #6 wholeheartedly, that was my experience on the practice exam.

Gotta love #12, I'd almost forgotten. :drive:

 
"4. In the afternoon session, select the depth exam carefully."

Come on.....

You should have already selected your discipline 4 months ago. Now is not the time to be screwing with the afternoon depths that you think you may be familar with.

 
SCPE,

I'm going to decide between WR and Transpo on Friday afternoon. That has been my strategy all along, and I feel equally prepared for both.

I'm going to read over all the problems in both, then decide.

I like to do things the hard way. LOL.

But, I think #4 is saying, don't circle in the wrong session, i.e. don't work transpo, and mark on your bubbles that your working WR

 
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Some of those are really good points, others are painfully obvious.

I really like #7. It takes a while to redraw a whole process diagram. They always teach you in school/work to draw a picture of the situation, but it's a time sucker.

#11 is one I worked hard on. I've historically had problems transferring my answer to answer forms. Once you figure out you're off, you need to find where the problem started, then erase and re-bubble like crazy and hope the machine doesn't pick up any stray marks.

#2 is pretty good too. I did that for myself. Brief summaries of each topic consisting of key equations and tables. I just copied the tables right out of the book. If stuff is consolidated, you don't lost time flipping through pages.

I think 3 and 4 are ridiculous. orly

 
I plan to decide between the Civil PE and that Mechanical Eng. exam on Friday...dee dee dee...

I am not a fan of their thing about not rewriting info...I find that if I rewrite the variable and label them it is often clear to me what I have to do.

I would get your $1500 back. ;)

 
Hey Road guy. Did you take the Test Masters course? If so, what did you think? I took it last spring and felt it really helped. Did Dr. Israni teach an y of the classes?

 
yep thats the one, Israni was by far the best instructor, we had some dude who escaped from the nursing home teaching geotech, but other than that I thought it was some good stuff, glad I signed up for it but I guess I will find out Friday if it was worth the $$.

I can only think that as the class gets more and more popular (they do almost zero advertising) that the quality is going to go down over the years. Israni even asked for referrals for new instructors...

 
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