# Practice Exam this weekend



## Jennifer Price (Oct 13, 2007)

I know there were a few of us that did a practice exam this weekend.

How did you guys do?

If the real exam is as close as the practice exam I took today (I did the one by Lindeburg) then I am in trouble! Which sucks big time since I have been studying for almost a year now!!!!

I wanted to cry when I was done. :suicide1: :brickwall:

ARRRGHHH!!!!

The biggest complaint I had, though, was the PM was not broken up like the real exam should be. There were no geotechnical or water resources problems. Just straight transportation for 40 problems.

Is the NCEES practice exam any closer to the real thing???


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## maryannette (Oct 13, 2007)

Don't get discouraged. I think the practice exams are all harder than the real thing. Use the results to figure out how to spend the last 2 weeks. You can decide if you need to organize, read, work problems, what areas, etc. Just keep going. I know the feeling. I bombed the practice exams, but passed the one that counted. Keep at it. You can do it.


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## IlPadrino (Oct 14, 2007)

jenevans,

What did you learn from the questions you got wrong? It seems that every problem I've ever gotten wrong in practice was either 1) a reminder how silly mistakes must be avoided, 2) a case where an assumption was incorrect, or 3) an opportunity to learn how my approach needed improvement,

I wouldn't worry too much about 1) or 2) because the lesson is clear: avoid silly mistakes and don't repeat the incorrect assumption. A methodical approach to any problem is usually enough. If the wrong answer came from 3) then the solution is either go back and learn (or relearn) to approach or accept that you don't have to know how to answer every problem.

But the bottom line just a few weeks from the exam is to eliminate the 1), reduce the 2), and accept the 3). Just don't get discouraged because that can only make things worse. Remember, you wouldn't be the first who thought you aced it only to get a second (or subsequent) chance and you woudn't be the first who thought you bombed it only to get a congratulations notice.


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## Jennifer Price (Oct 14, 2007)

IlPadrino said:


> jenevans,
> What did you learn from the questions you got wrong? It seems that every problem I've ever gotten wrong in practice was either 1) a reminder how silly mistakes must be avoided, 2) a case where an assumption was incorrect, or 3) an opportunity to learn how my approach needed improvement,
> 
> I wouldn't worry too much about 1) or 2) because the lesson is clear: avoid silly mistakes and don't repeat the incorrect assumption. A methodical approach to any problem is usually enough. If the wrong answer came from 3) then the solution is either go back and learn (or relearn) to approach or accept that you don't have to know how to answer every problem.
> ...


Thank you for the advice. I will start going through my questions tomorrow as I want (need) to take today off (and enjoy the great outdoors  ). I know that some of the questions I answered wrong, I made stupid mistakes (first glance as I was "grading" myself). I was discouraged yesterday after the practice exam, but I feel a bit more relaxed about it now. I know what I need to do in the next two weeks and am glad that I evaluated myself now instead of the exam being my evaluation!

Jen


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## cement (Oct 14, 2007)

> If the real exam is as close as the practice exam I took today (I did the one by Lindeburg) then I am in trouble! Which sucks big time since I have been studying for almost a year now!!!!
> I wanted to cry when I was done.


Don't get too upset, Lindeborg says up front that he over-prepares you for the exam. I feel that a pitfall to the difficulty of the "the other board" practice exams is that you can get dicouraged, or paniced (sp?) by the difficulty of them. In my experience, the practice NCEES exam was very close to the real thing experience. And I credit the NCEES exam with calming me down in the last weeks when I was getting ready to lose it because I did not have enough time on the 6 minute solutions problems by "the other board".

Something I would add to IlPadrino's exam wiki if I took the time to learn to post there, was to stay calm during the exam. 6 minutes a problem is really plenty of time, you need to read the problem, to see what they ask for before you dive into the excess givens that may lead you up a blind path.

I hope that you took a personal day today jenevans, it can do you a lot of good!


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## Capt Worley PE (Oct 15, 2007)

After a post mortem, I found that 7 of my 18 mistakes were carelessness. Picked distant to nuetral axis rather than deflection, wrong power, wrong g sub c. It was nice to learn that I wasn't as crunched for time as I thought I would be, so maybe I can slow down and be more careful.

Oh. I found out that if you leave a problem intending to come back and rework it later, put the page number and text you were using down somewhere.


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## roadmonkey (Oct 15, 2007)

I am planning on taking a prcatice exam as well. Is there a recommendation on which one I should do? I know of several options and I have mulitple books:

1.) Civil PE Sample Examination

2.) NCEES PE Civil Engineering Sample Questions

3.) PE Civil Internet Diagnostic Exam (NCEES website, $29.95)


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## Jennifer Price (Oct 15, 2007)

roadmonkey said:


> I am planning on taking a prcatice exam as well. Is there a recommendation on which one I should do? I know of several options and I have mulitple books:1.) Civil PE Sample Examination
> 
> 2.) NCEES PE Civil Engineering Sample Questions
> 
> 3.) PE Civil Internet Diagnostic Exam (NCEES website, $29.95)


I don't know about 2 or 3, but I took #1 this weekend. I was disappointed b/c the transportation PM had 40 transportation questions, as opposed to the percent breakdown by NCEES. There were no geotechnical or water resources problems. So I did 4 hours of straight transportation problems - which isn't a mirror of the exam at all.

I have looked through the NCEES exam (and plan to work the problems this week) and it seems to be more representative of the actual exam. I have read on this board that it mirrors the actual exam a bit better than the CPSE does.


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## Capt Worley PE (Oct 15, 2007)

Oh, I forgot. I did 32/40 in the morning, 30/40 in the afternoon. NCEES Mechanical practice exam.


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## Tina (Oct 15, 2007)

Hi jenevans,

please don't get discouraged. When I took the Lindeburg sample exam I was shocked at how much I didn't know. The NCEES practice exam is much closer to the real exam.


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## bigray76 (Oct 15, 2007)

Captain Worley said:


> Oh, I forgot. I did 32/40 in the morning, 30/40 in the afternoon. NCEES Mechanical practice exam.


Nice job Capt! I think you are well on your way to getting a PASSING letter in the near future!

Good job!

-Ray


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## bigray76 (Oct 15, 2007)

jenevans said:


> I know there were a few of us that did a practice exam this weekend.
> How did you guys do?
> 
> If the real exam is as close as the practice exam I took today (I did the one by Lindeburg) then I am in trouble! Which sucks big time since I have been studying for almost a year now!!!!
> ...


Jen,

Hang in there... that sample test is much harder than what you will see on the real deal. The main thing for you to get out of that experience is to understand how they got to the answers and/or where to find the answers. The NCEES practice test is more similar to what you can expect to really see.

Good luck!

-Ray


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## RIP - VTEnviro (Oct 15, 2007)

I got pwn3d by the NCEES practice Envl exam, but passed the real thing. I definitely thing the practice exam was much harder than the real thing.

On the other hand I did 3 practice exams by PPI and while form and content were slightly different, the overall problems and degree of difficulty were much closer.


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## Capt Worley PE (Oct 15, 2007)

bigray76 said:


> Nice job Capt! I think you are well on your way to getting a PASSING letter in the near future!
> Good job!
> 
> -Ray


Thanks, that's the goal!


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## Jennifer Price (Oct 15, 2007)

Captain Worley said:


> Oh, I forgot. I did 32/40 in the morning, 30/40 in the afternoon. NCEES Mechanical practice exam.



:appl: :appl: :appl:


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## Capt Worley PE (Oct 16, 2007)

&lt;deep bow&gt;


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## Guest (Oct 16, 2007)

^^^ Here's a smiley for you Captn !!





JR


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## GCracker (Oct 16, 2007)

Just to echo what others have said, no one I studied with (4 of us) passed the lindberg practice exam and we all passed the PE.

Good Luck!


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## roadmonkey (Oct 21, 2007)

The morning portion of the "the other board" sample exam just kicked my ass! :smileyballs: Scoring 23/40 with several guesses that happened to be right.

The NCEES morning portion went a lot better with 17/20, but I had seen some of the problems in my review session.

I really hope the "the other board" exam is harder than the real thing or I am in trouble, a lot of stuff I haven't even seen before. Unit hydrographs still tend to be a problem for me and one on cohesive soil factor of safety without a wall. Both or which suck in CERM.


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