# AEI Review Class - lateral afternoon practice



## thedaywa1ker (Oct 11, 2020)

The first question...half of the question is doing modal analysis, meaning we had about 30 mins allotted for it. I think my strategy for modal analysis on the exam will be to write down a bunch of equations and move on, coming back to it if I have time (fat chance), because that part alone took me an hour plus.  Fingers crossed we dont get one of those...

Thanks for coming to my TED talk


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## Redpepper (Oct 11, 2020)

Agreed, I felt the same way when I saw it. I read thru each of the problems at the start of the four hours, began working on the problems I felt confident answering, and just kept track of time so I could come back to that one. I wasn’t able to finish it, but wrote out the steps like you suggested.  
 

Any idea when we will get an answer key?


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## thedaywa1ker (Oct 11, 2020)

Glad I'm not alone.  There was a guy in the class chat during the modal analysis lecture that talked about how easy it was and how he hoped it showed up on the exam...hope he's happy!

I got an email invite today for the review session for the lateral depth, its tomorrow at 645pm pacific time.  I don't know if we're going to get a copy of the solutions prior to that, or if we only get to watch Foued work through them, but we'll know something by then I assume


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## Kamba (Oct 11, 2020)

I'm afraid if anything showed up more than single-degree of freedom, I'll be failing the test.. I don't know if it's fair game for dynamic analysis topics to appear in the exam.


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## DoctorWho-PE (Oct 11, 2020)

It felt kind of like being back in Finite Element Analysis and handed a final exam with a 6 panel truss to analyze. My matrices written out look an hour, and that was unsolved.  Just writing for an hour straight.

Side note, pretty sure I'll be failing no mater what after that. And I felt way better about lateral than vertical.


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## thedaywa1ker (Oct 11, 2020)

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I've been working through the PPI practice exam as well, and it is a borderline cakewalk compared to the AEI material.

I basically took the vertical class twice prior to this practice exam...once in preparation for the April administration. So I felt a little better about vertical than lateral.

The highlight of the practice exams for me was in the composite beam design question on the vertical afternoon...I accidentally tried designing for double the load needed, and the AISC composite beam tables didn't go up to loads that high, so I spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how to size a composite beam by hand.  Oops.


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## DoctorWho-PE (Oct 11, 2020)

thedaywa1ker said:


> Well, if it makes you feel any better, I've been working through the PPI practice exam as well, and it is a borderline cakewalk compared to the AEI material.
> 
> I basically took the vertical class twice prior to this practice exam...once in preparation for the April administration. So I felt a little better about vertical than lateral.
> 
> The highlight of the practice exams for me was in the composite beam design question on the vertical afternoon...I accidentally tried designing for double the load needed, and the AISC composite beam tables didn't go up to loads that high, so I spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how to size a composite beam by hand.  Oops.


I think I may have had the opposite issue on that one, my load was way lower than required for the beam table.


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## thedaywa1ker (Oct 12, 2020)

29/40 for me on vertical, 27/40 on lateral...I'm in the ballpark at least


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## ChiefIlliniwek (Oct 12, 2020)

26/40 on lateral AM. I haven't graded the afternoon yet. There was I think one typo on the exam key (#113) where the numerical answer was mismatched with the answer on the key. I haven't reviewed all of them yet. 

 I took lateral for the first time in April 2019. I'm a little conflicted about this practice exam. In some ways, a couple of the afternoon questions seemed too easy because they were basically copies of the class examples, but then the modal analysis question was just a bear to get through.  If I see a PM Problem like that, I'm walking out. That problem was crazy. I spent 75 minutes on it and still didn't solve the last two parts. I think the key for something like that where it asks for repetitive work is to just solve for the first mode, and then say to follow the steps you laid out for modes 2 and 3. Hopefully there won't be anything like that.

The AM problems weren't far off of the real thing. Some were easier, some were harder. I do think there are more general analysis type questions on the real exam though.


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## thedaywa1ker (Oct 12, 2020)

ChiefIlliniwek said:


> 26/40 on lateral AM. I haven't graded the afternoon yet. There was I think one typo on the exam key (#113) where the numerical answer was mismatched with the answer on the key. I haven't reviewed all of them yet.
> 
> I took lateral for the first time in April 2019. I'm a little conflicted about this practice exam. In some ways, a couple of the afternoon questions seemed too easy because they were basically copies of the class examples, but then the modal analysis question was just a bear to get through.  If I see a PM Problem like that, I'm walking out. That problem was crazy. I spent 75 minutes on it and still didn't solve the last two parts. I think the key for something like that where it asks for repetitive work is to just solve for the first mode, and then say to follow the steps you laid out for modes 2 and 3. Hopefully there won't be anything like that.
> 
> The AM problems weren't far off of the real thing. Some were easier, some were harder. I do think there are more general analysis type questions on the real exam though.


Good catch on #113, should be D

I plan on spending the next week just focusing on afternoon problems - I definitely need better time management there.  That, and godforsaken aashto problems.  If I can feel confident on half of the bridge problems, I think I'll be in good shape


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## DoctorWho-PE (Oct 12, 2020)

Oh, you guys are in much better shape than me.  Vertical was 17/40, finished zero afternoon problems, and lateral was 23/40, finished 2 afternoon. I have to have a delicate balance of speed so my writing is legible and still get it done.  Ugh.


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## organix (Oct 19, 2020)

thedaywa1ker said:


> Good catch on #113, should be D
> 
> I plan on spending the next week just focusing on afternoon problems - I definitely need better time management there.  That, and godforsaken aashto problems.  If I can feel confident on half of the bridge problems, I think I'll be in good shape


The written answer is wrong thought, right?  It says 6.5", but that seemingly comes out of nowhere.  I think the right answer is C?


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## ChiefIlliniwek (Oct 20, 2020)

organix said:


> The written answer is wrong thought, right?  It says 6.5", but that seemingly comes out of nowhere.  I think the right answer is C?


Yep. Answer was actually supposed to be C. There was another reduction factor that takes it down from 6.5.


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## thedaywa1ker (Oct 20, 2020)

d'oh! Good to know..thanks guys


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## thedaywa1ker (Oct 23, 2020)

Well this topic aged well. Im so grateful for this class. Worth every penny


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