# A Non Study Advice



## GreenEngineer (Apr 13, 2009)

I passed the California PE exam and it took me three times.

1st time: I didn't have time to study but studied about 10 hrs of CERM depth topic questions (WR/ENV). I did not take a review class. I got 52/80 questions correct for 8hr, 31/40 for the depth. I was 10 points away from passing Seismic and and ~20 from surveying.

2nd time: I studied roughly 40-60 hrs on ENV/WR, GEO, SEISMIC, CON.. I did not take a review class. I got 48/80 for hr (21 morning, 27 depth ENV/WR...I saw a trend) passed the siesmic and was 4 points from passing the surveying.

3rd time: I studied 40-60 hours on all topics except surveying (i really wanted to get this 8hr out of the way). I still did not take class (work won't pay for it). I passed all.

Everyone kept telling me that the morning session of the 8hr was easy. I saw from the 2 exams i took was that I was failing in the morning. Even after the 2nd time I felt I did good in the morning. So why was i failing? Also I think the surveying was in the morning.

Ok here is what I learned.

In order of what I felt was important for me.

1. Get good sleep!!!!!!! I had to get up 3 in the morning to drive to the exam. I don't sleep well in hotels either. But the first two time i very much remember being impatient and groggy in the mornings. I would do the problems, know how to do them but make a mistake on the area of the circle for example! Then I waste time figuring out why my answer was wrong and getting frustrated. I don't need to tell you how I got good sleep but just come to the exam fresh and clear minded. Take some energy drink, have a good breakfast etc. I felt like answers were falling out of trees when I took the test.

2. Study all topics even if its only for a short perioid of time. I felt like I knew where to look when I saw a question I couldn't do off hand. I guess this part ties in with good tabbing!

3. Oh and read. Everyone emphasizes doing problems and more problems. Which you should do but you should also read. At least 30% of the questions on the exam was qualitative. One might say that you can find those answers in your references but I was able to answer a bunch of them without opening a reference. They were like 5 second answers!

By all means we all have different ways to help out exam skills. I do think i should have studied more hours. Id say a minimum of 100hrs. I could say that I did that much over the three exams.

I hope this helps somebody!!!

Now I got to study for the LEEDS.


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