CA SEISMIC & SURVEYING

[ExhibitGuy]

During my practice CBT exams and the actual exam, I followed the same strategy Peeks recommended. I began by going through the whole test question by question, and answering the conceptual ones I knew right away or the ones that took maybe 30 seconds to solve with a calculator. My goal was to answer at least 15 questions confidently (no second guessing myself) in the first 30 minutes. This bought me enough time to solve the harder questions later. 

As I was going through all 55 questions in the first 30 minutes of the test, I flagged the ones that were easy but required a bit more time to solve, and ignored the ones I knew were too lengthy. So I went back to the beginning and solved all the flagged ones. After that I went back once again and solved or guessed on the remaining unflagged questions.

Also, as I was taking the test I was aiming to feel confident on about 40 questions, since this should be enough to pass. So I made three categories on my sheet: Good, Okay, Bad. As long as I had a total of 40ish tallies on the Good/Okay, I knew I was doing pretty well.

 

[Airplane fanatic]

Good boy...

Obey the authority...

And yet again your levels of stupidity continue to amaze me. Get a life man, too bad they don't sell it on Amazon. 

 

[Airplane fanatic]

Are you sure?

Maybe not. But pretty sure you need to get a life. 

 

[Airplane fanatic]

Shut up...

Nuh uh, free speech. 

 

[Airplane fanatic]

That's pretty close to passing. I did not manage my time well and was not able to finish all problems. Had to guess at the end (probably last 11 items) and those appears to be the easy ones. I wonder if the problems are the same and chronologically arranged the same way for all examinees so as not to affect the possible outcome. 

The only way to ace this exam is through practice, practice, practice. And on the day of the exam you just have to go!go!go! Do the easy ones first.

Thanks man! I actually did all the easy ones first, and pretty sure I nailed most of 'em. The problem was I actually studied for just two days before the exam, so a lot of things probably didn't sink in enough. Will def study for a month this time. Thanks for the advice!

 

[MrManager]

A word of advice to everyone looking for a good way to study, see if ASCE has a Younger Member Forum (YMF) in your area. The Sacramento chapter offers excellent review courses for relatively cheap: $350 for the NCEES exam review, $150 for the surveying review, and $275 for the seismic review. I had great notes from college for the 8 hr exam so I only signed up for the surveying review. I had taken an intro to surveying class my first quarter of my first year in college, so it had been about 8 years without much to do with surveying by the time I took the test. The review class covered many more topics and provided much more difficult examples than the actual test. I felt extremely confident and passed the first time because the review class prepared me so well.

I would highly recommend taking any or all of the review classes for those who failed any tests or to recommend to colleagues or friends who have yet to take the tests.

 

[SoCalBound]

Maybe not. But pretty sure you need to get a life. 

Put your skinny pants on and go on a Tinder date before you take your exam second time..

 

[Airplane fanatic]

Put your skinny pants on and go on a Tinder date before you take your exam second time..

Yeah some of us actually get matches unlike you. 

 

[Peeks PE]

The only reason I question the strategy is because I would have to go through and read the question, determine which category it falls in, and solve or move on. I would have to do that for all 55. If it takes 1 minute to read and determine, I would spend an hour categorizing. That's not to mention solving any. If I spend another 1.5 minutes solving the easy ones (say they comprise of 0.333 of the exam), I would be an hour and a half into the exam with about 35 problems left.

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By the time the test comes around, you should have done so many problems that you can tell what type of problem it is by just scanning the question and seeing what is given. This is even more true in seismic than it is survey, but the same principle applies. On top of that, I find that even when you're doing other the easy problems your brain is thinking about the hard ones in the back of your head that you've already read and marked. Once I get back to the harder or longer problems, I've had time to passively think about them while I was doing the easier problems. I know it sounds weird, but your brain is a really great computer that can process things in the background. You don't need to use the strategy, but it works really well for lots of people so give it a shot in a practice test or something and see how you do.

 

[cal91]

Can anyone offer advice on their test taking strategy? Did you just do them in the order they came, or did you do the easy ones first, or...?

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My strategy was (for PE exam, don't have enough exp for the S&S exams until October) to just go through them and solve each one. I had practiced so much that I was able to do all 40 problems in about 2 hours. I wanted to spend as much time as possible actually thinking about the questions, not flagging questions and turning pages and feeling frantic. I skipped about 3 or 4 that I wasn't sure how to do. After I went through the first time, I went back through every problem again - either double checking every problem (carefully re-reading question) or taking the time to solve those 3 or 4 more difficult ones. 

 

[leggo PE]

This is one of the most essential strategies on the CBT tests. You only have 3 minutes per question, so you should be skipping hard problems first to get all of the easy ones out of the way. For both of the tests, I probably went through the problems 3 times in a snake order.

First run through: Do all easy questions that take little time. Mark easy questions that I know how to do, but take a little time.

Second run through: Do all easy questions that take a little bit of time.

Third run through: Take remainder of time to do all remaining questions that are "more difficult" in their order of difficulty. At 5 minutes remaining, you should be going through every question and if you cant solve it in 1 minute or so, guess.

I fully agree with this. I was not able to execute this strategy my first time taking the surveying exam, and left feeling like it was a complete shit show. The second time I took it, I executed this strategy MUCH more effectively, and felt so much better leaving the exam. I passed the second time!

I do not think it would result in wasting more time overall. For myself, if I get stuck on a problem halfway through the exam and it eats up 10 or 15 minutes without me solving it, well, that could screw me for the rest of the exam. It also helps to buoy your confidence if you go through all of the problems straight off the bat and solve all the easy ones first.

I do not recommend the 120 solved problems book from PPI. I didn't think they were that similar to the exam itself. I highly recommend the Reza Mahallati book if you can get your hands on it. That was gold for me my second time taking the surveying exam.

 

[Cinnamon]

On 5/28/2017 at 9:28 AM, Peeks said: This is one of the most essential strategies on the CBT tests. You only have 3 minutes per question, so you should be skipping hard problems first to get all of the easy ones out of the way. For both of the tests, I probably went through the problems 3 times in a snake order. First run through: Do all easy questions that take little time. Mark easy questions that I know how to do, but take a little time.

Second run through: Do all easy questions that take a little bit of time.

Third run through: Take remainder of time to do all remaining questions that are "more difficult" in their order of difficulty. At 5 minutes remaining, you should be going through every question and if you cant solve it in 1 minute or so, guess.

I fully agree with this. I was not able to execute this strategy my first time taking the surveying exam, and left feeling like it was a complete shit show. The second time I took it, I executed this strategy MUCH more effectively, and felt so much better leaving the exam. I passed the second time!I do not think it would result in wasting more time overall. For myself, if I get stuck on a problem halfway through the exam and it eats up 10 or 15 minutes without me solving it, well, that could screw me for the rest of the exam. It also helps to buoy your confidence if you go through all of the problems straight off the bat and solve all the easy ones first.

I do not recommend the 120 solved problems book from PPI. I didn't think they were that similar to the exam itself. I highly recommend the Reza Mahallati book if you can get your hands on it. That was gold for me my second time taking the surveying exam.

Spot on leggo. Skip PPI and stick with Mahallati. His practice questions were the closest to the exam difficulty

.

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[ExhibitGuy]

All, CA just released this statement on their website regarding the absence of Table 2 on the results PDF. Also, looks like those who've passed all the exams will get their licenses sometime next week.

 Examination results have been released for the California Civil Engineer exams – Seismic Principles and Engineering Surveying. The result page references a “Table 2” for licensure status. Please disregard as there is not a Table 2 on the document. Please click HERE for additional information. For NCEES results, you will need to login into your NCEES profile.  Licensing for those candidates who have satisfied all requirements for licensure should take place next week.

 

[CAPLS]

All, CA just released this statement on their website regarding the absence of Table 2 on the results PDF. Also, looks like those who've passed all the exams will get their licenses sometime next week.

That statement was just updated this morning to say within "...the next two weeks".  This additional time was only done as a precaution because the Board was informed that systems will be updated department-wide overnight sometime this week just in case licensing won't be completed prior to that action.

 

[Irap]

That statement was just updated this morning to say within "...the next two weeks".  This additional time was only done as a precaution because the Board was informed that systems will be updated department-wide overnight sometime this week just in case licensing won't be completed prior to that action.

The candidates who completed all the required exams for licensure and prior to this 2017 Spring cycle passed the NCEES exam, are they required to submit the notification form? Or no action required for those candidates. Just want to make sure because this new process is now implemented.

 

[knight1fox3]

Let's keep things civil in here. I'm looking at you @Airplane fanatic and @SoCalBound. If you wish to continue mud-slinging, do it via PM and don't clutter up the forum areas where people are looking for useful information.

Thanks.

 

[aeriekah]

From what I could gather it seems that 65% is the passing grade. That's what the diagnostic report indicates. So I think it's just however you can accumulate 65%. The report gives a mock scenario and explains what the individual would have needed to pass.

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Ahh thanks for the tip! Ill be sure to study enough and get at least 65% of the questions right.

 

[ioiooioii]

Can anyone offer advice on their test taking strategy? Did you just do them in the order they came, or did you do the easy ones first, or...?

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I focused on getting really fast.  I just went in order and did all of the problems, I don't like the advice to skip around, that all takes time. Do every problem as fast as possible. If you start freaking out on a problem just move on. My 2cents 

Can anyone offer advice on their test taking strategy? Did you just do them in the order they came, or did you do the easy ones first, or...?

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[Eg24]

The candidates who completed all the required exams for licensure and prior to this 2017 Spring cycle passed the NCEES exam, are they required to submit the notification form? Or no action required for those candidates. Just want to make sure because this new process is now implemented.

Got issued my license number today. Found it on the bpels license look up

 

[Irap]

Got issued my license number today. Found it on the bpels license look up

Its official......! Congrats to all new PE in California. The toughest board in the states. Will deserve celebration from all those sleepless nights, hard work, missing family activities, barrels of coffee drink, financial and dedications to pass all these exams. We won the fight. For those of you who are still trying to be on board, chin up and study hard and we all see you there on top. Good luck and godbless everyone!