Civil Construction PE Prep - Second Attempt

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If you have time and feel so inclined, you might also try “Learning How to Learn” on Coursera - taught by Dr. Barbara Oakley and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski.

I used the course as meta-studying for the PE, because part of the class focuses on how to perform in high-pressure situations and how to get the most out of your studying hours.

I spent about 80 hrs studying and passed (Civil Transportation) on my first attempt. I did zero practice tests and approximately 100 practice problems, the majority of which took between 3 and 6 minutes to solve.

I did not take the EET simulated exam, nor did I time myself on any problems. Nor did I use any practice problems outside of EET or the official NCEES manual for my discipline (I highly recommend getting the construction one!).

The questions most representative of the PE exam ‘easy/moderate’ questions came from the NCEES manual, for me. The slightly more difficult but still routine questions were straight out of EET breadth and depth binders, at least in terms of topic.

The 10-20 most difficult questions on the exam are unpredictable, they would have taken me far more time to solve than 6-10 minutes, so for most of those I didn’t bother or just did my best to tackle the 3-5 hard questions I felt most comfortable attempting to answer.

My first pass of questions, all I did was label them with the topic and a likely concept or reference I thought I would use. I answered two questions on sight. The next pass I did everything I thought was a simple lookup or 30-second or less calculation. The third pass was all the simple calculations (one or two steps that I knew I could get right). The fourth pass was longer calculations I knew I could get right. The fifth pass was either difficult questions I thought I might be able to solve, or questions that looked easier but where I was less comfortable with the subject. The last pass was questions I thought I needed 10+ minutes to solve it that were just tedious or weird.

I used all of my time on the exam and spent time bubbling in answers only between passes, to help me track where I was and to help guide my next pass.

I left no questions unanswered and tried to, where I could not be certain of the correct answer, at least eliminate any apparently illogical, impossible, or unlikely answers (sometimes through algebraic comparison of units, or through calculation of similar forces in a ‘simplified’ parallel model of the problem -  Reducing a structure to a simple beam, for instance, and seeing the resulting pattern of forces and moments).

Labeling the questions with topics and likely references helped me focus on questions without needing to re-read the whole thing.

You can do this!

 
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Hello

I'm studying these days for PE Construction  exam in April and I started 2 months ago

First I was excited but now I feel that I'm struggling

I study and solve NCEES, PPI,Goswami exams and I made my own notes

trying to navigate faster between equations but I wanted to know how close is the actual exam to these practice exams I have

 
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Hello

I'm studying these days for PE Construction  exam in April and I started 2 months ago

First I was excited but now I feel that I'm struggling

I study and solve NCEES, PPI,Goswami exams and I made my own notes

trying to navigate faster between equations but I wanted to know how close is the actual exam to these practice exams I have
I felt that the Goswami tests were good practice for the Construction Depth.  PPI 6 min solutions was a little dated and  because of that was a little more different, but I ran through those questions as well for practice. 

Tab and become familiar with your notes.

 
A little over a month from test time, .........  😞  Feeling anxious

My first attempt was in spring 2018, I bought a few books (not all of them) studied a couple months on what I could find for practice problems on the internet which was not a lot, NCEES practice test etc..   I got a 60% and was crushed I didnt pass with a half hearted attempt.   I signed up for EET and started watching videos in early December for this second attempt, finished in mid February and am going back thru the practice problems now reviewing.  I am not really looking at anything but the EET material.   This will be my 2nd and last attempt at passing the PE, For some of you that think its been a few years and you dont remember the technical stuff, I took the EIT 33 years ago (Spring 1987) and most if not all of the stuff has faded away, I dont plan investing this kind of time again if I cant pass it this time I am done.   

At this point it feels like drinking from a fire hose, just so much material and so much to know on one day it is hard to retain it all.   By the time I get thru a few sections, I seem to forget the stuff from a few weeks ago, maybe it will come back to me on test day, at least I hope.   

 
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I totally agree w you, enrique_nola 

Goswami is perfect for pm and I'm trying to go through it

PPI is deeper in am and more detailed

but how close are they from the actual exam, we need someone to tell

 
I totally agree w you, enrique_nola 

Goswami is perfect for pm and I'm trying to go through it

PPI is deeper in am and more detailed

but how close are they from the actual exam, we need someone to tell
The PPI practice problems are a mix of breadth and depth area questions so don't get too hung up on those. Last cycle, I practiced solving these problems and I spent way too much time on a Mohr's circle question only to realize it's a depth problem. Six Minute Solutions and Goswami exams are more in line with the real exam.

If you're taking a review course, try those problems too. I took EET so I'm taking the advice of @CampCounselor and just solving every single problem in the binder (spending more time in the areas that I scored lower on). 

 
I totally agree w you, enrique_nola 

Goswami is perfect for pm and I'm trying to go through it

PPI is deeper in am and more detailed

but how close are they from the actual exam, we need someone to tell
I felt like the format, content, and difficulty of the Goswami problems was most like what I saw on the actual exam more than any other problems I worked.  I worked over 500 problems too.

 
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Hi,

I wanted to share this with you,

NCEES cancelled the April PE main exam yesterday and I'm wondering if I can tke th surveying one after 2 months till I go back to AM/PM study to be able to save some time and refresh myself

I looked for materials for self study and I saw some good recommends to use PPI survey review/Practice books

any recommendations?

 
A little over a month from test time, .........  😞  Feeling anxious

My first attempt was in spring 2018, I bought a few books (not all of them) studied a couple months on what I could find for practice problems on the internet which was not a lot, NCEES practice test etc..   I got a 60% and was crushed I didnt pass with a half hearted attempt.   I signed up for EET and started watching videos in early December for this second attempt, finished in mid February and am going back thru the practice problems now reviewing.  I am not really looking at anything but the EET material.   This will be my 2nd and last attempt at passing the PE, For some of you that think its been a few years and you dont remember the technical stuff, I took the EIT 33 years ago (Spring 1987) and most if not all of the stuff has faded away, I dont plan investing this kind of time again if I cant pass it this time I am done.   

At this point it feels like drinking from a fire hose, just so much material and so much to know on one day it is hard to retain it all.   By the time I get thru a few sections, I seem to forget the stuff from a few weeks ago, maybe it will come back to me on test day, at least I hope.   
Bait o'Eggs and others...  I feel your pain... "feels like drinking from a fire hose, just so much material and so much to know on one day it is hard to retain it all"... I have been out of school for 18 years and I wasn't Civil, I was Construction Engineering Management.  Many topics I've had to learn for the first time to take this test.  AND I am not a designer, I'm a manager.  Yes, like many on here, with a family and working.  It's been a struggle and with the current cancellation of the April 2020 exam I'm not sure I will stick it out for the October... or said another way, I'm not sure my wife will let me crawl into a hole for 3 more months of studying!  I've now studied 3 times for this, her patients are waning, and so are mine.  We'll see what happens.  It really annoys me when I read some of the other threads and how pompous people are on how "easy" it was for them.  Thank you to all the others who offer up support and cheer all of us that struggle on this damn exam.  

Stay Well!

 

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