# SE Exam April 13, 14



## Mr. Bean (Apr 5, 2018)

To everyone taking the exam next Friday / Saturday, good luck!  I'll be taking the vertical portion for the 2nd time.  This time around I won't do both days at once which was brutal IMO.  I tried working on my weak points such as AASHTO (David Conner book and SERM) so let's see.  At the end of the day guys it's just an exam.  You should remember that pass or fail you are learning from the experience.  I personally don't need the SE in NY but it's something that will keep my options opened.  I've learned a lot from it too.

Having said all that, it's still a brutal exam.  Especially the vertical portion since there are so many topics.  I find myself forgetting some things when I go back and re-review something.  At the end of the day the only thing you can do is your best.  Everything else is out of your hands and partly depends on luck as well.

So good luck!


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## TheStructuralEngineer (Apr 5, 2018)

Taking Lateral Building first time. Good luck to everyone!


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## Mr. Bean (Apr 5, 2018)

TheStructuralEngineer said:


> Taking Lateral Building first time. Good luck to everyone!


It's probably too late now for advice but I hope you know the ASCE 7 very well because the morning portion has a lot of ASCE 7 questions.  That and AASHTO.


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## Dagny Taggart (Apr 6, 2018)

Taking lateral for the 3rd time on Saturday!  It is possible, I passed gravity on the 1st try.  Good luck!!


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## Mr. Bean (Apr 6, 2018)

Dagny Taggart said:


> Taking lateral for the 3rd time on Saturday!  It is possible, I passed gravity on the 1st try.  Good luck!!


Hang in there.  The material should only get easier with each time you review it.  The passing rate for lateral is brutal indeed.


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## Mithrandir918 (Apr 9, 2018)

Passed vertical 1st try a couple years ago.

This is my 5th time taking lateral on Saturday, dont know if i am crazy or stubborn... maybe a little of both ;


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## Mr. Bean (Apr 9, 2018)

Mithrandir918 said:


> Passed vertical 1st try a couple years ago.
> 
> This is my 5th time taking lateral on Saturday, dont know if i am crazy or stubborn... maybe a little of both ;


That's determination my friend.  Keep it up.


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## sayed (Apr 10, 2018)

Mithrandir918 said:


> Passed vertical 1st try a couple years ago.
> 
> This is my 5th time taking lateral on Saturday, dont know if i am crazy or stubborn... maybe a little of both ;


holy crap

dont they make you take remedial classes after a certain number of tries?

you also have a time limit before you are forced to take vertical again, no?


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## Mithrandir918 (Apr 10, 2018)

My state does not require any classes, though I have taken a class for each attempt.

Yes I do have a time limit approaching in a couple of years.  Its safe to say if I dont pass this by then, this career is not meant to be.


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## User1 (Apr 10, 2018)

Mithrandir918 said:


> My state does not require any classes, though I have taken a class for each attempt.
> 
> Yes I do have a time limit approaching in a couple of years.  Its safe to say if I dont pass this by then, this career is not meant to be.


I can feel it. this is the year for you! Get it!!


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## Mithrandir918 (Apr 10, 2018)

tj_PE said:


> I can feel it. this is the year for you! Get it!!


Thanks for the support!

Best of luck to all.


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## Dagny Taggart (Apr 12, 2018)

Mithrandir918 said:


> My state does not require any classes, though I have taken a class for each attempt.
> 
> Yes I do have a time limit approaching in a couple of years.  Its safe to say if I dont pass this by then, this career is not meant to be.


Best of luck to you!  My time limit is until 2020, but I know this is my last time.  I have 2 small children and the time away from family studying for it this time has been brutal. I feel a small sense of relief just knowing that after Saturday will never worry about this f-ing test again, no matter what the result.  Then comes the brutal 6-8 week wait...


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## Mithrandir918 (Apr 12, 2018)

Dagny Taggart said:


> Best of luck to you!  My time limit is until 2020, but I know this is my last time.  I have 2 small children and the time away from family studying for it this time has been brutal. I feel a small sense of relief just knowing that after Saturday will never worry about this f-ing test again, no matter what the result.  Then comes the brutal 6-8 week wait...


I am in your exact same boat.  2.5 years of non stop studying, marriage is barley hanging on and never spend time with my kids.  This may be my last time as well, least last time putting much effort into it.  Some people are just better test takers than others, unfortunatley this exam carries no weight as far as ones actual abilities in structural engineering.  Its a gauntlet, a proving ground that anyone who wants in to the special club has to go thru.  Problem with my state, if you dont have the license you will get weeded out of the profession.

Anyway, that being said, sometimes when you go into the exam with no expectations it takes the pressure off and you will perform better.  Ive seen this happen so many times.  In the end you just need luck, even the best exam takers on the Day 2 morning session can only answer around 35 questions, without going back and checking any of them and also leaves 5 complete guesses (Note, this is a average statement, of course there exceptions).  This leaves that magic number of 28 correct solutions much more difficult to get to.]

I wish you the best of luck, take it easy, family first.


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## Mr. Bean (Apr 16, 2018)

Mithrandir918 said:


> I am in your exact same boat.  2.5 years of non stop studying, marriage is barley hanging on and never spend time with my kids.  This may be my last time as well, least last time putting much effort into it.  Some people are just better test takers than others, unfortunatley this exam carries no weight as far as ones actual abilities in structural engineering.  Its a gauntlet, a proving ground that anyone who wants in to the special club has to go thru.  Problem with my state, if you dont have the license you will get weeded out of the profession.
> 
> Anyway, that being said, sometimes when you go into the exam with no expectations it takes the pressure off and you will perform better.  Ive seen this happen so many times.  In the end you just need luck, even the best exam takers on the Day 2 morning session can only answer around 35 questions, without going back and checking any of them and also leaves 5 complete guesses (Note, this is a average statement, of course there exceptions).  This leaves that magic number of 28 correct solutions much more difficult to get to.]
> 
> I wish you the best of luck, take it easy, family first.


You are right.  It doesn't reflect at all who you are as an engineer.  You definitely need luck on your side.  I just took Vertical for the 2nd time and although I felt better than the last time it was still a tough exam.  I had to quickly write half of the 4th problem in the afternoon to explain what I would do if I had the time.   They just throw so much at you and the time limit is a killer.  To make it worse they make the questions tricky.  Understanding the problem and using the right formula sometimes isn't enough which happened to me as my answer wasn't showing up.  Not to mention some problems have errors (if you took it this Friday you know what I am referring to) in them which throw you off.


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## leggo PE (Apr 16, 2018)

Mr. Bean said:


> You are right.  It doesn't reflect at all who you are as an engineer.  You definitely need luck on your side.  I just took Vertical for the 2nd time and although I felt better than the last time it was still a tough exam.  I had to quickly write half of the 4th problem in the afternoon to explain what I would do if I had the time.   They just throw so much at you and the time limit is a killer.  To make it worse they make the questions tricky.  Understanding the problem and using the right formula sometimes isn't enough which happened to me as my answer wasn't showing up.  *Not to mention some problems have errors (if you took it this Friday you know what I am referring to) in them which throw you off.*


If you think there were errors on any problems, please do yourself a favor and contact NCEES about it!


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## Mr. Bean (Apr 16, 2018)

leggo PE said:


> If you think there were errors on any problems, please do yourself a favor and contact NCEES about it!


I wrote it and underlined it on the booklet    I'll contact them too.  Thanks.


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## leggo PE (Apr 16, 2018)

Mr. Bean said:


> I wrote it and underlined it on the booklet    I'll contact them too.  Thanks.


It's very important you tell them through their website/outside of exam processes. I wouldn't be sure at all that anyone is looking at the booklets after the exam, unless maybe you have questionable results. So yes, follow through with NCEES directly. I'll try to find a link to where to report errors.


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## leggo PE (Apr 16, 2018)

Here are the instructions on how to contact NCEES about any mistakes/errors/ambiguity/any other comments about exam questions: https://ncees.org/exams/security/


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## Mr. Bean (Apr 16, 2018)

leggo PE said:


> Here are the instructions on how to contact NCEES about any mistakes/errors/ambiguity/any other comments about exam questions: https://ncees.org/exams/security/


Thanks


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## YAZRABADI (Apr 16, 2018)

To all that took the test, best of luck and may the Lord bless your answer sheets. We all worked really hard studying and getting prepared for this exam. I pray we all pass and have real good news. I took the Lateral exam buildings this time around and feel little bit iffy about the morning part but the afternoon was okay for me. I don't know how you guys feel but sharing is caring!! I hope the scale is lower for lateral forces than gravity and I get this exam over with and PASS. Let me know how you guys feel about it....


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## TheStructuralEngineer (Apr 16, 2018)

YAZRABADI said:


> To all that took the test, best of luck and may the Lord bless your answer sheets. We all worked really hard studying and getting prepared for this exam. I pray we all pass and have real good news. I took the Lateral exam buildings this time around and feel little bit iffy about the morning part but the afternoon was okay for me. I don't know how you guys feel but sharing is caring!! I hope the scale is lower for lateral forces than gravity and I get this exam over with and PASS. Let me know how you guys feel about it....


I had similar experience. Even though I did not do as good in the afternoon, I think the questions were not too difficult and time was sufficient too. I just do not have enough lateral work experience to ace the test, but I have attempted all parts and I am optimistic. Regarding the morning, the time was extremely tight. I think I am good test taker in the sense that I have always had finished tests on time. I mostly finished practice tests with about 30 minutes remaining and even more on actual PE test. However, I could not finish it this time and had to randomly guess 2 questions. And the sad part is I knew how to solve those. Of course I had to make judgmental guesses on other questions which I think I did right but did not get the answers among options. Lets see how it comes out. 
BTW I just did some digging and based on past results and April's NCEES bulletin, the test results will be out between June 4th and 8th.
Good luck!! 



Mr. Bean said:


> It's probably too late now for advice but I hope you know the ASCE 7 very well because the morning portion has a lot of ASCE 7 questions.  That and AASHTO.


I kinda knew it before the test. But now I know   . Thanks for the advice.


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## jtcrus31 (Apr 17, 2018)

Great.....only 7.5 weeks left of realizing (in the shower) that I forgot to do certain things on the afternoon questions.....

I felt OK directly after the lateral exam, but now I am questioning everything!

Good luck to everyone!


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