2009 April SE I exam

[Prashant]

The six minute book was very, very good. I generaly thought the problems in this book were harder than the exam. However, the book forces you use the codes to answer most the questions. I am going to do most the problems again.
Again, I am going back to re-focus on some of the example problems from NCEES. I think they give you all the hints you need as to what they, they exam writers consider important.

I have not thout about the bridge problems yet. This was a real problem for me as well and did not have time to focus on this. Using the Aashto book is a real problem during the exam, as is was just tooo big to even turn pages in. Years ago I had a smaller reference that was very good. It was an older copy of the "Bridge Design for the Civil and Structural PE Exams". I will try and get a new copy of this book. I already purchase new timber design books and am trying to catch up on that.

I am currently studying the failure report very hard. Be carefull on focusing your study tooo much. The report appears to give a break down by test category only (There are ten).....but the NCEES guidelines show that these ten areas are not equally represented in the "average" test.

IE the steel and concrete parts of the exam are 19% and 16% respectively, while the timber part is only 9%.

From this, I am guessing a modest improvement in Steel and Concrete would result in a better score than a huge improvement in timber.

Do you know whether NCEES will come out with a new edition of practice problems or are you going to revisit the one you already have? Where did you get the failurte report from? Did they send it by snail mail? Which state did you appear for the exam?

 

[Hromis1]

Do you know whether NCEES will come out with a new edition of practice problems or are you going to revisit the one you already have? Where did you get the failurte report from? Did they send it by snail mail? Which state did you appear for the exam?

I recieved an email from ELSES web site where I regestered for the exam about results being ready late last week. When I logged back into that web site there was an option to generate a report and have it emailed to me. I took the exam in Ohio, I am not sure if all the states allow you to get results this way.

BTW, the NCEES example problems are good in the respect that they teach what they think is important for the exam, HOWEVER.....THEY ARE FULL OF ERRORS....PAGES of ERRATA.....a very poor job of editing on those books.

 

[Davoarts]

I just got the results in today. I passed! This was my first time taking the SE1 and yes, it was crazy hard. I said earlier that I didn't have an AASHTO but I did have the CERM and SERM guides (in addition to IBC, ASCE, ASD, LRFD, NDS Wood, ACI shoot I can't even remember how many books I had but I was the only one in my testing room taking the SE and I had at least twice as many books as everyone else).

The biggest thing I would say that helped was I got two 3" binders and condensed all of my school notes and all of the general design notes I had made through the years of working, and also sections of certain codes I thought were pertinent for easy access so I mostly only used those two binders and then went back to the codes as needed to reinforce my answers or look up things I didn't copy over. It took a while making those binders, but ever since I made them I have been using them constantly at work, and obviously they worked.

I'm not saying that's the way to do it, just saying what I did, and it worked for me. I'm also not saying by any means that I am awesome, I know I missed more than enough questions to be scared of whether or not I would actually pass.

Also, most of my codes were older codes just by a few years and I figured not too much could have changed with the newer codes, but DEFINITELY be sure you have the LRFD 13th whether you are doing ASD or LRFD design. That book scared me when it came out because sometimes the engineer side of me comes out and I hate change, but the values in that book ARE different for a few things...

 

[hp32si]

Prashant, I took and passed the Civil/Structural depth exam several years ago. To be blunt, it was a much easier exam and I left hours early. I just took and "failed" the SE I exam for the first time. Darn hard, barely had time to finish, and limited time to re-check anything. Don't feel bad about not passing on the first time. I know several very good engineers that had to take that exam 3 times to pass.

I have taken the SE 1 three times and have FAILED three times---I will be taking the civil/struct in October In Tenn they do not recoginize the SE only the PE. So I have let my ego get the best of me three times---time to swallow my pride and take the general civil. ANd yes all I need is the stamp.

P.S. Thanks for being honest about the exam---engineers (we) tend to want to overstate things!