# Waiting



## FL_Structural_PE (Oct 30, 2017)

The waiting game begins for SE results. It looks like past cycles have gotten results sometime in mid December. What is your over/under on the results release date?


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## tua85366 (Oct 30, 2017)

I would say mid-December as well. 

How does everyone feel about their performance on the exam? 

I took Lateral Buildings this go-around (Passed vertical 2017 April). I thought it was tough, but fair. I definitely thought it was harder than both the PPI and NCEES practice exams. Also, timing was a killer for me on the morning portion. I ended up blindly filling in about 6 questions (all AASHTO), which is very discouraging to me at the moment. I am somewhat confident with my performance on the afternoon problems.

I guess we'll see in December.


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## Civil Dawg (Oct 30, 2017)

I took Vertical Buildings.  2nd attempt after failing in April.  I left the April exam 99% sure I had failed and unsure how anyone could pass that test.  I am pretty confident this go around.  I feel like the test was much more "fair" and I don't think I was necessarily that much more prepared this time than last.  In April I had to guess on 11 questions in the AM and didn't have near enough time to do the PM questions and ended up with 24/40, A, IR, U, U.  This time I only had to guess on 4 AM questions and finished the PM with 25 minutes remaining.  I feel like I did as well as I'll ever do so hopefully I passed or else I'm not sure if I ever will!


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## David Connor SE (Oct 30, 2017)

Best of luck to everyone who took the SE exam this weekend!

Seems like that past few cycles they have gotten the results out earlier than they did 3-4 years ago when I took it.  That being said I put the over/under date at December 12th.


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## Trogdor (Oct 30, 2017)

First time vertical and lateral exams. I have to say the Friday morning exam was much tougher than I expected, much tougher than the practice exam and I ran out of time and had to guess blindly on 9 problems. The afternoon seemed pretty straight forward and I think I'll do well on each of them. On Saturday I felt like the morning was reasonable, but there was not enough time to complete all the problems so I had to just guess on the last 7. I'm not as confident on the afternoon portion, I think my brain was tired at this point and I could easily get an unacceptable or two. I'm guessing I'll be back in April for at least one of the exams.


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## onemanwolfpack (Oct 30, 2017)

Took Vertical Bridges for the first time, after passing Lateral Bridges this past April. For the vertical, it felt like the morning portion was a lot easier than the lateral morning. I think I ended up running out of time and guessing on 3 or 4 for the Lateral....but I finished up the morning with ~15 minutes to spare for the Vertical, which gave me time to go back and verify a few questions that I was unsure of. There was only one wood question where I couldn't land on an answer.

The depth seemed very reasonable to me. I put my pencil down with about 30 seconds to go. There was only one part I was a bit confused on what they were really looking for, but I think I ended up putting down something pretty reasonable.


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## FL_Structural_PE (Oct 30, 2017)

tua85366 said:


> I would say mid-December as well.
> 
> How does everyone feel about their performance on the exam?
> 
> ...


I took vertical buildings in April of this year and passed so this time around I only took the lateral portion. I felt that the morning was fair, I ended up I guessed on two of them. The afternoon was okay but I ran out of time on the last problem that I was working on. I ended up just writing down the equations that I would use to solve the questions on two of the sub-parts. I hope it's enough for a "Needs Improvement".


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## TheStructuralEngineer (Oct 30, 2017)

December 14th or 15th, I think.

Took vertical building.I did pretty good the morning section. Finished exactly at the time they announced '1 minute remaining'.
Afternoon was not so difficult, but there were just too many questions I think. Did not have enough time. I do not know if the grader will understand my hand writing. 
Hopefully will pass. 
Good Luck friends!!


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## OCT (Oct 30, 2017)

Took vertical and lateral buildings.

 - AM: I had to guess 5 of each of the morning exams because of time. However, the vertical AM was more difficult than the Lateral AM.

- PM: Vertical with OK, lateral was not as easy as i expected.  Not sure how they mark these kinds of exams. I am not sure if grading is based on the final answer or it will be based on the solution steps.

In the order of difficulty: V_AM, L_PM, L_AM, V_PM.


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## TehMightyEngineer (Oct 31, 2017)

OCT said:


> I am not sure if grading is based on the final answer or it will be based on the solution steps.


Almost positive it's based on solution steps.


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## OCT (Oct 31, 2017)

Thanks TehMightEngineer. This is good to know. While I think my solution steps should be OK, I am not actually sure if my eyes got the right numbers from tables (steel section dimensions for example) and the same thing for using the calculator. There is no enough time to do calculator operations twice during the exam as in real life.


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## StructEngBrah (Oct 31, 2017)

Took the building lateral exam and I think I did ok.  I guessed on two questions on the morning part, but otherwise I finished it.  I spent more time on AASHTO this go around, and I think it paid dividends in being able to answer those questions more quickly then when I took the vertical exam.  I thought the afternoon was harder, but generally I felt like I knew how to do most of it.  I ran out of time on the afternoon and didn't completely finish one part of a problem.  I think dumb mistakes or if I forgot a specific provision will determine if I pass or not.


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## Civ/StructENG (Nov 1, 2017)

This is my first time taking the Vertical/Lateral - I thought the morning sections were pretty tough (harder than the practice exams/problems that I studied from), and I found myself running out of time both mornings and guessing at the end.  I thought the afternoon sections were much more reasonable and fair.  Good luck to everybody...hopefully we get some early holiday presents!


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## MIPE (Nov 1, 2017)

I have the same impression about the exam. There were lots of tricks too, too many for a single exam. We have to wait and see.


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## OCT (Nov 3, 2017)

I think there is now one more reason that everybody wish to pass as new exam codes are in affect  .


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## Phil Clark (Nov 13, 2017)

Hey everyone.  It seems like there is a wide variety of opinions on how difficult the exams were.  I took lateral buildings this time.  I passed vertical building in April.  I felt like the lateral exam was about the same as the vertical in the morning in terms of difficulty.  I answered 32/40 vertical and 34/40 lateral.  However, there was an afternoon problem that was really hard for me to get through, I couldn't really figure out what was being asked for.  In hindsight I should have come back to this problem last and worked more on the other problems.  It seemed in general the lateral exam was more difficult to understand than practice problems I had worked from PPI material and NCEES material.  This was especially true for the afternoon.  It wasn't for lack of study as I spent about 425 hrs for the vertical and about 300 hrs for the lateral.  There was some stuff in the morning and afternoon lateral, that I did not see at all in my study, so I was hazy on where to look in the code.  In hindsight (again) the topic wasn't that tough, but when you see it for the first time, and more than once...well, I just got a little flustered.

I felt like I got a little lucky on the vertical afternoon problems, where I seemed to have a pretty good handle on most of the items, but for the lateral afternoon, it was a perfect storm of several items I just wasn't great at all showing up (my worst fear for the test).

So, seems like I could get there in the morning, but no so sure about the afternoon.  I honestly cant remember what I wrote down at this point.  I think I could have gotten acceptable, acceptable, needs improvement/acceptable and the last one was somewhere between unacceptable/needs improvement.  No one know where those threasholds are, but I will find out in about 6 more weeks.  I'm thinking Christmas will be a little blue this year, but you never know!

I too worry about the code changes and not passing.  This could be a real bummer as all my study material will have all old references and who knows if we'll be able to buy study material with the correct code references for the 18 exams but you would hope so...


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## FL_Structural_PE (Nov 14, 2017)

Phil Clark said:


> Hey everyone.  It seems like there is a wide variety of opinions on how difficult the exams were.  I took lateral buildings this time.  I passed vertical building in April.  I felt like the lateral exam was about the same as the vertical in the morning in terms of difficulty.  I answered 32/40 vertical and 34/40 lateral.  However, there was an afternoon problem that was really hard for me to get through, I couldn't really figure out what was being asked for.  In hindsight I should have come back to this problem last and worked more on the other problems.  It seemed in general the lateral exam was more difficult to understand than practice problems I had worked from PPI material and NCEES material.  This was especially true for the afternoon.  It wasn't for lack of study as I spent about 425 hrs for the vertical and about 300 hrs for the lateral.  There was some stuff in the morning and afternoon lateral, that I did not see at all in my study, so I was hazy on where to look in the code.  In hindsight (again) the topic wasn't that tough, but when you see it for the first time, and more than once...well, I just got a little flustered.
> 
> I felt like I got a little lucky on the vertical afternoon problems, where I seemed to have a pretty good handle on most of the items, but for the lateral afternoon, it was a perfect storm of several items I just wasn't great at all showing up (my worst fear for the test).
> 
> ...


Phil,

I wonder if the afternoon problem that tripped you up was the same one that got me. Without getting into any details about the problem. Was it the first one presented in the afternoon?


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## McEngr (Nov 14, 2017)

Having been an SE grader in the past, I think it's more important that you show your work clearly and write down the quick/necessary steps to get to the final answer if you don't have time.  Just my 2 cents.


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## DoctorWho-PE (Nov 14, 2017)

Come wait at the SPAM board... I know you aren't PE folk, but the wait is just as bad for the SE.


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## Phil Clark (Nov 14, 2017)

FL_Structural_PE said:


> Phil,
> 
> I wonder if the afternoon problem that tripped you up was the same one that got me. Without getting into any details about the problem. Was it the first one presented in the afternoon?


Yes it was!  Glad I wasn't the only one...


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## BPott (Nov 15, 2017)

Phil Clark said:


> Yes it was!  Glad I wasn't the only one...


Same here... I agonized over that one problem for 2 weeks, and then finally gave up because I can't do anything about it.

I'm certain that if I had known what the problem _wanted_ me to do, I would have been able to answer it, because I prepared very thoroughly. But I just wasn't sure what they were after. I wound up writing a bunch of random stuff, hoping that whatever they were looking for was in there somewhere.


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## Trogdor (Nov 15, 2017)

I also couldn't figure out what they were looking for on the first afternoon problem. It's at least comforting to my ego to know that I'm not the only one. I feel fairly confident on the other three afternoon problems.


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## leggo PE (Nov 15, 2017)

Hey, just an idea, but if you guys think a question was poorly worded or confusing, it wouldn't hurt to submit a comment to NCEES about it. Especially because it seems like a few of you were hung up on the same problem.


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## BPott (Nov 15, 2017)

leggo PE said:


> Hey, just an idea, but if you guys think a question was poorly worded or confusing, it wouldn't hurt to submit a comment to NCEES about it. Especially because it seems like a few of you were hung up on the same problem.


Good point - I'll probably do that. I had forgotten that this was an option. I can admit when I don't know something or wasn't prepared, but even in retrospect I'm not 100% certain what they were looking for on that problem.


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## FL_Structural_PE (Nov 16, 2017)

leggo PE said:


> Hey, just an idea, but if you guys think a question was poorly worded or confusing, it wouldn't hurt to submit a comment to NCEES about it. Especially because it seems like a few of you were hung up on the same problem.


That is not a bad idea. I think I will submit a comment to NCEES on that one.


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## TehMightyEngineer (Nov 16, 2017)

Definitely do this. If enough people comment on that problem NCEES may give credit for multiple answers and improve everyones score.


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## Civil Dawg (Nov 20, 2017)

The NCEES October newsletter shows the SE Grading Workshop to be 11/30 - 12/2.  If the same schedule holds from the April exam, results will be released the following Friday, 12/8.  Only 2.5 more weeks!


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## leggo PE (Nov 20, 2017)

Civil Dawg said:


> The NCEES October newsletter shows the SE Grading Workshop to be 11/30 - 12/2.  If the same schedule holds from the April exam, results will be released the following Friday, 12/8.  Only 2.5 more weeks!


How many times do I have to say it? Not at this rate of spam!


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## FL_Structural_PE (Nov 21, 2017)

TehMightyEngineer said:


> Definitely do this. If enough people comment on that problem NCEES may give credit for multiple answers and improve everyones score.


For those that are interested, I contacted NCEES about the problem in question. I found that the best way to do this is to email them at [email protected]


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## Phil Clark (Nov 25, 2017)

FL_Structural_PE said:


> For those that are interested, I contacted NCEES about the problem in question. I found that the best way to do this is to email them at [email protected]


Thanks for posting this information.  I was not able to find a way to comment on an exam problem through My NCEES the week after the exam so sort of gave up.  I wrote the email address you provided. I hope that if there is anything that can be done by commenting (this late or in general), that this helps.


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## Mr. Bean (Nov 26, 2017)

BPott said:


> Same here... I agonized over that one problem for 2 weeks, and then finally gave up because I can't do anything about it.
> 
> I'm certain that if I had known what the problem _wanted_ me to do, I would have been able to answer it, because I prepared very thoroughly. But I just wasn't sure what they were after. I wound up writing a bunch of random stuff, hoping that whatever they were looking for was in there somewhere.


Yup, same here.  First question for me on the afternoon portion of the Lateral exam was difficult for me as well.  It was a bit unclear in determining what they were asking for.  I found the wording a bit confusing as well...  Other three questions I thought went fine.  How did you guys find the morning portion?  I thought it was brutal.  Saw a lot of problems I had not encountered before on the review courses and I simply didn't have enough time.  I think I guessed like 10 and wasn't sure on another 12.


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## tua85366 (Nov 26, 2017)

Mr. Bean said:


> Yup, same here.  First question for me on the afternoon portion of the Lateral exam was difficult for me as well.  It was a bit unclear in determining what they were asking for.  I found the wording a bit confusing as well...  Other three questions I thought went fine.  How did you guys find the morning portion?  I thought it was brutal.  Saw a lot of problems I had not encountered before on the review courses and I simply didn't have enough time.  I think I guessed like 10 and wasn't sure on another 12.


Similar experience for me, Mr. Bean. Morning portion left me feeling very uneasy. I guessed blindly on 6 questions I didn't have time for (all AASHTO) and wasn't sure of about 8 - 12 questions. The questions were very different from the sample problems I encountered in my studies...and I studied a lot. The first morning question was not clear to me so I messaged NCEES like several others have done. I left the exam feeling how I felt after the PE Structural exam October 2016 and passed that so there's hope! Passed SE Vertical Building April 2017 so I'm super anxious to get this all over with. I guess we'll see in about two weeks!


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## Mr. Bean (Nov 26, 2017)

tua85366 said:


> Similar experience for me, Mr. Bean. Morning portion left me feeling very uneasy. I guessed blindly on 6 questions I didn't have time for (all AASHTO) and wasn't sure of about 8 - 12 questions. The questions were very different from the sample problems I encountered in my studies...and I studied a lot. The first morning question was not clear to me so I messaged NCEES like several others have done. I left the exam feeling how I felt after the PE Structural exam October 2016 and passed that so there's hope! Passed SE Vertical Building April 2017 so I'm super anxious to get this all over with. I guess we'll see in about two weeks!


Good luck to you    The exam certainly is harder than the PE in my opinion that is for sure.


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## MaxDefl (Nov 29, 2017)

I remember the problem well for the lateral.  Definitely a topic I am going to brush up on, as I do not believe I passed either exam in this round.  Already started collecting new codes and working problems.

Mr. Bean, I agree...this exam made my PE exam seem like a field day.


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## Mithrandir918 (Nov 29, 2017)

MaxDefl said:


> I remember the problem well for the lateral.  Definitely a topic I am going to brush up on, as I do not believe I passed either exam in this round.  Already started collecting new codes and working problems.
> 
> Mr. Bean, I agree...this exam made my PE exam seem like a field day.


I have to wonder, does anyone actually get thru without guessing blindly on at least 5 questions?  Mainly for those who have passed, does this happen?  The test is designed to make you stumble and run out of time.  I have rarely seen anyone comment about this test and say they got thru all 40 AM questions without having to fill in at least a few circles blindly.


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## TheStructuralEngineer (Nov 29, 2017)

@Mithrandir918 I did not guess a single one. I might have made mistakes but I answered all 40 questions that matched one on the options. (Yet to pass though ) However, time was extremely tight. No time to use restroom too! Level of difficulty is way higher than PE Structural.


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## Mr. Bean (Nov 29, 2017)

MaxDefl said:


> I remember the problem well for the lateral.  Definitely a topic I am going to brush up on, as I do not believe I passed either exam in this round.  Already started collecting new codes and working problems.
> 
> Mr. Bean, I agree...this exam made my PE exam seem like a field day.


No need to get all of the new codes.  Some of the changes aren't structural and therefore not worth getting like the new IBC and Wood codes.  The ACI 318-14 however is needed because everything got shifted around.  2013 Masonry code is required as well.


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## Mr. Bean (Nov 29, 2017)

TheStructuralEngineer said:


> @Mithrandir918 I did not guess a single one. I might have made mistakes but I answered all 40 questions that matched one on the options. (Yet to pass though ) However, time was extremely tight. No time to use restroom too! Level of difficulty is way higher than PE Structural.


That's great.  Wish I had a similar experience.  If you didn't bomb any of the afternoon questions then you should pass the Lateral.


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## Mithrandir918 (Nov 29, 2017)

TheStructuralEngineer said:


> @Mithrandir918 I did not guess a single one. I might have made mistakes but I answered all 40 questions that matched one on the options. (Yet to pass though ) However, time was extremely tight. No time to use restroom too! Level of difficulty is way higher than PE Structural.


@TheStructuralEngineer Did you take Day 1, Day 2 or both?  I agree with @Mr. Bean you must be very good at these tests, you have a very good chance, best of luck.


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## TheStructuralEngineer (Nov 29, 2017)

Mithrandir918 said:


> @TheStructuralEngineer Did you take Day 1, Day 2 or both?  I agree with @Mr. Bean you must be very good at these tests, you have a very good chance, best of luck.


Thanks. Day 1, vertical only. I have zero seismic background, wanted to split the test.


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## User1 (Nov 29, 2017)

TheStructuralEngineer said:


> Thanks. Day 1, vertical only. I have zero seismic background, wanted to split the test.


I'll likely split them as well.


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## Mr. Bean (Nov 29, 2017)

TheStructuralEngineer said:


> Thanks. Day 1, vertical only. I have zero seismic background, wanted to split the test.


Oh you did vertical.  Lol, thought you were referring to lateral.  Vertical wasn't that bad in the morning but the lateral morning  :wacko:


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## TheStructuralEngineer (Nov 29, 2017)

@tj_PE Yes, i think splitting makes more sense so you are not overstressed. 

@Mr. Bean Yea, sorry for confusion. But I think I got 39/40  :laugh:  . Too bad can't wish to see scores.


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## Phil Clark (Nov 29, 2017)

Mithrandir918 said:


> I have to wonder, does anyone actually get thru without guessing blindly on at least 5 questions?  Mainly for those who have passed, does this happen?  The test is designed to make you stumble and run out of time.  I have rarely seen anyone comment about this test and say they got thru all 40 AM questions without having to fill in at least a few circles blindly.


We have someone in our office who took and passed Lateral Buildings April 17.  He said he guessed outright on 6 problems, so-so on 4 or 5.  I know several people who worked 3 problems in the afternoons (vertical or lateral) and "essayed" the last problem with 20 minutes left on both vertical and lateral.  This is to say they didn't complete any calculations for multiple parts on one problem, just explained what they would do and included code references and key formulas.  They passed.  I passed Vertical Buildings April 17 and just tried to keep each afternoon problem to about an hour.  I had to "essay" a subpart or two to stay on schedule, but still passed.  We'll see, I think I messed up the first problem, hard to say how bad because can't remember what I wrote down at this point to talk myself off the ledge...

On code changes, I have a book called Seismic and Wind Forces Structural Design Examples 4th Edition by Alan Williams.  This was a fantastic study guide and reference in the exam.  I have contacted ICC to see if they will be offering a new edition to reflect the updated exam references.  They responded saying they did not know the exam references had been updated, but would look into it and get back to me.  I did see that the practice exams for both NCEES and PPI have been updated, so I would probably get those if I don't pass lateral this go 'round.


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## BamaStrucPESE (Nov 29, 2017)

Mithrandir918 said:


> I have to wonder, does anyone actually get thru without guessing blindly on at least 5 questions?  Mainly for those who have passed, does this happen?  The test is designed to make you stumble and run out of time.  I have rarely seen anyone comment about this test and say they got thru all 40 AM questions without having to fill in at least a few circles blindly.


I'm sure there are some people, but I don't think many. I guessed on almost all AASHTO questions on morning portion for both tests and passed both. I had answers for everything in the afternoon, didn't have to "essay" anything, but I didn't feel confident in what I put for almost an entire problem for lateral afternoon.  I'm sure there are tests more difficult than the lateral portion, but I don't know of any and going off pass rates of the lateral portion there can't be many,


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## Mithrandir918 (Nov 30, 2017)

BamaStrucPE said:


> I'm sure there are some people, but I don't think many. I guessed on almost all AASHTO questions on morning portion for both tests and passed both. I had answers for everything in the afternoon, didn't have to "essay" anything, but I didn't feel confident in what I put for almost an entire problem for lateral afternoon.  I'm sure there are tests more difficult than the lateral portion, but I don't know of any and going off pass rates of the lateral portion there can't be many,


Ive taken this exam 5 times in total.... I passed vertical first time thru and blindly guessed on 10 AM questions.  4 times of taking lateral, no matter how much I have prepared I have never gotten thru without blind guessing on at least 5.  Hats off to those who have done this without having to guess.


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## TheStructuralEngineer (Nov 30, 2017)




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## BPott (Nov 30, 2017)

In response to that screenshot, I can offer advice based on what happened for the April exams, when I took the vertical.

PE and SE exam results did not come out the same day. They are different exams (and the PE is multiple choice only), so that makes sense.

The release of SE results followed the timeline described earlier:



Civil Dawg said:


> The NCEES October newsletter shows the SE Grading Workshop to be 11/30 - 12/2.  If the same schedule holds from the April exam, results will be released the following Friday, 12/8.  Only 2.5 more weeks!


However, each state is in control of releasing its own results, so everyone doesn't get their result at once. I expect some states to hear on or around 12/8. Others might not hear for another week. I found myself refreshing the NCEES website multiple times a day, and then one day woke up to an email saying my results were finally available. I'll try my best to be patient for my results on the lateral... which will probably arrive in the middle of the week of 12/11.


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## TheStructuralEngineer (Dec 5, 2017)

It should be 8th. Waiting is hardest thing !


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## leggo PE (Dec 7, 2017)




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## Mithrandir918 (Dec 8, 2017)

Anyone know if Illinois has even released PE results out yet.


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## TrickShotG (Dec 8, 2017)

Mithrandir918 said:


> Anyone know if Illinois has even released PE results out yet.


No, they have not. We think either today or monday.


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## Mithrandir918 (Dec 8, 2017)

looks like they are slow this year, seems that Illinois always lags behind, guessing they will not be releasing SE results to the states today.  Maybe another week?


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## Mr. Bean (Dec 8, 2017)

Mithrandir918 said:


> looks like they are slow this year, seems that Illinois always lags behind, guessing they will not be releasing SE results to the states today.  Maybe another week?


Could be another week at the max.  Looking at past December releases it seems that they released the SE results several days after the PE results.  According to that standard they should come out today but then again these are only speculations.  They need the extra time probably for the afternoon questions and analyzing any possible discrepancies from all the comments the test takers send to NCEES regarding possible faulty or unclear questions.


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## onemanwolfpack (Dec 8, 2017)

Mr. Bean said:


> Could be another week at the max.  Looking at past December releases it seems that they released the SE results several days after the PE results.  According to that standard they should come out today but then again these are only speculations.  They need the extra time probably for the afternoon questions and analyzing any possible discrepancies from all the comments the test takers send to NCEES regarding possible faulty or unclear questions.


You spoke too soon....NC results are out, passed Vertical Bridges!


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## Mr. Bean (Dec 8, 2017)

onemanwolfpack said:


> You spoke too soon....NC results are out, passed Vertical Bridges!


Congrats!  Still nothing for NY.  Today seemed like the day


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## MCC (Dec 8, 2017)

Iowa is out.  I passed the lateral bridges on my third (and final) attempt.  Passed vertical bridges in April 2015.


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## Mithrandir918 (Dec 8, 2017)

Mr. Bean said:


> Congrats!  Still nothing for NY.  Today seemed like the day


Yes congrats.  I was thinking they might start releasing today, Illinois probably still has some time to wait though.


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## MaxDefl (Dec 8, 2017)

Congrats.  Virginia is out.  Did very poorly on both tests, suprisingly bad, in fact.


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## MaxDefl (Dec 8, 2017)

Should have noted....did not pass either.  Sorry.


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## leggo PE (Dec 8, 2017)

Congrats, @onemanwolfpack and @MCC!

@MaxDefl, sorry to hear about that. But keep your head up! These are not easy exams, but you will definitely get the best of them!


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