BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!

[Dark Knight]

Hello there,

Now that California, the last one again, released results, starts the test prep. I would like to try something. Can be fun and helpful at the same time. B)

Lets have a thread here with advices for the next wave of FUTURES PEs :beerchug

Write in this thread an advice, one and only one so everybody would have the chance to contribute. Please, no soap operas(that goes for me) . I will start with this one:

Never go to the test without preparation!!!!!

How many of us have done that? Just went to the test without studying just to "feel" it, to get an idea. You will find yourself :brick: :brick: :brick: at you at the end thinking: "If only I had studied I would have passed"

Don't make that mistake. If you pay for, prepare for it

Be ready!!!!! Put your game face and say....

;guns; ;guns; ;guns; ;guns; ;guns; ;guns; ;guns; ;guns;

 

[Seajay]

Know your enemy: Look at the exam breakdown from the NCEES site and develop a comphrensive schedule which mirrors it and stick to it!

Know yourself: Work on your weak topics and hone your strong ones. Actively review subjects: take notes as you study; do the example problems as the come up in the chapters; and complete as my problem sets as you can.

Train as you fight: Select your weapon systems (References and Calculator) and use them religiously till you are one.

Enlist Allies: See if you can garner support from both work and home with either time to study or technical asistance. You'll be surprised what people will do for you if they know its in support of a noble pursuit.

DON'T GET FRUSTRATED Nothing worthwhile ever come easy and the only easy day was yesterday. F.I.D.O! Bring it on!

;guns; ;guns; ;guns; ;guns; ;guns; ;guns;

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

I passed this April myself. A couple morsels of wisdom not posted yet...

Start early: Studying a couple hours a day over 4 months or more is less stressful than power cramming in 6 weeks. You can study at a steady, consistent pace, and still give yourself time to take the occasional day off and deal with life's surprises that make you miss a day or two. I also think you will learn the material better if you learn a little at a time, rather than trying to memorize an entire textbook chapter in a day.

Ignore external distractions: I don't mean turn the TV off when studying, that much is obvious. What I mean is don't let others affect your study routine. Everyone here probably had coworkers, boss, friends, etc. telling them what's going to be on the test and how they should study if they want to pass.

"When I took the test, there were 5 questions on activated sludge...", or "If you want to pass, here's what you need to do..."

Look at the current test breakdown on NCEES, and study the most effective way for you. Your test might not look like your coworker's, and the way he studied might not be the way for you.

 

[benbo]

This is apparently not true for everyone for every test, but in general the advice I have seen and my experience is ;guns; KILL the morning session of the test. In general, if you don't come out of the morning feeling pretty good you'll be feeling pretty bad by the end of the exam. In some ways, the morning could even be classified as "easy"

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

^ I agree. I felt really good coming out of the morning, like I nailed it.

This way, there is less pressure on you to nail the afternoon. You know that all you need to do is have a respectable showing to pass. :kick:

 

[DrFranz]

My advice, know the concepts of whatever you are doing. Solving tons of problems won't do any good if you are doing them like a machine, you know garbage in, garbage out. Learn why are you doing (solving) a problem a certain way. Forget the advice of "as many problems as you can". Just make sure you understand what you are doing and why you are doing it that way (versus doing it a different way). Remember, there's more than one way to skin an engineer.

B)

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

Forget the advice of "as many problems as you can".

That is seriously the mantra they promote everywhere on the PPI website. Every one of their testimonials says that the person did every practice problem, 6 minute solution, and practice exam out there, and that's how they passed.

 

[Hill William]

I did a ton of problems and I think it helped me b/c by doing them, I became very familiar with my CERM. I used it for 90% of the test and I did fine. I think doing problems just makes you learn more by looking up the way to do them. I dont know if the practice that they actually provide does that much. We have all taken tests before and know how to get unknowns from a set of givens.

 

[DrFranz]

yup... that's crap. I have seen their 6 min and didn't even try to solve on of their problems... afterwards, I'm glad I did not follow their selling strategy since the actual problems in the exam were not similar to those 6 mins (at least for geoetch).

For me, if you don't understand the concept of what you are doing, regardles of how many times you do it, a small variation in the setup of the problem will cause you to make a mistake.

 

[DrFranz]

Again, different people have different ways to learn... I really did not use the CERM that much... only to look up the environmental terms in the morning because there were words there I had never heard about. Most of my hydraulic problems I solved w/ charts (same as those in the back of the CERM) and that's about it... everything else were just concepts so I did not even need that many books... I actually used more the ACI 318 more than the CERM in the morning portion (I took the geo afternoon)... that was the oddest thing that happened to me, since I brought it just in case. Did not use the green book or highwas capacity manual at all (so it was just dead weight I brought).

 

[Hill William]

Again, different people have different ways to learn... I really did not use the CERM that much... only to look up the environmental terms in the morning because there were words there I had never heard about. Most of my hydraulic problems I solved w/ charts (same as those in the back of the CERM) and that's about it... everything else were just concepts so I did not even need that many books... I actually used more the ACI 318 more than the CERM in the morning portion (I took the geo afternoon)... that was the oddest thing that happened to me, since I brought it just in case. Did not use the green book or highwas capacity manual at all (so it was just dead weight I brought).

Im not trying to sell "the other board" products or anything, but I think I could have passed with just my CERM and a calculator. :true:

 

[DrFranz]

well, if we are going to go to extremes, I probably could have passed it with the graphs, a protractor and a pencil h43r:

 

[Hill William]

well, if we are going to go to extremes, I probably could have passed it with the graphs, a protractor and a pencil h43r:

You would have to make sure it was a protractor from the approved list and a NCEES supplied pencil

 

[jeb6294]

My advice, know the concepts of whatever you are doing. Solving tons of problems won't do any good if you are doing them like a machine, you know garbage in, garbage out. Learn why are you doing (solving) a problem a certain way. Forget the advice of "as many problems as you can". Just make sure you understand what you are doing and why you are doing it that way (versus doing it a different way). Remember, there's more than one way to skin an engineer.
B)

Couldn't agree more....there were plenty of problems that I couldn't figure out when I was going through my sample problems. Instead of just skipping them I went through the solution step by step to figure out what concepts they were using and, more importantly, where in the CERM the formulas were coming from.

Apparently this worked well for me...your results may vary.

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

I could have passed with nothing but an 8 ball of coke and 5 hookers. :true:

 

[cement]

I could have passed with nothing but an 8 ball of coke and 5 hookers. :true:

great advice Lord Vader :claps:

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

On a serious note, as far as what you bring with you:

If you didn't use it for your review, don't bring it to the exam. I was soooo tempted to bring a couple books I never really used to the test, in the unlikely event they asked something I might find in there.

But, I figured I was unfamiliar with those books. And I didn't want to waste time digging through it, then mis-read it. :hung:

 

[benbo]

now I am speaking for the electrical exam, the ECC afternoon, and of couse, my experience. Reading and assuring that you know the concept may work well for some people. However, I know a lot of people who read through things, were sure they "knew the concepts", never worked any problems and flunked. To some people, reviewing the concepts means going through and highlighting them with a yellow highlighter. They don't have a clue. At least in Electrical, I think it is a good idea to work some problems. True, there are some "qualitative" problems, but by working problems I was able to quickly go through all the computational probelms and have to time to make sure I got the nuances of the qualitative problems.

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

You definitely need to work a decent number of problems. It gets you comfortable using your references, calculator, etc. And it exposes you to the different ways they can ask a questions.

When I say reviewing the concepts, I mean reading through an old textbook/manual until you can look at a problem and explain how to solve it.

 

[cement]

I agree that there is no substitute for working problems. You work enough problems in your core areas and they become second nature. Practicing with the allowable calculator is a huge benefit too. While reading the chapters in CERM was time consuming, it refreshed some general knowledge in my head that was useful in the exam.

I took the NCEES sample test abouta week before the exam to get myself used to the 6 min format. The test on CD was a good excersize too. I had been taking more time on the practice problems, so I learned that I had to go with the best answer in the allowable time. That was also when i found how useful the seperately bound index for the cerm was. after reviewing for 4 months, I had forgotten where the good stuff was in the WR chapters that I had studied first.

Pacing myself kept me focused and calm on exam day. On the answer sheet are 4 collumns of 10 answers each. you have 4 hours (for each session) check your watch, if you have completed a collumn in 40 or 50 minutes, you are golden.

I didn't read all the problems first the way some others did, that would just get me anxious and confused. When I came to one that was too hard (were there any? ) I would fill in a best guess and marked my exam book to follow up.

Have turkey for dinner the night before and you will sleep like a baby. Bring small snacks and drinks for during the exam. If the proctor takes them, tough break, but they will help with fatigue, esp about 3 in the afternoon. Pack a lunch. have some tictacks to stuff up your nose if someone smells like a dead cow is nearby like in my exam :true:

I did not use my "did not read college refrences". I got a workout carrying them back and forth though :blink: For Civil Transpo I used the CERM, green book, HCM, MUTCD in that order. Did not touch the roadside design guide, but I am glad I brought it.

DO NOT FALL INTO THE TRAP of bringing tons of sample exams and hoping to find similar. that may have worked in the old format (my boss) but you do not have time here. Practice the problems. seems too simple, eh?