GoldenKnight87
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- Mar 20, 2016
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I getting ready to sit for my PE April 2016 for the second time and I am beginning to get really worried that I may fail this exam again. I am looking for some guidance or advice on what to do to prepare myself for the second time around.
To give you some background. I have been for working for a transportation firm for 4 years right out of college designing bridge components and other miscellaneous structures for my company. I work with a group of 14 structural engineers who all have their P.E./S.E. that come from very respectable institutions and had great success through their careers. Wanting to further my career and hopefully advancing through the ranks, I registered to take my P.E. as soon as I qualified. Talking with my coworkers and other engineers around the office about the PE and how difficult it was, I got the consensus that it was a very manageable test...easy almost. My boss didn't crack open a book till a week before the exam when he took it and he passed easily. Not only that, everyone one in my department who took the PE, passed it on the first try. So with all that feed back I felt that this exam was something I can handle. Granted I know I needed to study my but off but I figured if I put the required work in, I should pass.
For the first time around, I took the School of PE, had the CERM, 6 minute solutions, and 2 NCEES practice exams. I studied around 15hrs a week for 3+ months on top of doing the SOPE. Since this was my first time I didn't have a real direction or set study schedule to go by so I just worked problems from each section outlined in NCEES. I worked roughly 300 problems during that time. Up until the test I wasn't sure how I felt I would do on the exam due to uncertainty and from my results for the practice exam.
I sat for my 1st PE in OCT 2015 (Civil/Structural) and I never felt more unprepared in my life. The morning was noticeably harder than the practice exams I took and the afternoon completely destroyed my confidence. Still, I worked the problems that I knew and made the best of it. I finished the morning with 15mins to spare thinking I got 30/40 right. The afternoon unfortunately, I completely ran out of time and had to guess on an entire third of it. Walking out of the exam I felt horrible, full of self doubt and uncertainty. I couldn't believe how unprepared I was for this exam given how much I studied. As I suspected....I failed miserably (49/80). I felt completely defeated and worthless. This was the first standardized/national exam that I have ever failed and it completely shook me at the core. Not only that, I didn't know how to face my coworkers tell them the news. Well sure enough they found out and life hasn't been the same since. When I had to tell my supervisors the result, I got a response that I wasn't expecting.....confusion and disappointment. They were perplexed on how I could fail...and by so much. "Did you even study?, Did you work Hard? How did this happen?" Those were the questions being bombarded at me. What made it worse was that I was the only one in my department to fail the exam. Since then, I'm treated as a outcast and have the reputation as "the guy that failed".
Wanting to prove them wrong to show it was a fluke, I signed up to take the April 2016 Exam. I went all out this time. I got the New CERM, SERM, School of PE retake course, 15 practice exams from different authors, Book of solved problems and many other practice materials. I religiously studied every day from January for at least 4+ hours a day doing practice problems and studying theory and focusing on my weak areas. Well here comes the part where I need guidance. I have taken 12 of my 15 practice tests and haven't gotten higher than a 65% on them, which in my opinion is failing. I don't understand how after so much extra work I have put into this, I am still failing. I feel like a incompetent ***** that doesn't deserve to practice engineering. I don't know what else to do. My main struggle seems to be the afternoon section. It is like a brick wall of knowledge that I cannot penetrate no matter what subject I study or what theory I review. It is so frustrating and I am lost.
Does anyone have any advice for 2nd timers or what I can do in the coming weeks before the exam. I feel that I have plateaued knowledge wise and my best just isn't good enough and it will never be good enough. I didn't mean to go off on such a emotional rant but I have no where else to go or what to do. Any direction or help is appreciated
To give you some background. I have been for working for a transportation firm for 4 years right out of college designing bridge components and other miscellaneous structures for my company. I work with a group of 14 structural engineers who all have their P.E./S.E. that come from very respectable institutions and had great success through their careers. Wanting to further my career and hopefully advancing through the ranks, I registered to take my P.E. as soon as I qualified. Talking with my coworkers and other engineers around the office about the PE and how difficult it was, I got the consensus that it was a very manageable test...easy almost. My boss didn't crack open a book till a week before the exam when he took it and he passed easily. Not only that, everyone one in my department who took the PE, passed it on the first try. So with all that feed back I felt that this exam was something I can handle. Granted I know I needed to study my but off but I figured if I put the required work in, I should pass.
For the first time around, I took the School of PE, had the CERM, 6 minute solutions, and 2 NCEES practice exams. I studied around 15hrs a week for 3+ months on top of doing the SOPE. Since this was my first time I didn't have a real direction or set study schedule to go by so I just worked problems from each section outlined in NCEES. I worked roughly 300 problems during that time. Up until the test I wasn't sure how I felt I would do on the exam due to uncertainty and from my results for the practice exam.
I sat for my 1st PE in OCT 2015 (Civil/Structural) and I never felt more unprepared in my life. The morning was noticeably harder than the practice exams I took and the afternoon completely destroyed my confidence. Still, I worked the problems that I knew and made the best of it. I finished the morning with 15mins to spare thinking I got 30/40 right. The afternoon unfortunately, I completely ran out of time and had to guess on an entire third of it. Walking out of the exam I felt horrible, full of self doubt and uncertainty. I couldn't believe how unprepared I was for this exam given how much I studied. As I suspected....I failed miserably (49/80). I felt completely defeated and worthless. This was the first standardized/national exam that I have ever failed and it completely shook me at the core. Not only that, I didn't know how to face my coworkers tell them the news. Well sure enough they found out and life hasn't been the same since. When I had to tell my supervisors the result, I got a response that I wasn't expecting.....confusion and disappointment. They were perplexed on how I could fail...and by so much. "Did you even study?, Did you work Hard? How did this happen?" Those were the questions being bombarded at me. What made it worse was that I was the only one in my department to fail the exam. Since then, I'm treated as a outcast and have the reputation as "the guy that failed".
Wanting to prove them wrong to show it was a fluke, I signed up to take the April 2016 Exam. I went all out this time. I got the New CERM, SERM, School of PE retake course, 15 practice exams from different authors, Book of solved problems and many other practice materials. I religiously studied every day from January for at least 4+ hours a day doing practice problems and studying theory and focusing on my weak areas. Well here comes the part where I need guidance. I have taken 12 of my 15 practice tests and haven't gotten higher than a 65% on them, which in my opinion is failing. I don't understand how after so much extra work I have put into this, I am still failing. I feel like a incompetent ***** that doesn't deserve to practice engineering. I don't know what else to do. My main struggle seems to be the afternoon section. It is like a brick wall of knowledge that I cannot penetrate no matter what subject I study or what theory I review. It is so frustrating and I am lost.
Does anyone have any advice for 2nd timers or what I can do in the coming weeks before the exam. I feel that I have plateaued knowledge wise and my best just isn't good enough and it will never be good enough. I didn't mean to go off on such a emotional rant but I have no where else to go or what to do. Any direction or help is appreciated
