Failed Exam - Register for April 2014

[Stealtharsenal_PE]

Hello All,

First time poster here. My primary question is as the title suggests. I took the October, 2013 PE Exam in Jersey and did not pass it (Water Resources). Certainly thought I was quite prepared as I studied for the better part of 2013. I am historically a terrible tester when it comes to having to bounce between numerous disciplines. In any event, I am determined to pass it in April but my question is what are the steps to registering for the April exam. The fun people at the NJ State office are not helpful whatsoever. Can I just register again on NCEES, or am I required to resubmit my entire application?

Additionally, what references are most people using for the Water Resources/Enviro exam?

I prepared with the following:

1. CERM (13th Edition) - Read it 95% cover to cover. The 5% missing is stuff from structural.

2. CERM Practice Problem

3. Civil PE Sample Exam - Lindeburg

4. NCEES Sample Exam - 2011

5. FE Reference Manual - 2nd Edition - This was to get back into the swing of things

Other Books used as references:

1. Intro to Environmental Engineering and Science - Masters/ELA

2. Water Supply and Pollution Control - Veissman/Hammer/Perez/Chadik

3. Water Resources Engineering - Mays

4. Intro to Fluids - Young

I am going to purchase the 3rd Edition of Metcalf and Eddy as I legitimately forgot to get a copy prior to the exam. Does anyone know where I could still get a copy of the NCEES 2008 sample exam?

Thanks for the help.

Chris

 

[deepamp]

So sorry to hear that. What was your score?

I took the School of PE online review course and it definitely helped for the AM. Metcalf and Eddy is a good book but you need to use and get familiar with section before you can take it to the exam.

 

[chiko]

I don't think you need to send your application again. I am environmental pe but I did study water problems and Metcalf and Eddie. NC notes were pretty good in explaining water problems. It took me two tries also so don't be discouraged

 

[Stealtharsenal_PE]

Deepamp, I will have to look again, but it was somewhere in the 50 percentile. I think, I may have messed up some of my answers by accidentally shifting them down, but I can't be sure. I thought I did a lot better in the morning, but I can't dwell on it, I just need to move on and get back to studying and see what went wrong. I just ordered a copy of the 3rd edition of Metcalf and Eddie. I figure I can start working with it in a couple of weeks when I crack the books back open. Going to get past the holidays before I start again, but I want to have everything prepared prior.

Chiko, which water problems did you work. Is there another name for NC notes? I did a quick google, but I don't seem to see anything relevant.

Thanks

 

[chiko]

http://www.itre.ncsu.edu/HWY/education/pe.asp

 

[Grayzero]

http://www.itre.ncsu.edu/HWY/education/pe.asp

I took this course locally in October 2013 and I have to say it was so good that it made the PE exam easy (I took geotech concentration). Each discipline's instructor was very good, and honestly, if you do the simple assignments they provide for homework, you won't even need to study much outside of the class. I studied probably 200+ hours outside of the class, but walked out of the exam confident that I got every problem correct except 1. I regretted all that studying because I realized that the ITRE course was really all I needed, in conjunction with taking the NCEES practice exam a couple times. The notes they give you in this class come in two huge binders and cover all disciplines and they are much more comprehensive than the CERM and better organized (the geotech portion in the CERM is nearly useless). Of course YMMV for each depth module, but the two binders from the ITRE course were the only thing I used during the test even though I brought a milk crate full of books.

Good luck if you decide to take the course, I think it's worth your money.

 

[johnnyusma08]

Stealth, I think that your problem is that you read the CERM nearly cover to cover. Why? A lot of the stuff in the CERM either applies to different depth sections or isn't on the test at all. The time you spent doing that you could have been focusing in on your own depth section, which you know for a fact is 50% of the test.

For the morning section I studied exactly what NCEES said was going to be on the test in their outline. This meant skipping much of the CERM because it was irrelevant and would lead to information overload. This worked well for me on the actual exam because I didn't run across any questions I didn't know how to do. In addition, because I spent time focusing on subjects that were in the NCEES outline, this allowed me to work ALOT of problems in these areas.

 

[Stealtharsenal_PE]

johnny,

I am certainly going to revise how I study this time around. I am going to go straight into problem solving as opposed to reading too much theory. I can attest to the information overload, especially when it came to all the theorized topics. With that said, I am going to make myself a little spreadsheet outlining the key areas I need to review and then locate the subsequent sections and/or chapters within the CERM that highlight/teach that information. I also see that NCEES has an Environmental only sample exam that might have been beneficial during this past exam. I took a quick look at the sample of the book and I see that some of the problem types there matched some from the exam and things I was still a bit unclear on. I will most likely pick up some more of the NCEES sample exams to work as more problems will help.

On a side note and this is referencing the NCEES sample exams. Are the morning exams in each of these sample exams different than say my Water Resources/Environmental exam? In other words, is it worth picking up the GEOTech one along with the environmental?

Thanks

 

[Mike in Gastonia]

On a side note and this is referencing the NCEES sample exams. Are the morning exams in each of these sample exams different than say my Water Resources/Environmental exam? In other words, is it worth picking up the GEOTech one along with the environmental?

If you look at the ncees website under each one of the sample books it says in big red letters that the morning questions are the same in all books.

 

[ofareggie]

Hello All,

First time poster here. My primary question is as the title suggests. I took the October, 2013 PE Exam in Jersey and did not pass it (Water Resources). Certainly thought I was quite prepared as I studied for the better part of 2013. I am historically a terrible tester when it comes to having to bounce between numerous disciplines. In any event, I am determined to pass it in April but my question is what are the steps to registering for the April exam. The fun people at the NJ State office are not helpful whatsoever. Can I just register again on NCEES, or am I required to resubmit my entire application?

I am also going to retake in NJ in April... I already registered with NCEES, can anyone shed some light on what I might do I need to do on the NJ/PCS end of things?

 

[peguy]

is there any way to have key answers of october 2013.

 

[palvarez83]

is there any way to have key answers of october 2013.

Ha! This is proprietary information held by NCEES. The only way would be for someone to have sneaked them out... in which case the NCEES would crucify you in court if discovered!

 

[PSU09Vet]

is there any way to have key answers of october 2013.

Ha! This is proprietary information held by NCEES. The only way would be for someone to have sneaked them out... in which case the NCEES would crucify you in court if discovered!

Yeah ... can't tell if serious, or ...

 

[Stealtharsenal_PE]

Hello All,

First time poster here. My primary question is as the title suggests. I took the October, 2013 PE Exam in Jersey and did not pass it (Water Resources). Certainly thought I was quite prepared as I studied for the better part of 2013. I am historically a terrible tester when it comes to having to bounce between numerous disciplines. In any event, I am determined to pass it in April but my question is what are the steps to registering for the April exam. The fun people at the NJ State office are not helpful whatsoever. Can I just register again on NCEES, or am I required to resubmit my entire application?

I am also going to retake in NJ in April... I already registered with NCEES, can anyone shed some light on what I might do I need to do on the NJ/PCS end of things?

ofareggie,

I registered myself and have been told that the NJ board needs to approve the registration and then it will be sent to PCS. This is of course what NCEES told me. I have not heard the exact procedure from NJ state or from PCS.

 

[TheyCallMeJohn]

Hello All,

First time poster here. My primary question is as the title suggests. I took the October, 2013 PE Exam in Jersey and did not pass it (Water Resources). Certainly thought I was quite prepared as I studied for the better part of 2013. I am historically a terrible tester when it comes to having to bounce between numerous disciplines. In any event, I am determined to pass it in April but my question is what are the steps to registering for the April exam. The fun people at the NJ State office are not helpful whatsoever. Can I just register again on NCEES, or am I required to resubmit my entire application?

I am also going to retake in NJ in April... I already registered with NCEES, can anyone shed some light on what I might do I need to do on the NJ/PCS end of things?

ofareggie,

I registered myself and have been told that the NJ board needs to approve the registration and then it will be sent to PCS. This is of course what NCEES told me. I have not heard the exact procedure from NJ state or from PCS.

I wouldn't wait too start studying though. If I would have waited till I heard from the CA board that they had approved me it would have been way to late to start studying...

School of PE was pretty good. There "binders" were very my main reference for the morning section. (On a side note I recommend spiral binding your notes.)

 

[Jdsmith PE]

johnny,

I am certainly going to revise how I study this time around. I am going to go straight into problem solving as opposed to reading too much theory. I can attest to the information overload, especially when it came to all the theorized topics. With that said, I am going to make myself a little spreadsheet outlining the key areas I need to review and then locate the subsequent sections and/or chapters within the CERM that highlight/teach that information. I also see that NCEES has an Environmental only sample exam that might have been beneficial during this past exam. I took a quick look at the sample of the book and I see that some of the problem types there matched some from the exam and things I was still a bit unclear on. I will most likely pick up some more of the NCEES sample exams to work as more problems will help.

On a side note and this is referencing the NCEES sample exams. Are the morning exams in each of these sample exams different than say my Water Resources/Environmental exam? In other words, is it worth picking up the GEOTech one along with the environmental?

Thanks

Stealth - The NCEES Exams are way easier than the PE, in my opinion. Don't trust the people who make a profit if you have to retake the exam. Also, you need some good wastewater and environmental references. Did you bring a dictionary with you last time? I put in about 350 hours of practice problems. I did the Six-minute Solutions for water resources twice, the NCEES book twice and then did some practice exams. I went through everyproblem and made sure I knew everything about it before I would move on to the next. I had a stack of references that came up to my hip. Each book was tabbed with a subject and page number on the tab and I created an index that told me where everything was, in which book, on what page, etc.... If I had to go to reference tables I included that information in my index so if I looked up sluice gate it told me that it was in my fluids book on pg 253 and that I was going to need the density of water at elevation which could be found in the Typical Props of Water Table which is in my Water Treatment book in Appendix A-58 (I just made that example up). I know that saved me a bunch of time.

 

[Mike in Gastonia]

Stealth - The NCEES Exams are way easier than the PE, in my opinion. Don't trust the people who make a profit if you have to retake the exam.

Wow - you really think they're that devious? A non-profit wants you to fail so they can make more money? If that were the case, why don't they produce more sample exams? They could probably sell as many as they could make?

 

[Jdsmith PE]

Stealth - The NCEES Exams are way easier than the PE, in my opinion. Don't trust the people who make a profit if you have to retake the exam.

Wow - you really think they're that devious? A non-profit wants you to fail so they can make more money? If that were the case, why don't they produce more sample exams? They could probably sell as many as they could make?

Their practice exam is way easier than the test, the FE was the same. It seems a little more than coincidental to me. Don't trust it Stealth.

 

[Mike in Gastonia]

Stealth - The NCEES Exams are way easier than the PE, in my opinion. Don't trust the people who make a profit if you have to retake the exam.

Wow - you really think they're that devious? A non-profit wants you to fail so they can make more money? If that were the case, why don't they produce more sample exams? They could probably sell as many as they could make?

Their practice exam is way easier than the test, the FE was the same. It seems a little more than coincidental to me. Don't trust it Stealth.

Again - wow....... JTC much?

 

[snickerd3]

It never ceases to amaze me how some people take things a bit to seriously and literally. I have never thought the practice exams were supposed to be a REAL test, just a sampling. As questions get taken out of the pool as new questions are written etc...they lump them all together in a document. I doubt they are going to spend the time to balance the # of easy, med, difficult problems like a real test. THey would have to charge a lot more than they already do for somethign like that.