# Good luck, everyone!



## TehMightyEngineer (Apr 14, 2017)

Good luck with this final week of studying.


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## StandardPractice (Apr 14, 2017)

Thanks!


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## ZEZO4 (Apr 19, 2017)

Thanks.


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## NEK ENGINEER (Apr 19, 2017)

Thank you!


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## dimockman (Apr 19, 2017)

Thanks !

Good luck to all

Sent from my GT-I9295 using Tapatalk


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## leggo PE (Apr 19, 2017)

Good luck, SE test takers!


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## Chillhaus_SE (Apr 20, 2017)

Best of luck to everyone!


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## OHBridgeGuy (Apr 20, 2017)

Thanks and the same to any others taking it!


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## StructuralVFL (Apr 24, 2017)

There was stuff on that exam that I had never seen before.  I spent countless hours studying, but 3/4 of the afternoon lateral questions was stuff that I didn't even know what the heck they were asking.  I BS'd my way through 1 of the 3, but in the end I knew it wasn't going to be enough because I couldn't answer more than one part of the other 2.  I walked out after 2.5 hours defeated with my head in my hands and my tail between my legs.  It's unreal how much of that test (both days) was stuff I had never seen.  It seemed the only stuff I felt confident on wasn't even on it. It's on to the PE for me.


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## Mithrandir918 (Apr 24, 2017)

StructuralVFL said:


> There was stuff on that exam that I had never seen before.  I spent countless hours studying, but 3/4 of the afternoon lateral questions was stuff that I didn't even know what the heck they were asking.  I BS'd my way through 1 of the 3, but in the end I knew it wasn't going to be enough because I couldn't answer more than one part of the other 2.  I walked out after 2.5 hours defeated with my head in my hands and my tail between my legs.  It's unreal how much of that test (both days) was stuff I had never seen.  It seemed the only stuff I felt confident on wasn't even on it. It's on to the PE for me.


Did you take Bridges or Buildings?


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## StructuralVFL (Apr 24, 2017)

Mithrandir918 said:


> Did you take Bridges or Buildings?


I took the buildings.  Although the bridge morning questions were also killer. I'm upset about the whole thing.  A ton of wasted time, money, and effort.


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## Mithrandir918 (Apr 24, 2017)

Illinois certainly isn't making this test any easier.  I just want to thank NCEES for giving the worst accommodations for taking the most important exam of my career.  There was a business party in the adjacent room where we were able to listen to people yell and get drunk and party while we tried to focus.  I spend 6 months studying for an exam and have to deal with my table shaking from a party next door.  There was about +/- 250 people in that room x $500/ person nearing $130,000 to take that test and they cannot accommodate us and potentially ruin peoples lives.

Also want to thank NCEES for making one test to the next substantially different in difficulty, it really shows that you provide a fair opportunity for everyone but we know this is Illinois where the idea of fairness and ethics is comical.


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## StructuralVFL (Apr 24, 2017)

Mithrandir918 said:


> Also want to thank NCEES for making one test to the next substantially different in difficulty


so have you taken it before, then? You feel like this time around was a lot more difficult than in previous years? Did you take both Gravity and Lateral this weekend?


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## jtcrus31 (Apr 24, 2017)

StructuralVFL said:


> I walked out after 2.5 hours defeated with my head in my hands and my tail between my legs.  It's unreal how much of that test (both days) was stuff I had never seen.


I took both components last October for the first time and passed only the vertical.  My opinion is that this recent exam's lateral afternoon was even more difficult.  I understand your frustration, but we just have learn from the exam and do it again if needed.


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## tua85366 (Apr 24, 2017)

jtcrus31 said:


> I took both components last October for the first time and passed only the vertical.  My opinion is that this recent exam's lateral afternoon was even more difficult.  I understand your frustration, but we just have learn from the exam and do it again if needed.


Congrats on passing vertical. Buildings or bridges? Just out of curiosity, how did you feel about your performance on vertical after walking out of the exam? 

I just sat for vertical buildings and feel semi-confident. Tripped up on a few things in the afternoon, but nothing too major. I was able to complete mostly everything in the allotted amount of time.


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## jtcrus31 (Apr 24, 2017)

tua85366 said:


> Congrats on passing vertical. Buildings or bridges? Just out of curiosity, how did you feel about your performance on vertical after walking out of the exam?
> 
> I just sat for vertical buildings and feel semi-confident. Tripped up on a few things in the afternoon, but nothing too major. I was able to complete mostly everything in the allotted amount of time.


Thanks.  Buildings....I felt horrible....still feel like they accidentally graded someone else's.  My chicken scratch was terrible.  I was surprised how much I had to rush.  

If you feel semi ok about it and you were good with time, you most likely did well.  Good luck.


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## tua85366 (Apr 24, 2017)

jtcrus31 said:


> Thanks.  Buildings....I felt horrible....still feel like they accidentally graded someone else's.  My chicken scratch was terrible.  I was surprised how much I had to rush.
> 
> If you feel semi ok about it and you were good with time, you most likely did well.  Good luck.


Oh wow, thanks for the input. That makes me feel better. Hopefully you're feeling a little more confident about this year's lateral component. I'll being tackling that this October.


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## TehMightyEngineer (Apr 24, 2017)

I'm hearing a wide variety of comments back from people in the PPI review course. Some people felt this was easier than October, but based on the responses I'm going to guess it's about the same if not worse. The most common theme I'm hearing is everyone has mentioned how they saw problems with unexpected topics. Looks like this exam really threw people a bunch of curve balls.


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## Mithrandir918 (Apr 24, 2017)

StructuralVFL said:


> so have you taken it before, then? You feel like this time around was a lot more difficult than in previous years? Did you take both Gravity and Lateral this weekend?


4th time taking lateral, passed vertical the first time I took it.  This was by far a much more difficult bridge afternoon than the last 3 times i have taken it.  I believe the last time was much simpler and they must of had a higher acceptable rate in the afternoon so they needed to make it harder.  I had a feeling this was going to be the case coming in and was prepared, i just dont understand how you can make a test so different, this means people get thru and become licensed at easier test times.


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## StructuralVFL (Apr 24, 2017)

TehMightyEngineer said:


> Looks like this exam really threw people a bunch of curve balls.


It felt like a majority of it was curve balls.  I felt so prepared and somewhat confident going in.  I was a broken and defeated man coming out.


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## Civil Dawg (Apr 24, 2017)

Buildings vertical 1st time taker here.  I took the PE 2 years ago and finished both morning and afternoon in 3 hours confident I had passed.  You could have given me 6 hours to take the afternoon SE exam and I still don't think I would have had time.  Hopefully they give tons of partial credit because I will absolutely need it.  The morning I fell like I'm probably somewhere in the mid-high 20's correct but don't feel like I deserve an "acceptable" on any of the afternoon portion.  We'll see in about 8 weeks I guess but I would be very surprised if I passed.  And the thing is, after taking the exam, I'm not sure I could study for 6 more months and go in to the exam in October and do any better.  The time crunch is very real.


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## Mithrandir918 (Apr 24, 2017)

Any bridge guys weigh in on their thoughts?


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## NEK ENGINEER (Apr 24, 2017)

Bridge vertical and lateral first time. I took EET Review class (both vertical and lateral). The review classes helped me a lot especially the lateral afternoon. The test was very similar to what they covered. I felt very confident in the afternoon (both days). But the morning properly will kill me.


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## Lomarandil (Apr 24, 2017)

Bridge vertical and lateral, first time here too.

There were definitely a lot of curveball questions -- just unusual circumstances to apply the concepts. A couple of AM questions were tough for me (having never done those particular types of projects before), and the vertical afternoon questions weren't quite what I expected (though not too bad in the end -- as long as I didn't overlook some obscure code provision). I also felt the time crunch, which isn't usually an issue when I take tests.

I also thought there might have been a typo on an AM seismic question that had a very low design parameter... or maybe I just messed up the code minimums. Who knows?

I was definitely thankful to be taking Bridges instead of Buildings. I didn't think the 2hr problems really took that long, so I was able to reallocate some extra time into the two shorter problems.


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## Mithrandir918 (Apr 24, 2017)

Lomarandil said:


> I was definitely thankful to be taking Bridges instead of Buildings. I didn't think the 2hr problems really took that long, so I was able to reallocate some extra time into the two shorter problems.


How did you feel about the 2hr Lateral PM problem?


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## Lomarandil (Apr 24, 2017)

The twist they threw in was unusual and took me a little while to wrap my head around (like, how do you even detail that physically?). And of course I wasn't a fan of how it changed the method we had to use, I prefer the other one. But in the end, the result I got was reasonable, so it didn't seem too bad.


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## Mithrandir918 (Apr 24, 2017)

Lomarandil said:


> The twist they threw in was unusual and took me a little while to wrap my head around (like, how do you even detail that physically?). And of course I wasn't a fan of how it changed the method we had to use, I prefer the other one. But in the end, the result I got was reasonable, so it didn't seem too bad.


Sounds like you feel pretty good and thats good!


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## ZEZO4 (Apr 24, 2017)

First time took both of the (Building_Vertical&amp;Lateral), vertical  morning was not easy not hard was reasonable, but the time was not enough for my, I did around 6 to 7 questions randomly), lateral morning was hard, the time was enough but the questions were hard, some questions need more information's, the afternoon was not easy both of them, I don't know how they will credit us for the afternoon, but I feel in the middle.


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## EZBuilding (Apr 24, 2017)

First time sitting for the exams, I took both the Vertical and Lateral Buildings test. I feel for the poster above who had a party next door to the test site, this is a tough enough exam without dealing with those distractions. We had a fire alarm and a late test delivery but neither caused more harm than delaying the start of the test.

I feel better about my chances after having left the exam than going into it. I thought the gravity morning was challenging, I guessed on two AASHTO problems and was not able to get a close enough answer on two buildings problems. I was able to arrive at answers for all other problems, but you never know with the exam's tricky answer paths if what you got was the correct answer. Gravity afternoon felt easy, I was able to finish every part of the problems with the exception of half of one part. Also had enough time to go back and list references for all my equations. Lateral morning was hard but not as bad as gravity. I agree with one of the above posters, there was one error on the exam (very small S1 value incorrect given value). This actually sucks because it should have been an easy question that now likely gets erased from the exam. There was also a masonry questions that provided some questionable parameters. Lateral afternoon was very hard. I was able to solve all problems but was not confident with some of my answers, especially of the detailing that was asked. Also was surprised on how once of the questions was asked, don't want to give too much up but it was something I expected not to be tested on.

I was happy to be able to at least finish all problems and not have to guess on too many of them.

In order of difficulty:

Lateral Afternoon &gt;&gt;&gt; Gravity Morning &gt; Lateral Morning &gt;&gt; Gravity afternoon

I took the PPI and NCEES practice exams and thought they were representative of the morning questions. The range of difficulties on the afternoon questions seems to be part of the challenge with the exam. The luck aspect of what type of questions you get on the afternoon is a big factor in the exam.

Now the wait begins...


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## dvtn (Apr 24, 2017)

This was my second time taking Buildings Lateral. The morning portion seemed easier this time compared to October's exam. However, to make up for it they made afternoon portion harder than October's exam.

Some questions in the morning seemed too easy and when going back to a couple of them I found that I had errors, which is making me paranoid because it seems like they tried to make a lot of questions a gotcha question with some obscure exception that you had to check for. For two of the morning questions I could not come up with an answer based on the options given so either there was a typo in the answers or I was just too dumb to figure out what went wrong after going back to those two supposedly straightforward problems multiple times.

They seemed to to use completely different topics this time too with the exception of a few morning questions.


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## Hugh Jass (Apr 25, 2017)

look at that. everyone on here was polite to each other and co-incidently have very few posts.

...now the wait for the condenscending replies from those with tens of thousands of posts (and no life)


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## Hugh Jass (Apr 25, 2017)

zaidfadhill said:


> First time took both of the (Building_Vertical&amp;Lateral), vertical  morning was not easy not hard was reasonable, but the time was not enough for my, I did around 6 to 7 questions randomly), lateral morning was hard, the time was enough but the questions were hard, some questions need more information's, the afternoon was not easy both of them, I don't know how they will credit us for the afternoon, but I feel in the middle.


do yoi have any study material you are willing to sell? 

please send me a privste message


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## Mithrandir918 (Apr 25, 2017)

Yes I agree with the mistake in the small S1 morning question, which is a shame because that not only gets tossed out but it wasted probably more than 6 minutes for most because it would have been an easy problem but would make you go back a second time and check your answer which takes away from other problems.  Figure with all that money they can offer a error free morning exam.


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## ZEZO4 (Apr 25, 2017)

not only this mistake, in the vertical exam, one of the questions need to a value where I had to assume a value that was needed.


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## EZBuilding (Apr 25, 2017)

@Mithrandir918, I agree. I spent a lot of time on that problem re-calculating it trying to see if I could come up with what the issue was. I struggled on a problem in the morning, I probably re-did the problem a dozen times and could not arrive at the answer. 

Zaidfadhill I don't recall having to calculate that factor. Now you're making me worried hehehe


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## ZEZO4 (Apr 25, 2017)

EZBuilding, hahaha in the wood question, as my knowledge we have to calculate those values with assumptions also.


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## TehMightyEngineer (Apr 25, 2017)

Folks, edit your posts. You're straying a bit close to NDA territory there. NCEES does check this forum.


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## ZEZO4 (Apr 25, 2017)




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## Ramnares P.E. (Apr 25, 2017)

Gents, please remember your NDA.  Some of the posts are disclosing too much information about exam question specifics and have been edited accordingly.


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## ZEZO4 (Apr 25, 2017)

I don't know if these information's considered as a disclosed information, anyway I'm trying to updated or delete it but I can't!


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## FL_Structural_PE (Apr 25, 2017)

I took building vertical for the first time after obtaining my PE a year ago. I felt pretty confident walking out of the PE. Not so much with the SE.

I found the afternoon to be doable but the morning session was a bear. I ended up out right guessing on 6 to 7 problems (mostly AASHTO) at the end. And now the wait....


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## YAZRABADI (Apr 25, 2017)

from people with previous experience on this exam (Building Vertical specifically), what kind of mistakes can you make that will still get you through?


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## David Connor SE (Apr 25, 2017)

YAZRABADI said:


> from people with previous experience on this exam (Building Vertical specifically), what kind of mistakes can you make that will still get you through?


Don't make too many of them?  It's impossible to know unless you are a grader. And if you pass, you don't know what you were borderline on.  They only tell you where you need additional help if you don't pass.


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## NMStruc (Apr 25, 2017)

I took both building tests in the fall. I spent 200 hours studying for vertical and I thought it was pretty easy but on the flip side I spent 100 hours on lateral and got dominated. Comparing the fall lateral to this spring lateral I thought it was easier but then again I buckled down and studied a ton especially AASHTO. The afternoon was still tough. There were a couple items on the test that no amount of studying would have prepared me for, just had to adapt and do the best I could. It's a tough exam. Be curious to see the overall results and compare them to the last two exams if everyone struggled that bad with the afternoon.


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## Parkite (Apr 25, 2017)

About the exam, I took the buildings vertical only. It is my third time taking it. I will say it was the easiest afternoon version of the test I have taken. That would include the NCEES practice exam, the PPI exam, and the two previous attempts at the main exam.

The morning I would say I had to take a wild guess on about 5 questions, and an educated guess on another 5. So I am a bit leery about not doing well enough in the morning part, but acing the afternoon part. Also, for the morning part I had three questions I guessed on I immediately "got" as soon as I left for lunch, and there was another one I figured out as I drove home. Nothing is as frustrating as suddenly knowing the answer, and realizing that you were just banging your head on a wall due to a bad presupposition. 

E.g. (and I don't think I am violating any NDA items here) I had my mind set that an answer was in a table in the AISC manual. And the answer might have been, but I could have easily found the answer by using the AISC Spec equations and just directly solved it. So I wasted about 10 minutes struggling to find the answer in a table and never even thought to use the Spec equations until I left for lunch. Plus it was one of of the first questions I tried to answer so I got frustrated in the morning part much too early. There also was a bridge, steel, and analysis question that as soon as I was able to relax a bit I immediately thought about how to answer them.

The name of the game is conserving mental energy/frustration. So I read all of the questions first, then put them in order of easiest to hardest. This method backfires when I encountered something I thought I should know and it hangs me up early on.


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## YAZRABADI (Apr 25, 2017)

David Connor said:


> Don't make too many of them?  It's impossible to know unless you are a grader. And if you pass, you don't know what you were borderline on.  They only tell you where you need additional help if you don't pass.


Thank you....


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## YAZRABADI (Apr 25, 2017)

YAZRABADI said:


> Thank you....


Yes, I see your point Connor. I had some really stupid mistakes that made me go one direction in the design that should have been another. then we were hit with some questions that I was not expecting, resulted in me trying to put something down just to try to answer the question. I guess i am only frustrated because I was so ready for this test and expected from my self to just go through the afternoon with ease. sure enough, clock is running coupled with stupid calculator mistakes got me to think twice about the outcome of this test. I don't know if the grader does take into consideration that this guy knows what he is doing, but jacked up due to time and test pressure. I guess we will know in 8 weeks. I pray that all deserve to pass, pass this test.

That is my thought on this!!!


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## BamaStrucPESE (Apr 26, 2017)

Easier said than done, but try not to beat yourselves up too much.  I took and passed both parts on the first try (vert Apr 2016, lat Oct 2016) and walked away from both confident that I failed miserably and that someone would find out how bad and come and take my PE away for the safety of the public.  Everyone remembers the few they couldn't figure out and focus on them as opposed to thinking about the others that you completed in 3 minutes and had no concerns about.


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## FL_Structural_PE (Apr 26, 2017)

BamaStrucPE said:


> Easier said than done, but try not to beat yourselves up too much.  I took and passed both parts on the first try (vert Apr 2016, lat Oct 2016) and walked away from both confident that I failed miserably and that someone would find out how bad and come and take my PE away for the safety of the public.  Everyone remembers the few they couldn't figure out and focus on them as opposed to thinking about the others that you completed in 3 minutes and had no concerns about.


So you signed up for the lateral test before the vertical results came out? I'm debating on whether to sign up for the lateral portion or just going and sticking my head in the sand.

I wish the results came out before the application for the next session is due.


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## YAZRABADI (Apr 26, 2017)

BamaStrucPE said:


> Easier said than done, but try not to beat yourselves up too much.  I took and passed both parts on the first try (vert Apr 2016, lat Oct 2016) and walked away from both confident that I failed miserably and that someone would find out how bad and come and take my PE away for the safety of the public.  Everyone remembers the few they couldn't figure out and focus on them as opposed to thinking about the others that you completed in 3 minutes and had no concerns about.


real funny, thank you for the motivational post. pray that the same case applies to me


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## TehMightyEngineer (Apr 26, 2017)

BamaStrucPE said:


> Easier said than done, but try not to beat yourselves up too much.  I took and passed both parts on the first try (vert Apr 2016, lat Oct 2016) and walked away from both confident that I failed miserably and that someone would find out how bad and come and take my PE away for the safety of the public.  Everyone remembers the few they couldn't figure out and focus on them as opposed to thinking about the others that you completed in 3 minutes and had no concerns about.


Ooof, I heard that the 2016 October lateral was just as rough as this years vertical, congrats for passing that on the first try while not feeling confident.

I've been getting more feedback from the PPI review course takers and continue to get comments on problems where people felt they had the correct method but didn't have a matching solution listed for the morning. I wonder if we'll get a few questions thrown out for this exam due to being misleading or otherwise having a high amount of incorrect answers?

It also definitely appears that NCEES is possibly in a shift toward topics that are either "trick" questions (ones where small exceptions or caveats make a difference) or problems that differ from the typical study topics (such as in the practice exams, SERM, etc.). Either way, when NCEES does their statistics the "cut score" for this exam should be lowered if it was indeed more difficult than past exams. Good news there at least.

Also, to add to Bama's, there's been a number of other SE exam takers who have thought for sure they failed the exam but got passing scores in their inbox 6 weeks later. Obviously cautious pessimism is best to avoid any huge disappointments, but don't start studying for another attempt just yet; you've probably all done better on the exam than you give yourself credit for.


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## Mithrandir918 (Apr 26, 2017)

BamaStrucPE said:


> Easier said than done, but try not to beat yourselves up too much.  I took and passed both parts on the first try (vert Apr 2016, lat Oct 2016) and walked away from both confident that I failed miserably and that someone would find out how bad and come and take my PE away for the safety of the public.  Everyone remembers the few they couldn't figure out and focus on them as opposed to thinking about the others that you completed in 3 minutes and had no concerns about.


This post makes me feel better!  Thanks for encouragement think we could all use some now.


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## bassplayer45 (Apr 26, 2017)

Yeah, it is true. The Time I passed Vertical Bridges, I was 100% certain I passed the morning, but thought I completely biffed the afternoon 2nd and 3rd question, but got a passing score.

On the time I passed Lateral Bridges, I knew I did the best I had ever done in the morning, answering 31 of 40 questions before having to go through them again. On the afternoon, I was confident I did the first 2 essays dead on, got perfect answers, they made sense, my checks were spot on. The 3rd problem, I honestly said to myself after, I don't even remember what I wrote down because I thought I was completely lost in steps D through H. I think I actually wrote an apology at the end to the reviewer for my chicken scratch, then summarized my thoughts and steps at the end so he or she could actually follow what I was doing...and I passed. So hold out hope, it isn't always bad.


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## BamaStrucPESE (Apr 27, 2017)

FL_Structural_PE said:


> So you signed up for the lateral test before the vertical results came out? I'm debating on whether to sign up for the lateral portion or just going and sticking my head in the sand.
> 
> I wish the results came out before the application for the next session is due.


Unless I'm mistaken, registration may open before final results are out, but doesn't close until 1.5-2 months before exam. I don't think I signed up for the fall exam until late August, 2 months after I knew the results. Also, I knew I would have to take both, so pass or fail vertical, I was going to take lateral in the fall.


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## FL_Structural_PE (Apr 27, 2017)

BamaStrucPE said:


> Unless I'm mistaken, registration may open before final results are out, but doesn't close until 1.5-2 months before exam. I don't think I signed up for the fall exam until late August, 2 months after I knew the results. Also, I knew I would have to take both, so pass or fail vertical, I was going to take lateral in the fall.


You are lucky in Alabama. In Florida the application for the October exam is due in early may.


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## Chillhaus_SE (Apr 27, 2017)

FL_Structural_PE said:


> You are lucky in Alabama. In Florida the application for the October exam is due in early may.


Once you have been accepted to take the SE or PE you don't have to apply again and you just sign up for the test on NCEES's website which for the fall doesn't open until mid June.


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## BamaStrucPESE (Apr 27, 2017)

Chillhaus said:


> Once you have been accepted to take the SE or PE you don't have to apply again and you just sign up for the test on NCEES's website which for the fall doesn't open until mid June.


Agree, might be different in Florida, but in Texas (where I currently reside, went to school in Bama) I didn't have to do any extensive applications for the SE once I passed the PE, went to the NCEES website and signed up. I called Texas board to make sure I didn't need to do anything else and they were confused on why I would want to take another test once I had my PE.


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## StandardPractice (Apr 27, 2017)

Buildings SE Vert/Lat: I felt the exam was tough, but fair. For the vertical AM, the questions were similar to the practice exams but with greater depth in some cases. For vertical PM, I was expecting a concrete problem similar to the practice exams but was surprised by the question. Question was still fair I suppose. Lateral AM/PM were tough. I had enough time but not enough knowledge. For Lateral AM, I answered about 20 on first go around and think I answered another 5 or so second go around. I felt about 75-80% confident on those 25. For the life of me, there were about 5 or so questions where I would get answer close but be off by a few from the choices. Then there were another 10 questions where I either took a 50% guess or complete guess. Lateral PM was interesting. NCEES definitely threw a surprise question in there, but after thinking about the study outline they provide I guess I shouldn't have been that surprised. Finished it all, but toss up if my methodology was sound. My strategy for PM was to use approximate shortcut equations where I could and explain in writing "if more time..." the complete process including equations. I hope that is sufficient for concrete portion and masonry question.


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## TehMightyEngineer (Apr 27, 2017)

StandardPractice said:


> For the life of me, there were about 5 or so questions where I would get answer close but be off by a few from the choices.


You're like the fourth person to mention this that I've talked to. Something weird going on with some of those questions for sure.


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## FL_Structural_PE (Apr 28, 2017)

TehMightyEngineer said:


> You're like the fourth person to mention this that I've talked to. Something weird going on with some of those questions for sure.


Have you hear that about the vertical and the lateral morning portion?


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## TehMightyEngineer (Apr 28, 2017)

FL_Structural_PE said:


> Have you hear that about the vertical and the lateral morning portion?


Just vertical.


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## FL_Structural_PE (Apr 28, 2017)

TehMightyEngineer said:


> Just vertical.


Make that one more person with an issue on a couple of questions on the morning vertical. I felt like I was doing them correctly but I wasn't getting any of the options.

Of course there is also the possibility that I was just doing them wrong.


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## tua85366 (Apr 28, 2017)

FL_Structural_PE said:


> Make that one more person with an issue on a couple of questions on the morning vertical. I felt like I was doing them correctly but I wasn't getting any of the options.
> 
> Of course there is also the possibility that I was just doing them wrong.


Likewise. Had about 4 or 5 AM Vertical questions where I had to rework them with slightly tweaked design parameters and still wasn't getting exact answers. I probably wasted a fair amount of time on these. Definitely was getting something close, but not in the realm of what NCEES considers "close to..". I'm not even talking about bridge (AASHTO) questions (Buildings guy here).


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## ZEZO4 (Apr 28, 2017)

BamaStrucPE said:


> Agree, might be different in Florida, but in Texas (where I currently reside, went to school in Bama) I didn't have to do any extensive applications for the SE once I passed the PE, went to the NCEES website and signed up. I called Texas board to make sure I didn't need to do anything else and they were confused on why I would want to take another test once I had my PE.


I'm in Texas the same thin


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## ZEZO4 (Apr 28, 2017)

Is NCEES Give us a curve for the SE Exam   ?


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## TehMightyEngineer (Apr 28, 2017)

NCEES doesn't grade on a curve but does throw out questions that were misleading or incorrect and the cut score does change depending on the difficulty of the exam compared to some benchmark.


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## ZEZO4 (Apr 28, 2017)

TehMightyEngineer said:


> NCEES doesn't grade on a curve but does throw out questions that were misleading or incorrect and the cut score does change depending on the difficulty of the exam compared to some benchmark.


Make Sense, Thank you TehMightyEngineer.


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## TehMightyEngineer (Apr 28, 2017)

From here (emphasis mine): http://ncees.org/engineering/engineering-scoring/

Licensing exams differ from most other exams. After each administration, every NCEES exam undergoes extensive statistical analysis to determine the minimum level of performance required for entry into the profession...


NCEES scans all answer sheets as they are received from the states.

A psychometric analysis is performed on a sample of answer sheets from each multiple-choice exam to identify any questions with unusual statistics. These questions are flagged for review.

At least two subject-matter experts, who are licensed engineers or surveyors, review the flagged items. In addition, NCEES reviews all examinee comment forms, and the subject-matter experts consider comments on the forms about specific exam questions. If the reviews confirm an error in a question, credit may be given for more than one answer.

When the analyses and reviews are completed, NCEES changes the answer keys as necessary. The passing score and final correct answers for each exam are then used to score all the answer sheets. Scanners are calibrated before and during scoring. A percentage of the answer sheets are manually verified, and the results are compared to the machine score to ensure accuracy.


How are passing scores determined?


When an exam is introduced or when its specifications change, a committee of subject-matter experts works with experienced psychometricians (testing experts with a background in statistics) to determine the level of performance that corresponds with minimal competence in that discipline. This becomes the passing score. NCEES does not publish passing scores because they change with each administration. NCEES scores each exam with no predetermined percentage of examinees that should pass or fail. All exams are scored the same way. First-time takers and repeat takers are graded to the same standard.


What is statistical equating?


For subsequent administrations of the exam, statistical equating is used to ensure that this level of performance is consistent across multiple administrations of that exam. Essentially, this means that while the numerical passing score may change with each administration, you are not disadvantaged when one administration of a particular exam is more difficult than another. This process accounts for the 8- to 10-week interval between an exam administration and the release of scores to member licensing boards.


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## YAZRABADI (Apr 28, 2017)

I think they really gauge your understanding of the material. If you know your stuff, it will show, specially in the afternoon. I still dont know if they would forgive mistakes that are made that result in you taking a different path than the correct method. For that reason, I am not getting my hopes up. I know what to do if I get not acceptable. You should be able to gauge you performance and know exactly where you screwed up, so next time to prevent falling for the same trick. We will all see what happens once the results come out. Good luck to all.


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## OHBridgeGuy (May 30, 2017)

Bridge lateral taker here, 2nd time.  I thought the morning was much harder than my first go with a lot of curve balls.  I did the school of PE course and prepped on a number of review questions and there were a lot from left field.  Both in the bridge section, with just odd situations and things I have never seen in practice before, and on the building side.  

The afternoon questions were not horrible, but were strange.  Both times I have taken this I have encountered things in the afternoon that you would never actually do in practice with factors like hinging or size variability.



Lomarandil said:


> Bridge vertical and lateral, first time here too.
> 
> There were definitely a lot of curveball questions -- just unusual circumstances to apply the concepts. A couple of AM questions were tough for me (having never done those particular types of projects before), and the vertical afternoon questions weren't quite what I expected (though not too bad in the end -- as long as I didn't overlook some obscure code provision). I also felt the time crunch, which isn't usually an issue when I take tests.
> 
> ...


Yes, the first question for me definitely had a typo.  I worked it both ways, one with code minimums and the other if you move the decimal and moving the decimal gave exactly one of the answers.  There is nowhere that would have such a high Ss value and so low an S1 (I can't remember what was given but it was something to that effect).

There was another problem I was disappointed in that asked about bracing, but technically none of the answers were correct (did not meet provisions).  It was only after looking at it a while that I realized they were only asking about one provision, though that was not what the problem stated.

I definitely ran out of time on the morning section, whereas I had time to spare the first try on the lateral.


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