Construction Depth

I'm trying to get an idea of what people thought about the construction depth module? Morning was not as easy as I thought it would be, and the afternoon was not as hard as I expected. Thoughts?

xsciencex said:

I'm trying to get an idea of what people thought about the construction depth module? Morning was not as easy as I thought it would be, and the afternoon was not as hard as I expected. Thoughts?

Click to expand...

I kind of felt the same way. The afternoon was not as difficult as I expected.....

xsciencex said:

I'm trying to get an idea of what people thought about the construction depth module? Morning was not as easy as I thought it would be, and the afternoon was not as hard as I expected. Thoughts?

Click to expand...

I thought the morning test was the same for all disciplines. No?

I am a first time test taker and thought both the morning and the afternoon were just about right. I had about 5 minutes left in the AM and about 50 minutes in the afternoon.

I thought PM was easier than AM, but I had 50 minutes to check things for both parts. I corrected my answers for 3 questions in the AM and 1 question in the PM. Quite a few PM questions can be easily confirmed with the right reference book

Just want to confirm. 70% correct = passing. I hope that's right because that means I know I passed! I think my worst worst case is 80% correct.

I thought the morning questions were very comprehensive. Definitely more and longer calculations in the afternoon. I also thought that there was a problem question in the afternoon.

Does anyone know if it curved by state, nationally, or at all?

I felt the Civil Exam in the morning was fair. The conceptual questions were easier to find in comparison to last April. Optimistically, I got about (35/40.)

The afternoon (transportation was better than the morning.) It definitely followed the NCEES outline and the Other Topics were ok as well. Nothing too tricky if you had all your references. Tabbing the references was helpful as well as making an index of all my resources. I highly recommend it if you are taking transportation. Optimistically again hoping for (37/40.)

I definitely feel like I made it through this time as I was not as confident on the first exam and missed it by 3-4 points. For those who took it for the first time and if you don't make, be sure to zero in on those topics you struggled with the first time as it's bound to show up again and you wish you reviewed it. But don't rely on the exam being to same or even similar cause it won't be. You need to be versed and not so much know everything but develop great problem solving skills. I would say for the morning exam about 25% was questions I never saw before but because of the volume of problems practiced, I could grind it out and eventually solve a majority of those problems. I hope we all get through this on this board as this forum has definitely helped keep me thinking of problems and the exam. Let's all get through this together!

I do remember one quantity takeoff question can be quite subjective based on your experience. Without exposing too much detail and violating NCEES codes. I know you can solve it several ways by industry standard. I based my answer by mainly comparing the choices.

maximus808 said:

Does anyone know if it curved by state, nationally, or at all?
I felt the Civil Exam in the morning was fair. The conceptual questions were easier to find in comparison to last April. Optimistically, I got about (35/40.)

The afternoon (transportation was better than the morning.) It definitely followed the NCEES outline and the Other Topics were ok as well. Nothing too tricky if you had all your references. Tabbing the references was helpful as well as making an index of all my resources. I highly recommend it if you are taking transportation. Optimistically again hoping for (37/40.)

I definitely feel like I made it through this time as I was not as confident on the first exam and missed it by 3-4 points. For those who took it for the first time and if you don't make, be sure to zero in on those topics you struggled with the first time as it's bound to show up again and you wish you reviewed it. But don't rely on the exam being to same or even similar cause it won't be. You need to be versed and not so much know everything but develop great problem solving skills. I would say for the morning exam about 25% was questions I never saw before but because of the volume of problems practiced, I could grind it out and eventually solve a majority of those problems. I hope we all get through this on this board as this forum has definitely helped keep me thinking of problems and the exam. Let's all get through this together!

Click to expand...

I think most state is nationally. Do you mind sharing your 1st attempt result, so I can confirm my speculation that 65% to 70% = cutoff. I mainly used Gozwani and then Lindenburg. What were your reference?

maximus808 said:

Does anyone know if it curved by state, nationally, or at all?
I felt the Civil Exam in the morning was fair. The conceptual questions were easier to find in comparison to last April. Optimistically, I got about (35/40.)

The afternoon (transportation was better than the morning.) It definitely followed the NCEES outline and the Other Topics were ok as well. Nothing too tricky if you had all your references. Tabbing the references was helpful as well as making an index of all my resources. I highly recommend it if you are taking transportation. Optimistically again hoping for (37/40.)

I definitely feel like I made it through this time as I was not as confident on the first exam and missed it by 3-4 points. For those who took it for the first time and if you don't make, be sure to zero in on those topics you struggled with the first time as it's bound to show up again and you wish you reviewed it. But don't rely on the exam being to same or even similar cause it won't be. You need to be versed and not so much know everything but develop great problem solving skills. I would say for the morning exam about 25% was questions I never saw before but because of the volume of problems practiced, I could grind it out and eventually solve a majority of those problems. I hope we all get through this on this board as this forum has definitely helped keep me thinking of problems and the exam. Let's all get through this together!

Click to expand...

I think most state is nationally. Do you mind sharing your 1st attempt result, so I can confirm my speculation that 65% to 70% = cutoff. I mainly used Gozwani and then Lindenburg. What were your reference?

Here's my diagnostic from the first exam (April 2010)

Breadth:

Construction - 75

Geotech - 62

Structural - 50

Transportation - 75

Water Resources and Environmental - 75

Depth:

Traffic Analysis - 56

Geometric Design - 67

Transportation Planning - 67

Traffic Safety - 50

Other Topics - 50

After doing some analysis with the percentages I came to conclusion that my score was 52 points out of 80.

I was not confident with my performance and knew I unsure or guessed on about 20-25 questions. I thought to myself that maybe I may get some of those guesses right.....1/4 right per question right? But luck was not on my side the first time and I did not passed. I knew I approached the exam wrong. I thought it I went through the NCEES problems once.....(once!) and tabbed the CERM I would be okay. Big mistake! I did not do a practice exam or do enough problems to get myself thinking in tough situations. Me and a co-worker who took the exam with me practiced doing timed problems which trained us to perform under pressure. We did about 3-4 practice quizzes and two full practice exams. The result was a much better performance. I guess you have to think of this exam like training for a marathon or some kind of sports match. You've got to train, train, and train, place yourself in the similar situation and get enough rest the night before the big day. I'm positive I did better than the first exam and I hope it was enough to make up those 4 or so points I missed on the first exam. I hope this helped those prepare for the next exam. Good luck guys!

As far as my references, here's what I used from most to least used during the exam.

1. CERM

2. AASHTO Greenbook

3. All in One PE Guide

4. ASCE PE Review Notes

5. Braja Das Geotech Book

6. MUTCD

7. AASHTO Roadside Design Guide

8. Traffic and Highway Engineering by Harber and Goel

9. PPI Passing Zone notes

Surprisingly I did not use the NCEES Practice Problems as much I thought I would. I barely used the HCM too. I expected to use the All in One for most of the exam but again I relied on the CERM which I tabbed really well and found everything I needed to from this book.

maximus808 said:

Here's my diagnostic from the first exam (April 2010)Breadth:

Construction - 75

Geotech - 62

Structural - 50

Transportation - 75

Water Resources and Environmental - 75

Depth:

Traffic Analysis - 56

Geometric Design - 67

Transportation Planning - 67

Traffic Safety - 50

Other Topics - 50

After doing some analysis with the percentages I came to conclusion that my score was 52 points out of 80.

I was not confident with my performance and knew I unsure or guessed on about 20-25 questions. I thought to myself that maybe I may get some of those guesses right.....1/4 right per question right? But luck was not on my side the first time and I did not passed. I knew I approached the exam wrong. I thought it I went through the NCEES problems once.....(once!) and tabbed the CERM I would be okay. Big mistake! I did not do a practice exam or do enough problems to get myself thinking in tough situations. Me and a co-worker who took the exam with me practiced doing timed problems which trained us to perform under pressure. We did about 3-4 practice quizzes and two full practice exams. The result was a much better performance. I guess you have to think of this exam like training for a marathon or some kind of sports match. You've got to train, train, and train, place yourself in the similar situation and get enough rest the night before the big day. I'm positive I did better than the first exam and I hope it was enough to make up those 4 or so points I missed on the first exam. I hope this helped those prepare for the next exam. Good luck guys!

Click to expand...

It seems that you really practiced. I worked through the supplementary problems for the CERM and the Kaplan practice problems and NCEES official practice problems for the AM and Construction. It's too bad that NCEES does not give you breakdown if you passed.

I think you passed because I think 70% is the usual cutoff.

Where do you get your practice test? I got a Kaplan practice Test and it does not follow the format of NCEES.

I know the Lindeburg test is 2X more difficult than the real test.

I'm going nuts with this wait for my result.

consteng said:

I thought the morning questions were very comprehensive. Definitely more and longer calculations in the afternoon. I also thought that there was a problem question in the afternoon.

Click to expand...

I agree..I worked one in the afternoon that I swore I was getting correct, but not one of the answers. Figured its going to be a throw out question.

maximus808 said:

As far as my references, here's what I used from most to least used during the exam.1. CERM

2. AASHTO Greenbook

3. All in One PE Guide

4. ASCE PE Review Notes

5. Braja Das Geotech Book

6. MUTCD

7. AASHTO Roadside Design Guide

8. Traffic and Highway Engineering by Harber and Goel

9. PPI Passing Zone notes

Surprisingly I did not use the NCEES Practice Problems as much I thought I would. I barely used the HCM too. I expected to use the All in One for most of the exam but again I relied on the CERM which I tabbed really well and found everything I needed to from this book.

Click to expand...

Thanks maximus but this thread is for the Construction Depth - it looks like you took the Transpo Depth.

Please remember to not post specifics about what type of questions are on the exam!

Thanks!