# Those that passed - How many did you THINK you got right?



## NCcarguy (Jul 11, 2007)

I've always found it to be interesting after the exam, most people that pass seem to think they got about 40+/- correct, yet every time I failed i felt like I had over 50 correct, and I've been just about right. What's the difference? I think I know enough about each question to get AN answer, just many times, I'm getting the wrong one.

Do those that feel like they got 40 correct, and pass, really guess at 40? or are you just being conservative on the number you think you got correct?


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## VA_Env_Engr (Jul 11, 2007)

I passed the Environmental PE past April, the 100 question exam. I know I did better in the AM than PM. My scaled score was 83, so assuming my raw score was about 70, I'd say I got about 40 correct (out of 50) in the AM and about 30 (out of 50) in the PM.


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## NCcarguy (Jul 11, 2007)

VA, but when you left the exam, did you FEEL like you had gotten 80 correct?

BTW...that's a pretty good score, you obviously were prepared!


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## Ange_NYPE (Jul 11, 2007)

Passed April 2007 PE Civil/Geotech:

Here is my estimated breakdown based on what I can actually remember about the exam. I initially answered only the problems which I was able to work through with confidence and calculated an answer that was among the choices. The remainder of the problems were just blind guesses and I used the same letter choice for each based on an equal distribution of letters for each Module. Coincidentally I was short letter "C" for both the AM and PM Modules among my "worked" problems, therefore I guessed letter "C" for all 13 blind guesses. Statistically I should have received credit for 1 out of every 4 guesses, more or less.

32/40 AM Breadth Module (includes 1/3 blind guesses)

28/40 PM Depth Module (includes 3/10 blind guesses)

_____________________________________________

60/80 Total Raw Score (includes 4/13 blind guesses)

Ange_NYPE


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## VA_Env_Engr (Jul 11, 2007)

NCcarguy said:


> VA, but when you left the exam, did you FEEL like you had gotten 80 correct?
> BTW...that's a pretty good score, you obviously were prepared!


Nope. Felt I would be right at the borderline. Confident of the AM, but after PM, wasn't sure. And thanks.


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## jascia1919 (Jul 11, 2007)

I did Str I.

Morning probably 25/40. After may be 30+/40


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## megoo98 (Jul 11, 2007)

i felt i nailed the morning mech portion. i was very confident at lunch. after the afternoon HVAC section, i left unsure. i was hesitantly positive but unsure. i'd say 60/40 split leaning towards passing.


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## EdinNO (Jul 11, 2007)

I did an analysis by spreadsheet of the number I thought I got right in April '06. I ended up passing, but I created the spreadhsheet the next day after the exam or something like that so I could get a feel for the number.

I think my estimate for an 80 question ME exam was somewhere between 52 and 58.

This is how I came up with that in a nutshell:

I knew that I had answered a certain number where their was an answer ro match mine and I felt somewhat confident I had gotten them all right. I multiplied this number by 0.9 to account for any trip-ups are "trick" questions.

I new that I had made eucated guesses on some questions, maybe down to two choices. I think I multiplied the quantity by 0.5.

For the last bit, the wild guesses and fill in the circles, I think I multiplied the quantity by 0.25.

I pretty much knew how many I had answered in the first category since, by the time one hour was left in each the am and pm, I freaked when I counted that I had only answered about half. The next 55 or so minutes were spent narrowing down the choices. Then I knew about how many fill in the circlies I had.

Ed


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## kevo_55 (Jul 11, 2007)

I believe that I got 3 right.

(I took the SE2)


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## BigBen (Jul 11, 2007)

NCcarguy said:


> I've always found it to be interesting after the exam, most people that pass seem to think they got about 40+/- correct, yet every time I failed i felt like I had over 50 correct, and I've been just about right. What's the difference? I think I know enough about each question to get AN answer, just many times, I'm getting the wrong one.
> Do those that feel like they got 40 correct, and pass, really guess at 40? or are you just being conservative on the number you think you got correct?



This is a tough one to answer. I took the NCEES practice test in a complete simulation. (didn't look at it before, worked 2 4-hour sessions, etc....) Thought I missed about 3-5, ended up missing 4 in the AM, 6 in the PM. 10 total.

I took the April '07 exam in ME with Machine Design strength. I thought I probably missed about 5-7 (only outright guessed on 1 problem). Based on my previous practice exam, I'd predict that I missed about 15 problems.

I did pass. I wish we could know our real score... just so we'd KNOW. 

That's about all I can tell you.

-Ben


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## Hockeyfan960 (Jul 11, 2007)

In Oct 2006 I took the Geotech and walked out having worked 24 morning problems, made an educated guess (narrowed down to 2 answers) on 12 and blind guess on the rest then worked 16 afternoon problems and made an educated guess on 14 and blind guess on the rest and failed.

In April 2007, I took the Geotech and walked out having worked out 28 morning and 18 afternoon problems and passed.

On both tests I put a mark next to the ones that I was able to solve for an answer and a check next to ones that were total guesses. Then added then up right before time was up.

Not sure if that helps.


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## mudpuppy (Jul 11, 2007)

Passed April '07 EE with Power depth. I guessed on 5 questions that I remember. I estimate I probably got about 68/80, maybe 65/80. I could be way off, though.


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## Dark Knight (Jul 11, 2007)

WGASA

I passed. As far as I know and if somebody ask I got the 80 questions right.


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## DVINNY (Jul 11, 2007)

80/80


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## Guest (Jul 11, 2007)

Luis said:


> I passed. As far as I know and if somebody ask I got the 80 questions right.


Wow ... you really are like one of the associates of :vadar: - he got them all right and even remembered all the questions, choices, correct answers, and distractors :laugh:

:joke:

JR


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## Dark Knight (Jul 11, 2007)

jregieng said:


> Wow ... you really are like one of the associates of :vadar: - he got them all right and even remembered all the questions, choices, correct answers, and distractors :laugh:
> :joke:
> 
> JR


Damn!!!!!! I forgot to mention that too.

It is true. I remember all the fudging questions and also all the choices they put. I am so good!!!!!.

As a matter of fact I am going to offer my services to all this Third World countries that are sending people to memorize the questions.

Geeeezz....I have a caffeine level drop.


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## maryannette (Jul 11, 2007)

When I finishing morning, I counted 26 that I felt confident that I had answered correctly. For afternoon, I counted 24 that I thought I had answered correctly. I added 25% of the remainder to get 57-58 correct answers. I knew it was close, and when people asked me how I felt, I told them that statistically I thought I was okay, but it depended on the guesses. I guess the prayer that I guessed right on the ones I didn't know was answered mercifully. BTW, if you find any math errors in my calculations, that's okay, because I've been told that after you get your PE, you turn stupid.


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## frazil (Jul 12, 2007)

EdinNO said:


> I did an analysis by spreadsheet of the number I thought I got right in April '06. I ended up passing, but I created the spreadhsheet the next day after the exam or something like that so I could get a feel for the number.
> I think my estimate for an 80 question ME exam was somewhere between 52 and 58.
> 
> This is how I came up with that in a nutshell:
> ...



I did exactly the same thing and I came up with 56 right....too close for comfort.


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## NCcarguy (Jul 12, 2007)

NOW, I feel much better about my chances....knowing DV went from 3 failures, to a PERFECT SCORE!!!! hummmmmm.....

During all of my testing, I usually mark each question that I do with either a check, an "X", or a "?" depending on if I'm sure I got it right, know I didn't know the answer, or made an educated guess.....so I have each time felt like I knew I was close, and each time, I've been right....my only problem is I can't tell if I'm missing a BUNCH that I think I know, and then guess enough to get back to where I thought I was, or if I'm the WORST guesser in the history of this test????? and to be honest, I think it's the latter of the 2!


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## bigray76 (Jul 13, 2007)

On the AM section, I did 32 of the 40 on the first pass through, then went back to the other 8. I was able to narrow the ones in question down to 2 and took a stab from there. Figuring I was pretty confident on the first 32, figure I got 80% of those and half of the guesses - which would put me at 29-30 on the AM.

The PM I did 30 of the 40 on the first pass, of the remaining 10, I back-engineered one, found 2 in references, had another 2 click on the second look. Again, of the remaining 5, I was able to narrow them down to 2 answers. Using the same logic as above (80% of 35 - and we'll say 2 of the 5) that would have given me at least a 30.

Assuming the higher end, 90% of the ones I was confident on and 50% on the guesses (narrowed to two answers) - it would be about 66.

I figure I was at worst about 60, at best 65 - 68.

Then again, I am just happy that I passed!

-Ray


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## ColoradoME (Jul 13, 2007)

I took the ME test with the Machine Design option and passed.

I think I was probably 30/40 in the morning and 22/40 in the afternoon for a score of 52/80. That I'm pretty sure of (at least as sure as I can be).

I seemed to be a pretty good guesser on the practice exams so I figure I may have gotten another 8-9 max out of the remaining 18 questions. So I pretty much think I was somewhere around 60/80 (probably a few less than that realistically).

I felt "optimistically confident" when I left the exam but I did feel it was a difficult exam and would not have been shocked if I did not pass. I'm just REALLY glad I don't have to do it again.


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## DVINNY (Jul 16, 2007)

NCcarguy said:


> NOW, I feel much better about my chances....knowing DV went from 3 failures, to a PERFECT SCORE!!!! hummmmmm.....
> During all of my testing, I usually mark each question that I do with either a check, an "X", or a "?" depending on if I'm sure I got it right, know I didn't know the answer, or made an educated guess.....so I have each time felt like I knew I was close, and each time, I've been right....my only problem is I can't tell if I'm missing a BUNCH that I think I know, and then guess enough to get back to where I thought I was, or if I'm the WORST guesser in the history of this test????? and to be honest, I think it's the latter of the 2!


See. There's hope. 

Actually, I thought that I could have had in the mid 60's. That's why I left there feeling pretty confident. Of course, that changed as the wait went on, but you know how that is. "maybe I fell for a unit trick, maybe I picked the wrong equation, maybe I ....." etc. etc.

fact is, I don't care if I had 56 or 80. The result is the same, and it's all I wanted.


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## grover (Jul 16, 2007)

VA_Env_Engr said:


> Nope. Felt I would be right at the borderline. Confident of the AM, but after PM, wasn't sure. And thanks.


I felt the exact same way, but ended up with an 85 scaled score. I thought I passed, but wasn't very confident about it. The afternoon really shook my confidence!
I guessed at (IIRC) 2 in the morning and 10 in the afternoon, 68/80 total. Assuming I statistically lucked into 1/4 of the 12 guesses, that's 71/80 total. But in the practice exams, I was hosing up about 25% of the ones I thought I knew, which would bring it down to 54/80. Thus, I have to credit my passing score to very effective double-checking of my answers!


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## mech engineer (Jul 16, 2007)

I took Mechanical, Design Module. The morning session went very easy, and I was basically making sure that I pick up all the questions. I tried not to guess, since I am not too good at guessing. I think I got at least 90% of that.

The afternoon session overwhelmed me competely, at first I wanted to stand up and go home - so difficult it seemed. But then I skipped all the questions that I did not understand at all and picked 'the low hanging fruit'. In other words, I was taking off the relatively easy questions and leaving the tough ones alone. This tactics pretty much eliminated 45-50% of the afternoon session - not too bad for a boy from Brooklyn  .

I knew I needed to get a few more questions to pass. So, I noted a couple of problems that I thought I saw in my preparation manual - and yes, the solution was right there. I took them off.

I felt that I passed, but since I wanted to nail it for sure, I attacked the rest of the questions. Most of them turned out to be quite simple, but it was difficult to figure out what they were all about before I read each of them four-five times. And then it was easy - one or two clicks on the calculator.

So, when I was leaving I felt that I passed. And today I DID get my license #....

Good luck to you too!


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## JPGOLF (Jul 17, 2007)

I don't know how many I got right. Test was tough, but I would guess I got maybe a 80-89%. I took the PE Mech HVAC and passed it, first try.

Or maybe I got a 69.99% and was lucky enough to be rounded up! lol.


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## Guest (Jul 17, 2007)

I am pretty sure NCEES transposed my score - there is no way I scored 96 for the exam. 

JR


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## VA_Env_Engr (Jul 18, 2007)

^^ All I can say is...Damn JR! That's an excellent score.


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## Tina (Aug 7, 2007)

Morning exam I thought was okay, I figured I had 30/40, maybe even more. The PM exam was very hard and after being so confident in the morning I was totally stressed out in the afternoon. With guessing I figured I would have 20/40. So I felt that I was probably borderline. Could have gone either way. Then after the exam I thought about a few of the problems and I'm sure that I marked the wrong answer for three of them. But I also found the answer to one of the questions I had guessed and was right. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I was borderline. It's too bad they don't give us our scores. I would really like to know.

The seismic exam was also hard and I wasn't sure about it. I guessed maybe 25% of the problems. The only exam I felt good about was surveying. I thought it was extremely easy and finished 15 minutes ahead of time. I was absolutely sure that I passed that one.

Turns out I passed all of them. It's like a miracle to me.


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