6 days! Everyone ready?

[TWJ PE]

Screw that.... Let 'em rip. Just don't sh*t yourself.

Absolutely... furthermore, wear ear plugs that way when you break the sound barrier, it will sound very quiet to you and you'll think you successfully deployed the "silent but deadly" bomb.

Just pray the HVAC system doesn't draft back to your position...

 

[matt267 PE]

Just pray the HVAC system doesn't draft back to your position...

That might be a question for the Mechanical-HVAC people....

 

[ruggercsc]

With just 3 days to go, I would recommend the following:

1.  Go through your reference material and know where everything is.  In the morning session last April, there was a transportation problem I could not answer.  At the last second I went back and found an equation I had never noticed before. I was able to answer it by quickly going to the reference material one last time at 3 hours and 59 minutes of the morning session.  Use every minute of time you are allocated.

2.  Know your indexes.  In the afternoon construction depth session there was an economic type question I had never seen before.  I used the Construction Depth CERM index to find the section and was able to get the correct formula.  I had never seen this type of question nor used this reference studying, but I did reviewed the index a day or two before and knew where the information to answer those type of questions were located.

3.  Review the Code books and know where to find information.  Some of the code type questions are simple "look-ups" if you have the reference and know where to quickly find the information.

4.  As I mentioned above, skip Waffle House the morning of the test.

 

[texasEE]

Good tips from all! I am also taking this thing the first time and taking off work Wednesday and Thursday. 
I have gone through the 2001 NCEES, 2011 NCEES, Kaplan test, Kaiser morning test, twice, and the PPI sample test once(which did not match the difficulty of any of the other ones). 

Plan on going through all references on Wednesday and Thursday and do some last minute tabbing.

Anyone know any good sections that come up alot on the electrical and electronics PE from the NEC handbook? And how about economics? 
How much room do we get on test day?
 

3.  Review the Code books and know where to find information.  Some of the code type questions are simple "look-ups" if you have the reference and know where to quickly find the information.

 

[texasEE]

Also - I heard a myth that the board makes the tests "harder" or "easier" based on the previous administration pass scores, is this true? 

 

[TWJ PE]

Hopefully you have the tabs from Tom Henry and his key word index.

Don't really believe that... you get what you get...

 

[TWJ PE]

@texasEE are you taking the exam in Houston? If you are, you'll have a good amount of room. I would recommend ear plugs.

 

[Ken PE 3.1]

Also - I heard a myth that the board makes the tests "harder" or "easier" based on the previous administration pass scores, is this true? 

Most definitely. Last cycle was extraordinarily easy so this one will be brutal.

 

[ngmakhlo_PE]

Most definitely. Last cycle was extraordinarily easy so this one will be brutal.

Then I'll be that much more proud of myself for crushing this thing.  

 

[NJmike PE]

don't forget the diapers

 

[ngmakhlo_PE]

don't forget the diapers

CHECK

 

[texasEE]

@texasEE are you taking the exam in Houston? If you are, you'll have a good amount of room. I would recommend ear plugs.

Yes - I'll be at the NRG taking it! And awesome, thanks!

 

[cogborn84]

Most definitely. Last cycle was extraordinarily easy so this one will be brutal.

So if it was too easy, then they would have adjusted the curve for that particular test right? So in the end even if it was easy or hard you still may have failed because the bar was raised. So in turn, if this round is really brutal, everyone will be in the same boat and the curve will adjust. So it doesn't seem to matter as long as a person has prepared appropriately and is competent with the topics presented. Seems like that would make sense anyway.

 

[Ken PE 3.1]

8 hours ago, Ken PE 3.0 said: Most definitely. Last cycle was extraordinarily easy so this one will be brutal.

So if it was too easy, then they would have adjusted the curve for that particular test right? So in the end even if it was easy or hard you still may have failed because the bar was raised. So in turn, if this round is really brutal, everyone will be in the same boat and the curve will adjust. So it doesn't seem to matter as long as a person has prepared appropriately and is competent with the topics presented. Seems like that would make sense anyway.

Thats what they all say

 

[TN PE 4.0]

So if it was too easy, then they would have adjusted the curve for that particular test right? So in the end even if it was easy or hard you still may have failed because the bar was raised. So in turn, if this round is really brutal, everyone will be in the same boat and the curve will adjust. So it doesn't seem to matter as long as a person has prepared appropriately and is competent with the topics presented. Seems like that would make sense anyway.

I hope this is true. The pass rates from April for civil don't seem to be much different then previous exams.

 

[npcannon]

Wow, I got nervous just going to this board and I passed the October ME PE last year! 

Just thought I'd check in and say good luck to all the October test takers, get ready for a really strange holiday season! 

 

[ngmakhlo_PE]

I am ready for the exam to finally be here, I am starting to drive myself crazy wondering if I am not prepared enough or if I am missing something, I have almost completely run out of practice exams and sample problems to do, I am now at the point where I am just flipping through all of my references and the index for each. I just need to get there, remain calm and confident, own this thing, then stock my fridge with every IPA I can find. oh and sleep. for a long time. this has been a long 3-4 months...

 

[geomane]

I am ready for the exam to finally be here, I am starting to drive myself crazy wondering if I am not prepared enough or if I am missing something

If I'm not studying or thinking about the exam, then I'm dreaming about it! I had a nightmare last night that during the morning portion of the exam we got a break after 2 hours. After I got back from the break, the proctors had taken all my references and put them on bookshelves (along with thousands of other books) that encompassed the room, so I could not find them. I started freaking out because I was running out of time, I had only completed 20 of the breadth questions, and I did not have my references. I told the proctors that if they did not give me by books back, nobody in the building was going to finish the exam, I was calling NCEES, and all exams would be invalidated lol. Then I woke up. The PE exam has consumed my life!

 

[ngmakhlo_PE]

If I'm not studying or thinking about the exam, then I'm dreaming about it! I had a nightmare last night that during the morning portion of the exam we got a break after 2 hours. After I got back from the break, the proctors had taken all my references and put them on bookshelves (along with thousands of other books) that encompassed the room, so I could not find them. I started freaking out because I was running out of time, I had only completed 20 of the breadth questions, and I did not have my references. I told the proctors that if they did not give me by books back, nobody in the building was going to finish the exam, I was calling NCEES, and all exams would be invalidated lol. Then I woke up. The PE exam has consumed my life!

LOL! Well my first reaction to that nightmare is that you better work a little faster through the problems if you did exactly half of breadth section in exactly half the time! :laugh:  I am right there with you, I can't remember that last decent night of sleep I got, I lay there with random charts and tables popping into my head and start thinking about why I randomly thought of those and when I would actually need them and then it usually goes downhill pretty quickly after that! I do like that idea though about musical chairs with our references, that would make things interesting!  It is too bad we do not live closer to each other so that we could've studied together, sounds like we have similar study habits and commitment to passing! Make sure you get some good rest tomorrow. You know all that you need to know, just let your brain do some resting before it gets the sh*t beat out of it Friday!  Cheers and good luck!!

 

[tryandtryagain]

Hi all, this will be my 4th (and final time allowed) taking the PE exam. I want to wish everyone the best of luck tomorrow!

I feel like I am the most prepared I have ever been for it, which is all I can really do. My particular exam doesn't have much preparation material available (only one study guide exists and it only has 40 problems in it) so it is difficult to know what exactly will be thrown at you on exam day-- but I hope it isn't very obscure questions like last time.

First Try: The first time I took it I wasn't prepared as everyone told me it was extremely easy (it is not!!), people said "oh I studied for maybe 4 hours and passed LOL" study time was only 20 hours.

Second Try: The second time I put in 100+ hours, but my information was not organized well-- additionally they added a whole new topic (15% of exam questions) without including it in the exam guide on NCEES site.

Third Try: The third time I put in 200+ hours-- built my own excellent study guide, and limited the books I brought to reduce time flipping through material not needed (big mistake), I remember sitting there thinking-- oh darn I know I could solve this one-- but the book I need is at home. I still felt like I was close to passing, but I failed by one - three questions (I'm guessing based on estimated cut score).

Fourth Try (Now): This time I have put in 200+ hours of study again. I have an even better hand written equation booklet. I have an official equation booklet (released last year). I have another equation book designed towards the PE exam for this subject (released a few months ago). I will be bringing 32+ books (trust me, I need them all for this exam as lots of the questions are from random books). I have organized a guide that points me towards where an example problem is for each topic. This is probably the best prepared I will ever be, so if I fail this time at least I know I gave it my all in the end. 

Advice for exam day (if you feel like taking advice from someone who failed this many times! haha)

1. Bring a watch (forgot it my first time!!), bring a ruler, two calculators

2. Mark all the questions according to difficulty 1st thing!! Work it easy to hard.

3. Get to exam site early-- very early-- there is often a large line for parking at some of these places

4. Relax, it is just an exam and doesn't mean you are a bad engineer if you don't do well. Plenty of people work in industry without passing an exam covering obscure questions that many people don't ever see in a lifetime of work at their job.

Best of luck!