April 09' Civil PE Exam - How did it go?

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SPSUEngineer

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Bringing back an old thread for April 09' Civil PE Exam.

1. Was this your first time taking the exam?

2. How much did you study or prepare for the exam?

3. What did you think of the morning?

4. What depth did you take and how would you judge the difficulty?

5. Do you think you passed?

My answers:

1. First Time

2. I started studying mid January. Studied an average of 2 nights during the week for about 2 hours per session and studied 10-12 hours average every weekend up until the exam. I took off the last week to organize my notes and thoughts.

3. I thought it had some curve balls thrown in with it. It was more difficult that I thought it would be. Thought a couple of the questions were a little unfair because of the references required to answer them.

4. Construction Depth. I thought it was very difficult. It was time consuming and very in depth. The questions were a lot more difficult that I thought they would be or prepared for. We need some good study books on the market to reflect the difficulty of the afternoon construction exam.

5. If I was a betting man I would bet I failed it. Its going to be a long 8 weeks. I should have taken the transportation PM module (I guess). Construction PM kicked my tail!

 
1. Was this your first time taking the exam?

Yes

2. How much did you study or prepare for the exam?

9 months

3. What did you think of the morning?

Moderate to hard. Few of the structural questions were confusing and transportation question required a reference I did not have.

4. What depth did you take and how would you judge the difficulty?

Construction. Pretty complex and difficult.

5. Do you think you passed?

Probably not unless I made correct educated guesses.

 
1. Was this your first time taking the exam?yes

2. How much did you study or prepare for the exam?alot

3. What did you think of the morning? I think I did well, I was finished in two hours and spent another hour going over the answeres

4. What depth did you take and how would you judge the difficulty?I took construction, it was pretty basic, the questions were routine but did require quite a bit of calculation.

5. Do you think you passed? I am sure I did

 
i thought the morning was pretty easy and straightforward, i finished over an hour early and spent the rest of the time going back through all my answers multiple times (good thing i did, i found a few stupid mistakes). i took the transportation afternoon session, it was definitely more difficult than the morning session but nothing too crazy...i think i got most of them right. you definitely needed all of the transportation reference material for it, it drew from all of them for the correct answers. i'm 99.9% sure i passed. i HIGHLY recommend the Chen civil book if you need to take it again:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0849309581

i answered probably 5-6 questions with it that i couldn't have solved otherwise.

 
1. Was this your first time taking the exam? Yes first time taking Civil-Str Depth. Passed SE I and SE II in the past.

2. How much did you study or prepare for the exam? Not at all, relied on my knowledge from school for the non-structural questions, and did not have to review structural after studying and taking the SE II in October.

3. What did you think of the morning?

Did well on Struct. and Constr., found a few equations for Water Res. and Transp. in CERM, had no clue on the surveying questions, guessed on the rest. I answered more non-structural questions than I thought I would. There was that one Transp question that required the blue book? What is that and was it even on the reference list?

4. What depth did you take and how would you judge the difficulty?

Structural depth, very easy for me. Guessed on the bridge questions and did not have the PCI book. I think the second to last concrete question was invalid, maybe had a typo? I wasted a lot of time looking through ACI for the answer but it wasn't there. I should have gone back to do the brigde questions, but ran out of time.

5. Do you think you passed?

I think I passed, but it all depends on the morning. Can you pass with a 20/40 score in the morning?

 
1. Was this your first time taking the exam? Yes

2. How much did you study or prepare for the exam? Started in February - took refresher course on weekend, tried to study about 6 hours each week after work - not very efficiently.

3. What did you think of the morning? Straight forward, but a few curve balls.

4. What depth did you take and how would you judge the difficulty? Water and Environment - water was easy, environment kicked my butt, just as I expected.

5. Do you think you passed? Couldn't tell, I could be one point from 70 or one point over...that is about how close I think it will be.

 
1. Was this your first time taking the exam? NO

2. How much did you study or prepare for the exam? I spent I would say close to 200 hours

3. What did you think of the morning? What I expected, and I did well

4. What depth did you take and how would you judge the difficulty? I took Geotech, and I felt totally blindsighted.

5. Do you think you passed? I think it will be really, really close. I was pretty disappointed with the PM section, it was waaaaaayyyyy far off from what I expected and the type of exam I've seen in the past. I used the NCEES practice exam, Lindeberg practice exam and the NCEES outline to prepare, and I felt the test was pretty different from that content. I'm continuing to say a lot of prayers. I didn't like the 2 problems per page format...a girl needs her space to write (that's new from when I last took it, I should have realized it would be that way based on the NCEES practice exam).

Holding out hope for all of us...it is nice to have my life back, that's for sure! :)

 
1. Was this your first time taking the exam? Yes

2. How much did you study or prepare for the exam? About 120 hours

3. What did you think of the morning? Pretty easy, got done in an hour and a half and spent another hour going over my calculations.

4. What depth did you take and how would you judge the difficulty? Transportation - difficult because it wasn't like anything I'd practiced for. If I fail I won't make the mistake of not bringing every recommended transportation reference in with me. Very disappointing that it was so different from every practice test I had taken.

5. Do you think you passed? I think it's a coin flip at this point.

 
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1. Was this your first time taking the exam? Yes
2. How much did you study or prepare for the exam? About 120 hours

3. What did you think of the morning? Pretty easy, got done in an hour and a half and spent another hour going over my calculations.

4. What depth did you take and how would you judge the difficulty? Transportation - difficult because it wasn't like anything I'd practiced for. If I fail I won't make the mistake of not bringing every recommended transportation reference in with me. Very disappointing that it was so different from every practice test I had taken.

5. Do you think you passed? I think it's a coin flip at this point.
you could have written my response... basically the same for me, except i probably spent closer to 160 hours studying.

i was pretty surprised with the transportation section. I took the Lindeburg practice exam and got one wrong... i also did the 6 minute solutions book (120 questions) and got 2 wrong. did multiple other practice problems, read the entire HCM and still felt like i was unprepared for a lot the test. i dont think the outline was very well prepared by NCEES.

 
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you could have written my response... basically the same for me, except i probably spent closer to 160 hours studying.
i was pretty surprised with the transportation section. I took the Lindeburg practice exam and got one wrong... i also did the 6 minute solutions book (120 questions) and got 2 wrong. did multiple other practice problems and felt like i was unprepared for a lot the test. i thought the subject matter (percentage-wise) was not representative of the outline.
Yep, we pretty much studied the same way. I could solve all horizontal/vertical curve, LOS, PHF, stopping/skidding problems in my sleep. I couldn't believe my eyes in the afternoon. About halfway into the depth module I flipped through the whole book expecting to see when the easy stuff (or should I say, the stuff I studied for) would be coming along...and it didn't.

I guess it boils down to the fact that I took a gamble. In the ~300 practice problems I solved before the test, there were about 3 that referenced the material I didn't take in with me. The test was nothing like that...so I took a gamble and lost.

 
Yes, it was my first time, but the test was gentle and went slow…

~60-70 hours over the course of a month. I got a late start on studying, but I managed to read the CERM cover to cover (skipping a chapter here and there) and I did all the questions in the NCEES sample exam at least twice.

The morning seemed pretty straightforward for the most part, and was similar to the practice exam. There were some questions that I was surprised to see, but, thankfully, they were few and far between. It seemed like 90% of the answers could be found in the CERM if you knew where to look. I’m glad I went through it (and the HCM and Green Book) on Thursday night and tabbed anything I thought I might need.

I took the transportation part in the afternoon. Again, it seemed pretty similar to the practice exam but there were a few that I didn’t know how to answer. At least one should answer have been an easy lookup, but I was missing the reference needed. Familiarity with the Green Book paid off, for sure.

I’m about 90-95% sure I passed (knock on wood). There just didn’t seem to be enough “tricky” questions to slip me up, unless they were so tricky that I didn’t recognize them. I only hope I didn’t make any mistakes filling in the circles. I checked every answer in the afternoon, but only spot checked in the morning

 
about the afternoon transportation session...i agree with you guys, there was VERY little stuff on their that we're actually "told" to study (capacity, surveying/curves, accident analysis, etc), but there weren't any on their that i felt blindsided by...there wasn't a single question that i couldn't find an answer to or didn't know how to solve. some of them were difficult and i'm sure i got them wrong, but the process or answer to all of them could be found in common reference materials. it was very odd that they chose to barely focus on the common stuff though.

 
1. Was this your first time taking the exam? Yes

2. How much did you study or prepare for the exam? ~200 hours

3. What did you think of the morning? more random than I expected

4. What depth did you take and how would you judge the difficulty? Water and Environment, I thought is was very mellow, I had time to double check my work and leave early and get a well deserved beer.

5. Do you think you passed? I hope so!

 
1. Was this your first time taking the exam? Yes first time taking Civil-Str Depth. Passed SE I and SE II in the past.
2. How much did you study or prepare for the exam? Not at all, relied on my knowledge from school for the non-structural questions, and did not have to review structural after studying and taking the SE II in October.

3. What did you think of the morning?

Did well on Struct. and Constr., found a few equations for Water Res. and Transp. in CERM, had no clue on the surveying questions, guessed on the rest. I answered more non-structural questions than I thought I would. There was that one Transp question that required the blue book? What is that and was it even on the reference list?

4. What depth did you take and how would you judge the difficulty?

Structural depth, very easy for me. Guessed on the bridge questions and did not have the PCI book. I think the second to last concrete question was invalid, maybe had a typo? I wasted a lot of time looking through ACI for the answer but it wasn't there. I should have gone back to do the brigde questions, but ran out of time.

5. Do you think you passed?

I think I passed, but it all depends on the morning. Can you pass with a 20/40 score in the morning?
Yes you can definitely pass with 20/40 in the morning if you did well in the afternoon. It is overall score that matters...How many correct out of 80 questions.

 
1. Was this your first time taking the exam? Yes

2. How much did you study or prepare for the exam? ~150hrs total (started in Feb, includes a weekend review course)

3. What did you think of the morning? hmmm, a bit different than expected. Finished 1.5 hrs early, went back to check, caught a few mistakes. Expected to score 35/40, think I was closer to 28/40, not as much cushion as I'd hoped for going into the depth.

4. What depth did you take and how would you judge the difficulty? water/env depth. not insanely difficult. some curves. some tricky wording/questions.

5. Do you think you passed? cautiously optimistic. could go either way. I think I was right in the pocket (just failed or just passed). dammit.

 
This is my first time. I think, I made 24/40 in the morning and 26/40 in the afternoon. Will I pass the PE exam?

Thanks in advance for comments!

 
1. Was this your first time taking the exam?

Yup

2. How much did you study or prepare for the exam?

About 160-170 hours including a prep course.

3. What did you think of the morning?

I thought it was very straight forward. I used the CERM for most of the questions. There was only a couple questions that blindsided me. One question required the green book which I did not have. The CERM did not go into detail on that topic. I was able to finish with about 20 minutes left over. I think I scored about 36-37/40.

4. What depth did you take and how would you judge the difficulty?

Geotechnical. I also thought it was fair. I had difficulty with a hand full of problems. Got finished 1 hour ahead of schedule. I think I scored around 34-35/40.

5. Do you think you passed? Yup (knock on wood)

 
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1. Was this your first time taking the exam? No, Second

2. How much did you study or prepare for the exam? Close to 60 to 70 hours for this go around. First time in October studied for over 200 hours.

3. What did you think of the morning? Strait forward and used the CERM for the whole thing. 30/40 most likely.

4. What depth did you take and how would you judge the difficulty?

Structural. Literally felt like a midget was under my desk punching me in the nuts the entire time. I kept turning the pages looking for a question I could answer. Nope.

5. Do you think you passed? No. Most likely will go again in October but will change my afternoon module to Geotechnical.

 
1) Yes

2) 150-200 hrs including review course

3) As expected, think I did OK.

4) Transportation - As others have said felt blindsided, I did all of the practice probs/exams for NCEES & PPI and it was not what I was expecting, really disappointed having put a lot of effort into studying.

5) 50/50 right now after the afternoon session, felt really good at lunch!!

 
1. Was this your first time taking the exam?

Yes, Civil- Transportation

2. How much did you study or prepare for the exam?

300 hours, including ITRE review course in the fall.

3. What did you think of the morning?

Pretty simple, not very tricky

4. What depth did you take and how would you judge the difficulty?

Civil- Transportation- Pleasantly surprised with the difficulty. Plenty of look-up type questions, not many excessively in-depth calculations

5. Do you think you passed?

Hopefuly, I felt good leaving the test. We'll see in 10-12 weeks.

 
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