October 2010 - Trans. Depth Difficulty

I hate to do this guys But let's talk about the exam again hehe. I practically forgot about it for a few days but decided to put a post for those who took the Trans Depth Exam.

How hard was it?

For me, I felt it was much more straight forward in comparison to April 2011. I definitely felt I did better this time than last April. The Other Topics were ok too I suppose. But I remember being stumped on a lot last April. I think the key to these exams is having a plan and sticking with it. My plan was to finish so I had enough time to double check my answers. The PE exam not only tests your intelligence but your test taking skills, speed of doing problems and managing your time. I hope you guys have a great Thanksgiving. December is going to be a nervous month for us hehe Good luck!

maximus808 said:

I hate to do this guys But let's talk about the exam again hehe. I practically forgot about it for a few days but decided to put a post for those who took the Trans Depth Exam.
How hard was it?

For me, I felt it was much more straight forward in comparison to April 2011.

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Did you come back from the future? Can you tell me who is going to win the superbowl this year?

haha, i meant April 2010

This was my first time (Oct '10) taking the PE exam. I chose the Transpo depth. I didn't study nearly as much as I should have (I had a baby in July '10) so I probably didn't pass but I felt the test was completely fair, reasonable and doable.

Wow, to have a baby and find the time to study for the PE is amazing. I give you so and others so much credit for balancing your time to do both. I didn't have too many obligations during the pasts months so I could devote some time to studying. I studied with others instead of myself this time which helped me a lot. We set up schedules of when we should meet and what we needed to cover. We even set dates of when we should do our practice exams. Like our own review class. But definitely studying with someone else helped me to stay on course.

ptatohed said:

This was my first time (Oct '10) taking the PE exam. I chose the Transpo depth. I didn't study nearly as much as I should have (I had a baby in July '10) so I probably didn't pass but I felt the test was completely fair, reasonable and doable.

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I know how you feel. I took it in April 2010, 9 months pregnant (didn't pass) and took it in Oct with a 6 month old. Studying during maternity leave sucks!

jyeag said:

ptatohed said:

This was my first time (Oct '10) taking the PE exam. I chose the Transpo depth. I didn't study nearly as much as I should have (I had a baby in July '10) so I probably didn't pass but I felt the test was completely fair, reasonable and doable.

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I know how you feel. I took it in April 2010, 9 months pregnant (didn't pass) and took it in Oct with a 6 month old. Studying during maternity leave sucks!

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I took it in Oct '10 and took the Transp depth. I found out I was pregnant the week before the exam and completely had morning sickness the entire week - including during the exam. I don't think I passed. But I'm completely dreading taking it again in April when I'll be 7-1/2 months preggo.

The transportation depth was easier for me than the morning breadth problems.

I found the depth to be pretty easy. The AM portion seemed to have some problems I had not seen or reviewed in Testmasters prep course. I am a first time exam so I compared it to nothing else...

I felt like the PM transportation part was a lot easier than the AM. I haven't ever taken a transportation class, but I felt like it was something I could teach myself - curves, speeds, etc. The geotech killed me on both parts. I work in Water Management, but I figured it would be far too complicated for me since I majored in structural and I simply cannot teach myself some of the more complicated water management concepts.

I, too, felt like the AM section had a bunch of stuff I never could have prepared for on my own, so I was satisfied that I felt like I prepared as much as I could have. Thankfully I passed, but it was an especially tough year. I'm glad to have it off my back.

I also felt that the morning portion of the exam was more difficult than the evening portion of the exam.

The evening Transportation problems that I had practiced, were adequate enough that I finished

with an hour left to go back and double check my answers.

Hawaii must be one of the last states to get the results and it is brutal waiting....

Slowly my confidence in passing went from almost sure to not sure. I think it's the wait that really tortures your mind. If I was a betting person I would say your initial gut feeling represents how you did, right? I felt very confident I did much better this time than last April and I missed the last exam by 4 points, getting 52/80. When I left the morning exam I felt positive that it was easier than last April. I swear I could answer a majority of the answers with the exception of a few trick questions. Maybe 5 at the most I wasn't sure about. I felt that since the morning went well, I had some room in the depth if it was hard. But like most of us who took trans, it was easier than the morning. There were a few like the morning that stumped me but a majority of them felt straight forward and I was actually really happy of how many were familiar and resulted in an answer A,B,C, or D.

I probably had a little over an hour to spare in the morning part and 2 hours in the depth part. I double checked both sections and when finished I thought maybe about 10 questions total I had educated guesses on. Out of those 10 maybe 7 resulted in an A,B,C, or D. Only 2 or 3 I had to flat out guess. This is signifcantly better than last April where I guessed over 20 questions, probably 25 to be exact. So I want to tell myself that I did it but the wait is brutal and I start telling myself that "oh wait, what if there were a lot of trick questions" that made you pick that answer. I hope that's unlikely. But double checking my answers kinda reinforces it I think for the traffic portion I redid the whole test as double checking. Wish me luck guys!!!!!

ptatohed said:

This was my first time (Oct '10) taking the PE exam. I chose the Transpo depth. I didn't study nearly as much as I should have (I had a baby in July '10) so I probably didn't pass but I felt the test was completely fair, reasonable and doable.

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Based on some of the replies , I realized I need to rephrase my original response. My wife had a baby in July.

maximus808 said:

Hawaii must be one of the last states to get the results and it is brutal waiting....
Slowly my confidence in passing went from almost sure to not sure. I think it's the wait that really tortures your mind. If I was a betting person I would say your initial gut feeling represents how you did, right? I felt very confident I did much better this time than last April and I missed the last exam by 4 points, getting 52/80. When I left the morning exam I felt positive that it was easier than last April. I swear I could answer a majority of the answers with the exception of a few trick questions. Maybe 5 at the most I wasn't sure about. I felt that since the morning went well, I had some room in the depth if it was hard. But like most of us who took trans, it was easier than the morning. There were a few like the morning that stumped me but a majority of them felt straight forward and I was actually really happy of how many were familiar and resulted in an answer A,B,C, or D.

I probably had a little over an hour to spare in the morning part and 2 hours in the depth part. I double checked both sections and when finished I thought maybe about 10 questions total I had educated guesses on. Out of those 10 maybe 7 resulted in an A,B,C, or D. Only 2 or 3 I had to flat out guess. This is signifcantly better than last April where I guessed over 20 questions, probably 25 to be exact. So I want to tell myself that I did it but the wait is brutal and I start telling myself that "oh wait, what if there were a lot of trick questions" that made you pick that answer. I hope that's unlikely. But double checking my answers kinda reinforces it I think for the traffic portion I redid the whole test as double checking. Wish me luck guys!!!!!

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You passed, right 808?

ptatohed, yes, I was fortunate this time. But I know how it feels to not pass. And trust me, when you do pass you will feel even better. Set your goal of what you want to learn by April and you will be prepared. I remember I reminded myself of a time that I did poor on exam in college and felt the same way. I remember telling myself that I knew the material and I was going to ace the final which I did. I kept that mentality for the PE exam and that helped keep my confidence up. Good luck and keep studying hard. Also, try switching things up, study with a friend, get additional material, practice more exams, timed problems, try retabbing your books, you will be surprised of the how many tabs you forgot you had at certain areas. Good luck!

maximus808 said:

ptatohed, yes, I was fortunate this time. But I know how it feels to not pass. And trust me, when you do pass you will feel even better. Set your goal of what you want to learn by April and you will be prepared. I remember I reminded myself of a time that I did poor on exam in college and felt the same way. I remember telling myself that I knew the material and I was going to ace the final which I did. I kept that mentality for the PE exam and that helped keep my confidence up. Good luck and keep studying hard. Also, try switching things up, study with a friend, get additional material, practice more exams, timed problems, try retabbing your books, you will be surprised of the how many tabs you forgot you had at certain areas. Good luck!

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Congratulation!!!

Can you please advise how's level of difficulty between April-10 and October-10 exam.

I took Oct-10 exam transportation depth and got 48/80. Morning 21/40 ( Transportation 2/8) and Afternoon 27/40.

I am thinking to appear again in April-11.

Truthfully, I felt the October Exam was more straight forward but I had an additional 3 months of studying from the April Exam. I prepared for the October Exam as if the exam was going to be twice as hard as what I saw in April. For the April Exam, prepare for the worst and cover as much topics as you can. Focus on your depth and your improve on your weaker subjects. Stay fresh with your solid subjects. And remember, this exam is more than just testing your intellect but your time management and your ability to perform under pressure. Good luck, I know you can do it. Keep telling yourself that and you will do it.

monty74 said:

maximus808 said:

ptatohed, yes, I was fortunate this time. But I know how it feels to not pass. And trust me, when you do pass you will feel even better. Set your goal of what you want to learn by April and you will be prepared. I remember I reminded myself of a time that I did poor on exam in college and felt the same way. I remember telling myself that I knew the material and I was going to ace the final which I did. I kept that mentality for the PE exam and that helped keep my confidence up. Good luck and keep studying hard. Also, try switching things up, study with a friend, get additional material, practice more exams, timed problems, try retabbing your books, you will be surprised of the how many tabs you forgot you had at certain areas. Good luck!

Click to expand...

Congratulation!!!

Can you please advise how's level of difficulty between April-10 and October-10 exam.

I took Oct-10 exam transportation depth and got 48/80. Morning 21/40 ( Transportation 2/8) and Afternoon 27/40.

I am thinking to appear again in April-11.

Click to expand...

This is driving me nuts. How is it that everyone else knows their breakdown between morning and afternoon? My diagnostic report (.pdf document obtained from NCEES's website) does not separate out morning from afternoon. Please explain! Thanks.

Considering all the different types of questions that could be asked, I was relieved to find most of the questions were simple and to the point. You either knew how to solve it or you didn't. There were a few that I had to flip through reference manuals to solve, but the majority of the second half seemed milder than what I had expected.

Like the first half of the test, I rarely used the CERM manual. For months I had solved problems and created my own reference notebook. I would write down steps if I knew I would forget and wrote down the same formulas in different versions. Half of the notebook was for transportation and the rest was for the first half of the exam. I found the CERM was too detailed in many areas and not enough in others. Creating my own notebook really saved me time and made me focus more on what are the most important topics to know for the exam. Granted, my notebook didn't have answers for everything, but that's why you bring the CERM and GOSWAMI manuals. You don't need to ace the test, you just need to pass it. Good luck.

- Oh, and another thing. I'm not a fan of using tons of tabs in manuals. I would write down the manual name and page number to reference formulas I used in the notebook. When using so many manuals, you sometimes forget where you got it.

ptatohed said:

monty74 said:

maximus808 said:

ptatohed, yes, I was fortunate this time. But I know how it feels to not pass. And trust me, when you do pass you will feel even better. Set your goal of what you want to learn by April and you will be prepared. I remember I reminded myself of a time that I did poor on exam in college and felt the same way. I remember telling myself that I knew the material and I was going to ace the final which I did. I kept that mentality for the PE exam and that helped keep my confidence up. Good luck and keep studying hard. Also, try switching things up, study with a friend, get additional material, practice more exams, timed problems, try retabbing your books, you will be surprised of the how many tabs you forgot you had at certain areas. Good luck!

Click to expand...

Congratulation!!!

Can you please advise how's level of difficulty between April-10 and October-10 exam.

I took Oct-10 exam transportation depth and got 48/80. Morning 21/40 ( Transportation 2/8) and Afternoon 27/40.

I am thinking to appear again in April-11.

Click to expand...

This is driving me nuts. How is it that everyone else knows their breakdown between morning and afternoon? My diagnostic report (.pdf document obtained from NCEES's website) does not separate out morning from afternoon. Please explain! Thanks.

Click to expand...

The first 5 lines are are for the morning

Isar said:

ptatohed said:

monty74 said:

maximus808 said:

ptatohed, yes, I was fortunate this time. But I know how it feels to not pass. And trust me, when you do pass you will feel even better. Set your goal of what you want to learn by April and you will be prepared. I remember I reminded myself of a time that I did poor on exam in college and felt the same way. I remember telling myself that I knew the material and I was going to ace the final which I did. I kept that mentality for the PE exam and that helped keep my confidence up. Good luck and keep studying hard. Also, try switching things up, study with a friend, get additional material, practice more exams, timed problems, try retabbing your books, you will be surprised of the how many tabs you forgot you had at certain areas. Good luck!

Click to expand...

Congratulation!!!

Can you please advise how's level of difficulty between April-10 and October-10 exam.

I took Oct-10 exam transportation depth and got 48/80. Morning 21/40 ( Transportation 2/8) and Afternoon 27/40.

I am thinking to appear again in April-11.

Click to expand...

This is driving me nuts. How is it that everyone else knows their breakdown between morning and afternoon? My diagnostic report (.pdf document obtained from NCEES's website) does not separate out morning from afternoon. Please explain! Thanks.

Click to expand...

The first 5 lines are are for the morning

Click to expand...

Ahhhhh! I see it now. Thanks!