I found out on Thursday that I passed the PE Construction depth on my first try. My Dad is also a PE and it's been a goal of mine since High School that someday I would follow in his footsteps. My twin brother also passed his first try as well, so these last couple of days have been pretty exciting for the family.
Although I've visited this site countless times during the last five months, this is my first post. I want to thank everyone who has contributed their advice, without their help I would have walked into the test almost clueless. Posts by JaymanPE and others were extremely helpful in sorting out which books to stay away from and the overall process of how to balance your time studying.
The main reason I decided to write this post was to encourage those who failed and also those who are gearing up to take the test for the first time. I'm not going to layout a scientific analysis on how to study, my point is to explain my scenario and why I think the test is passable for everyone.
Firstly, I'm by no means super smart. I struggled throughout college to get C's and enough B's to balance out the long list of D's I got. It's not at all to do with a lack of effort, trust me. It's more likely to do with the fact that I was in a tough major and I am of more or less average intelligence. Therefore, I had to put in a lot of effort to just get by.
Secondly, My brother and I started studying after new year's which gave us a little more than 3 months. At first we spent too much time reading through chapters of the CERM which was not really worth it. Like what most people say we studied almost every day for +/- 3 hours. This didn't always go over well with the wife but I kept telling her it was necessary. There was also times at work that weren't busy which I used to create and organize the binders. I would say half of the time I spent was dedicated to copying problems and solutions, cutting/pasting, hole punching, and tabbing my binders. The other half was spent doing problem after problem. I should also point out that taking the test in April works pretty good for people living in the North. From January until April there's not much you can do but stay inside so all those hours studying didn't feel like we were missing anything.
Lastly, Going into the test my brother and I both thought that we we're ready and that if we failed it was not due to a lack of effort. During the week before the test we did practice NCEES exams and methodically updated and organized our binders full of problems so we knew exactly where everything was. The binders were a big help during the test and there's no way just having the CERM I would have passed.
After the test we both thought we had a good chance at passing and overall we were happy with the effort we put in. Now we're just waiting for our licenses and relieved we don't need to go through this again. Thanks to everyone contributing to this site...I owe you big time.
Jared
Although I've visited this site countless times during the last five months, this is my first post. I want to thank everyone who has contributed their advice, without their help I would have walked into the test almost clueless. Posts by JaymanPE and others were extremely helpful in sorting out which books to stay away from and the overall process of how to balance your time studying.
The main reason I decided to write this post was to encourage those who failed and also those who are gearing up to take the test for the first time. I'm not going to layout a scientific analysis on how to study, my point is to explain my scenario and why I think the test is passable for everyone.
Firstly, I'm by no means super smart. I struggled throughout college to get C's and enough B's to balance out the long list of D's I got. It's not at all to do with a lack of effort, trust me. It's more likely to do with the fact that I was in a tough major and I am of more or less average intelligence. Therefore, I had to put in a lot of effort to just get by.
Secondly, My brother and I started studying after new year's which gave us a little more than 3 months. At first we spent too much time reading through chapters of the CERM which was not really worth it. Like what most people say we studied almost every day for +/- 3 hours. This didn't always go over well with the wife but I kept telling her it was necessary. There was also times at work that weren't busy which I used to create and organize the binders. I would say half of the time I spent was dedicated to copying problems and solutions, cutting/pasting, hole punching, and tabbing my binders. The other half was spent doing problem after problem. I should also point out that taking the test in April works pretty good for people living in the North. From January until April there's not much you can do but stay inside so all those hours studying didn't feel like we were missing anything.
Lastly, Going into the test my brother and I both thought that we we're ready and that if we failed it was not due to a lack of effort. During the week before the test we did practice NCEES exams and methodically updated and organized our binders full of problems so we knew exactly where everything was. The binders were a big help during the test and there's no way just having the CERM I would have passed.
After the test we both thought we had a good chance at passing and overall we were happy with the effort we put in. Now we're just waiting for our licenses and relieved we don't need to go through this again. Thanks to everyone contributing to this site...I owe you big time.
Jared
