April 2012 Pass Rates

[snobumPE]

Available at http://www.ncees.org/Exams/PE_exam.php

For comparison, this was October 2011:

 

[CU07]

59% for environmental...it just keeps going down! Not a good sign.

 

[GWUPhD]

I wonder why the repeat percentages are so low? Not too comforting when you dont make it on the 1st go 'round

 

[Mike in Gastonia]

I wonder why the repeat percentages are so low? Not too comforting when you dont make it on the 1st go 'round

Lots of discussion on this forum about this if you do a search. Bottom line is that the group in the pool that make up the repeat takers are people who have failed at least once. The people that passed have left the group. So chances are most of the failers will fail again unless they make big changes.

 

[GWUPhD]

yeah I understand that, I just took it the second time and passed. I signed up for a review course and used my diagnostic report to focus on what I really needed to study.... I guess I'm one of the fortunate 39%

 

[spinup]

I wonder why the repeat percentages are so low? Not too comforting when you dont make it on the 1st go 'round

I wonder why the repeat percentages are so low? Not too comforting when you dont make it on the 1st go 'round

It is difficult for people to change their study habits. On the following tries they repeat their poor study habits, instead of changing..

 

[MetsFan]

What happened to Naval architecture and Marine engineering? That's a huge drop...

 

[Anxiously Awaiting]

I would like to see the pass rate for environmental this year? Anyone have a clue? I heard (don't know how true this is) that 20 states had a 0 pass rate this year for environmental. I was one that didn't pass and don't think I will take it again.

 

[Mike in Gastonia]

I would like to see the pass rate for environmental this year? Anyone have a clue? I heard (don't know how true this is) that 20 states had a 0 pass rate this year for environmental. I was one that didn't pass and don't think I will take it again.

?? Based on what the OP posted above and on ncees website says pass rate for environmental was 61% for first time and 23% for repeat. Somebody's scamming you with the 20 states thing - how could they possible know?

Hate to see anyone give up after just one try. List your study plan and maybe we can make suggestions. Hang in there.

 

[mayliss]

yeah I understand that, I just took it the second time and passed. I signed up for a review course and used my diagnostic report to focus on what I really needed to study.... I guess I'm one of the fortunate 39%

Hi..

I am wondering if you have any recomendations on what reference material to use for the geotech afternoon part. I took the test and I did not pass ..

I did an excellent job in the morning, but I did very bad in like 5 topics of the afternoon. The percentages were great in the morning and not too bad In the afternoon but I still did not pass, so maybe next time I can finally answer correctly a couple of more questions and get those extra points I need to actually pass it. I was thinking of changing to other dicipline for october but I am not sure if this is a good idea since I already have spend money and time preparing for geotech

What was your impression of the test this time?

 

[GWUPhD]

yeah I understand that, I just took it the second time and passed. I signed up for a review course and used my diagnostic report to focus on what I really needed to study.... I guess I'm one of the fortunate 39%

Hi..

I am wondering if you have any recomendations on what reference material to use for the geotech afternoon part. I took the test and I did not pass ..

I did an excellent job in the morning, but I did very bad in like 5 topics of the afternoon. The percentages were great in the morning and not too bad In the afternoon but I still did not pass, so maybe next time I can finally answer correctly a couple of more questions and get those extra points I need to actually pass it. I was thinking of changing to other dicipline for october but I am not sure if this is a good idea since I already have spend money and time preparing for geotech

What was your impression of the test this time?

The first time I took the exam I went the self study method, and I did well on the PM Geotech portion, but horribly in the morning. I took the ASCE Review course to help with the review of the AM topics..... it served as a good refresher...... For the afternoon I have my textbook from college by Das and that was my primary source I was able to get quite a few of the definition questions from there... problem wise I would suggest the 201 Geotechnical Problems solved book..... it works you through step by step and each question builds on the previous one so it engrains that process into your head. It gives you several types of retaining wall problems, and sufficiently covers each topic on the NCEES guideline so that you have a good example for each type of problem.

As far as my thoughts on the exam, the pile problem threw me off...... and some of the theory questions seemed ambiquous because I thought there could be more than one "right" answer....... and fortunately for the quanitative problems I had an idea of how to solve each one or a really good example to guide me through the process.

I shy away from using books like 6 min solutions as exam day references because I feel like a lot of the problems in there are not representative of the type of problems on the exam.

So my recommendation would be get a solid geotechnical textbook that you are comfortable with that cast a wide net so you can look up things that you may not understand...and a really good source of geotech problems that breaks down each problem type into multiple problems so that you get used to the process of solving that type of problem. PM me and I can email you some of the reference stuff that I have saved electronically. Good luck next time!

 

[uofmalum]

Anyone have some good references to use for Construction? I've tried three times now (1st was WR/Env, 2nd and 3rd was Construction). The 2nd time I tried (two years ago) I had a hard time getting reference material but this time I was able to find nearly everything in my office's library. Of the two times I've tried Construction, I've never seen any timber problems (thank goodness). But for some reason, I get the bad probelms that I cannot find a reference on. I used nearly all the refernces I had this last time (except 3). I even took Testmasters this time around since my Transportation knowledge sucked and I wanted to be able to get over the hump. I'm considering just giving up on the damn thing since it's more for personal than professional (Gov't won't give a raise for passing), but figured I'd see what's out there before making up my mind.

 

[upstatemike]

So, because the Civil passing was so high this time i'll assume October is going to be much more difficult - again. Thoughts?

 

[Mike in Gastonia]

So, because the Civil passing was so high this time i'll assume October is going to be much more difficult - again. Thoughts?

Why would you assume this?

 

[upstatemike]

History I guess, when i failed it in April and took it in October there was a night and day difference. The October exam was awful, the couple guys i took it with all said the same exact thing. The way I understood it was they wanted a common pass rate, typically low 60's, this time it was 70%, a red flag to me that says we need to make it harder this exam was far to easy.

 

[Mike in Gastonia]

History I guess, when i failed it in April and took it in October there was a night and day difference. The October exam was awful, the couple guys i took it with all said the same exact thing. The way I understood it was they wanted a common pass rate, typically low 60's, this time it was 70%, a red flag to me that says we need to make it harder this exam was far to easy.

I've heard this before, but it just doesn't make sense. What purpose would there be in controlling the pass rate? If they design an exam and set the score to a minimum level and everyone passed it, that would be great. That would mean that all those engineers could design in a safe manner.

OK, cue the conspiracy buffs.......

 

[Judowolf PE]

That doesn't make sense to me...they control the pass rate with the cut score. They adjust the cut score up or down to get the pass rate they want. This is why the test is pass/fail. A score of 54 may pass this time and next test it may be 52 or 56 depending on the difficulty of the exam questions and the bell curve of the test takers...just my two cents.

 

[mikecart1]

That doesn't make sense to me...they control the pass rate with the cut score. They adjust the cut score up or down to get the pass rate they want. This is why the test is pass/fail. A score of 54 may pass this time and next test it may be 52 or 56 depending on the difficulty of the exam questions and the bell curve of the test takers...just my two cents.

From what I heard, the score isn't straight out of 80 questions. They do know everyone's score within the days following the test because it is scantron now. However, I heard they have an analysis team go through the statistics of each question and modify what the passing rate should be. This is what changes the passing 'score' from test to test. If a bad question is given for example and a large % of takers miss it or even pick another answer, they might throw that question out or modify the scoring procedure in some way.

 

[Mike in Gastonia]

That doesn't make sense to me...they control the pass rate with the cut score. They adjust the cut score up or down to get the pass rate they want. This is why the test is pass/fail. A score of 54 may pass this time and next test it may be 52 or 56 depending on the difficulty of the exam questions and the bell curve of the test takers...just my two cents.

What you say might be true if every test group was at the same level. But they probably aren't. So if it's a harder exam and they lower the passing score and you have a smarter group, more people would pass. I'm not saying they couldn't control the passing rate - I'm just saying I don't think they do.

 

[upstatemike]

I like your answers, i'll try again in October, I can only hope you're correct.