Took the PE exam and failed it.
I made a simple spread sheet to break down the score for analysis. I hope others can use this if they happen to fail. Just insert the scores you get back from ncees and it'll tell you where you need to bone up.
I thought I could dance through the exam by doing about 50-60 hours of review. Wrong idea.
Well don't feel to bad, I had a similar result on my first try. I had studied maybe 75-90 hours, so it was frustrating. My morning scores were similar although I really blew construction 4/8. I really didn't see any problem I shouldn't have known how to do. I panicked and didn't use my time well, really ran out of time. I didn't know how to do the CPM questions, I know now, they are usually pretty easy.
In the afternoon I took geotechnical, which was tough since I had one soil mechanics class 13 years ago.
My strategy was to do well on the morning. Also I did a lot of geotech questions for the afternoon.
Construction: did a lot of CPM, quantity, economics, hauling and borrow questions. (Remember use dry density for computing quanities). You need to cut&fill, endhaul, and constrution staking too.
Geotechnical: Really worked on engineering properties and phase questions, they are easy, I was real slow at them. Also worked on settlement and time of settlement.
Structural: Reviewed statics again, general shear equation, esp. horiz shear for wood, Lindeburgs sample exam helped.
Transportation: Practiced lots of horz & vert curve, and stopping distance questions.
Water Resources and Environmental: Reviewed hydrogy I had struggled with it, permeability, Darcy's equation, Hazen_Williams, NRCS Method,pipe flow questions, critical, normal, and subcritical flow depths, hydraulic jumps, and pumps. I worked a lot questions. This is the easiest to study as most is in the CERM.
I also worked all NCEES Sample exam questions, except for most of the structural depth questions.
This time in the morning the hardest questions were the word questions. I worked 37 pronblems and was satified with my answers, two I was pretty sure, one structural 3D statics question that if i could do it it would have taken me 30 minutes.
In the afternoon I think I had worked 32 of 35 questions with 15 minutes left, I worked one more, then filled in all the bubbles. There were two questions I could have worked, I had panicked and did not read all the questions first.
You probably heard this before, but the problems were pretty much in the order as they are listed on the NCEES web site. I studied more methodically this time, plus lots of hours, and I read more.
I hope this helps, and best of luck. You know you can do it.
