# Overall exam- April 2014



## Predgw (Apr 14, 2014)

Well, how did you do? I thought the exam was harder than the NCEES practice exam and Mike's morning practice exam. I was very happy with my preparation and was glad that I studied so much. I did a very poor job with time management, but when it is all said and done I think I'm looking at a 66/80. So, maybe I have 10 questions to play with, who knows. Nothing I can do about it now. I have taken the entire test over again in my head twice this weekend ( no wonder I'm so tired) and just need to move on.

I'm kicking myself over two easy questions that I know I got wrong, but it is behind me now.

anybody else?


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## Sapper PE LS (Apr 14, 2014)

Well, not really sure how I did, but ultimately I feel good about it, sort of, well maybe, but I'm not sure. Dammit, have we waited 8 weeks yet? This wait is killing me.

But in all seriousness, I think I might have done okay. All I can say is I really don't want to take another NCEES exam.

And I'm being serious by the way, not just snarky. I took the PS this time around.


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## wattersa81 (Apr 14, 2014)

I was so pissed during this exam. It was no where near the style of questions as any practice exam that I took. My confidence check says I should squeak by but my doubt is still getting to me thinking I'll be at it again this October.


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## StarPE (Apr 14, 2014)

The afternoon session was a slap in the face, 2 punches and a bucket of hot water dumped on me. I'm tired, I'm worried, I won't stop kicking myself about one easy miss. But somehow, I'm hopeful... Goodluck to all. Someone please direct me to the forum where we can play fun games until June or whenever


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## snickerd3 (Apr 14, 2014)

shoot the breeze games section


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## PEsoon2B (Apr 14, 2014)

MAN,

I feel better about this past weekend than I did any of the previous ones....


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## NJmike PE (Apr 14, 2014)

I think I did ok. I left feeling confident

but I just found out that the results show my cholesterol is still high.


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## Sapper PE LS (Apr 14, 2014)

http://engineerboards.com/index.php?showforum=66


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## NJmike PE (Apr 14, 2014)

snickerd3 said:


> shoot the breeze games section


x2


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## Sapper PE LS (Apr 14, 2014)

PE2B said:


> The afternoon session was a slap in the face, 2 punches and a bucket of hot water dumped on me. I'm tired, I'm worried, I won't stop kicking myself about one easy miss. But somehow, I'm hopeful... Goodluck to all. Someone please direct me to the forum where we can play fun games until June or whenever


http://engineerboards.com/index.php?showforum=66


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## Ramnares P.E. (Apr 14, 2014)

Any test takers who took the Thermal / Fluids depth? How did the exam compare to Six Minute Solutions and NCEES sample material?


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## StarPE (Apr 14, 2014)

thanks! @ snickerd3 and sapper.


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## knight1fox3 (Apr 14, 2014)

PE2B said:


> The afternoon session was a slap in the face, 2 punches and a bucket of hot water dumped on me. I'm tired, I'm worried, I won't stop kicking myself about one easy miss. But somehow, I'm hopeful... Goodluck to all. Someone please direct me to the forum where we can play fun games until June or whenever


 LOL....your post reminds me of another very funny exam recap. Hopefully it will give you a good laugh too.



bingcrosbyb said:


> EE - Power. "You sunk my battleship."
> 
> *Preparation Time/Materials:* 250 total hours. 5 textbooks, prep coursework notebook, 2 notebooks of graduate class material, calculators, snacks, rolling suitcase.
> 
> ...


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## snickerd3 (Apr 14, 2014)

where is the post about the different post-test stages?


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## Sapper PE LS (Apr 14, 2014)

knight1fox3 said:


> PE2B said:
> 
> 
> > The afternoon session was a slap in the face, 2 punches and a bucket of hot water dumped on me. I'm tired, I'm worried, I won't stop kicking myself about one easy miss. But somehow, I'm hopeful... Goodluck to all. Someone please direct me to the forum where we can play fun games until June or whenever
> ...


But did he pass?


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## Sapper PE LS (Apr 14, 2014)

snickerd3 said:


> where is the post about the different post-test stages?




It's pinned in this sub-forum


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## knight1fox3 (Apr 14, 2014)

^ he did end up receiving a passing score. But that recap at the time, had me ROFL! Very well written IMO.


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## I M A PE (Apr 14, 2014)

I took a practice test the week before and got 48/80. I went over those errors and did some VERY light studying last week. I feel *much* better about the exam on Friday than the practice exam. I finished both sections with time to spare, and didn't guess on any. I had to make educated guesses on just a few. There were none that were complete stumpers...

I had enough time in the AM to go through about half the questions with a fine tooth comb looking for errors and found 2.

I don't know if I passed but I also don't know if I could have possibly walked out feeling better about it. If I didn't pass, it'll be because of math errors because I walked out feeling that I knew how to set up nearly all of the problems.


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## I M A PE (Apr 14, 2014)

Literally LOL'ed at the "I know the repeat pass rate is low but what about the divorce rate?" comment. Wow, yes, months of neglecting wife and kids. Don't want to have to put any of us through it again.


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## Predgw (Apr 14, 2014)

I had less than 10 minutes to recheck. I found two errors right off. I got stumped on a strucural problem that sucked the life out of me. That question, worth a grand total of ........ONE point!!!!! cost me a lot of time. Very silly on my part.

When I found one mistake I started laughing quitely to myself with a big smile because it was so silly. I looked up and the moderator who was sitting directly in front of me was kind of glaring at me. ohh well.


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## StarPE (Apr 14, 2014)

@knight1fox3, LOL @ that recap. that guy is the drama king of the century. The same thing happened to me. After the morning session I was thinking of where to hang my license and how many copies to make and send to my family members in different parts of africa (I did this for my masters thesis), my new car, hardwood floors in my house, then the afternoon session came and stole my joy -__-

...and so we wait

There was one guy that had one book. I kid u not. Strolled into the exam room like a boss. I also observed a pregnant woman that went into the bathroom every 30 minutes. Poor lady


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## StarPE (Apr 14, 2014)

The guy who sat next to me talked loudly to himself the entire time! I felt bad because he was much older and didn't say anything.


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## I M A PE (Apr 14, 2014)

I think the people who come in with suitcases full of reference material didn't prepare very well. There is NO WAY to use all of that info. I came in with what I could fit in an average sized backpack. MERM, the unit conversion sheets, and a few pages of printed notes from my review course were all I used, and all I wished to use, during the exam. I'm not sure what else I could have taken that would have been helpful.

I have MERM 12 while my prep course referenced everything in MERM 13. That is pretty inconvenient but I was mentally prepared for it. If I have to take this thing again, I'm going to have the *right* version of MERM.


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## VaStruct07 (Apr 14, 2014)

Some of the materials are "required" that some people bring in. I sat in Oct for the Civil PE (Structural), and there were a decent amount of codes that were covered by the exam. If you didn't have those, you would have been in trouble. I had a suitcase about 2/3 -3/4 full of this kind of references. The rest was my prep course information and info sheets.


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## snickerd3 (Apr 14, 2014)

PE2B said:


> @knight1fox3, LOL @ that recap. that guy is the drama king of the century. The same thing happened to me. After the morning session I was thinking of where to hang my license and how many copies to make and send to my family members in different parts of africa (I did this for my masters thesis), my new car, hardwood floors in my house, then the afternoon session came and stole my joy -__-
> 
> ...and so we wait
> 
> There was one guy that had one book. I kid u not. Strolled into the exam room like a boss. I also observed a pregnant woman that went into the bathroom every 30 minutes. Poor lady


I brought a half dozen or so when I took the chemical...but really all I needed was the ChE RM


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## Sapper PE LS (Apr 14, 2014)

Okay, here it is, my official debrief of how I think I did on the April 2014 Principals and Practice of Surveying Exam.

First, I couldn't sleep the night before. It was lights out at 10pm, and I fell asleep for a little while, and then woke with a start! Okay, here we go, I thought, as I began to get out of bed and reached for my phone to check the time (which also these days serves as my alarm clock). You can imagine my annoyance to find that it was 10:23 and what woke me up was my wife asking if I would go get a bottle for our youngest. He was stirring in the bassinette. Without trying to hide my annoyance and huffiness, I heavy footed it downstairs, made a bottle, and brought it back up. I handed it to her and said, "here", harumph.... no I didn't really harrumph out loud, but I wanted to. She then pointed to clothes she was folding, the breast pump she was holding and pumping milk, and looked at herself still in sweaty clothes from chasing three kids around all day and said, "can you... ummm, you know... like feed him?"

So, anyway, when I finally woke up at 4 AM (even though I set my alarm for 5) after only 4.5 hours of sleep, I decided that sleeping any longer just wasn't in the cards. So, I got dressed, jumped in my Jeep (which I had filled up the night before) and drove to my office. I parked my car, went inside, checked EngineerBoards, walked around the empty building, and finally figured it was time to meander over to the testing site. I work about a ten minute walk from the testing center. So, I walked over, and of course was the absolutel first person there. I waited, and watched all the other people as they began to arrive. I was carrying a calculator, my ID, and the admission ticket that I printed from NCEES. There is something nice about taking a closed book exam, as I watched all these poor souls lugging their tuff boxes, back packs, and milk crates around. I made small talk with a couple other surveyor exam candidates and got a little bit panicky when somebody mentioned a book I'd never heard of before, but they were talking about the state specific exam and I wasn't taking that one this time anyway, so I calmed down.

So, finally, I get into the exam room. We go through the rules and signing of the agreement, etc. Then we're told to start. Bam, first one I was struggling. I felt like I was going to hyperventilate, but then I just breathed, read the question again and all of a sudden it became clear to me what was being asked. I answered, then moved on. I kept doing that until I got to the last question. There were a few that I flat out guessed on, I'm not gonna lie, but here's how I classified each question by the time it was all over.

Group A: Nailed it. 100% probability of correctness
Group B: Feel pretty good about it. 75% probability of correctness
Group C: Narrowed them down to two possible solutions. 50% probability of correctness
Group D: Fuck it, no clue. 25% probability of correctness

In the end, I think I probably had about 30% in the Group A range, 35% in the Group B range, maybe 20% in the Group C range, and 15% in the Group D range. So based on that, then I'm thinking that my score should be (30*1)+(35*.75)+(20*.5)+(15*.25)=70 which is a pass. Of course, this is all just a guess. But, this is what gives me hope, because I'm being honest with my assessment here.

The other thing that gives me hope is that there were 8 people taking the PS exam in total. At least two of them were taking it again, having failed in Oct 13, and then there is the guy who didn't come back after lunch. So, because the chances of passing on the first try are 76%, then that means that statistically, 2 people from my group would fail. Well, one of them is the guy who didn't show up after lunch and then the two people who wre retaking the exam statistically only have about a 25% chance of passing it, so one of them is sure to fail, which means I'm in the group that statistically should pass!!! 

Anyway, it's all conjecture till I get the results.


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## TehMightyEngineer (Apr 14, 2014)

Wow, I'm glad I got plenty of sleep before my 16 hour structural exam (only took lateral), I hate mornings and getting up at 6:15 am is not my cup of coffee (screw tea!).

Glad you have a confident outlook. I'm thinking about 65% to 72% for my morning and 3/4 for the afternoon (though the one I may have missed had errors). I like you statistics. My exam had only 3 people in it and we all seemed to be on the same page so, with a 30% pass rate, it's only one of us that passed. YIKES!


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## marysaurus (Apr 14, 2014)

I am about 99.5% sure I passed (Civil - Env/Water resources). The other 0.5% is me doubting my ability to fill in my answer sheet correctly.

This makes me feel better about the strong possibility that I'll be retaking the CA seismic and surveying exams in the fall


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## ############01 (Apr 14, 2014)

what has a 30% pass rate??!! I thought pass rates for most disciplines for first time were in the 60s and 70s?

I took enviro, first time, and feel pretty rubbish about it  I would say my flat-out-wtf-guess-rate was about 15-20% solid. But I ran out of time in an up-to-the-last-second manner (think Chopped-style except instead of garnishes I had a mechanical pencil) so I didn't have time to really reconsider how many I thought were in the ABCD categories above.

On the bright side the test center is only 10 minutes from my house. I met lots of folks who had to overnight it. So there's that for next time.


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## the_gooch (Apr 14, 2014)

Took Electronics and felt decent after the a.m. session. Left the p.m. session doubting my career choice.


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## lehman4 (Apr 14, 2014)

I felt the morning section was reasonable. I skipped three while working my way through but found the right equations for them when I went back. The afternoon transportation section was harder than the ncees practice test but not outside of what I studied for. I feel like I found a suitable answer for each question. Of the questions I remembered and checked after the test it reinforced my guesses.

I went back through each question checking the equation and the calculations 3 or 4 times and left an hour early in the morning and 20 minutes early in the afternoon. I feel like I could have gotten 70+ right but don't want to get ahead of myself. But I feel good about 4 months of studying


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## SNAPE/SMOTT PE (Apr 14, 2014)

Took Mechanical, MS and M afternoon, for second time. Morning went good. Felt like I would pass for sure. Afternoon kicked my butt. Will just have to wait for results.


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## Ships (Apr 14, 2014)

Took - Naval Architecture/Marine Engineering. Feel ok about it. I think it'll be close on either side of the cut line.

Side question: Does anyone know what happens to the booklets? There was at least one question that I felt had two answers and I made a little comment on that question, just curious if anyone (maybe the test writers) will even see it.


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## ajm (Apr 14, 2014)

I took the Civil - Water Resources/Environmental, this was my first time taking the exam so I wasn't exactly sure what I was in for. I felt really good going into the exam. I felt super confident after the morning session as I found most of the problems to be very easy and straightforward and fairly well represented the things I had studied. The afternoon was another story. There were maybe a handful of questions that were quite similar to the practice problems I had done, otherwise it was a lot of scrambling to try to figure things out/look up somewhat unfamiliar equations or topics. I don't think I bombed the afternoon, but I don't think I dunked in its face, either.

Anybody else feel (on at least some of the questions) that the solution you got just couldn't be right because it was too easy/straightforward?


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## BosStr27 (Apr 15, 2014)

altheablue18 said:


> *what has a 30% pass rate??!!* I thought pass rates for most disciplines for first time were in the 60s and 70s?
> 
> I took enviro, first time, and feel pretty rubbish about it  I would say my flat-out-wtf-guess-rate was about 15-20% solid. But I ran out of time in an up-to-the-last-second manner (think Chopped-style except instead of garnishes I had a mechanical pencil) so I didn't have time to really reconsider how many I thought were in the ABCD categories above.
> 
> On the bright side the test center is only 10 minutes from my house. I met lots of folks who had to overnight it. So there's that for next time.


I'm pretty sure pirate was talking about the 16 hour SE exam. The pass rate has gone up a bit in the past year or so, but last year I remember the pass rate for the lateral exam was 25% for first time takers and 16% for repeat takers. Now it's about 40%.


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## matt267 PE (Apr 15, 2014)

ajm said:


> I took the Civil - Water Resources/Environmental, this was my first time taking the exam so I wasn't exactly sure what I was in for. I felt really good going into the exam. I felt super confident after the morning session as I found most of the problems to be very easy and straightforward and fairly well represented the things I had studied. The afternoon was another story. There were maybe a handful of questions that were quite similar to the practice problems I had done, otherwise it was a lot of scrambling to try to figure things out/look up somewhat unfamiliar equations or topics. I don't think I bombed the afternoon, but I don't think I dunked in its face, either.
> 
> Anybody else feel (on at least some of the questions) that the solution you got just couldn't be right because it was too easy/straightforward?


What books did you study from? What practice problems did you do? Did you take a class?

I'm looking to take the Civil-Water next April. I do not like surprises.

I hope you passed. Hand tight, it's going to be a long 40 days.


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## NJmike PE (Apr 15, 2014)

matt267 said:


> ajm said:
> 
> 
> > I took the Civil - Water Resources/Environmental, this was my first time taking the exam so I wasn't exactly sure what I was in for. I felt really good going into the exam. I felt super confident after the morning session as I found most of the problems to be very easy and straightforward and fairly well represented the things I had studied. The afternoon was another story. There were maybe a handful of questions that were quite similar to the practice problems I had done, otherwise it was a lot of scrambling to try to figure things out/look up somewhat unfamiliar equations or topics. I don't think I bombed the afternoon, but I don't think I dunked in its face, either.
> ...


fixt


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## matt267 PE (Apr 15, 2014)

^ Damn it.

Too much spamm'n for me I guess.


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## Ship Wreck PE (Apr 15, 2014)

^^^^ I thought he was holding something tight in his hand for 40 days and 40 nights.


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## matt267 PE (Apr 15, 2014)

Ship Wreck PE said:


> ^^^^ I thought he was holding something tight in his hand for 40 days and 40 nights.


maybe a beer?


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## TehMightyEngineer (Apr 15, 2014)

BosStr27 said:


> altheablue18 said:
> 
> 
> > *what has a 30% pass rate??!!* I thought pass rates for most disciplines for first time were in the 60s and 70s?
> ...




That's the one! Hardest friggin' test you could ever ask for. Last year the pass rate was 38% for lateral first time takers (me). Strangely enough, repeat takers for lateral was 43%. Still, it's pretty abysmal. I wouldn't say they're making the test too hard but rather it reflects how difficult structural engineering can be.


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## ATL Derek (Apr 15, 2014)

ramnares said:


> Any test takers who took the Thermal / Fluids depth? How did the exam compare to Six Minute Solutions and NCEES sample material?


Yep.  The NCEES practice book is a good representation of the morning section, but the afternoon is probably more representative of the 6MS. NCEES is good at giving you just the right amount of information to THINK you have it nailed until you get halfway through the problem and hit a wall. They are good at making sure you fully undertand the process / cycle, etc.

There were a few afternoon questions I had never seen before and had to flat out guess.


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## Ramnares P.E. (Apr 15, 2014)

Thanks for the feedback. A couple of my friends took the Thermal / Fluids depth and agreed that the NCEES was representative of the morning section. The consensus seems to be that preparation should be a combination of SMS and NCEES. Currently working through the Lindeburg Mechanical Sample Exam and it's a bit demoralizing, particularly since I did so well with the SMS. The Lindeburg is very difficult to use as a study tool. The chemical resistance question, I think it's the very 1st question in his sample, isn't covered in the MERM. Neither is the project management tool question he asks later on. It would be helpful if the Lindeburg Sample was cross referenced to the MERM. Sorry for the rant, guess that belongs in another forum...


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## GaryD (Apr 15, 2014)

Exam was a lot harder than I thought - HVAC depth


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## jt74 (Apr 15, 2014)

Water Resources.

I feel good. Save 3 to 5 questions, I got numbers for every numeric solution. That said, all the right wrong answers are provided and I'm sure I made some stupid mistakes. After countless hours working numeric problems, I found I struggled with some of the definition type problems.

Fingers crossed . . .


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## Mike M PE (Apr 15, 2014)

HVAC depth took my pride from me.


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## GaryD (Apr 15, 2014)

mmcdowell25 said:


> HVAC depth took my pride from me.


I think I would have done better if I guessed for every single question lol


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## Mike M PE (Apr 15, 2014)

GaryD said:


> mmcdowell25 said:
> 
> 
> > HVAC depth took my pride from me.
> ...


I thought that I was good after the morning session but then the afternoon came...

Lol


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## SNAPE/SMOTT PE (Apr 15, 2014)

From what others have said and my experience, the mechanical morning went well, but afternoon kicked a lot of arses, across the board, for all three depths!


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## Predgw (Apr 15, 2014)

Any other civil takers out there? What did you think?


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## Golden Eagle PE (Apr 15, 2014)

I am glad I am not the only one who thought the mechanical was hard.


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## goldust (Apr 15, 2014)

Electrical and Electronics here; the difficulty level was about what I expected. I felt quite well prepared. FWIW, in my exam room of 140+ people, I don't think I noticed a single person leave early. I contrast this with my FE bout (October 2013), where about 15% of the test-takers in my room left before the 15-minute mark in the AM and PM. While I was more intimidated by the FE (having not studied topics like thermo or fluids before), the PE was much more daunting for me. I was _supposed _to know how to solve those problems.

Well, we'll see.


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## bflem (Apr 16, 2014)

I felt civil morning was relatively straight forward. Structural afternoon on the other hand was rather difficult.


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## Memozee (Apr 16, 2014)

[SIZE=medium]I took Mechanical - Thermal / Fluids depth and as most of us here my morning went good but the afternoon kicked my left nutt. I had similar feeling of thinking "where to hang my PE license" after the morning exam but the afternoon session has taken all that joy away.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]On my way back from exam I started calculating what the "cut-score" would be...in an attempt to see if I stand a chance on passing my exam. It’s later that I realized that I am trying to arrive a number with very few knowns and bunch of unknowns...so thats out. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Morning Exam: I felt that I might have scored about 70% [/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Afternoon Exam: 15 (solid) + 15 (good engineering guesses..have spend a lot of time trying to solve but ended up guessing on the closest numbers I computed) x 0.4 + 10 (random guess as I ran out of time) x 0.2. [/SIZE]

*[SIZE=medium]Therefore: [/SIZE]*

[SIZE=medium]Morning: 40 x 0.7 = 28 [/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Afternoon: 15+6+2 = 23 [/SIZE]

*[SIZE=medium]Total: 51 / 80 ~ 63% raw..NOT SURE IF THIS IS ENOUGH!!! [/SIZE]*


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## Predgw (Apr 16, 2014)

The morning had more gottcha questions than the afternoon ( transportation) IMO. There were 3 or 4 that were very strightforward but they were either; worded such that you had to pay attention to what they were actually asking for, or the math part was so easy that if you flew through this you would get it wrong. In my opinion there were two construction problems like this. Very easy problems, nothing you would/should have to study for, but if you speed through the problem it was easy to make a mistake. I think this explains the mystery of peope who thought they did very well and then failed. Missing 5 problems you had no clue about is worth the same amount of points as missing 5 problems you thought were super easy and messed up.


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## marysaurus (Apr 16, 2014)

matt267 said:


> ajm said:
> 
> 
> > I took the Civil - Water Resources/Environmental, this was my first time taking the exam so I wasn't exactly sure what I was in for. I felt really good going into the exam. I felt super confident after the morning session as I found most of the problems to be very easy and straightforward and fairly well represented the things I had studied. The afternoon was another story. There were maybe a handful of questions that were quite similar to the practice problems I had done, otherwise it was a lot of scrambling to try to figure things out/look up somewhat unfamiliar equations or topics. I don't think I bombed the afternoon, but I don't think I dunked in its face, either.
> ...




I know you didn't ask me, but I took an Excel Test Prep class (Fremont, CA, not sure if they offer classes elsewhere) and used their materials plus and environmental dictionary (not really necessary) and Lindeburg. For what it's worth, my background isn't in Civil at all, and just taking that class prepared me well enough to feel VERY confident that I passed.

I was surprised in the test, though, by the number of qualitative questions regarding water/wastewater treatment. I'm not sure how I could have better prepared for that stuff?


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## matt267 PE (Apr 16, 2014)

marysaurus said:


> matt267 said:
> 
> 
> > ajm said:
> ...


Thanks for the info. I'm definitely going to take a class to help me study.


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## I M A PE (Apr 16, 2014)

For sure, I believe I'd have had a zero chance of passing without my review course. It was extremely helpful by all measures. Helpful as a review, helpful knowing what to expect, helpful assembling relevant reference material and MOST importantly because of those first three, it was helpful keeping me from panicking during the test. LOL.

Did I pass? It's hard to say I'm confident that I did. But I'm confident that I have a shot.


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## matt267 PE (Apr 16, 2014)

Ready for PE said:


> For sure, I believe I'd have had a zero chance of passing without my review course. It was extremely helpful by all measures. Helpful as a review, helpful knowing what to expect, helpful assembling relevant reference material and MOST importantly because of those first three, it was helpful keeping me from panicking during the test. LOL.
> 
> Did I pass? It's hard to say I'm confident that I did. But I'm confident that I have a shot.


What class did you take?


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## Golden Eagle PE (Apr 16, 2014)

School of PE was good. Helped me out a lot.


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## I M A PE (Apr 16, 2014)

School of PE for Mechanical. It was the weeknight class: 4 nights a week, 3 hours a night, for 5 weeks. All of the teachers were good except for the mech systems and materials guy (which was the PM test I took). He was a little weak, definitely disorganized and we had some technical issues. That makes it sound worse than it was. I still came out feeling prepared but thought mech and materials could have been better. The Thermo guy and the HVAC lady were phenomenal. Those were what I considered my weakest areas and now I feel pretty strong in them. I came out of Thermo understanding concepts that have eluded me since college. I "get it" now. Wish that guy had been my prof in college.

As far as notes... I printed all of the class notes double sided and shrunk down to 50% size, had them bound in a spiral binder, and highlighted the important stuff. I think that turned out great because all of my notes were about 1" thick and I could view 8 pages at once without having to turn a page. Huge time saver. MERM and those notes were almost all I used during the exam. I had a few other things that I referenced when I was really stumped but I'd say I was able to tackle 95% of the problems with only those two resources.

I also took the NCEES practice exam the sunday before and spent the final week going over and making notes on my errors on that exam. I think that helped me get 3-4 right that I wouldn't have otherwise.


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## matt267 PE (Apr 16, 2014)

Ready for PE said:


> School of PE for Mechanical. It was the weeknight class: 4 nights a week, 3 hours a night, for 5 weeks. All of the teachers were good except for the mech systems and materials guy (which was the PM test I took). He was a little weak, definitely disorganized and we had some technical issues. That makes it sound worse than it was. I still came out feeling prepared but thought mech and materials could have been better. The Thermo guy and the HVAC lady were phenomenal. Those were what I considered my weakest areas and now I feel pretty strong in them. I came out of Thermo understanding concepts that have eluded me since college. I "get it" now. Wish that guy had been my prof in college.
> 
> As far as notes... I printed all of the class notes double sided and shrunk down to 50% size, had them bound in a spiral binder, and highlighted the important stuff. I think that turned out great because all of my notes were about 1" thick and I could view 8 pages at once without having to turn a page. Huge time saver. MERM and those notes were almost all I used during the exam. I had a few other things that I referenced when I was really stumped but I'd say I was able to tackle 95% of the problems with only those two resources.
> 
> I also took the NCEES practice exam the sunday before and spent the final week going over and making notes on my errors on that exam. I think that helped me get 3-4 right that I wouldn't have otherwise.


I took School of PE for my EIT review. I'm thinking of taking them for my PE review too. The thermo instructor for the EIT was also excellent. (probably the same guy)

Thanks for the insight.


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## Stealtharsenal_PE (Apr 16, 2014)

I took the Water Resources &amp; Environemental again this time around (second time on the exam). For me it was certainly a prep issue as I breezed the morning (to the tune of 2 hours). The afternoon took all four hours for sure with the last two in Water be more or less guesses as I didn't have the time to solve them. For the most part the water resources problems were straight forward and were equations. The wastewater part of the exam was interesting, I guess having a regulatory standard in your back pocket might have helped for one of them. Becuase I thought my issue was a prep issue it would be biased to say I thought the October exam was harder. But truthfully, the OCtober exam was harder and had far less conceptually based questions. I left the exam confident. Mike PE did help a bit with study suggestions and they were awesome. Previous NCEES exams and Goswamis book were my keys to my prep this time.


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## NJmike PE (Apr 16, 2014)

Glad to hear about your confidence this time stealth


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## SNAPE/SMOTT PE (Apr 16, 2014)

Now that it's over...no matter how you did...

Do you wanna build a snowman?....


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## NJmike PE (Apr 17, 2014)

Damn it that song along with the other one drive me nuts


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## Ramnares P.E. (Apr 17, 2014)

Hey Mike, maybe you should just...Let it go


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## NJmike PE (Apr 17, 2014)

Let me think,

NO.


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## SNAPE/SMOTT PE (Apr 17, 2014)

Haha! Yeah, well my 7 year old is autistic, and when she gets stuck on a song we get to hear it non stop for days. It's that or deal with meltdowns, which are much worse than listening to whatever song she is into at the time.


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## NJmike PE (Apr 17, 2014)

Good point. Sing away


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## I M A PE (Apr 17, 2014)

I think I'm glad I haven't seen this movie yet.


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## engineergurl (Apr 17, 2014)

ramnares said:


> Hey Mike, maybe you should just...Let it go




You are quite lucky I relinquished my admin rights some time ago and do not have the ability to ban.


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## NJmike PE (Apr 17, 2014)

engineergurl said:


> ramnares said:
> 
> 
> > Hey Mike, maybe you should just...Let it go
> ...


seriously. somebody needs to drop the ban hammer here


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## I M A PE (Apr 17, 2014)

Ready for PE said:


> I think I'm glad I haven't seen this movie yet.


However, because I have 10 and 8 year old daughters, it's only a matter of time.


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## knight1fox3 (Apr 17, 2014)

Hmmm......


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## mjco04 (Apr 17, 2014)

I took EE Electronics. I'm not even trying to remember the exam right now since it was completely different the first time I took it last April. I hope I did enough to pass though :/

I hate the self-doubt phase of Post-PE. I feel like I did all problems incorrectly.


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## StarPE (Apr 17, 2014)

Any chemical takers on here? how did you feel about the PM session?


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## Ramnares P.E. (Apr 17, 2014)

Sorry everyone, didn't intend to have that song stuck in your head for the remainder of the day...and all through the weekend.


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## engineergurl (Apr 17, 2014)

ramnares said:


> Sorry everyone, didn't intend to have that song stuck in your head for the remainder of the day...and all through the weekend.




this is your one free pass... :bag:

honestly, I've never heard the song, only that stupid part that eveyone posts videos of their kids singing on facebook, which is also the same part that the news media seems to only have


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## knight1fox3 (Apr 17, 2014)

^ they play it here on the radio at least 10 times per day... :brickwall:


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## Ramnares P.E. (Apr 17, 2014)

Could be worst. A coworker of mine has plays it on repeat every morning at least 3 - 5 times. I recently switched jobs so I don't feel comfortable going over and telling her that she needs to cut the crap.


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## engineergurl (Apr 17, 2014)

knight1fox3 said:


> ^ they play it here on the radio at least 10 times per day... :brickwall:




change the channel, it is never played on the country stations here



ramnares said:


> Could be worst. A coworker of mine has plays it on repeat every morning at least 3 - 5 times. I recently switched jobs so I don't feel comfortable going over and telling her that she needs to cut the crap.




start singing along, loudly... maybe she will get the hint?


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## Ramnares P.E. (Apr 17, 2014)

Might have to start blasting ACDC every time she plays 'that' song.


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## engineergurl (Apr 17, 2014)

ramnares said:


> Might have to start blasting ACDC every time she plays 'that' song.




that might work too...


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## Golden Eagle PE (Apr 17, 2014)

Never heard the song, do not care to.


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## Memozee (Apr 19, 2014)

Golden Eagle &amp; Ready for PE, I took School of PE as well….I took the weekend option. My review of school of PE:

-Thermo &amp; HVAC Instructors – Very Good

-Fluids &amp; Machine Design Instructor – Fairly Good

-Engineering Econ &amp; Project Management Science Instructor – Awful

Overall it was a decent review. What do you guys feel?


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## Golden Eagle PE (Apr 19, 2014)

I rated the instructors pretty high across the board. I was able to learn and understand the problems so I decided they deserved a good rating. They were also very responsive to my questions. I feel the course helped me a lot but we will see how it affects my results soon.


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