# PM section exam marking criteria



## MIPE (Jan 12, 2017)

Does anybody know how the PM sections are marked and based on what criteria? There are too many points here. Is it the final answer, the sketches, your hand writing,  all the design steps, ..... etc? Do they grade it by marks or just "acceptable" or "not acceptable"? for example if the full mark is 100, 25 per question and you did the first two perfect but the other two are not very good. Will you get 25+25+10+10 = 70 out of 100 for example?  OR you must have acceptable in one problem to get its full mark? in this case it will be  25+25 + 0 +0 = 50.


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## StandardPractice (Jan 12, 2017)

Any answer you get will be pure speculation..no one knows except those who work for NCEES, but the consensus is if you get one "not acceptable" you'll fail


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## MIPE (Jan 12, 2017)

StandardPractice said:


> Any answer you get will be pure speculation..no one knows except those who work for NCEES, but the consensus is if you get one "not acceptable" you'll fail


Do you mean "not acceptable" in any of the problems will fail you? that is tough !!!!. 3 acceptable and 1 unacceptable, that is considered a "fail"


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## Lukus (Jan 12, 2017)

MIPE said:


> Do you mean "not acceptable" in any of the problems will fail you? that is tough !!!!. 3 acceptable and 1 unacceptable, that is considered a "fail"


Yes,the consensus is if you get one "not acceptable" on the afternoon you will fail.  If you get two "needs improvements" you will probably fail.  You probably need to get 32 right on the morning as well, _maybe _30 _if _you do well on the afternoon. Search for a post back from late summer/early fall 2016 that discussed the Cut Scores.


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## Lukus (Jan 12, 2017)

Masterpe said:


> this is what worries me. what could possibly go wrong that you get an 'unacceptable' on a question even though you studied?


Well here are April 2016 passing rates...

/monthly_2016_12/IMG_7520.thumb.PNG.33bdb19e610d3519c8ee77fc4b751897.PNG


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## Mithrandir918 (Jan 12, 2017)

Depends on how many times you have taken the test, if you have paid for it at least 3 times they normally pass you... all about the $$$


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## Lukus (Jan 12, 2017)

Mithrandir918 said:


> Depends on how many times you have taken the test, if you have paid for it at least 3 times they normally pass you... all about the $$$


I hate to be like this, but that's patently ridiculous.


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## Seppe (Jan 12, 2017)

Mithrandir918 said:


> Depends on how many times you have taken the test, if you have paid for it at least 3 times they normally pass you... all about the $$$


That's nonsense.


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## TehMightyEngineer (Jan 13, 2017)

Lukus said:


> Yes,the consensus is if you get one "not acceptable" on the afternoon you will fail.  If you get two "needs improvements" you will probably fail.  You probably need to get 32 right on the morning as well, _maybe _30 _if _you do well on the afternoon. Search for a post back from late summer/early fall 2016 that discussed the Cut Scores.


Here's the topic you're referring to I think:


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## Mithrandir918 (Jan 13, 2017)

TehMightyEngineer said:


> Here's the topic you're referring to I think:


I was under the impression that the AM and PM portions were graded separately and that a passing score is required in both to pass the exam.  This would be similar to the older style exam that was give about 10+ years ago where you could pass AM and PM separately.


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## Lukus (Jan 13, 2017)

Mithrandir918 said:


> I was under the impression that the AM and PM portions were graded separately and that a passing score is required in both to pass the exam.  This would be similar to the older style exam that was give about 10+ years ago where you could pass AM and PM separately.


That is not correct.  You cannot add a breadth from one sitting to the depth from another sitting.

I don't think it is helpful to keep introducing these false claims.  The rules are easily searchable: http://ncees.org/engineering/se/ 

Morning and Afternoon are Breadth and Depth, respectively.  Vertical 8 hr and Lateral 8 hr are each a "component". You must pass both components within a 5 year period.


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## TehMightyEngineer (Jan 13, 2017)

NCEES definitely combines the scores from the morning and afternoon. From the exam specification:



> Score results are combined with depth exam results for final score of this component.


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## Mithrandir918 (Jan 13, 2017)

Lukus said:


> That is not correct.  You cannot add a breadth from one sitting to the depth from another sitting.
> 
> I don't think it is helpful to keep introducing these false claims.  The rules are easily searchable: http://ncees.org/engineering/se/
> 
> Morning and Afternoon are Breadth and Depth, respectively.  Vertical 8 hr and Lateral 8 hr are each a "component". You must pass both components within a 5 year period.


You did not understand my question....

I was under the impression that to pass one portion of the exam (one 8 hr section, be it lateral or vertical) you would need to obtain a passing score in both the morning and afternoon portion or the exam individually.  Hence, the exam is not scored based on your overall performance (e.g if you got 40/40 in the morning and did not achieve a satisfactory performance in the afternoon you will not pass the exam).  Also that this exam is not like the PE were the sum total of your performance for both the morning and afternoon are combined to calculate your passing score.  

My question (NOT CLAIM), is that the morning and afternoon portions of one 8 hr test segment are treated separately and the eventual scoring outcome is not a combination of the two.  This would be in contrast to exams that were administered over a decade ago or so where you where the morning and afternoon (from one 8 hr segment) were treated separate and you could pass one at a time.


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## Lukus (Jan 13, 2017)

TehMightyEngineer said:


> NCEES definitely combines the scores from the morning and afternoon. From the exam specification:


Agree.  I just wanted to clarify that you can't combine a passing morning from April with a passing afternoon from October etc.


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## Lukus (Jan 13, 2017)

Mithrandir918 said:


> You did not understand my question....
> 
> I was under the impression that to pass one portion of the exam (one 8 hr section, be it lateral or vertical) you would need to obtain a passing score in both the morning and afternoon portion or the exam individually.  Hence, the exam is not scored based on your overall performance (e.g if you got 40/40 in the morning and did not achieve a satisfactory performance in the afternoon you will not pass the exam).  Also that this exam is not like the PE were the sum total of your performance for both the morning and afternoon are combined to calculate your passing score.
> 
> My question (NOT CLAIM), is that the morning and afternoon portions of one 8 hr test segment are treated separately and the eventual scoring outcome is not a combination of the two.  This would be in contrast to exams that were administered over a decade ago or so where you where the morning and afternoon (from one 8 hr segment) were treated separate and you could pass one at a time.


I guess I misunderstood, my apologies.


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