Failed seismic after taking Hiner. Recommendations?

[Maycha]

I just found out I failed seismic after taking Hiner course. I don't want to be a representative sample of how his students do on the exam. I could have studied better, my family decided to come to visit at the worst time and I got pregnant. So here I am. Still pregnant but need to decide what to do next. I had just mailed another re-examination application.

Either I self study Hiner once again or take long EET on demand course. Or just buy EET manual and exams...? What did you do? What would you do?

Thank you

 

[ThePEmaster]

I took EET 2 times and did not pass both times....first time I did videos but second I really did not need too. I have bought Hiners book. IMO do all of hiners problems and EETs Problems over and over again until you feel 90% on them. On demand is good but you really only need it to learn basic concepts then just doing problems over and over. I go for my 3rd atempt April. I am hoping for the best... I was close both times I had practically marginal average in 4 of 6 sections both time.

 

[Maycha]

I took EET 2 times and did not pass both times....first time I did videos but second I really did not need too. I have bought Hiners book. IMO do all of hiners problems and EETs Problems over and over again until you feel 90% on them. On demand is good but you really only need it to learn basic concepts then just doing problems over and over. I go for my 3rd atempt April. I am hoping for the best... I was close both times I had practically marginal average in 4 of 6 sections both time.

Uuph, that's rough. I failed pretty badly , almost all categories were deficient. I thought I was getting the concept was after failing so bad I am just not sure anymore. I know for sure I didn't practice enough problems because Hiner only provides so many. I am on the fence, get on demand with EET or just their books. 

 

[ThePEmaster]

Yeah if thats the case I would def do the on demand.... once you do on demand once and the problems you should feel a lot better. I think you should definitely know it well 90% of EET problems if you want to give yourself a great chance. I got these below with just EET alone and honestly still didn't know the concepts greatly. You need to get near 90% on every problem imo. thats what i am doing this time....previously i was hovering around 80%. As shown my results below. Deficient  doesn't necessarily mean you failed you could be 1 question away from marginal.....

Marg   marg

Pro     def

marg     marg

marg      pro

def       def

def        def

 

[AyanHein]

Double Posted**

 

[AyanHein]

I just found out I failed seismic after taking Hiner course. I don't want to be a representative sample of how his students do on the exam. I could have studied better, my family decided to come to visit at the worst time and I got pregnant. So here I am. Still pregnant but need to decide what to do next. I had just mailed another re-examination application.

Either I self study Hiner once again or take long EET on demand course. Or just buy EET manual and exams...? What did you do? What would you do?

Thank you

Let me share my experience with both EET and Hiner. I passed Seismic on 2nd try. Here is what i did.

1st time - I watched on demand EET (60 hours.. yes it's long but worth it) videos, did HW, Mini Exams, and all CBT exams, and only Hiner's Final Exam. I spent around 150 hours on seismic 1st try. I was very confident before the exam...so much that i was over-confident and didn't do review because I was having 80% or more on CBT exams and I passed both 8 hours and survey on 1st try. . However, during the exam, I got panic and wasn't ready to break down the question. I spent more than 5 mins in a few questions and realized that i was 30 mins behind the schedule. Needless to say i failed the exam with Marginal, Deficient, Deficient, Marginal and Marginal. 

For 2nd time - I reviewed EET's book from cover to cover, watched the selected videos that I feel i need to review again, Mini Exams and 1st Mock Exam (no more than 10 hours). This time on top of all EET's HW, Mini Exams, Mock Exams, CBTs Exams, I also did Hiner's 450 HW problems and Final Exam. THIS IS IMPORTANT - I realized that after my 2nd time studying materials, all the gaps between my seismic knowledge fell into pieces and i was able to make sense the seismic subject. Now, I can remember most of the formulas from EET's cheat sheet and that helped me to speed up during test and not looking at formula all the time. I tried to analyze what happened during my exam from 1st attempt and how i could do better this time. I have both EET's cheat sheet and Hiner's summary sheet, I'd say EET beats Hiner hands down. 

I can't speak of Hiner's lecture since i have never taken it before. But I suggest you stick to one method (either Hiner or EET), master its cheat sheet (or summary pages), work problems from both EET and Hiner. Good luck.

 

[Maycha]

Let me share my experience with both EET and Hiner. I passed Seismic on 2nd try. Here is what i did.

1st time - I watched on demand EET (60 hours.. yes it's long but worth it) videos, did HW, Mini Exams, and all CBT exams, and only Hiner's Final Exam. I spent around 150 hours on seismic 1st try. I was very confident before the exam...so much that i was over-confident and didn't do review because I was having 80% or more on CBT exams and I passed both 8 hours and survey on 1st try. . However, during the exam, I got panic and wasn't ready to break down the question. I spent more than 5 mins in a few questions and realized that i was 30 mins behind the schedule. Needless to say i failed the exam with Marginal, Deficient, Deficient, Marginal and Marginal. 

For 2nd time - I reviewed EET's book from cover to cover, watched the selected videos that I feel i need to review again, Mini Exams and 1st Mock Exam (no more than 10 hours). This time on top of all EET's HW, Mini Exams, Mock Exams, CBTs Exams, I also did Hiner's 450 HW problems and Final Exam. THIS IS IMPORTANT - I realized that after my 2nd time studying materials, all the gaps between my seismic knowledge fell into pieces and i was able to make sense the seismic subject. Now, I can remember most of the formulas from EET's cheat sheet and that helped me to speed up during test and not looking at formula all the time. I tried to analyze what happened during my exam from 1st attempt and how i could do better this time. I have both EET's cheat sheet and Hiner's summary sheet, I'd say EET beats Hiner hands down. 

I can't speak of Hiner's lecture since i have never taken it before. But I suggest you stick to one method (either Hiner or EET), master its cheat sheet (or summary pages), work problems from both EET and Hiner. Good luck.

Thank you so much for sharing this. I am pretty much set to take EET on demand. Do you think it's possible to watch only some sections of their lectures for a person that hasn't watched all of them (being me)? I am very skeptical I will be able to watch all of their videos and do all of the problems from EET AND Hiner (which I really want to be able to fit in my life schedule) but I feel like I want to watch the key concepts just make sure I get the concepts right. 

And another question. With EET book - did you have to have ASCE 7-10 and CBC chapters on the exam? I did have to have them with Hiner and I know I definitely spent a lot of time looking up values like Response. Mod. Coeff R for building and non-building structes, etc. 

 

[RobertK]

I took the Hiner class and also failed the first time (last December).  In my opinion, the Hiner class and references are very good, and probably all you need as far as classes go.  However, I did not feel that the course provided enough realistic test example problems.  So, I purchased the example problem book from Mansour and just the problem book from EET and worked literally hundreds of problems.  I passed  the Seismic test taken in February.  Again, I recommend doing more problems than just those offered in the Hiner course.  Also, you may still have some time left from the Hiner course to review some  of the lectures.   Good luck!    

 

[Maycha]

I took the Hiner class and also failed the first time (last December).  In my opinion, the Hiner class and references are very good, and probably all you need as far as classes go.  However, I did not feel that the course provided enough realistic test example problems.  So, I purchased the example problem book from Mansour and just the problem book from EET and worked literally hundreds of problems.  I passed  the Seismic test taken in February.  Again, I recommend doing more problems than just those offered in the Hiner course.  Also, you may still have some time left from the Hiner course to review some  of the lectures.   Good luck!    

Thank you for the recommendation! I do have about three hours of watch time left of Hiner videos. And that's what I was debating. I got deficient on all categories except for one that was marginal and that made me think that maybe I should watch EET videos on top of solving their problems. Not even all videos, cause I realistically won't have time for all the videos. But maybe you are right and just solving 100s of problems would do the trick because I do feel that Hiner didn't provide enough of test-like problems.

 

[Maycha]

Thank you for the recommendation! I do have about three hours of watch time left of Hiner videos. And that's what I was debating. I got deficient on all categories except for one that was marginal and that made me think that maybe I should watch EET videos on top of solving their problems. Not even all videos, cause I realistically won't have time for all the videos. But maybe you are right and just solving 100s of problems would do the trick because I do feel that Hiner didn't provide enough of test-like problems.

Could you please provide  a link to the Mansour book you used?

 

[RobertK]

Here is the book I ordered from Mansour with the questions.  It comes with a program to take simulation tests with randomly generated questions.  The practice was very helpful.   Good luck!

https://www.passpe.com/store/products/182632

 

[vip-eng]

I highly and strongly recommend you buy this Practice exam that I found it to mimic the actual exam pretty well 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1722837268/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[AyanHein]

Thank you so much for sharing this. I am pretty much set to take EET on demand. Do you think it's possible to watch only some sections of their lectures for a person that hasn't watched all of them (being me)? I am very skeptical I will be able to watch all of their videos and do all of the problems from EET AND Hiner (which I really want to be able to fit in my life schedule) but I feel like I want to watch the key concepts just make sure I get the concepts right. 

And another question. With EET book - did you have to have ASCE 7-10 and CBC chapters on the exam? I did have to have them with Hiner and I know I definitely spent a lot of time looking up values like Response. Mod. Coeff R for building and non-building structes, etc. 

If you don't have time to watch videos, perhaps you can do EET's problems and review selected topics/videos you don't understand. However, it's very IMPORTANT to watch mock exams and 1st Simulated Exam (8 hours) videos. I think those are gold mine in terms of Ahmed talked about tips and tricks of how to approach questions and how to spend time on problems etc. He also explained each and every problems and how the questions could be twisted to ask differently, and i thought it was a gold mine. Also, EET's additional 3 CBT exams are very valuable. The problems inside are very similar to exam questions. I noticed that some questions are even identical. 

I've never opened ASCE or IBC during exam but i brought the books into exam room just in case. The material EET provided was more than enough. I think problems from EET and Hiner should be enough for you to prepare for another round. You probably don't need the other books unless you feel like you need more. 

 

[lvarner2]

I can't attest to EET Seismic (I took the EET Survey course and 8 hour course and passed the first time after taking those courses) I took Hiner's class but his problems arn't enough you have to buy some practice tests. I bought 5 different tests and took them twice and I also went through hiner's problems twice and that helped a ton. It still took me 3 times though mainly because you just have to keep practicing until you master it. I also would memorize some things like the risk category so i didn't have to look it up like i already knew what it was skip that part and move to the next.

Focus on chapter 4 and chapter 8  (seismic base shear, vertical distribution of forces, etc and diaphragms, a lot of diaphragms). You will get it just get quicker to the point you almost know it.

 

[Maycha]

I can't attest to EET Seismic (I took the EET Survey course and 8 hour course and passed the first time after taking those courses) I took Hiner's class but his problems arn't enough you have to buy some practice tests. I bought 5 different tests and took them twice and I also went through hiner's problems twice and that helped a ton. It still took me 3 times though mainly because you just have to keep practicing until you master it. I also would memorize some things like the risk category so i didn't have to look it up like i already knew what it was skip that part and move to the next.

Focus on chapter 4 and chapter 8  (seismic base shear, vertical distribution of forces, etc and diaphragms, a lot of diaphragms). You will get it just get quicker to the point you almost know it.

I 100% agree that Hiner didn't provide enough practice problems. Also for me I think I missed the bigger picture and it was difficult to understand what forces were being asked to solve for. Restudying with EET now and will do looooots of practice problems this time

 

[Ashmith]

Dr. Mansours material is unique, especially the practice exams. I took the practice problems, its thoroughly designed to help students pass using random generated scenarios. 

Dr. Mansour also helps you if your stuck on something, do yourself a favor and see his courses. 

https://www.passpe.com/all-courses