“Any thoughts on Test”? Transpo April 2019

So what is everyone’s thoughts on the Transpo  test. The Breath didn’t seem too bad. Some problems poorly worded but overall I thought it was fair. The afternoon I am not sure how to gauge. Definitely rough and I ran out of time. Had to make educated guess on 2-3 questions. A couple questions had some booby traps and had to backtrack, time consuming. I took all of the recommended books but didn’t need all of them. 

My experience was about the same. Felt pretty good about the morning session with only a couple of guesses.

Afternoon was the NCEES practice tests kicked up a good notch and it was definitely more deceptive than the morning session. I felt decent once I made my second pass through the questions but we'll see what happens.

Felt good about the morning. and felt decent about the afternoon. on the afternoon i went though and marked about 25 that i felt were easy. and ended up only guessing on a few. but now i cant stop thinking on how easy those others were and feel like i might of fell for their tricks lol in the second guessing stage now. 

Same here as described already elsewhere in the forum. For PM when I looked at my watch at 3 hours I only had 25 answered. Ended up guessing 7-8. Anyway I am already starting to prepare for October.

The AM was straight forward, missed a few but not because they were difficult.

PM was challenging mainly due to the fact I was burnt from the AM. Used GB heavy, saw maybe 4 questions from the other references. Yes, some questions poorly worded. Fell for two traps in the PM.

After the exam, I wrote down every question I struggled with.
Estimate I missed 10 in the PM and 10 in the AM. Hopefully Im right.

So the transportation takers have good vibes leaving the test? Pass or fail? Looking for breadcrumbs that can keep our thoughts occupied until we receive the biblical answer from NCEES. Morning thoughts? Afternoon was rough but doable? Texas failing score for transportation?

Definitely a tough exam, in terms of the overall exam. 

AM - Very similar to NCEES practice exams in terms of difficulty level (one problem was exactly the same)

PM - This portion was rough for me. I didn't have a watch with me so i felt the need to rush. About ~2.5 hours in (I asked a proctor for time), I had answered 25 questions I felt really comfortable with the way I solved the problem. For those remaining 15, I successfully answered 7-8 of them by researching and flipping through my sources. At the 15 minute call, I had to "blindly" guess on the remaining 7 questions, with some type of logic behind it. The topics here were not hard, but definitely require you to know your way around MUTCD, Greenbook, and HCM. 

I passed on my first try (April 19), and not looking back. lol 

First time test taker in April 2019 and passed.

I took the EET On-Demand course for both the Breadth and Depth portions of the test. Morning seemed alright and felt confident on approx. 30 questions. Finished the morning with about 1 hour left in time, so I went back and started double checking my calculations/solutions on problems. There where a few that I know I got incorrect after the fact.Afternoon was a little more of struggle, but for the most part was able to use my resources to locate answers for majority of problems.

I highly recommend EET for both the morning and afternoon portions of the test. In my opinion they made all the difference in passing the first time.

My primary resources included the following:

Morning: EET breadth binder and notes, CERM

Afternoon:

EET Depth binder and notes

HCM, MUTCD, Greenbook (although I did not use these much except for very specific type question look up)

Self created cheat sheets (primary resource and glad I spent the time to create these). For these I created a small binder that included all equations, tables, and steps need for solving different types of depth problems. This eliminated my need to flip through other resources and locate the proper data needed.

Overall my preparation included solving a lot of practice problems, solving more practice problems, becoming efficient with my resources (lots of tabbing, highlighting, and writing quick notes in margins), and finally solving more practice problems. Again highly recommend EET. Instructors were good, notes/information in binders were excellent along with the practice problems and practice exams.

Copying from my post on the April 2019 thread...

"Can't believe I passed Civil Transportation! I took the PPI course offered by local NSPE chapter. The instructors were all local and helped a lot, but the course material wasn't really detailed in my opinion. I also canceled a trip to Hawaii for my friend's wedding and stay at home to study more.

I feel 50-50 when I walked out of the room. AM I should get around 25, educated guess 7-8 and at least 6-7 were foreign to me so I put down all Cs for Civil. For PM I spent 3:15 hours doing 25 questions and left myself 45 minutes for 15 questions. I probably got all those 15 wrong (putting As on 10 of them in the last minute) but I think the 25 questions that I spent most of my time on were mostly correct. So that gave me 30 AM + 25 PM = 55 Total estimate. My time management was really bad. I was probably lucky to be able to pull it off. Bringing a watch and set the stopwatch is a must.

About a month ago before the exam I were still debating if I should purchase all the manuals and guidelines listed. Coincidentally I sat next to a guy during a conference (same location as the exam lol) that he suggested me to do a search on the public library website. Guess what... I was able to borrow the Roadside Design Guide, MUTCD actual book, AASHTO Green Book, and HCM 6th ed. I also found the HSM draft version online (from 2009) with very similar materials as the published HSM. And I did use all of them during the PM.

For everyone that didn't pass, maybe luck was't on your side this time. Keep believing in yourself and you will pass for sure!"

MspSdf said:

Copying from my post on the April 2019 thread...

"Can't believe I passed Civil Transportation! I took the PPI course offered by local NSPE chapter. The instructors were all local and helped a lot, but the course material wasn't really detailed in my opinion. I also canceled a trip to Hawaii for my friend's wedding and stay at home to study more.

I feel 50-50 when I walked out of the room. AM I should get around 25, educated guess 7-8 and at least 6-7 were foreign to me so I put down all Cs for Civil. For PM I spent 3:15 hours doing 25 questions and left myself 45 minutes for 15 questions. I probably got all those 15 wrong (putting As on 10 of them in the last minute) but I think the 25 questions that I spent most of my time on were mostly correct. So that gave me 30 AM + 25 PM = 55 Total estimate. My time management was really bad. I was probably lucky to be able to pull it off. Bringing a watch and set the stopwatch is a must.

About a month ago before the exam I were still debating if I should purchase all the manuals and guidelines listed. Coincidentally I sat next to a guy during a conference (same location as the exam lol) that he suggested me to do a search on the public library website. Guess what... I was able to borrow the Roadside Design Guide, MUTCD actual book, AASHTO Green Book, and HCM 6th ed. I also found the HSM draft version online (from 2009) with very similar materials as the published HSM. And I did use all of them during the PM.

For everyone that didn't pass, maybe luck was't on your side this time. Keep believing in yourself and you will pass for sure!"

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I also started a topic on my study experience with my google sheet analyzing my practice exams. hopefully it would be useful for everyone that needs another try.

First time taker and passed April 2019 exam.

I took EET On-Demand review class for both Breadth and Depth portions of the test. I didn’t use any other reference materials except EET provided binders. EET review class is really a game changer for me, all the materials are aligned with the exam. I felt very comfortable for the morning portions of the exam, I was worried about I may not finish the exam on the given time, but I finished the exam way ahead of time and review my answers again. I was very confident on my morning exam.  The afternoon part was a little bit difficult but most of the questions were covered by EET review class and there wasn’t a surprise. In the afternoon part also, I didn’t encounter a time shortage. There were a few questions that wasn’t covered by the review class, but I wasn’t that much concerned because I knew that I answered enough questions.

I really recommend EET review class for anyone who want to take PE exam, they will make your life easy because they will provide you all the materials you need for the exam. I also took my EIT review class with EET their materials are exam oriented and specific to the exam.

I highly recommend EET review class, they are the best.

Aduba said:

First time taker and passed April 2019 exam.

I took EET On-Demand review class for both Breadth and Depth portions of the test. I didn’t use any other reference materials except EET provided binders. EET review class is really a game changer for me, all the materials are aligned with the exam. I felt very comfortable for the morning portions of the exam, I was worried about I may not finish the exam on the given time, but I finished the exam way ahead of time and review my answers again. I was very confident on my morning exam.  The afternoon part was a little bit difficult but most of the questions were covered by EET review class and there wasn’t a surprise. In the afternoon part also, I didn’t encounter a time shortage. There were a few questions that wasn’t covered by the review class, but I wasn’t that much concerned because I knew that I answered enough questions.

I really recommend EET review class for anyone who want to take PE exam, they will make your life easy because they will provide you all the materials you need for the exam. I also took my EIT review class with EET their materials are exam oriented and specific to the exam.

I highly recommend EET review class, they are the best.

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Very true! I was a first time taker and passed April 2019 as well.

My work field is not transportation but I took the transportation depth. I felt pretty pretty bad for the morning session but the afternoon session, would say I got around 35 problems correct. EET binder helped greatly along with all of the practice examples. There were several problems nearly identical from EET practice problem.

EET was worth the money! Enroll, commit your time and you will pass!

Minh said:

Very true! I was a first time taker and passed April 2019 as well.

My work field is not transportation but I took the transportation depth. I felt pretty pretty bad for the morning session but the afternoon session, would say I got around 35 problems correct. EET binder helped greatly along with all of the practice examples. There were several problems nearly identical from EET practice problem.

EET was worth the money! Enroll, commit your time and you will pass!

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not sure what exam you took but talk of the town was that the PM was way trickier than AM. the same EET adverts could be applied for previous exams but definitely not in April 2019. Good try.

MspSdf said:

not sure what exam you took but talk of the town was that the PM was way trickier than AM. the same EET adverts could be applied for previous exams but definitely not in April 2019. Good try.

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I definitely agree the PM was trickier but everyone prepares differently and he could have simply focused more on the PM section.

First time taker and have passed the April PE exam too. Now I am waiting for the PE license. But it is still not easy to find a suitable job...Now interviewers talk about work experience. I do have license and 4 year experience and an Asian male... I definitely can speak English

Seamoonjulian said:

First time taker and passed the April PE exam too. Now I am waiting for the PE license. But it is still not easy to find a suitable job...Now interviewers talk about work experience. I do have license and 3-4 year experience and an Asian male... I definitely can speak English

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Have you been contacted by a recruiter? My last job search wasn't going too well until I was contacted by a recruiter who did a lot of leg work and introduced me to companies I had never heard of.

I know how frustrating the job search can be so good luck man

Ranger1316 said:

Have you been contacted by a recruiter? My last job search wasn't going too well until I was contacted by a recruiter who did a lot of leg work and introduced me to companies I had never heard of.

I know how frustrating the job search can be so good luck man

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There are always gov jobs available if you would like to go to public sector. For private, probably most of those would post after fiscal year approvals from respective engineering firms.