# SE II Exam



## ARLORD (Aug 29, 2008)

I am taking the SE II Exam in October. I took it in 2002 prior to the format change in 2004.

Does anyone have any feedback after taking the exam after 2004. In 2002 the passing rate

was 14%. Now it is near 60%.

What is the difficulty level of the seismic questions. Is it a waste of time studying special seismic

braced and moment frames. Any input would help, thanks


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## kevo_55 (Aug 29, 2008)

ARLORD, I took the SEII exam maybe a year and a half ago.

I honestly thought it was easier to deal with than the Structural I exam, but it was defintely not an easy exam.

The difficulty of the seismic questions will be hard, but not impossible. They can ask you any seismic topic under the sun so study everything. This includes all seismic MFRS, detailing requirements, etc. You will have two out of your four essay questions with seismic.

I would buy the NCEES sample exam. It's a good estimate on what the questions will look like in the actual exam.

I hope this helps!


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## ARLORD (Aug 29, 2008)

kevo_55,

Thanks for your input,

I have the ncees sample exam booklet, the IBC structural I, II &amp; III and other books. I am also going through the examples in the Seismic Provisions. All the examples seem straight forward. I also took the SE II in 2002, the pass rate was 14%. We had only one question per 4 hour session.

I find the questions in the SE II sample book from ncees to be a lot easier than the problems in the above books and the problems on the SE II exam that I took.

With the current format, would you say that you get asked 25% on each wood, concrete, steel and masonry, or do you see more of some over the other. Do you need the full two hours for each problem.

I see that you are preparing to take the SE III in WA. How different do you think that is from the ncees SE II.

Do they all just ask the same structural questions with the same difficulty or is the SE III more difficult/in depth or more focused on seismic. I am just very curious about all of these exams.

We now have national building codes. Now it is time to have national exams.


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## kevo_55 (Aug 30, 2008)

ARLORD,

You're right. I am studying for the SEIII in WA but in October I'll be taking the CA mini exams.

With the current format of the SEII you'll get one steel question, one concrete question, one wood and/or masonry question, and the one "other" question. This "other" question is a msc. structure or computer output verification. I would honestly say that you should know it all. I had to take the SEII exam twice and they were not similar in problem types. It really is a mixed bag.

From my resources for the SEIII it is like the SEII, but much more difficult. I believe that they do not ask you an "other" question so they simply focus on the main four building materials: steel, concrete, wood, and masonry. I think that each question is seismic intensive.

I see that you've got the right books for studying. If you need any more help, make a topic and o\a few of us structural lurkers can help you out.

Good luck!


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