Exam desk size?

I'm sitting for the Mechanical exam this April at the San Mateo (Bay Area, CA) location and I'm wondering what the seating/desk situation is? With all these reference materials, do they give you enough space to spread out your stuff? I haven't seen any comments to suggest that space is a problem, but for some of these licensing exams they seem to want to make your life as hard as possible. My brother took the Bar exam in San Francisco in Fort Mason and he said it was really noisy and echo-y, with uncomfortable chairs and crappy folding tables to work on.

I'm interested in hearing from anyone who's taken the exam in California (or elsewhere) about this issue.

Thanks.

HankMardukas said:

I'm sitting for the Mechanical exam this April at the San Mateo (Bay Area, CA) location and I'm wondering what the seating/desk situation is? With all these reference materials, do they give you enough space to spread out your stuff? I haven't seen any comments to suggest that space is a problem, but for some of these licensing exams they seem to want to make your life as hard as possible. My brother took the Bar exam in San Francisco in Fort Mason and he said it was really noisy and echo-y, with uncomfortable chairs and crappy folding tables to work on.
I'm interested in hearing from anyone who's taken the exam in California (or elsewhere) about this issue.

Thanks.

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Great question! If there are any comments for IL, it would be appreciated!

I doubt all testing locations are the same, but when I took the exam we were seated two people per table at folding tables. I'd have to guess they were 6' long. We were instructed to keep all reference materials we weren't using under the table.

I took it at San Mateo. The tables are just big brown folding tables and folding chairs. I had enough room to comfortably spread out my exam booklet, answer sheet, scratch paper, and the MERM. I also kept most of my books that I wasn't using on the floor next to me. The table room was quite ample. The chairs however were not comfortable. They weren't horrible, but the back of the chair hit at a spot that would only be comfortable for Oompa Loompas. The room wasn't too noisy. Overall, it wasn't a bad testing environment. My only suggestions would be to bring a big bottle of water so you dont have to keep getting up all day and keep it under the desk. Also if you do get done with any section early, LEAVE. Don't sit around because it takes another 30-45 minutes to collect everyone's stuff which sucks when you're starving at lunch time or drained and just want to leave. Also remember where you parked. Also, if you need a hotel for the night before, I recommend the Marriott. It's really nice, decently priced, and really close to the test site.

navyasw02 said:

I took it at San Mateo. The tables are just big brown folding tables and folding chairs. I had enough room to comfortably spread out my exam booklet, answer sheet, scratch paper, and the MERM. I also kept most of my books that I wasn't using on the floor next to me. The table room was quite ample. The chairs however were not comfortable. They weren't horrible, but the back of the chair hit at a spot that would only be comfortable for Oompa Loompas. The room wasn't too noisy. Overall, it wasn't a bad testing environment. My only suggestions would be to bring a big bottle of water so you dont have to keep getting up all day and keep it under the desk. Also if you do get done with any section early, LEAVE. Don't sit around because it takes another 30-45 minutes to collect everyone's stuff which sucks when you're starving at lunch time or drained and just want to leave. Also remember where you parked. Also, if you need a hotel for the night before, I recommend the Marriott. It's really nice, decently priced, and really close to the test site.

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Awesome. Thanks for the info!

dianevp said:

HankMardukas said:

I'm sitting for the Mechanical exam this April at the San Mateo (Bay Area, CA) location and I'm wondering what the seating/desk situation is? With all these reference materials, do they give you enough space to spread out your stuff? I haven't seen any comments to suggest that space is a problem, but for some of these licensing exams they seem to want to make your life as hard as possible. My brother took the Bar exam in San Francisco in Fort Mason and he said it was really noisy and echo-y, with uncomfortable chairs and crappy folding tables to work on.
I'm interested in hearing from anyone who's taken the exam in California (or elsewhere) about this issue.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Great question! If there are any comments for IL, it would be appreciated!

Click to expand...

where in Il are you taking it? there are several locations artound the state

Tables were as described above, more temporary tables about 6-7' for 2 people. Your situation may vary.

Enough room for 2-3 books open.

I had all my books in a box and you can put unused books in there.

they had a rule to only have 2 pieces of ruler/triangle on the table at any given time.

Room was a sport hall with noisy heaters. you may want to bring ear plugs.

On the water I would evaluate how often you have too pee. If I'm busy i can survive 4 hours without drinking.. but if you pee all the time you lose time.

always be prepared for worse conditions than we describe here.

We too had the standard brown folding tables with two at a table.

My only gripes about the place were lack of devoted parking (glad I got there early) and a poorly lit room.

In Kentucky we also had the 6-7' table with two people per table. The problem I had was the table was not very deep. There was plenty of room to the left and right, but not very much room in front of me. We had to unload all our books out of the crate or box and by the end of the exam all my books were scatttered all over the floor.

snickerd3 said:

dianevp said:

HankMardukas said:

I'm sitting for the Mechanical exam this April at the San Mateo (Bay Area, CA) location and I'm wondering what the seating/desk situation is? With all these reference materials, do they give you enough space to spread out your stuff? I haven't seen any comments to suggest that space is a problem, but for some of these licensing exams they seem to want to make your life as hard as possible. My brother took the Bar exam in San Francisco in Fort Mason and he said it was really noisy and echo-y, with uncomfortable chairs and crappy folding tables to work on.
I'm interested in hearing from anyone who's taken the exam in California (or elsewhere) about this issue.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Great question! If there are any comments for IL, it would be appreciated!

Click to expand...

where in Il are you taking it? there are several locations artound the state

Click to expand...

for a general comparison for how different conditions can be.

FE is administered at the Uof I. When I took it, half of us were in a church basement on metal folding chairs and tables. the other half were in a plush new lecture hall with padded desk chairs and desk space.

For the PE

I took in it Champaign. We were at an older hotel just outside of town. had 18" deep tables with plywood top and padded hotel banquet chairs. I think they were about 8ft long so 2 to a table. There really was enough room for only 2 books other than test booklet and scan tron. But we had to fill in the scantron while using the test booklet under it otherwise the pencil would go throughit he paper because it is a cheap plywood table that was meant to have a table cloth over it.

In northern Virginia for the FE exam the tables were ~ 8 ft with two people per table. I am assuming the PE exam used the same tables which was given the day before. The size of the table is not a problem, but the holes in the table are. I wasted time on the exam ensuring my answer paper was not over a hole in the table when coloring in the circle, otherwise I would of been making holes in the paper when trying to color in the circles. The holes in the table were from the bolts in the table that were used to attach the legs to the table. All the tables had the same problem. I was surprised these tables were allowed to be used and were not rejected. They should of handed out clip boards so we can put our answer paper on it so we did not have to worry about making holes in the answer paper. Being very careful about paper placement did indeed cost me time. I know when taking the PE exam I will make sure one of my reference books I take into the exam has a solid cover and large enough so I can rest my paper on it so I will not need to be concerned that I will be making holes in my paper.

Tables? you got tables? Vermont varies from test location to test location. I guess that's what happens when you take the test a couple of times. Has been large single occupancy to double occupancy tables. Nothing worse then someone erasing while you're trying to write.

Anyone know what the situation is like at the Seattle Center?

There are many things you can do to improve your own conditions -- ear plugs, cushion for chair, towel or pad to lay over the chair back, etc. Take paper clamps and clips that might be helpful in holding a place in an open book. Better to have something and not need it than need it and not have it.

This is what we had in CO:



Seriously though, we had metal folding chairs (I brought my own cushion) and had to share standard folding tables (2 per table). I was very lucky to know the guy who I shared a table with, so it helped with relax me a bit.

I took the test in Albuquerque in April 2008. The tables sucked. They were narrow and seemed to be very tall. I remember the MERM, and other books, being at about chest height. It was hard to see unless I tilted them upward, which was a pain. There were two people per table, and even floor space was sparce. You could tell that they were set up by facility people without any concern to what type of event was taking place. Bottom line, don't assume that you will have the space equivalent to what you were probably used to studying with.

hombre said:

Anyone know what the situation is like at the Seattle Center?

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I'll be there too!

I sat for the FE last year at Seattle Center, which is the day after the PE exam in the same room so I am going off of the assumption that it is the same set-up....

Its a VERY large room, tables about 8 ft long and ~ 3 ft wide, shared by 2 people. I can't remember the stability of the tables, they were a little flimsy I think. I remember the chairs being the folding metal variety, not too comfortable, I think I sat on a sweater.

There is possibly one clock in the room, so make sure to bring your own timepiece! I also brought earplugs, the room is basically a gymnasium so sound bounces off of everywhere.

Also important - I think that the Seattle Center Food Court is currently under construction (or it will be VERY soon) and therefore I am uncertain that food establishments will be open. I am bringing all of my own food, drink, etc for this reason.

Seattle:

Me three. And like LadyJ, I'm going on 4-year-old EIT memories of the place. I remember it the same way she does.

I'm hoping that there will be fewer people for the PE so we'll each get one of those tables to ourselves, but "if wishes were horses" and all that...

Seattle Center's website says Whirligig is taking over the Center House this week, so I wouldn't count on being able to fight our way past hundreds of little kids at the food court. I'm just going to pack a lunch.

snickerd3 said:

dianevp said:

HankMardukas said:

I'm sitting for the Mechanical exam this April at the San Mateo (Bay Area, CA) location and I'm wondering what the seating/desk situation is? With all these reference materials, do they give you enough space to spread out your stuff? I haven't seen any comments to suggest that space is a problem, but for some of these licensing exams they seem to want to make your life as hard as possible. My brother took the Bar exam in San Francisco in Fort Mason and he said it was really noisy and echo-y, with uncomfortable chairs and crappy folding tables to work on.
I'm interested in hearing from anyone who's taken the exam in California (or elsewhere) about this issue.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Great question! If there are any comments for IL, it would be appreciated!

Click to expand...

where in Il are you taking it? there are several locations artound the state

Click to expand...

In Hillside (Chicago Area) the tables were about 20" deep by 6' long with 2 people to a table. I had a mountain of references for the Computer Exam so I put them all on the floor but was later told that all material had to be on the desk for inspection.

As I was stacking everything on the table, there were jokes about none of the candidates being qualified to determine if the table could handle the load. The guy sitting next to me wasn't amused.

Even with all my references, I had room to work. I kept my texts on the top edge of the desk in 3 or 4 piles and had my test booklet, scantron, and open reference in front of them. I didn't have room for more than one text to be open at the same time unless I stacked them on top of each other or on top of my test (I occasionally did both) but I had brought 2 straightedges with me (bookmarks aren't allowed since they are loose paper but the rules specifically allowed 2 straightedges) to use as bookmarks so I could mark my place and return a book to the pile.