Any stories from Exam Day?

[frazil]

No. That's cool. I just assumed that group of retirees running the exam piled them all up in milk crates and threw them in the back of someone's car and then mailed them out to NCEES the next day.

 

[Ritchie503]

Had never pondered the logistics of blank/completed exams before, I suppose there is no other way to do it. That must be a pretty hefty armored truck bill for the exam weekend, considering all the sites (and I would assume they do the same for the FE exam). Its really a good thing for us that NCEES does it this way, to keep those two letters (PE) to really mean something.

 

[DVINNY]

VT, you've got to be full of $hiat. There is no way they are dishing out the $$ for armored trucks for cryin out loud.

I never saw a guard, let alone a truck.

I say its the retirees and milk crate version.

 

[Hill William]

When I took it in WV, ours were flown in on Blackhawk helicopters under machine gun cover.

I wanted to call B.S. on the armored trucks too.

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

VT, you've got to be full of $hiat. There is no way they are dishing out the $$ for armored trucks for cryin out loud.

Why would I lie about that? It's not like it makes me look cooler or anything.

 

[frazil]

 

[kevo_55]

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

How would you both like to be...

 

[DVINNY]

Why so angry VT? Why so defensive?

DIAZ, I forgot about hearing the helicopters. Did they repel down to the rooftop? I never saw the actual test transport in and out, so I'm assuming they did.

 

[Hill William]

Why so angry VT? Why so defensive?DIAZ, I forgot about hearing the helicopters. Did they repel down to the rooftop? I never saw the actual test transport in and out, so I'm assuming they did.

Yeah, I was amazed at how those little old lady proctors could move in their urban assault gear.

 

[MA_PE]

WOW tough crowd.

I would think they'd be a secure method to transport the exam booklets, both in and out of the test site. Heck isn't that what they do with paper ballots during an election. Remember the "chads" being transported during the recounts?

Amored truck, might be unecessary, but hiring a bonded, secure, impartial, transport/courier seems reasonable. If the only company vechicle available for the job is an amored car, then I can see them using one.

Then again VT might have stopped at the ATM on the way to the test site and in his pre and post-test daze, has confused his memories of the amored car at the bank with his arrival at the test site.

 

[Brian]

This was my first time. I took the test in Owosso, MI. Civil/WR.
I stayed the night in town at a hotel so that I would be fresh in the AM without having to worry about a the drive/construction/accidents etc. Turns out, I could not fall asleep until 2:30 AM and every door in the hotel automatically slammed shut anytime anyone left their room. This started in earnest at about 5:00 AM and continued until I was out of bed at 6:50. All told, I had the equivalent of about 3 hours of normal sleep. I still think that beat getting up early for the drive. I am not a morning person.

I got a little paranoid during the exam that the proctors were going to pounce on me and throw me out for some real or imaginary violation of policy. I don’t think it helped that I tend to stare off into space and that I took maybe four bathroom breaks during the day (BM, water and ice tea, and it’s nice to stretch my legs).

The guy next to me was seated to my left and had quite a spread of material. Like most righties, he had his exam to his right and references to his left. I was in the same boat. This guy was an Imperialist I think because he gradually started venturing into my space and claiming it as his own. This in itself was not too big a deal to me. But he eventually wound up with his answer sheet right next to my CERM. And when I say right next to it, I mean right next to it… Right in front of my face practically in plain view.

This ratcheted my paranoia up a bit, so I made a pre-emptive strike at the proctors and called one of them over, and pointed out the situation to them and just asked if they could ask the guy to scoot back over. For some reason, she had me ask him personally. He didn’t mind a bit and I don’t think he was aware that he had slid that far over. It had been really distracting to have that answer sheet in front of my face. My ADD mind kept wandering to topics like getting thrown out… and to cheating in general. I mean, I didn’t know this guy from Adam. What good would looking at his exam do me anyway.

That was my excitement.

Lunch was enjoyable for me as I had packed one so I didn’t have to go farther than my car. I ate out in the sun with my shoes off on a blanket near a nicer retention pond. It was a nice, quite, relaxing break. Which brings me to another thing that surprised me. We were allowed to have food (snacks) and drink in the room with us. I had thought they were prohibited and was unaware of this until doubling checking the rules the day before the exam. That was a big relief.

Other interesting items…

One guy was carrying his books in a 5-gallon bucket.

One guy had 4 large boxes of books on a dolly. Probably at least 50 books.

There was no clock in the room where the exam was administered. I learned this lesson the hard way when I took the FE.

I think I passed. I felt like if this wasn’t good enough, I don’t know what else would be. However, I am second guessing myself now and wondering if I am over-confident. If I fell victim to the distractors. It seemed too easy at times.

Two decent engineering dictionaries were invaluable.

I had two texts I brought as filler which I used explicitly to answer two questions. One was a soils manual that gave me the specifics I needed about a testing method. The other was a college textbook that answered a definition question verbatim.

It will be a long two months. Do they give us our score in MI even if we pass?

I brought a handtruck... but what the heck... I wasn't going to wrench my back carrying a ton of books. I saw a lot of people with plastic tubs, dragging them in, some with just a backpack. Structurals definitely had the most to carry in. I took civil/envro ... i thought it was pretty easy overall.

We had a clock, but it was behind us. I also took a count-down kitchen timer to pace myself. I just disconnected the alarm as to not scare the crap out of everyone.

The proctors were really cool. I took the exam in State College, PA. They were not too "in your face" during the exam. They came around every so often, but quietly.

Now... when I took the FE in April 2002, it was a different story... I took it at Penn State. Typically they hold Blue/White weekend (the annual scrimmage) the same weekend. If you went to PSU, you know what I am talking about. I took the FE in Hammond Builing, no A/C and everyone smelled like alcohol! I guess I was one of the few that didn't party Friday night. It was rough... all day, football crowds, the windows were oopen because it was so f-ing hot in the building, stale beer smell, drunk Alumni yelling on the street... ah Penn State at it's finest. But I passed, and didn't think it was too hard an exam.

One of my profs from college told me about a kid who took the FE in October in State College. He stayed at the Atherton Hotel, right on one of the main corners of downtown State College. 2 am in the morning, a drunk driver hits two people crossing the street in front of the hotel, and the entire night, the ambulances were blaring, sirens, lights, etc... the guy didn't get any sleep.

Brian