For those discovering they didn't pass...

[poke386 PE]

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.

EET provided excellent coverage of the afternoon depth portion. I guess there are no guarantees in life, but considering you were so close this last time, I 'guarantee' if you enroll in EET and work hard from Jan-Apr you will pass this next time.

 

[liz28]

Failed for the second time...Civil - Structural.  Seeing a lot of posts about mid 50's passing...which sounds absurd.  I had a 60% first go around, and 65% the second go around.

Do other states give you your score if you pass so you know this information?  NJ just gives a "pass" and only gives a score if you fail.

Took the testmasters online course and liked it a lot - but apparently just wasn't enough for me...now the tricky part of trying to find more problems that I haven't already worked through in the first two tries...

 

[MCeatalot]

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 passed Civil: WRE and seismic (for CA only) with the help of EET. I swear I couldn't have done it without them. Their instructors and study materials are top notch. I'm positive that you will pass  with the help of EET.

 

[eowen99]

I failed the water resources exam for the 4th time and don't know what to do. I am getting killed on the morning exam (22-25 right) and scoring better in the afternoon (26-28). Four tests and the score is about the same each time. I have practiced problems so much I dream about them. I think my exam material is organized pretty well too. I take practice exams and get around 80%.

Does anyone have suggestions on where to start? How do you change your study habit or correct errors if you don't know where to start?

 

[hyphenme]

I failed for the second time, 44/80 Civil Structural. So it seems I have a lot to work on if passing is at 70%. I took School of PE the second time and hardly studied the first time. School of PE helped me improve greatly on AM and agree with everyone that it's not that great for the PM portion. I might try out the EET classes, I like that they have test simulations which might help my test anxiety. Hopefully, their PM depth classes are better. PM is my weakness so I know I will have to work more problems. Hopefully, I can find more structural problems I haven't worked on (same problem as liz28). I feel like I need to utilize this forum more too, I usually only lurk and look at the questions other have asked. Thank you everyone on this board and everyone who still visit to help out others, especially those who have passed. I really appreciate all the advice.

For now, I will go drink a lot and sulk for a few days.

 

[NYCProjectEngineer PE PMP]

I failed the water resources exam for the 4th time and don't know what to do. I am getting killed on the morning exam (22-25 right) and scoring better in the afternoon (26-28). Four tests and the score is about the same each time. I have practiced problems so much I dream about them. I think my exam material is organized pretty well too. I take practice exams and get around 80%.

Does anyone have suggestions on where to start? How do you change your study habit or correct errors if you don't know where to start?

If you are really scoring high on tests then something doesn't add up: 1) Are you really making the test or are you peaking at the solutions? 2) Are you timing yourself during the exam (4 hrs for AM and 4 hrs for PM)? 3) Have you used the practice exams so many times that the problems aren't a challenge?

 

[hjg7715]

If you are really scoring high on tests then something doesn't add up: 1) Are you really making the test or are you peaking at the solutions? 2) Are you timing yourself during the exam (4 hrs for AM and 4 hrs for PM)? 3) Have you used the practice exams so many times that the problems aren't a challenge?

NYCProjectEngineer makes some very good points. eowen99, I'm curious to know what resources you used for your practice problems. I too failed Civil WRE depth, first time taking and it sounds like our scores were similar, however, I performed better in the morning than I did in the afternoon. I used ppi2pass excam cafe and thought the test bank questions were comparable and adequately prepared me for the morning session, but am looking for additional resources to help with the depth portion of exam...specifically wastewater treatment and water system distribution. Any books or manuals you found useful during the exam.

 

[MJ_PE]

NYCProjectEngineer makes some very good points. eowen99, I'm curious to know what resources you used for your practice problems. I too failed Civil WRE depth, first time taking and it sounds like our scores were similar, however, I performed better in the morning than I did in the afternoon. I used ppi2pass excam cafe and thought the test bank questions were comparable and adequately prepared me for the morning session, but am looking for additional resources to help with the depth portion of exam...specifically wastewater treatment and water system distribution. Any books or manuals you found useful during the exam.

See if your office has the Metcalf and Eddy book, "Wastewater Engineering, Treatment and Disposal", study for wastewater treatment and bring the book to exam.

 

[matt267 PE]

@hjg7715

In addition to EET's notes and practice problems for the WRE afternoon, I worked the NCEES practice exam problems and the below linked PPI books.

http://ppi2pass.com/water-resources-and-environmental-depth-practice-exams-for-the-civil-pe-exam-cewepx.html

http://ppi2pass.com/water-resources-and-environmental-depth-reference-manual-for-the-civil-pe-exam.html

They were both pretty good in my opinion.

I found 6 minute solutions to be too hard and obscure and not very helpful.

 

[motoracer PE]

I failed the water resources exam for the 4th time and don't know what to do. I am getting killed on the morning exam (22-25 right) and scoring better in the afternoon (26-28). Four tests and the score is about the same each time. I have practiced problems so much I dream about them. I think my exam material is organized pretty well too. I take practice exams and get around 80%.

Does anyone have suggestions on where to start? How do you change your study habit or correct errors if you don't know where to start?

Let me preface this by saying that I'm a pretty average guy, I probably worked a lot harder to pass than a lot of people on this board. I'm not an excellent test taker, but I'm passable. 

Go through the CERM and do all of the practice problems. Make sure you understand them and understand why you're doing something wrong. Spend a month and go through the entire thing, understand what's in there and know where to find relevant information. Once you know the CERM like the back of your hand, which you should anyway for your job, then start picking up relevant practice problems from your old college textbooks (ie problems that seem to correlate with the NCEES subject list). Get a couple of NCEES practice exams from different years (2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, etc). Once you've gone through the CERM and done your practice problems, take a Saturday and take the NCEES practice exam under real testing conditions. If you're getting 90%+, you SHOULD be OK. I feel like if you're getting 80%'s here and there on practice exams, you're leaving yourself a 10% buffer on knowledge for the real exam. You never know how they're going to weight the exam, so try to learn everything as well as you can.

It all sounds way easier said than done, I know. But I passed the EIT and the PE the first shot by going through Linderburg's manuals and slamming through practice problems from old tests and textbooks. It takes a lot of time; it's a huge investment of time, really.

 

[hjg7715]

@hjg7715

In addition to EET's notes and practice problems for the WRE afternoon, I worked the NCEES practice exam problems and the below linked PPI books.

http://ppi2pass.com/water-resources-and-environmental-depth-practice-exams-for-the-civil-pe-exam-cewepx.html

http://ppi2pass.com/water-resources-and-environmental-depth-reference-manual-for-the-civil-pe-exam.html

They were both pretty good in my opinion.

I found 6 minute solutions to be too hard and obscure and not very helpful.

@matt267 PE thanks for the advice, I had already planned to either or both the NCEES practice exam problems and the practice problems in your first link. In addition, I used and was planning to use the PPI Exam Cafe again. So I think I have enough practice problems to do, my bigger problem the first go around is that I didn't put in enough time doing practice problems related to wastewater/water treatment. My strategy going into the first exam was to spend more time preparing for morning session since and hopefully score 80% in the morning and 60% on the depth. 

Now what additional reference resources did you primarily use for the afternoon other than the CERM and practice problem resources?

 

[hjg7715]

See if your office has the Metcalf and Eddy book, "Wastewater Engineering, Treatment and Disposal", study for wastewater treatment and bring the book to exam.

I will check, but I doubt it...I work with a bunch of stormwater guys and the vast majority of us have never worked in the wastewater treatment field.

 

[matt267 PE]

@matt267 PE thanks for the advice, I had already planned to either or both the NCEES practice exam problems and the practice problems in your first link. In addition, I used and was planning to use the PPI Exam Cafe again. So I think I have enough practice problems to do, my bigger problem the first go around is that I didn't put in enough time doing practice problems related to wastewater/water treatment. My strategy going into the first exam was to spend more time preparing for morning session since and hopefully score 80% in the morning and 60% on the depth. 

Now what additional reference resources did you primarily use for the afternoon other than the CERM and practice problem resources?

@hjg7715

I used EET's notes for most of the afternoon questions. I was able to answer some without any references. I used an NCEES practice exam solution as guidance for 1 exam question. EET's WRE depth review was pretty good with wastewater treatment. The practice problems they give are a bit harder then the real thing, but if you work them hard and try to understand them, the exam problems will be easy points. At least, that was my experience and feeling.

 

[GA Civil]

Well I failed the Civil WRE for the first time.  I was honestly really surprised i got a 23/40 on the morning test and a 26/40 in the afternoon.  I honestly walked out of the morning feeling I had only missed 3-4 but I missed 17?  How does one do that.  The afternoon makes since.  I wasn't nearly as confident in the afternoon.  I have signed up for the EET Water/Env class for the April test.  I couldn't swing both of them.  Any advice for the morning portion as far as material to study.  I worked the CRM problems and NCEES practice test last time.  

 

[hjg7715]

Well I failed the Civil WRE for the first time.  I was honestly really surprised i got a 23/40 on the morning test and a 26/40 in the afternoon.  I honestly walked out of the morning feeling I had only missed 3-4 but I missed 17?  How does one do that.  The afternoon makes since.  I wasn't nearly as confident in the afternoon.  I have signed up for the EET Water/Env class for the April test.  I couldn't swing both of them.  Any advice for the morning portion as far as material to study.  I worked the CRM problems and NCEES practice test last time.  

@GA Civil we're in the same boat, I scored about as expected in the afternoon (Civil WRE), but didn't score nearly as well as I predicted during the morning session. What specific subject areas did you not do as well as you thought coming out of the exam? For me, it was soil mechanics and materials. I thought I was adequately prepared and don't remember a lot of difficult solving those types of problems.

 

[GA Civil]

I did poorly on means and methods, geometrics, materials, and structural.  There were two structural questions when i walked out i realized i got wrong and knew how to do it.  The rest, i have no clue how i missed.  Geometrics problems to me were easy on the test, yet i missed most of them.

 

[hjg7715]

I did poorly on means and methods, geometrics, materials, and structural.  There were two structural questions when i walked out i realized i got wrong and knew how to do it.  The rest, i have no clue how i missed.  Geometrics problems to me were easy on the test, yet i missed most of them.

Yeah, I talked with another colleague who bombed the means & methods questions as well looking for advice on how to improve in this area. I can't remember specific problems, but I found my professional experience to be most beneficial than any reference source for this section. I felt the PPI practice problems prepared me fairly well for the geometrics and structural questions, and thought the same for the materials questions but only got 2 of 6 correct.

What about the afternoon, you indicated you're taking a review course. Is your background in water resources? I was considering the same, however, I didn't know if it would be more/less beneficial for me to take a review course or just put more time in studying and doing practice problems. I'm very proficient with stormwater type questions/problems but have never worked in or have never taken more than an introductory level course in wastewater collection/treatment and water distribution/treatment. So I'm not sure if a review course that spends only 25% on these topics would be beneficial enough.

 

[GA Civil]

The reason I am taking the class is to get some more examples/practice problems for afternoon type questions.  I honestly did the worse on the closed circuit and open channel flows.  I missed 8 total from those and ground water I missed 2.  My job is civil site design.  So I work with storm pipes all day every day.  I remember having difficulty getting an answer on those problems or not really understanding what some of the variables were.  That is why I am wanting to take the class. I didnt like being surprised in the afternoon.

The morning still stumps me though.  I guess I just need to work as many problems as I can until i quite making dumb mistakes.  I finished both morning and afternoon 30 min early so I now know I have more time to re-read the questions and check my calculations. 

 

[GA Civil]

I also probably put 90 hours into studying over a 3 month period.

 

[nkalenze]

The reason I am taking the class is to get some more examples/practice problems for afternoon type questions.  I honestly did the worse on the closed circuit and open channel flows.  I missed 8 total from those and ground water I missed 2.  My job is civil site design.  So I work with storm pipes all day every day.  I remember having difficulty getting an answer on those problems or not really understanding what some of the variables were.  That is why I am wanting to take the class. I didnt like being surprised in the afternoon.

The morning still stumps me though.  I guess I just need to work as many problems as I can until i quite making dumb mistakes.  I finished both morning and afternoon 30 min early so I now know I have more time to re-read the questions and check my calculations. 

GA Civil, 

You are going to really enjoy the EET WRE review course with Nazrul.  I passed with EET (I took their breadth and WR/Env depth classes).  Work hard in his class and he will definitely help get you there in the afternoon.  You will work lots of problems and practice exams, but come exam day you'll be happy that most (I'd say about 90%) of the questions come directly from the depth binder.  You will answer the questions confidently if you put the hard work in and enjoy the process.  Also, listen to the books that Nazrul recommends for the depth session, because those can come in handy (although I happened to use just his binder exclusively on the depth exam)

Good luck!