# April PE Exam civil 2009



## construction (Apr 28, 2009)

when I finished AM exam I thought I made it, but when I got to PM exam( transportation ) I felt like I don't know If I will pass or not , I would like to see other people experience about that


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## BPE07 (Apr 28, 2009)

I think I did well in the AM, but I took structural in the PM and felt as if someone kicked me in the balls. Looks like I'll be there again in October, but I'll change my focus to geotech instead....third times a charm.


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## NEED2009 (Apr 29, 2009)

It was brutal and now the wait for result.


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## PEPG (Apr 29, 2009)

BPE07 said:


> I think I did well in the AM, but I took structural in the PM and felt as if someone kicked me in the balls. Looks like I'll be there again in October, but I'll change my focus to geotech instead....third times a charm.


Take it from me, geotech is no walk in the park. I tried it several times before I switched to Water/Env and finally passed. Not that it took any less effort as far as studying, but the afternoon did not have that "kick-in-the-balls" feel. :smileyballs:


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## ktulu (Apr 29, 2009)

PEPG said:


> Take it from me, geotech is no walk in the park. I tried it several times before I switched to Water/Env and finally passed. Not that it took any less effort as far as studying, but the afternoon did not have that "kick-in-the-balls" feel. :smileyballs:


^^^ what he said


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## steve_p (Apr 30, 2009)

construction said:


> when I finished AM exam I thought I made it, but when I got to PM exam( transportation ) I felt like I don't know If I will pass or not , I would like to see other people experience about that


Dude, i suggest you not to think about geo. This time geo PM was more pain. From all my friends, I heard water PM was easier (compared with others)


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## gte959s (May 1, 2009)

My biggest gripe is that they were NOT consistent with slope terminology. You never really knew if it was H:V or V:H. Sometimes they would tell you and others they left it wide open. The need to make sure that they fix that in future exams.

The afternoon transpo was difficult in the fact that you had to use every resource that they listed to bring. I used teh ITE book for at least 2-4 problems. The ITE did really well for the crash analysis (not the braking problems). The green book you had to look up obsure charts that you normally would never think of.


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## GulfCoastCivil (May 4, 2009)

This is about how I felt for a good chunk of the exam...


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## slicer28 (May 4, 2009)

Did anyone else take the PM Construction exam? Any thoughts?


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## construction (May 5, 2009)

GulfCoastCivil said:


> This is about how I felt for a good chunk of the exam...


that is the best diagram explains what I did in Transportation depth


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## TXengrChickPE (May 5, 2009)

BPE07 said:


> I think I did well in the AM, but I took structural in the PM and felt as if someone kicked me in the balls. Looks like I'll be there again in October, but I'll change my focus to geotech instead....third times a charm.


Don't count yourself out yet... a good morning score can help to balance out a less-than-stellar afternoon performance.

I felt the same way after my exam in October of '07... except that I'm female, so I felt like I had been kicked somewhere else after the afternoon...

Anyway, I passed. TX gives scores, and I got a 78. If that was a strait %, that means that I got about 62/80 correct. After the morning, I felt like I got 35 or 36 correct, which means that I may have only gotten 26 on the afternoon. Not my best work, but good enough.


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## CrazyHorse81 (May 6, 2009)

My guess of correct answers being...

Pessimistic:

AM session = 21

PM (water) = 32

Optimistic:

AM = 32

PM (water) = 37

Do I feel like I passed? If the passing score is 53/80 then golden, but really...teeter totter...I am in suspension about that. So realistically I am somewhere in the middle of that range. I just want the pass/fail results to come!


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## SPSUEngineer (May 6, 2009)

CrazyHorse81 said:


> My guess of correct answers being...
> Pessimistic:
> 
> AM session = 21
> ...


I would be fairly confident I passed with your numbers. If you end up falling somewhere between pessimistic and optimistic (most likely) you should have nothing to worry about.

I'm really ready for results too. This wait thing sucks. I understand the process but it seems like it could easily be done in 2-3 weeks this day in age with the technology we have.


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## JUDE (May 7, 2009)

slicer28 said:


> Did anyone else take the PM Construction exam? Any thoughts?


I took the Construction PM. Morning for me is a bit untidy exam because it's really vast mix problems combining all areas of civil engineering. However in the afternoon, it's a bit tidy and focused on construction. AM &amp; PM are both tricky and hard compared to the 1st Construction exam but I am optimistic that I made it. My 2nd time to take, hoping I really really made it.


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## Mike in Gastonia (May 7, 2009)

JUDE said:


> I took the Construction PM. Morning for me is a bit untidy exam because it's really vast mix problems combining all areas of civil engineering. However in the afternoon, it's a bit tidy and focused on construction. AM &amp; PM are both tricky and hard compared to the 1st Construction exam but I am optimistic that I made it. My 2nd time to take, hoping I really really made it.


I'm pretty sure that's why they call it a "Breadth and Depth" exam.


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## SPSUEngineer (May 7, 2009)

slicer28 said:


> Did anyone else take the PM Construction exam? Any thoughts?


Take a look at this thread for additional comments and opinions.

http://engineerboards.com/index.php?showtopic=8987


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## NEED2009 (May 8, 2009)

the wait is terrible


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## Parks and Rec (May 8, 2009)

NEED2009 said:


> the wait is terrible


VERY


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## Mike in Gastonia (May 8, 2009)

NEED2009 said:


> the wait is terrible


You might as well relax. I bet they haven't even got back all the answers sheets yet!


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## brian2126 (May 21, 2009)

GulfCoastCivil said:


> This is about how I felt for a good chunk of the exam...


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## TranspoVA (Jun 11, 2009)

construction said:


> when I finished AM exam I thought I made it, but when I got to PM exam( transportation ) I felt like I don't know If I will pass or not , I would like to see other people experience about that


Seems like there were a lot of Intersection Sight Distance and Freeway Questions on the PM wasn't expecting that...but all out of the Green Book at least. I was surprised that I had to bust open the ITE Traffic Engineering Handbook.


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## txaggie (Jun 20, 2009)

gte959s said:


> My biggest gripe is that they were NOT consistent with slope terminology. You never really knew if it was H:V or V:H. Sometimes they would tell you and others they left it wide open. The need to make sure that they fix that in future exams.
> The afternoon transpo was difficult in the fact that you had to use every resource that they listed to bring. I used teh ITE book for at least 2-4 problems. The ITE did really well for the crash analysis (not the braking problems). The green book you had to look up obsure charts that you normally would never think of.



I agree wholeheartedly. OBSCURE charts that you just had to know they may exist somewhere in the green book and I didn't HAVE to use the ITE book but double checked on a couple of problems. There were so many problems similar to each other, didn't seem like it tested engineering problem solving ability as it did whether or not you had the reference manuals.


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## txaggie (Jun 20, 2009)

GulfCoastCivil said:


> This is about how I felt for a good chunk of the exam...


HAHA, not quite this bad but there were some crazy questions that some academic is lauging at all of us on that we didn't know the answer.


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## psucivilengineer (Jul 9, 2009)

construction said:


> when I finished AM exam I thought I made it, but when I got to PM exam( transportation ) I felt like I don't know If I will pass or not , I would like to see other people experience about that



I felt the complete opposite when I left the exam. I also took Transportation. I thought the morning was very difficult and was convinced at lunch time that I was going to fail. But when I started on the afternoon part, every answer I came up with was one of the choices...every question. I could not believe how easy the afternoon was. I just kept chugging along. I could hardly focus towards the end because I was so excited. I knew then that I was going to pass.

I made sure I tabbed the greenbook very thoroughly and boy did it pay off. I couldn't believe how many answers I just plucked out of that book. You just had to pull different values from different charts. I also used the Highway Capacity Manual and the AASHTO Roadside Design Guide. I suggest becoming very familiar with your references.


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## layad (Jul 12, 2009)

This was my first attempt. I had started my preparations during the third week of February and studied 2 hrs everyday till 23rd April (4 hrs on weekends). I was very confident about the PM (geotechnical) but very skeptical about the AM exam. However, I found the AM exam to be very easy and the only question I couldn't answer was due to unavailability of a reference. The PM session (geotechnical), albeit intense and exhausting, was good. I may have gotten more than 36 questions right. To summarize, I felt quite confident of passing after the exams but my confidence waned gradually with time. Fortunately for me, the result was positive.


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## tymr (Jul 12, 2009)

^^^ Let me guess....the Green Book question. :angry:

Congrats on pulling it off. I'll be in it for the next go around.


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## layad (Jul 12, 2009)

tymr said:


> ^^^ Let me guess....the Green Book question. :angry: Congrats on pulling it off. I'll be in it for the next go around.


Thats right! All the best to you!!


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## ElCid03 (Jul 16, 2009)

For the construction test references are absolutley cruicial. I got a bunch of questions right due to having the right resources. Bring everything and any thing related to construction, OHSA Manual, ACI Manuals, AISC Steel Manual, AWS Manual, and a rigging handbook would be a good start to include the Lindeberg Book.


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## tymr (Jul 16, 2009)

layad said:


> Thats right! All the best to you!!


Thanks. What geotech references did you use to study?


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## layad (Jul 17, 2009)

tymr said:


> Thanks. What geotech references did you use to study?


CERM 11th Edition and Practice Exam

Six Minutes Solutions - Geotech

Advanced Soil Mechanics - Das

Foundation Analysis and Design - Bowles

Principles of Foundations Engineering - Das


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