# Interesting stories?



## MetroRAFB (Oct 31, 2006)

*First:* Did anyone taking the PE Friday fill out one of those NCEES forms complaining about the fairness/wording of any exam questions? There were two I was going to bitch about, but totally didn't give a crap by the time the exam was over. My brain was so mushy by then I couldn't have recreated the exact problems word for word from scratch anyway, or even remembered what number they were.

:?7?:

*Second:* Does anyone have any interesting stories about test day? Our proctor while reading the morning instructions initially said we had 4hrs and 45 minutes to work the morning portion. You could have heard a pin drop until one of the other proctors corrected her. It was pretty funny, I got the impression that 350 or so examinees were gonna let that one slide if they got the chance. :lol2x:


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## FusionWhite (Oct 31, 2006)

I took the FE on saturday and I had someone not show up for the afternoon session. This really really scrubby looking guy came in about 2 minutes before they were going to close the doors to start the test. He was wearing a nasty flannel shirt and a ragged John Deer hat.

He finished the morning session with about an hour to spare (Im doubting he finished at this point). He never came back. He left his calculator (HP33s) and his John Deer hat laying in the testing room. A proctor took it and put it on the table outside the room and it was still there when I finished and left.

Also the guy infront of me kept EATING during the exam. I figured that was against the rules but about halfway through the morning session he called the proctor over and whispered to her he was diabetic and had to go take an insulin shot (I heard it because the tables were so close front to back but very spread out side to side). So he picked up a leather case and went to the bathroom.


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## Road Guy (Oct 31, 2006)

On your first point:

I really did mean to fill one out about one of the PM transportation questions, can i still fill the form out or is it to late at this point?

We had a guy with the wrong calculator (sat right next to GTScott, who sat in front of me) It was funny watching a grown man about to cry. It was even funnier when someone loaned him a HP 33S,and he didnt know how to use the RPN...

Our exam administrator was a little hottie, but she seemed like the kind of girl that if you married her, you would pray to the gods for them to let you die...

Also I was taking a leak just before the test and I busted my zipper in the latrine, I had to walk halfway across the room showing of my tighty whiteys


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## MetroRAFB (Oct 31, 2006)

LMAO! That's a good one RoadGuy, you pervert.

One of the proctors made two guys a few tables away from me rip all the pages out of a couple spiral notebooks they had and put the individual pages in a 3-ring binder they had. I'm not sure what the point of that was.


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## Road Guy (Oct 31, 2006)

I guess some states dont like the spiral notebooks?

I am glad Georgia is laid back, all they check is your calculator.


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## DVINNY (Oct 31, 2006)

Fusion, maybe that was me. LOL.

I was getting low sugar all through the morning section, but left the room twice to eat something. I bought a snickers that helped out, but the funny story is, it got snagged in the vending machine that was right outside of the exam room. I had to rock the machine side to side, and back and forth until it finally fell out. The ELSES guy and the security guard were out there laughing at me.

I told them I was about 5 seconds away from turning that vending machine upside down, and handing out snacks to everyone.

That machine was PISSIN' ME OFF.

When my anxiety goes up, my blood glucose drops even faster. I was a mess during the AM portion.


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## Mike1144 (Oct 31, 2006)

Do people honestly think they can bring cell phones in if they just turn them off? We had like 5 announcements that cell phones are NOT allowed in the room at all. And after every announcement you could see some proctor collecting another cell phone. I think we got started like 30 minutes late just from people bringing in cell phones.

This was at Austin.


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## Wolverine (Oct 31, 2006)

That was no little hottie RoadGuy, that was a CALCULATOR THIEVING SUCCUBUS!

Give me back my calculator you demoness!

Did anyone actually witness a booting from any of the exams?


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## FusionWhite (Oct 31, 2006)

DVinny I cant imagine how terrible it must be taking a test with low blood sugar. I dont really have problem with it but my wife does and when hers gets low she turns into a monster.

The story about the guy having the wrong calculator is great though (great as in I feel bad for him). How could you not know what calculator to bring it. Its pasted all over the NCEES website and the registration form AND the admission paper.


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## Wolverine (Oct 31, 2006)

I can answer that: I naively believed that my TI-36 without the "x" in the designation would pass (even though I had secretly modified it into a digital spy camera with satellite uplink connected directly to Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings cerebral cortex and a roomful of scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasedena). It's always good to have a backup calculator so I was spared.


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## EdinNO (Oct 31, 2006)

Next thing you know, OSHA is gonna be on NCEES' butts. There will be strict regs on how many books, what type of cart to tote them in (ie, an officially sanctioned NCEES cart), etc... NCEES and/or "the other board" (one in the same?) should be able to make a few more bucks out of this. :thumbsup: 

Ed


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## RIP - VTEnviro (Oct 31, 2006)

> He finished the morning session with about an hour to spare (Im doubting he finished at this point). He never came back. He left his calculator (HP33s) and his John Deer hat laying in the testing room. A proctor took it and put it on the table outside the room and it was still there when I finished and left.


My boss told me how he took the equivalent of the FE in the early 70s. He was a frat boy senior in college, and heard it was easy and you didn't even need to prepare for it.

He got to the exam room, looked at the first couple questions, put his pencil down, and went home.


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## DVINNY (Oct 31, 2006)

> One of our proctors tripped over somebody's books toward the end of the AM section. She was an older woman and they took her out on a stretcher. I suppose she must of broken her hip or something. Sad, but then again, there probably should be an age limitation for the proctors, I think the youngest proctor I saw was a young whippersnapper of about 73 years.


Are you f'in kidding me? :rotflmao


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## Hill William (Nov 1, 2006)

> One of our proctors tripped over somebody's books toward the end of the AM section. She was an older woman and they took her out on a stretcher. I suppose she must of broken her hip or something. Sad, but then again, there probably should be an age limitation for the proctors, I think the youngest proctor I saw was a young whippersnapper of about 73 years.


You tripped her didn't ya sap???


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## Fudgey (Nov 1, 2006)




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## ILvTigers (Nov 1, 2006)

Roadguy, I remember the guy that borrowed a calculator in the exam. My heart breaks for him that it was an HP, and he can't use RPN. That happened to me at Tech when my calculator's batteries died, and I learned my lesson. I brought extra batteries to the PE and my calculator was solar!


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## Road Guy (Nov 1, 2006)

> Roadguy, I remember the guy that borrowed a calculator in the exam. My heart breaks for him that it was an HP, and he can't use RPN. That happened to me at Tech when my calculator's batteries died, and I learned my lesson. I brought extra batteries to the PE and my calculator was solar!


so you must have been sitting close to me?

Part of me really did feel bad for the guy (A very small part)

Long time no see , hope things have been well.


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## Hockeyfan960 (Nov 1, 2006)

I sat for the FE in Delaware in April....two guys came back from lunch like 2 minutes late....they had started to hand out the PM test and they booted the two guys....they were pissed...!!! Packed up their stuff and out the door they went...


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## Road Guy (Nov 1, 2006)

man that would suck, I didnt even leave the parking lot...


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## EdinNO (Nov 1, 2006)

> I sat for the FE in Delaware in April....two guys came back from lunch like 2 minutes late....they had started to hand out the PM test and they booted the two guys....they were pissed...!!! Packed up their stuff and out the door they went...


I guess they (the proctors) need to have control, but IMO that's a little extreme. I bet they felt good about themselves afterward (the proctors)- NOT.

Ed


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## Frontier05 (Nov 1, 2006)

> On your first point:
> I really did mean to fill one out about one of the PM transportation questions, can i still fill the form out or is it to late at this point?
> 
> We had a guy with the wrong calculator (sat right next to GTScott, who sat in front of me) It was funny watching a grown man about to cry. It was even funnier when someone loaned him a HP 33S,and he didnt know how to use the RPN...
> ...


You mean the guy who let him borrow the calculator asked him if he knew how to use RPN, found out he didn't, and kept it in RPN mode for him? ouch!! :blink: It's a nice feature on the hp33s, to switch from standard to RPN.

I'm sure many of us handed our calcs to a co-worker for a quick calc, and they had no clue of RPN operation, then the laughing started when they ask whats wrong with the calc.

Like many out there, I've used RPN for years (since 1990) and I'm used to thinking a certain way, it's not easy as easy as I thought trying to work with a standard calc cause I tried. Fortunatly they let a RPN calc on the test.

I guess on the other hand, part of taking this test is being prepared, taking responsibility to read, understand, and FOLLOW the instruction letter (and I know, unfortunate things happen too).


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## Road Guy (Nov 1, 2006)

I think the guy who didnt bring the correct calculator actually got the girl sitting behind him to change it from RPN mode to regular mode.

I like the RPN as well, it makes much more sense to me, I have my HP 48SX locked away until I get my passing letter though...


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## Road Guy (Nov 1, 2006)

I will drink a beer tonight in his honor.


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## traffic (Nov 2, 2006)

I had a friend start on the wrong test in the PM. He was going to transpo but started on Geo. By the time he realized his error an hour had passed. He tried to stick with Geo , big mistake. Had 2 structure guys beside me and they had only answered 18 questions in the afternoon at the 15 mins left signal. They didn't look to happy, but hey what structure guy does!!!! :rotfl:


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## Max Power (Nov 2, 2006)

> Had 2 structure guys beside me and they had only answered 18 questions in the afternoon at the 15 mins left signal.


Are you serious? Well, I did get finished, so that makes me feel a_ little_ better about my structral pm exam.

:kick:


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## conradbl (Nov 2, 2006)

there were tons of hotties at my site. about half-way through the pm, one of the girls got up and started removing all of her clothing. oh wait, i was at the gentlemen's club that afternoon. :drunk:


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## ILvTigers (Nov 6, 2006)

> > Roadguy, I remember the guy that borrowed a calculator in the exam.  My heart breaks for him that it was an HP, and he can't use RPN.  That happened to me at Tech when my calculator's batteries died, and I learned my lesson.  I brought extra batteries to the PE and my calculator was solar!
> 
> 
> so you must have been sitting close to me?
> ...


I was in the last row and the second table from the left. I think the guy with no calculator was about 3 tables to the right. It has been a while. The wedding went off without a hitch, and the honeymoon was fun (Vegas). I'm afraid I didn't get a lot of studying done with all that going on in September. This time, I only did practice problems during my study time. Last time, I did hardly any problems and that really messed me up. I feel much better about this time around than last, but who knows if I did well enough to pass.


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## ALBin517 (Nov 6, 2006)

When I took the FE exam (Tallahassee - Fall 2002) I was the first to arrive at the site. I figured I'd give myself plenty of time for car trouble and, time permitting, relax with a small drink and the morning paper to clear my head. Ten minutes into the newspaper, a guy shows up for the exam with a book dolly and a dozen reference books. I thought, "Son of a gun. Didn't the instructions say not to bring references? Well, I'll go in and take a look at the exam and try again in the spring."

Turns out the guy was a day late for taking the Part II exam. He was a first-timer who'd never looked at his admission letter. I felt bad for him but if he can't figure that out, I don't want him signing plans for the next bridge I drive over.

On a related note, it was torture taking the exam at the airport conference center. Guys were flying in for the Notre Dame / Florida State football game so I was walking in to take the FE exam while they were walking out to go tailgating.

For informational purposes, I took the general exam in the PM and scored a 78.


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## Dleg (Nov 6, 2006)

Well, this isn't really that interesting, but it was kind of one of those "why does this shit always happen to me?" moments. We were forced to move to another exam room during the lunch break because the hotel staff didn't have the proper room ready in the morning, and there was a wedding or something in the afternoon. So we all haul our stuff over to the next room, take "exactly the same table you had in the other room" as instructed, and as I sit down, I discover that the frickin' hotel staff installed my particular table backwards. The tables were those really skinny conference-type tables, and on one side there's a bar or something that's about knee height. I only had another two minutes or so before the afternoon session began, so I just groaned and said nothing, and sat sideways for the rest of the exam. It was kind of humiliating. The saying nothing part, I mean.

:ZZZ:


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## Road Guy (Nov 6, 2006)

oh man that had to suck, its bad enough you had to get on a damn airplane, you should get like 2-3 free points just for having to get on an airplane to take the exam


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## tmckeon_PE (Nov 10, 2006)

My wife was leaving after dropping me off at the test site. There was a guy that my wife saw parking and getting his bags She said to him that he might want to hurry up. He started running.

They had just shut the doors (with that 45 minutes of talk stuff), but would not let him in. I actually felt a little sorry for the guy.

:true:


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## ARJ (Nov 10, 2006)

That is so sad.


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## tmckeon_PE (Nov 11, 2006)

My wife reminded me of another story.

There was an old guy...(ok, stop calling him old) that walked into the April exam without any support materials and my wife struck up a conversation with him. Turns out that he was unaware of the CERM and, as expected, failed the April exam. Prior to the exam, my wife explained to him the need for the CERM or other references, but he didn't have those available. For the October exam, the gentleman showed up again, but, this time, had the CERM and the WR six min sol for reference. We hope he did well. :true:


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