# Motivation



## LM_JAZ (Jul 28, 2010)

Hello Everyone:

With work, kids, school and everything else how do you stay motivated to study for your PE exam?


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## cdcengineer (Jul 29, 2010)

Working for lousy companies made me want to start my own. I needed the PE to do it. That's all the motivation it took.

BTW - I only have one child so I'm not in as tough a situation as some.

Good Luck


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## Road Guy (Jul 29, 2010)

the thought of never having to study for anything again was good motivation for me..

I had three kids when I did it so my best advice is to find someplace with no tv, radio, internet away from the family and schedule in some study time, tell them you will see them after the exam...


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## navyasw02 (Jul 29, 2010)

The fact that I've already committed over $600 to this stupid test (fees, books, calculator) is motivation for me.


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## sac_engineer (Jul 29, 2010)

For me, the prime motivation was not to take the exam again because I knew the chances of passing is lower as a repeat taker. Having a supportive family and making them understand how important it is to pass this exam not only for your own career development but for your family's future is a good motivator for studying hard and passing the exam on the first attempt.

Good luck!


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## Tammy-IIT (Jul 29, 2010)

LM_JAZ said:


> Hello Everyone:With work, kids, school and everything else how do you stay motivated to study for your PE exam?


It is very hard to stay focus and be motivate, but you have a choice. Do you want to take exam a few times and fail, or focus and do it right the first time? Take a picture of something you want badly and pin it on every mirror in your house. You can look at it everyday and think, when you pass the exam, you can get more money and have it! One thing in life is there is no gain with no sacrafice. You must set aside a few hours a day for study. Good luck.


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## RideEng_929 (Jul 29, 2010)

I started a minimum two hours a night routine and so far it is working OK. I try not to study on the weekends at the moment.

Also, taking a review course, as I am doing, really motivates me to solve problems and review the material in a structured way.


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## Phalanx (Jul 29, 2010)

My goal was to do at least one problem every day, but I never forced myself to study for a specific length of time. I figured that as long as I was willing to continue then I was being productive. If I started to lose focus or get too distracted, I quit studying. Usually I was finished after 1-2 hours, but a few times I got on a role and studied for 10 hours on a Saturday or Sunday. There were definitely bad days where I quit after solving one problem, but dammit, that's one problem that I didn't have to do the next day. Call it the "Problem of the Day" strategy.


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## cableguy (Jul 30, 2010)

I've already been through the NCEES Sample Exam twice... and am now doing the PPI Passing Zone thing. It's really difficult for me to get motivated to do the Mathematics portion of the EERM/EPRM. Why do I need to do LaPlace transforms for the Power test? lol. But, forcing myself to do the math has revealed to me that I've pretty much forgotten everything. From handling matrices to, yes, the LaPlace transform. I'm going to spend the next few days brushing up on the math portion, and then move back to power. On the plus side, I already did the "Power" week of Passing Zone (in one evening), got a 100% on their sample questions, ha ha.


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## picusld (Jul 30, 2010)

LM_JAZ said:


> Hello Everyone:With work, kids, school and everything else how do you stay motivated to study for your PE exam?


Because I believe that there has got to be something better than what I am doing now.


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## FusionWhite (Jul 30, 2010)

My motivation is that the guy I share a cubicle with is taking it. I consider him to be an inferior engineer to me. I refuse to allow him to take and pass the PE exam before me. So simple narcissism is my motivation.


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## playboyman007 (Jul 30, 2010)

FusionWhite said:


> My motivation is that the guy I share a cubicle with is taking it. I consider him to be an inferior engineer to me. I refuse to allow him to take and pass the PE exam before me. So simple narcissism is my motivation.



My motivation is to prove my cube-mate that I'm an superior engineer than he is by passing the exam at a younger age.


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## Kendis (Aug 6, 2010)

LM_JAZ said:


> Hello Everyone:With work, kids, school and everything else how do you stay motivated to study for your PE exam?


The economy is what motivated me - and since you have children (I do too) that should be more than enough motivation to get started and keep going.

I studied over the course of six months, covering one topic a month:

November - Water Resources

December - Geotechnical

January - Structural

February - 2 week break, then Construction

March - Transportation

April - practice test two weeks before exam then no studying

I studied an average of one hour each week day and five hours total on the weekend.

Use whatever motivation works best for you - family, prestige, money, better prospects


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## GVBM3 (Sep 28, 2010)

My motivation is to prove to the guys around me that I am a superior engineer also haha.


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## bigray76 (Sep 29, 2010)

I had my exam motto written on my white board in my office when I took the test...

"Do it once, do it right, and never do it again!"

I was motivated by the fact that my boss tried to throw every roadblock in my way he could - assigning me extra work during the months before the test; his boss telling me that I was 'wasting my time'... but neither one is licensed and one of our old staff guys was my daily reminder... he'd stop by my office every day and say 'how is the studying going?' or 'have you gotten to this topic yet'...


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## Santiagj (Oct 1, 2010)

Road Guy said:


> the thought of never having to study for anything again was good motivation for me..



That was exactly my motivation. I had already completed my M. Eng. so the PE was it. No more studying for the rest of my life!

Also, the repeat tesk taker statistic was scary. I did not want to have to take it again. So I studied my butt off. One shot one kill. Just like Rambo would do it.


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## maryannette (Oct 1, 2010)

Be a good example for your kids. Pass. At some time, they will look back and know that discipline and determination are qualities they should strive for.


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## dastuff (Oct 5, 2010)

I was motivated by the fact that I absolutely refused to ever waste another football season to this test.


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## Waterboy (Oct 6, 2010)

LM_JAZ said:


> Hello Everyone:With work, kids, school and everything else how do you stay motivated to study for your PE exam?


I passed the exam this past April. my motivation was that I never wanted to take the exam a second time. I have two kids and work full time as well as run a home business. I also graduated from college in 1991 so I spent about 500 hours preparing. When you think about it those 500 hours are small when you compare it to being a PE for the rest of your life!


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## NCcarguy (Oct 6, 2010)

Are you looking for what motivated the first time? or the FORTH time?

actually it was probably the same....a commitment to myself at an early age to NEVER quit!

and to be honest, that philosophy has proven to me over many many times to be right.

The day I recieved notice that I passed was one of, if not THE happiest day of my 47 year life.


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## z06dustin (Oct 6, 2010)

I kept myself motivated by refusing to go home, and studying at work. That way I couldn't get distracted by family or TV.


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## schmidty99 (Oct 13, 2010)

My motivation encompasses several reasons. No particular order....

1. Hopefully not to live paycheck to paycheck anymore.

2. A potential (future) job promotion (and the income that comes with it).

3. Personal satisfaction of knowing I did something that not many people around me have accomplished.

4. Provide my family with a little better standard of living (not that its bad, but you know).

5. Job security.

6. Getting "back to even" with some of my friends that are engineers and making more $$.

7. Being able to tell people I'm a "Professional Engineer" (or just engineer) and not a technician when they ask about my career (not that a technician is bad).

8. Seeing my name with a P.E. behind it!

Another note I'll add...Fall 2010 will be my second time taking the EE-Electronics test (after failing last April). I've found studying this time around has been easier because I remembered many of basic concepts I had to "re-learn" the first time. So I'm able to spend more time on the meat of the subject instead of the math I forgot. I feel more confident in my studying (even though my personal life lately has curtailed it a bit). Plus my trial run in April helped me to know what to expect on the test this time around.

My two cents...


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