Good luck, everyone!

[FL_Structural_PE]

I took building vertical for the first time after obtaining my PE a year ago. I felt pretty confident walking out of the PE. Not so much with the SE.

I found the afternoon to be doable but the morning session was a bear. I ended up out right guessing on 6 to 7 problems (mostly AASHTO) at the end. And now the wait....

 

[YAZRABADI]

from people with previous experience on this exam (Building Vertical specifically), what kind of mistakes can you make that will still get you through?

 

[David Connor SE]

from people with previous experience on this exam (Building Vertical specifically), what kind of mistakes can you make that will still get you through?

Don't make too many of them?  It's impossible to know unless you are a grader. And if you pass, you don't know what you were borderline on.  They only tell you where you need additional help if you don't pass.  

 

[NMStruc]

I took both building tests in the fall. I spent 200 hours studying for vertical and I thought it was pretty easy but on the flip side I spent 100 hours on lateral and got dominated. Comparing the fall lateral to this spring lateral I thought it was easier but then again I buckled down and studied a ton especially AASHTO. The afternoon was still tough. There were a couple items on the test that no amount of studying would have prepared me for, just had to adapt and do the best I could. It's a tough exam. Be curious to see the overall results and compare them to the last two exams if everyone struggled that bad with the afternoon. 

 

[Parkite]

About the exam, I took the buildings vertical only. It is my third time taking it. I will say it was the easiest afternoon version of the test I have taken. That would include the NCEES practice exam, the PPI exam, and the two previous attempts at the main exam.

The morning I would say I had to take a wild guess on about 5 questions, and an educated guess on another 5. So I am a bit leery about not doing well enough in the morning part, but acing the afternoon part. Also, for the morning part I had three questions I guessed on I immediately "got" as soon as I left for lunch, and there was another one I figured out as I drove home. Nothing is as frustrating as suddenly knowing the answer, and realizing that you were just banging your head on a wall due to a bad presupposition.

E.g. (and I don't think I am violating any NDA items here) I had my mind set that an answer was in a table in the AISC manual. And the answer might have been, but I could have easily found the answer by using the AISC Spec equations and just directly solved it. So I wasted about 10 minutes struggling to find the answer in a table and never even thought to use the Spec equations until I left for lunch. Plus it was one of of the first questions I tried to answer so I got frustrated in the morning part much too early. There also was a bridge, steel, and analysis question that as soon as I was able to relax a bit I immediately thought about how to answer them.

The name of the game is conserving mental energy/frustration. So I read all of the questions first, then put them in order of easiest to hardest. This method backfires when I encountered something I thought I should know and it hangs me up early on.

 

[YAZRABADI]

Don't make too many of them?  It's impossible to know unless you are a grader. And if you pass, you don't know what you were borderline on.  They only tell you where you need additional help if you don't pass.  

Thank you....

 

[YAZRABADI]

Thank you....

Yes, I see your point Connor. I had some really stupid mistakes that made me go one direction in the design that should have been another. then we were hit with some questions that I was not expecting, resulted in me trying to put something down just to try to answer the question. I guess i am only frustrated because I was so ready for this test and expected from my self to just go through the afternoon with ease. sure enough, clock is running coupled with stupid calculator mistakes got me to think twice about the outcome of this test. I don't know if the grader does take into consideration that this guy knows what he is doing, but jacked up due to time and test pressure. I guess we will know in 8 weeks. I pray that all deserve to pass, pass this test.

That is my thought on this!!!

 

[BamaStrucPESE]

Easier said than done, but try not to beat yourselves up too much.  I took and passed both parts on the first try (vert Apr 2016, lat Oct 2016) and walked away from both confident that I failed miserably and that someone would find out how bad and come and take my PE away for the safety of the public.  Everyone remembers the few they couldn't figure out and focus on them as opposed to thinking about the others that you completed in 3 minutes and had no concerns about.

 

[FL_Structural_PE]

Easier said than done, but try not to beat yourselves up too much.  I took and passed both parts on the first try (vert Apr 2016, lat Oct 2016) and walked away from both confident that I failed miserably and that someone would find out how bad and come and take my PE away for the safety of the public.  Everyone remembers the few they couldn't figure out and focus on them as opposed to thinking about the others that you completed in 3 minutes and had no concerns about.

So you signed up for the lateral test before the vertical results came out? I'm debating on whether to sign up for the lateral portion or just going and sticking my head in the sand.

I wish the results came out before the application for the next session is due.

 

[YAZRABADI]

Easier said than done, but try not to beat yourselves up too much.  I took and passed both parts on the first try (vert Apr 2016, lat Oct 2016) and walked away from both confident that I failed miserably and that someone would find out how bad and come and take my PE away for the safety of the public.  Everyone remembers the few they couldn't figure out and focus on them as opposed to thinking about the others that you completed in 3 minutes and had no concerns about.

real funny, thank you for the motivational post. pray that the same case applies to me

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

Easier said than done, but try not to beat yourselves up too much.  I took and passed both parts on the first try (vert Apr 2016, lat Oct 2016) and walked away from both confident that I failed miserably and that someone would find out how bad and come and take my PE away for the safety of the public.  Everyone remembers the few they couldn't figure out and focus on them as opposed to thinking about the others that you completed in 3 minutes and had no concerns about.

Ooof, I heard that the 2016 October lateral was just as rough as this years vertical, congrats for passing that on the first try while not feeling confident.

I've been getting more feedback from the PPI review course takers and continue to get comments on problems where people felt they had the correct method but didn't have a matching solution listed for the morning. I wonder if we'll get a few questions thrown out for this exam due to being misleading or otherwise having a high amount of incorrect answers?

It also definitely appears that NCEES is possibly in a shift toward topics that are either "trick" questions (ones where small exceptions or caveats make a difference) or problems that differ from the typical study topics (such as in the practice exams, SERM, etc.). Either way, when NCEES does their statistics the "cut score" for this exam should be lowered if it was indeed more difficult than past exams. Good news there at least.

Also, to add to Bama's, there's been a number of other SE exam takers who have thought for sure they failed the exam but got passing scores in their inbox 6 weeks later. Obviously cautious pessimism is best to avoid any huge disappointments, but don't start studying for another attempt just yet; you've probably all done better on the exam than you give yourself credit for.

 

[Mithrandir918]

Easier said than done, but try not to beat yourselves up too much.  I took and passed both parts on the first try (vert Apr 2016, lat Oct 2016) and walked away from both confident that I failed miserably and that someone would find out how bad and come and take my PE away for the safety of the public.  Everyone remembers the few they couldn't figure out and focus on them as opposed to thinking about the others that you completed in 3 minutes and had no concerns about.

This post makes me feel better!  Thanks for encouragement think we could all use some now.

 

[bassplayer45]

Yeah, it is true. The Time I passed Vertical Bridges, I was 100% certain I passed the morning, but thought I completely biffed the afternoon 2nd and 3rd question, but got a passing score.

On the time I passed Lateral Bridges, I knew I did the best I had ever done in the morning, answering 31 of 40 questions before having to go through them again. On the afternoon, I was confident I did the first 2 essays dead on, got perfect answers, they made sense, my checks were spot on. The 3rd problem, I honestly said to myself after, I don't even remember what I wrote down because I thought I was completely lost in steps D through H. I think I actually wrote an apology at the end to the reviewer for my chicken scratch, then summarized my thoughts and steps at the end so he or she could actually follow what I was doing...and I passed. So hold out hope, it isn't always bad.

 

[BamaStrucPESE]

So you signed up for the lateral test before the vertical results came out? I'm debating on whether to sign up for the lateral portion or just going and sticking my head in the sand.

I wish the results came out before the application for the next session is due.

Unless I'm mistaken, registration may open before final results are out, but doesn't close until 1.5-2 months before exam. I don't think I signed up for the fall exam until late August, 2 months after I knew the results. Also, I knew I would have to take both, so pass or fail vertical, I was going to take lateral in the fall.

 

[FL_Structural_PE]

Unless I'm mistaken, registration may open before final results are out, but doesn't close until 1.5-2 months before exam. I don't think I signed up for the fall exam until late August, 2 months after I knew the results. Also, I knew I would have to take both, so pass or fail vertical, I was going to take lateral in the fall.

You are lucky in Alabama. In Florida the application for the October exam is due in early may.

 

[Chillhaus_SE]

You are lucky in Alabama. In Florida the application for the October exam is due in early may.

Once you have been accepted to take the SE or PE you don't have to apply again and you just sign up for the test on NCEES's website which for the fall doesn't open until mid June.

 

[BamaStrucPESE]

Once you have been accepted to take the SE or PE you don't have to apply again and you just sign up for the test on NCEES's website which for the fall doesn't open until mid June.

Agree, might be different in Florida, but in Texas (where I currently reside, went to school in Bama) I didn't have to do any extensive applications for the SE once I passed the PE, went to the NCEES website and signed up. I called Texas board to make sure I didn't need to do anything else and they were confused on why I would want to take another test once I had my PE.

 

[StandardPractice]

Buildings SE Vert/Lat: I felt the exam was tough, but fair. For the vertical AM, the questions were similar to the practice exams but with greater depth in some cases. For vertical PM, I was expecting a concrete problem similar to the practice exams but was surprised by the question. Question was still fair I suppose. Lateral AM/PM were tough. I had enough time but not enough knowledge. For Lateral AM, I answered about 20 on first go around and think I answered another 5 or so second go around. I felt about 75-80% confident on those 25. For the life of me, there were about 5 or so questions where I would get answer close but be off by a few from the choices. Then there were another 10 questions where I either took a 50% guess or complete guess. Lateral PM was interesting. NCEES definitely threw a surprise question in there, but after thinking about the study outline they provide I guess I shouldn't have been that surprised. Finished it all, but toss up if my methodology was sound. My strategy for PM was to use approximate shortcut equations where I could and explain in writing "if more time..." the complete process including equations. I hope that is sufficient for concrete portion and masonry question.

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

For the life of me, there were about 5 or so questions where I would get answer close but be off by a few from the choices.

You're like the fourth person to mention this that I've talked to. Something weird going on with some of those questions for sure.

 

[FL_Structural_PE]

You're like the fourth person to mention this that I've talked to. Something weird going on with some of those questions for sure.

Have you hear that about the vertical and the lateral morning portion?