For those discovering they didn't pass...

[matt267 PE]

21 minutes ago, OldenEngineer said:

[emoji20]

Olden, I'm with you. 40/80 for Water Resources Environmental first try. I studied 6 months for this exam. After I took it, I knew there were questions I didn't answer correctly but felt like I couldn't have studied more to even have touched on those topics. I am feeling a bit stunned. In fact, I felt like I had aced the afternoon portion, which clearly did not happen. Not sure where to go from here. Actually, that's BS. I'm either going to enroll in the EET class everyone is raving about or quit my f'ing job and become a yoga teacher/dog walker. 

Take the EET WRE class. But do yoga anyway. It's good for you.

 

[Shinken]

I failed the Civil/Construction exam.  This was my first attempt at taking it and although I am bummed at the moment, I will get back at it tomorrow especially after some tequila tonight. lol.  I will most likely sign up for the EET Class since finding this forum and get back to hitting the books within the next couple of days.

 

[godspell]

I failed the 2nd time, I'm so sad... The 1st time was 40/80, this time was 48/80, it is still a long way to reach the cut score 55/80? So many guys recommend EET course, I looked their website, they have on line webinar and on demand webinar, which one do you recommend? on line webinar is 45 hrs for the morning session and around 43 hrs for the afternoon session. On demand webinar is over 100 hrs which is longer. Which webinar is good to choose?

 

[jnuengr]

I worked a ton of problems during my 6 months of studying. However, I realize now I may have wasted a lot of time "reading" and "Highlighting" when I should have been "solving."

I found the 6 minute solutions problems and some of the other Lindeburg/PPI problems took hours to solve - nothing like we saw on the exam.

Did anyone else have this experience? Can anyone recommend a book with problems that are more straightforward, like the exam? is this what we can expect from the EET binder?

Another question, did those who pass use a formula sheet? Or just tab the heck out of references? I did some combination of both, and maybe it was too disorganized. 

Any and all advice is helpful. I put in the time, but it was somehow misdirected. Thanks in advance and congratulations to all who passed!

 

[Patrick1441 PE]

I failed the Civil/Construction exam.  This was my first attempt at taking it and although I am bummed at the moment, I will get back at it tomorrow especially after some tequila tonight. lol.  I will most likely sign up for the EET Class since finding this forum and get back to hitting the books within the next couple of days.

Did you have all of the required references and have a decent understanding of their content?  A useful trick I learned from this board was to scan and print all of the indexes into a separate binder so you're not having to flip back and forth in the references themselves when hunting for answers.  Reference lookups alone provides 5-10 easy points for Civil-Construction.  Don't be bummed though, as you failed the test tied for the lowest passing rate of any P.E. exam.  You'll get there.

 

[Liquefaction]

I worked a ton of problems during my 6 months of studying. However, I realize now I may have wasted a lot of time "reading" and "Highlighting" when I should have been "solving."

I found the 6 minute solutions problems and some of the other Lindeburg/PPI problems took hours to solve - nothing like we saw on the exam.

Did anyone else have this experience? Can anyone recommend a book with problems that are more straightforward, like the exam? is this what we can expect from the EET binder?

Another question, did those who pass use a formula sheet? Or just tab the heck out of references? I did some combination of both, and maybe it was too disorganized. 

Any and all advice is helpful. I put in the time, but it was somehow misdirected. Thanks in advance and congratulations to all who passed!

I don't know. I think I did mostly reading AND writing.  I made a bunch of formula sheets bound together, one page per each major topic source and used the NCEES list to generate those and pretty much put something down for each topic listed. As I read through stuff, I noted relevant phrases/equations for each sheet under each topic.  For what it's worth, I only studied about ~10 days before the exam and did a lot of tabbing, which is woefully low, I'd guess I probably put in 80 hours of studying or less. I mostly did Mansour and NCEES Practice exams which I thought where helpful. I didn't do any Lindeburg problems.

Also I printed off from the internet and read a bunch of basic manuals, for example, Highway Hydrology, was very helpful as there were basically every problem type listed on the reference list for hydrology (like runoff, basins, etc) and that book goes into pretty much everything that helped me do those methods no problem. I'm not even a Water Resources guy and I felt I nailed each one just because I read the relevant sections of that manual.  There are also ones for Surveying and Pavement Manual (though there wasnt much transportation) stuff.  There's also like the NAVFAC Manuals though those are a little hard to read and I'm already proficient as a Geotech so I didn't really use them, more so some of my textbooks (Das, Salgado, Holtz & Kovas) came more in handy for some of the stuff I didn't readily know.

I think being a Geotech was very helpful this exam because I know either I got lucky or bombed most of the Structural Questions, which at least this time around I felt there weren't that many. But who knows next time, It could be very heavy for another discipline and I might have failed.

 

[Sooner100]

I worked a ton of problems during my 6 months of studying. However, I realize now I may have wasted a lot of time "reading" and "Highlighting" when I should have been "solving."

I found the 6 minute solutions problems and some of the other Lindeburg/PPI problems took hours to solve - nothing like we saw on the exam.

Did anyone else have this experience? Can anyone recommend a book with problems that are more straightforward, like the exam? is this what we can expect from the EET binder?

Another question, did those who pass use a formula sheet? Or just tab the heck out of references? I did some combination of both, and maybe it was too disorganized. 

Any and all advice is helpful. I put in the time, but it was somehow misdirected. Thanks in advance and congratulations to all who passed!

1. Don't do too much highlighting. Then you will have hard time to find important stuffs. Only highlight keywords that you don't know. 

2. Agree with you on six minutes and PPI question bank (cafe). They are too math regorous instead of giving flavor of new concepts. NCEES sample problems are perfect and I wish there were more questions in there. My recommendation, you solve one problem from the NCEES and solve several problems on the same topic from textbooks you used in college.

3. It is better if you can have your own formulae sheet. No single book is complete. So, you will have to accumulate formulae from multiple sources in a single place. What I did was- had the CERM as the base book. Then wrote related formulae or wrote cross references where this topic is located in textbooks. You need text books in each subject. Make sure you bring books in the test center only those you have followed at home. Brining too many unfamiliar references will kill your time and space.

4. I am not a fan of taking any course as I did not take any course. They are too expensive as I would have to out if my own pocket. Further there was no classroom base course in my town. 

5. I was not able to follow any routine. Some days I studied the whole day (12 to 15 hrs), the other  days I did not study at all. But, I had another advantage. I teach for living and I would solve PE/FE style questions in class. That was a big help. I tried to learn the main concept along with all exception cases. I did my study alone. I wish I had a buddy to consult. 

6. Make sure you have your unit conversion sheet handy.

7. If an AM subject is too complex for you, do not spend too much time on that. Focus on your strength and attempt to ace on those.

8. I spent most of my time in preparing the PM subject.  My opinion is that the FE level knowledge in the AM subjects is good enough to do well. The PM test will always be harder than the AM, I presume. So, I focused on PM as I was comfortable with basics in the AM portion. 

Best,

 

[Sooner100]

I don't know. I think I did mostly reading AND writing.  I made a bunch of formula sheets bound together, one page per each major topic source and used the NCEES list to generate those and pretty much put something down for each topic listed. As I read through stuff, I noted relevant phrases/equations for each sheet under each topic.  For what it's worth, I only studied about ~10 days before the exam and did a lot of tabbing, which is woefully low, I'd guess I probably put in 80 hours of studying or less. I mostly did Mansour and NCEES Practice exams which I thought where helpful. I didn't do any Lindeburg problems.

Also I printed off from the internet and read a bunch of basic manuals, for example, Highway Hydrology, was very helpful as there were basically every problem type listed on the reference list for hydrology (like runoff, basins, etc) and that book goes into pretty much everything that helped me do those methods no problem. I'm not even a Water Resources guy and I felt I nailed each one just because I read the relevant sections of that manual.  There are also ones for Surveying and Pavement Manual (though there wasnt much transportation) stuff.  There's also like the NAVFAC Manuals though those are a little hard to read and I'm already proficient as a Geotech so I didn't really use them, more so some of my textbooks (Das, Salgado, Holtz & Kovas) came more in handy for some of the stuff I didn't readily know.

I think being a Geotech was very helpful this exam because I know either I got lucky or bombed most of the Structural Questions, which at least this time around I felt there weren't that many. But who knows next time, It could be very heavy for another discipline and I might have failed.

@Liquefaction: yes I did study hard about your name as it was not that much part of any courses in college.  Only thing I knew in college was its definition and how/why it occurs. I wonder why it was not part of any course even though I took several (10 or so) Grotech courses in college. Oh well, knowing a new topic is always good. That's all I can say.

 

[Shinken]

Did you have all of the required references and have a decent understanding of their content?  A useful trick I learned from this board was to scan and print all of the indexes into a separate binder so you're not having to flip back and forth in the references themselves when hunting for answers.  Reference lookups alone provides 5-10 easy points for Civil-Construction.  Don't be bummed though, as you failed the test tied for the lowest passing rate of any P.E. exam.  You'll get there.

Thanks Patrick1441, Yeah I was missing some of the reference material and could have done a better job organizing my references.  I will organize the indexes next time as I get ready for the April exam.

 

[somemePE]

To be clear, I am a patent agent, not an attorney (I'm pretty sure you understood that, but I hate to assume). I've worked in electronics cooling, data-center, and telecom industries for many years, and I currently work in the surge protection industry.  My current title is Sr. Mechanical Engineer, but I have had titles such as "Mechanical Engineer, Patent Specialist", "Patent Agent"; "Mechanical Engineer/Patent Agent", and "Mechanical Engineer II" (all with that patent agent license).

 It has definitely been something that makes a hiring manager take a second look.  But it's hit or miss.  Some companies do not put much value on IP whereas others understand the value of it very well.  I'd say about half the time an employer will look at that and not really understand what it has to do with the engineering job they're hiring for (and I'm happy to walk away from them, not wanting to work with or for them).  Start-ups typically do, but the pay is going to be pretty low, typically and a lot of times it's more economical for a start-up to hire a patent attorney that does transactional work as well, and they just get by, by hiring new or mid-level engineers.

But there is a whole other tract available to you if you do go for it.  For example, I contract patent services through a sole proprietorship I started last year.  I have also worked in-house in a law firm (which I would highly recommend before attempting to go it on your own).  If you decide to really pursue the patent route, there is good money to be made working in a law firm, and most law firms that do patent work hire Patent Agents.  Upward salaries in that arena were almost double what I could ever expect working as an Engineer in the same geographical area.  However, I found that I missed doing engineering work too much so switched back to it.  And I keep my patent role active by contracting and by doing a bit of patent work in-house.  As a PE, now I can offer both engineering and patent services to potential clients.  My business is really in its infancy and I don't know exactly where I want it to go yet, but now that I have my PE I have a lot more options.

Be aware of a couple things, if you get a patent agent license 1) no one knows what it is until you explain it to them (for some reason everyone immediately understands what a patent attorney is) 2) once you tell someone in casual conversation you're a patent agent, they will tell you all of their ideas they want to patent and expect you to do it at minimal cost for them.

Thanks for the detailed response @Audi driver, P.E.! I am familiar with the distinction, but was not until recently. I'm not currently in a field where registering as a patent agent would be terribly relevant, however although I'm comfortable in my job now, I won't necessarily be in this field forever and I expect that being an engineer and a patent agent could be more uniquely marketable. I am always interested in increasing my earning potential, which it sounds like this could do, but mostly in an applicable position. I'm probably going to take a break for a while now that I've passed this one and get to the patent bar when I feel like adding stress to my life again  or if I start looking for a new job. Thanks again!

 

[InternetUser]

I have to eco this. Took Civil Transportation with them and honestly if you pay attention in class, do all their practice problems (work as many problems as you can, plus NCEES, Goswami...ect) and know where to find everything really quickly in the binders they provide, there really should not be any reason you fail. 

Thanks, you just made me feel "lucky" because I did everything you said including attending weekend classes for School of PE, working their problems, getting their material in binders with tabs (to the point I knew exactly what page to look for most topics covered in School of PE) and still had a reason to fail.

Don't take me wrong, I did study for this exam, but not as hard as I could. I relayed on School of PE notes too much. And these notes didn't cover nearly everything. In fact, their PM notes didn't cover half of material on the exam for Transportation.

I finished PM portion 30 minutes early and overall felt well after the exam until I start doubt myself on certain questions. 2-3 more correctly answered questions and I wouldn't be here today. So, please don't assume people who failed didn't study at all.

 

[InternetUser]

Olden, I'm with you. 40/80 for Water Resources Environmental first try. I studied 6 months for this exam. After I took it, I knew there were questions I didn't answer correctly but felt like I couldn't have studied more to even have touched on those topics. I am feeling a bit stunned. In fact, I felt like I had aced the afternoon portion, which clearly did not happen. Not sure where to go from here. Actually, that's BS. I'm either going to enroll in the EET class everyone is raving about or quit my f'ing job and become a yoga teacher/dog walker. 

 I love your attitude! We gonna get it next time, you will see!

 

[InternetUser]

NCEES publishes a list of what is on the exam. There are only so many ways to calculate a vertical curve, figure out the capacity of a 36" pipe at this slope, find pressure on a retaining wall, classify a soil ... etc etc etc ....

You have the NCEES practice exam, Goswami, Mike's, and Lindeburgh plus I'm sure there are others, but they pretty much cover ever possible way you can ask any engineering topic on this exam. Again, the topics you will be tested on are published, by NCEES. You have 5 months. Just learn them, practice them, and put them in binder. You should walk out of this exam and say I missed these 2 in the AM and these 3 in the PM. You should walk out knowing you passed, and saying that was easy.

You have 5 months, put the work in this time.

John,

I never said topics and types of problems are a total mystery. All I was trying to say School of PE looked a bit overrated to me for lack of material, specifically for PM portion of the exam. After all School of PE claims >9X% passing rate. Again, I am not a lucky person and never was, so it explains me missing 2-3 questions to pass

 

[jnuengr]

I printed off from the internet and read a bunch of basic manuals, for example, Highway Hydrology,

You printed a 450 page manual? 

I wonder if anyone at my work would notice... 

 

[matt267 PE]

You printed a 450 page manual? 

I wonder if anyone at my work would notice... 

Just print a little at a time.

 

[jnuengr]

You have 5 months, put the work in this time.

Actually, 4 months  :blink:

 

[jnuengr]

Just print a little at a time.

Okay... good technique...

 

[Sooner100]

I failed the 2nd time, I'm so sad... The 1st time was 40/80, this time was 48/80, it is still a long way to reach the cut score 55/80? So many guys recommend EET course, I looked their website, they have on line webinar and on demand webinar, which one do you recommend? on line webinar is 45 hrs for the morning session and around 43 hrs for the afternoon session. On demand webinar is over 100 hrs which is longer. Which webinar is good to choose?

Easy math, 40+8 = 48; 48+8=56>55; You will Pass next time. I hope you will pass with a lot higher score next time. But, wait...do not take it guaranteed. You will still have to study hard. Start with the topics that you did not do well. Then just review and review the old ones and new ones. You are familiar with the questions, you have the materials, tabs, extra calculator, or book carrying basket or a diaper box (if you have any kid). Believe me, I saw someone carried his books in the exam room in a Huggies diaper box. Anyway, no one can stop you passing next time. Just give your last push!!

 

[Liquefaction]

You printed a 450 page manual? 

I wonder if anyone at my work would notice... 

To be fair, I only printed what I felt like was relevant based on the topics.  I think it was like <200 pgs when I printed it but yeah they don't really care at my work.

 

[Sooner100]

Just print a little at a time.

You printed a 450 page manual? 

I wonder if anyone at my work would notice... 

The Highway Green Book is 942 pages! Of course, you will have to print off peak hrs so that people are not waiting for you.