Club of people who failed April 2015

[Ken PE 3.1]

I took the test 4 times before I passed. I have seen on various threads around here that says you need to change your technique.

Personally, I stopped doing practice problems. I felt they did not reflect what I saw in the exam. Instead, I focused on trying to fully understand the concepts and various ways they ask the same question and where to locate the formulas. I guess I don't get how someone with a 4 year degree can't handle a timed test. But that's just my opinion.

You've taken the test, so you know the format. It's up to you if you want to adjust your study habits or not. I tried the same way 3 times with the same results. I switched it up and it worked for me. No one can tell you how you need to study, only you know how you learn. Keep at it and don't beat yourself up, it's a tough test.

Best of luck to all repeat takers.

 

[kmart30]

I took the test 4 times before I passed. I have seen on various threads around here that says you need to change your technique.

Personally, I stopped doing practice problems. I felt they did not reflect what I saw in the exam. Instead, I focused on trying to fully understand the concepts and various ways they ask the same question and where to locate the formulas. I guess I don't get how someone with a 4 year degree can't handle a timed test. But that's just my opinion.

You've taken the test do you know the format. It's up to you if you want to adjust your study habits or not. I tried the same way 3 times with the same results. I switched it up and it worked for me. No one can tell you how you need to study, only you know how you learn. Keep at it and don't beat yourself up, it's a tough test.

Best of luck to all repeat takers.

Amen! I think you hit it on the nail for me. I was like a robot doing practice problems like crazy...when I got to the afternoon section I got bent over backwards because I was used to using the same lot of equations with the same approaches to problems. This next time around I'm going to do much more reading and try to understand the underlying concepts with different approaches instead of just getting into a groove with certain types of problems.

 

[NakedOrangie]

Just adding that I passed this time around after failing last April. If you feel like you can self-study and pass, then by all means, get more resources and practice problems. For me, my self-study wasn't cutting it and I enrolled in EET's prep class, it is a lot to pay upfront but it's much cheaper than retaking the test over and over. Consider enrolling in ANY prep course to increase your chances of success.

Good luck to all for the next exam!

 

[khusaibi_PE]

Thanks for the words of wisdom

Can anyone rate EET against SoPE?

I did take the SoPE and I will be happy to invest in EET this time around if it's worth it to supplement my SoPE study material

 

[John QPE]

I took SofPE for the FE, and EET for the PE.

EET is cheaper than SofPE, first of all. I'm not kidding when I say 90% of the Civil-Transpo test came straight out of the EET notes. I hardly used any other references. You will not go wrong with EET.

SofPE doesn't offer a PM review do they?? Or it's really abbreviated. You need EET. Love EET. Be EET.

 

[BLG923PE]

I took SofPE for the FE, and EET for the PE.

EET is cheaper than SofPE, first of all. I'm not kidding when I say 90% of the Civil-Transpo test came straight out of the EET notes. I hardly used any other references. You will not go wrong with EET.

SofPE doesn't offer a PM review do they?? Or it's really abbreviated. You need EET. Love EET. Be EET.

You get 24 hours worth of depth review with SOPE. I took their weekday course (and still waiting on results in PA) but I thought the both the depth and breadth reviews were very solid.

 

[NakedOrangie]

Thanks for the words of wisdom

Can anyone rate EET against SoPE?

I did take the SoPE and I will be happy to invest in EET this time around if it's worth it to supplement my SoPE study material

I only took EET but my coworker took SoPE and said she felt the afternoon was lacking in material. I don't know how much this well help you as we're both transportation.

 

[BLG923PE]

Thanks for the words of wisdom

Can anyone rate EET against SoPE?

I did take the SoPE and I will be happy to invest in EET this time around if it's worth it to supplement my SoPE study material

I only took EET but my coworker took SoPE and said she felt the afternoon was lacking in material. I don't know how much this well help you as we're both transportation.

As with everything, I guess it just comes down to the individual. My depth is transportation and I thought the material was quite thorough.

 

[kmart30]

Anyone have any input on Geotechnical Depth with EET? Also, if you did fairly well in the morning the first time taking would it be worth it to sign up for the breath and depth with EET?

 

[maksins]

I took SoPE, I passed first time. Did not do anything other than SoPE (not even CERM, only skimmed through), but I have strong knowledge of basic mechanics and structural analysis. I also had my PhD defense at that time so I could not afford to invest much time on PE. Including SoPE, I would devoted 130-150 hrs at max for PE prep.

You get 24 hr depth sessions from SoPE, which was really good. Just sitting with them and doing problems, saves lot of time. I had opted for the classroom option, but it was cancelled and they offered me discounted live online webinar. I think live online webinar option saves you lot of time and you can attend it while sitting on your desk or while resting in your home.

I did not EET, so can not comment on that.

 

[khusaibi_PE]

Again thank you all for the input

I think I'll use a combination of EET courses and supplement it with SoPE notes

If anyone has input on the structural depth of EET I think it will help others make a decision

 

[NakedOrangie]

Anyone have any input on Geotechnical Depth with EET? Also, if you did fairly well in the morning the first time taking would it be worth it to sign up for the breath and depth with EET?

I had Nazrul teach geotech for the morning breadth and he was very thorough. I can't speak to the afternoon as I took the transportation depth.

For EET, I would recommend enrolling in both breadth and depth as the afternoon material is built on the morning topics. If you feel really strong in the morning, than I can understand your hesitation on paying for both. Personally, I did well on the morning when I failed, but I KILLED it after taking EET. I think I finished the morning a full hour early? and that was with me double checking problems and my scantron.

 

[John QPE]

EET Breadth is billed as 40 hours (5 8 hour sessions), in reality it was 60+

The classes were typically 10 hours each, with additional weekly problem solving sessions, and extra sessions as needed.

I think the difference with EET is the fact that you are getting very personal instruction. The instructors get to know you. Your strengths and weaknesses. Plus, access to the instructor was great. If you want to pick up the phone and ask a question go for it. If you want to send an email, you got a response within a few hours.

EET also gives you a full-blown 8 hour practice exam, which was similar to the NCEES exam, but harder (no theory questions, just straight problem solving), so you really needed to focus on time.

The only drawback, and this isn't that big a deal, (and may not be a factor for you at all depending where you are located), is that the classes are PST. Being on the East Coast I was typically in class from 10:30am - 8:30-9:00 pm, and when we had weeknight sessions it was 9pm-12am for me. But this is very small, and you shouldn't let this steer you away from EET. The small sacrifice in time zone difference will be worth it.

To quote ptatohead as he said to me when I was on the fence ... "dude, trust me. Just take the EET course."

Just look around at all the EET cheerleaders on this board. They have helped a lot of people pass the PE.

Feel free to give them a call and talk about the class prior to signing up. They are all very personable.

www.eet-california.com

(916) 220-8423

 

[hsilva]

I took School of PE for Civil Geotechnical and passed first time. I felt the SoPE was absolutely fantastic for the morning section. There were only 2 questions that I had to guess on in the morning section and I had a high level of confidence for probably 35 out of 40 questions. Nearly all of my answers came from my SoPE notes and I just used the CERM for the index and units conversions. Since I'm in California, I used my surveying study guide for some of the surveying related problems (California PE Surveying Review).

For the afternoon portion, I felt I was not at all well-prepared and I thought that I did not pass the exam when I left. There were probably less than 10 questions I had any level of comfort with. I thought the afternoon portion had too many highly specialized questions that would make it difficult for a review course to cover so I didn't blame SoPE completely...especially since my textbooks from school didn't help all that much either (I have a Masters in Geotech but no field experience). However, the SoPE notes for the afternoon session helped me for 10 questions or less. I also

The overall result is that I passed but if I was doing it again, I would use SoPE for the breadth section but try to find additional resources for the depth section.

 

[Corduroy]

Any one have any sudgestion of where i can get example exams to practice from?

 

[NJmike PE]

Any one have any sudgestion of where i can get example exams to practice from?

amazon sells older NCEES practice exam books

 

[wirelessengineer21]

well i failed pretty spectacularly. I probably put in 10-12 hours a week for 3 months (~144 hours). This was for Electrical Electronics. Im an RF engineer who majored in Computer Engineering and am 33 years old. I passed the FE two years ago, on two attempts. I spent about 250 hours 1st attempt barely failing, but on the 2nd attempt scaled back the studying the above 10-12 hours for 3 months and passed.

I thought with the FE info still being relatively fresh I could continue with the above schedule. Well that obviously wasnt the case. Diagnostic report clearly indicates what I need to focus in. I'll be ready next time. Really sucks that there are VERY limited resources for this exam. Just have to redo practice problems and keep up with the camara book. Good luck to all. Sucks, but dont give up. Kinda bummed today, but i'll get over it.

 

[usbrwaterdog]

I passed the PE transportation on first attempt. I recommend school of PE for the morning exam, it's is lacking for the afternoon exam. For the afternoon exam I studied example problems from the HCM manual, Tabbed the Green book. For the HCM manual I only studied one volume, dealing with capacity (heavy vehicle factor, FFS, volume on lanes etc etc) . I think I only used 2 or 3 chapters from the CERM book for the afternoon exam. I also became proficient with Geometric curves (horizontal curves, vertical curves). I had to proficient in Geometric curves because these problems show up on the California Special exam surveying test. Hope this helps.

 

[gigabit]

John...I was very familiar with the outline but my weakness's were in areas that we almost never experience in Florida in the real world. I felt like I studied this areas enough to turn out a few questions right but this was not the case. The problem I have is that this is a national test but geologic conditions are highly variable across the states. Still not an excuse but I think the geotech should be more region specific and focus less on areas that are less likely to be encountered in that region.

The positives out of all this is that I know what to expect on test day and I know what areas to focus on. I think maybe taking a class for the afternoon section would be beneficial this time around...

Second Time taking the Civil Geotech. First time I studied maybe 40 hours but stopped due to lack of motivation and took the test. Ended up with a 53 on the first test. It clearly showed that I needed to work on geotech as the morning I got a 33. What really put me at a disadvantage was the references I took. The questions they asked were not in my references, I took the Codudo general geotechnical book and the CERM. The CERM was absolutely no help in the afternoon for geotech.

This second time around I was really seeking a better book to both study from that would enhance what Codudo was explaining. I found a book called Geotechnical Engineers Portable Handbook, Second Edition written by Robert Day. I found that while studying this was my go to book. I would also reference Codudo but the information was much better in the Handbook.

My study regimen was I worked through the 6 min solutions twice. Once to learn, the second was for speed. Then I had two different copies of the NCEES sample tests and used that to study from I didn't use them as a practice test. I took 1 week to study the morning section since you have a lot of time in the morning to look everything up in the CERM. I started Studying in February and studied all the way up to the exam with a week off in the middle to re-center. Right before the test I felt unprepared and I needed to study more but I left from the test confident in my answers. There was a lot I studied that they did not even test on. There were maybe 3-4 questions that I had to guess on such as the <edited> question etc...

 

[omegaman]

CA Water Resources

first time taker

failed 8 hr

48/80 = 60%

anyone else?