macclenny07
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I thought the AM was easier compared to PM Transportation.
PM Construction was brutally hard! I could not believe what I was seeing.
I don't feel great about the traffic topics in the PM but I'm not exposed to much of it in my position so I did the best I could. I felt great about most of the rest of it. I finished with ~90 minutes remaining and 5 unanswered (which I spent an hour + finishing them up, then did a quick double check front to back and had 10 minutes remaining). So I'll still say in all likelihood I'm looking at 30/40 PM.AM seemed pretty easy for all five areas. PM transportation didn't have as many questions on some areas as I was expecting. PM was tougher than AM but not impossible with that much time and the reference material.
I had one question that should have been answered in one minute, but... I tried to solve it four different ways and got the same answer, which was dead center between two of the answers. It's still bugging me.
I agree. However, once I got in a rhythm, I actually managed to finish the PM Transportation part faster than the AM sectionI thought the AM was easier compared to PM Transportation.
This is exactly how I felt. There wasn't as much of the stuff I focused my studying on as I thought there would be on the PM.AM seemed pretty easy for all five areas. PM transportation didn't have as many questions on some areas as I was expecting. PM was tougher than AM but not impossible with that much time and the reference material.
I had one question that should have been answered in one minute, but... I tried to solve it four different ways and got the same answer, which was dead center between two of the answers. It's still bugging me.
Did we take the same test?!I took the Construction NCEES Sample Exam(2011) two days before the actual test and I think that the sample one was much tougher than the actual test. Nevertheless, I'd agree that there were some oddball/totally random questions in the afternoon(a certain quantity estimating problem comes to my mind...).
I was more surprised by some of the questions I saw in the morning. There was one particular problem in the Water/Env section that IMO should have been an afternoon problem. The equation shown in CERM for this type of problem which I'm guessing everyone used to try to solve it, clearly stated that it did not apply to the case shown in the exam.
ConcurPM Construction was brutally hard! I could not believe what I was seeing.
ConcurWhat did anyone think about the PM Construction? I thought it was more difficult then the practice exams I took before the test.
Every PE I asked for advice told me not to take any schools, classes, study books/courses or the School of PE. That the only thing I should focus on is example exams. You'll feel comfortable with the format of the exam, the questions, the depth and the topics. They all said the schools/courses/books etc aim to help you know/memorize how to solve every topic like you would in college, whereas studying from the NCEES exams gives you practice using your tabbed references. The whole point of the exam isn't to test whether you can do most/all problems from memory but if you know what standards to reference for what topic. But it works for some people so I'm not going to knock it universally, it just wasn't for me.ConcurWhat did anyone think about the PM Construction? I thought it was more difficult then the practice exams I took before the test.
I took some practice test and going into the afternoon I felt great. Yet many of those problems were way different!!! Not even close the Mansour or School of PE practice problems IMO.
I thought the same. I felt the NCEES practice exam was quite a bit easier than the actual test. I took the practice test in a similar fashion (4hr AM, 4hr PM w/ hour break). I emphasize similar, because I didn't account for the nails-on-chalkboard sound of chairs sliding on the concrete floors of the convention center when I took my practice exam.PM Construction was brutally hard! I could not believe what I was seeing.
I agree. I was feeling very confident I would pass the whole thing after the morning exam, but the afternoon exam was very challenging to say the least. At least for me...
PSU09VetEvery PE I asked for advice told me not to take any schools, classes, study books/courses or the School of PE. That the only thing I should focus on is example exams. You'll feel comfortable with the format of the exam, the questions, the depth and the topics. They all said the schools/courses/books etc aim to help you know/memorize how to solve every topic like you would in college, whereas studying from the NCEES exams gives you practice using your tabbed references. The whole point of the exam isn't to test whether you can do most/all problems from memory but if you know what standards to reference for what topic. But it works for some people so I'm not going to knock it universally, it just wasn't for me.
PSU09VetEvery PE I asked for advice told me not to take any schools, classes, study books/courses or the School of PE. That the only thing I should focus on is example exams. You'll feel comfortable with the format of the exam, the questions, the depth and the topics. They all said the schools/courses/books etc aim to help you know/memorize how to solve every topic like you would in college, whereas studying from the NCEES exams gives you practice using your tabbed references. The whole point of the exam isn't to test whether you can do most/all problems from memory but if you know what standards to reference for what topic. But it works for some people so I'm not going to knock it universally, it just wasn't for me.
I understand where you are coming and agree with you to an extent but my impression is that something like School of PE and Dr. Mansour course provides you with a consolidated reference with the goal that it cover the majority of information you need for the test. I used the School of PE References extensively in the morning and Dr. Mansours for some of the construction and transportation. I don't think either class expects you to memorize the information but rather you know where the information is. I went over in "Tabbing the CERM" how i approached that.
Yea and I have heard Transportation is different then Construction.PSU09VetEvery PE I asked for advice told me not to take any schools, classes, study books/courses or the School of PE. That the only thing I should focus on is example exams. You'll feel comfortable with the format of the exam, the questions, the depth and the topics. They all said the schools/courses/books etc aim to help you know/memorize how to solve every topic like you would in college, whereas studying from the NCEES exams gives you practice using your tabbed references. The whole point of the exam isn't to test whether you can do most/all problems from memory but if you know what standards to reference for what topic. But it works for some people so I'm not going to knock it universally, it just wasn't for me.
I understand where you are coming and agree with you to an extent but my impression is that something like School of PE and Dr. Mansour course provides you with a consolidated reference with the goal that it cover the majority of information you need for the test. I used the School of PE References extensively in the morning and Dr. Mansours for some of the construction and transportation. I don't think either class expects you to memorize the information but rather you know where the information is. I went over in "Tabbing the CERM" how i approached that.
I think the CERM is the most valuable thing outside the AASHTO Green Book for the exam, and if you had a good textbook for your highway/transportation classes in college. I used the CERM for most non-transportation topics and the GB and a handful of textbooks for everything else. The best practice is to get used to where to go in what reference for each topic, and get there quickly. For me, I felt completely comfortable with the exam based on going through the sample exam 5 times over the preceding 6 months. Some of the actual exam's problems were more complex than the sample exam, but some were less complex. Either way I knew what part of which reference to turn to for each topic.
I guess to each their own though.
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