Hey, who took the WRE? What did you think?

[Manyyearslater]

Hey, who took the Civil - WRE - October 2017?  What did you think?

 

[utilityeng]

Hey, who took the Civil - WRE - October 2017?  What did you think?

I thought the AM was pretty difficult with some confusing questions/figures, and the depth a little easier. I wish I had counted how many depth I ended up having to guess on, but if I remember correctly it was probably around 10. I know the last 5 questions I for sure guessed on because I had those left at the 15 min. mark.

Even though it would only help with one question, if I don't pass, I'd like to get some more seat time with questions that deal with contaminants that are ingested. The NCEES practice exam had one such question, but I could not find a relevant equation in the CERM to solve it - I had to look at the solution. I really wish NCEES would make multiple practice tests to give us some more exposure to a broader range of questions that they deem PE exam worthy.

I'll be going the EET route if I don't pass.

 

[ArkEngineer]

I felt like the morning was harder than I expected given the practice tests. I did the NCEES tests from 2000, 2008, 2011, and 2014 and the AM was harder than all of those. There were a lot of conceptual questions, not as much calculating. A couple were just trivia, not really something I would consider important for an engineer to know from memory.

The afternoon was more in line with the practice tests, and it went about like I expected. The water questions weren't too bad with a couple exceptions, and the environmental stuff was either easy or pretty hard (I have no background or experience with environmental), but none really in the middle. I bought the Metcalf & Eddy wastewater book relatively last minute before the test, and was glad I did. There was one question I didn't even understand but there was an almost identical example in the book. I didn't understand the example either, but I plugged in the numbers I thought I should use and got an answer that matched a choice.

I spent way too much time on a couple questions and was a bit short on time at the end, but got everything answered. One question I read it, then spent a bunch of time looking up tables in two different books, then calculated an answer. Then I looked at the next page and saw they gave me the table I needed. Got too focused to notice it. Another one I laboriously came up with an exact answer, and then realized the spread in the choices was so big I could have approximated it and been fine. Lost probably 30 minutes on those two questions.

I give myself a 75% chance of passing. It all depends on how many dumb mistakes I made, that's what killed me on the practice tests.

 

[Madhu_A]

I thought AM was tough too. I hope NCEES lower the cutoff!

For those of you who feel you might have to take it a second time, are you going to wait it out till we get the results or are you going to go ahead and apply for April exam? I am confused as to what to do because I have no idea how good or bad I did. 

 

[leggo PE]

For those of you who feel you might have to take it a second time, are you going to wait it out till we get the results or are you going to go ahead and apply for April exam? I am confused as to what to do because I have no idea how good or bad I did. 

Do not reapply before you get your results. You don't want to re-register, do you? You'll have to pay the exam fee.

I would think state boards would understand that exam takers need their results before deciding they need to reapply to take the exam again. This isn't even an issue if you're in a state that doesn't have any requirements to take the PE exam in the first place.

In any case, it doesn't make sense to me to reapply to take the exam before you find out whether you have passed or failed.

 

[Madpiper]

This was my 2nd time taking the exam.

When I took it in April 2017, I felt like the Breadth was heavily weighted towards structural mechanics which is a weakness of mine. When I got my diagnostics back, it showed I missed 5 out of 7 water problems! It didn't make any sense because the I killed those subjects (Open Channel, Closed Conduits, and Hydrology) in the Depth. In an case, I was pretty PO'd because I took the EET prep courses and I felt really prepared. I do have a slight form of dyslexia (and apparently retardation), so maybe that kicked in. 

This time around, I put more emphasis of my study time in the Breadth. Hopefully it paid off because I actually felt okay despite all the conceptual problems. I finished with a good 30 minutes left so I was able to recheck all my answers. The Depth actually seemed harder to me this time around. Part of it was definitely my fault for sucking at time management. I would spend way too much time on problems I thought I could solve. In the end I probably guessed on about 5 problems in the Depth and maybe 3 problems in the Breadth. Not to say I feel totally confident in ALL the problems I didn't guess on.

Having said that, I really wish everyone the best of luck and hopefully you see that green "Pass" in your MyNCEES! I would also like to say that I highly recommend taking the EET prep classes. Even though I failed last spring I blame only myself. I went in to the exam with only my EET binders, the CERM, NCEES practice exam, and the Dictionary for Water Resources & Enviro Engineering (which was a complete waste).

By the way, for those of you that have previous NCEES practice exams; how the he!l did you get your hands on those?

 

[John QPE]

When can I re-register, I'm just going to go ahead and do it right now.

I heard the cut score was going to be 53 this time around, my friend is the stenographer for the FL Board.

 

[btkist]

I thought the morning went alright, felt like I had a good pace going on it.  There were a couple problems on there that seemed to come out of nowhere, that didnt have good references in the CERM.  Another problem that I knew how to do similar ones, but the one on the test was presented in a different manner/had a trick to it, which I didn't figure out (and I'm still thinking about it).  I think the morning was less focused on structural this time than in April 2017.  I finished the morning with about 40 minutes to go back and look at problems, ended up changing one or two.  Kicking myself over one structures question that I second guessed myself on and now know I got it wrong.

The Depth test seemed to fly by the first 20 questions, but the last half, there were more difficult ones. Overall, I think I felt confident on 24 of the 40 in the depth, probably another 4 that I eliminated 2 of the answers.  

Definitely felt more confident after taking it this time than I did in April 2017.  I felt that I studied a lot more, as well as become better organized in my notes/references.  I probably tabbed 3 times as much as I did in April 2017.  I also printed out the CERM index which was really nice to have separate (more than I thought it would be).

 

[btkist]

Oh and I forgot about the stupid question!  THAT one I had never seen one like that before, either in a practice test or in college.  I even was the Surveying TA during grad school and I never had to do one of those.

MODERATOR NOTE:

1.  Per your NCEES policy, you are not allowed to discuss or disclose exam specific content.  Please do NOT post questions (or question content) on here.

2.  Your post has been edited to remove references to specific exam topics and questions.

3.  Please be mindful of your NDA. 

 

[DC_engineer2017]

That question IMO is a depth afternoon transportation question though it is an easy afternoon session question for a Transportation person.

MODERATOR NOTE:

1.  Per your NCEES policy, you are not allowed to discuss or disclose exam specific content.  Please do NOT post questions (or question content) on here.

2.  Your post has been edited to remove references to specific exam topics and questions.

3.  Please be mindful of your NDA. 

 

[fujichan]

YES! That question is still haunting me...even after looking up the solution I still feel like they didn't give us enough info to solve it (even though I'm sure they did and I just can't remember the question completely).

 

[DC_engineer2017]

You can solve it but I am a transportation person. So i knew the direct formula from my afternoon notes. But yes its not easy for non-transportation folks..

 

[fujichan]

Rats...well hopefully my "educated"   guess was right.

 

[matt267 PE]

Guys, be careful with your discussion on specific topics. 

 

[CivilGuy00]

This was my 2nd time taking the exam.

When I took it in April 2017, I felt like the Breadth was heavily weighted towards structural mechanics which is a weakness of mine. When I got my diagnostics back, it showed I missed 5 out of 7 water problems! It didn't make any sense because the I killed those subjects (Open Channel, Closed Conduits, and Hydrology) in the Depth. In an case, I was pretty PO'd because I took the EET prep courses and I felt really prepared. I do have a slight form of dyslexia (and apparently retardation), so maybe that kicked in. 

This time around, I put more emphasis of my study time in the Breadth. Hopefully it paid off because I actually felt okay despite all the conceptual problems. I finished with a good 30 minutes left so I was able to recheck all my answers. The Depth actually seemed harder to me this time around. Part of it was definitely my fault for sucking at time management. I would spend way too much time on problems I thought I could solve. In the end I probably guessed on about 5 problems in the Depth and maybe 3 problems in the Breadth. Not to say I feel totally confident in ALL the problems I didn't guess on.

Having said that, I really wish everyone the best of luck and hopefully you see that green "Pass" in your MyNCEES! I would also like to say that I highly recommend taking the EET prep classes. Even though I failed last spring I blame only myself. I went in to the exam with only my EET binders, the CERM, NCEES practice exam, and the Dictionary for Water Resources & Enviro Engineering (which was a complete waste).

By the way, for those of you that have previous NCEES practice exams; how the he!l did you get your hands on those?

I felt this way too regarding the difficulty of the morning and afternoon. Thought the morning was easier and the afternoon was harder. In April, I also saw I missed way more H&H than I thought. This time around, I probably guessed on a couple on the Breadth and the same as you on the Depth. The water treatment and distribution questions (last 7 or so) were crazy and my resources I had didn't help me at all. 

There were a couple I am still thinking about and doubting myself on. One I am pretty sure I changed from the right to the wrong answer...no happy about that. But hopefully my morning cushioned me enough to get through the afternoon.   

 

[leggo PE]

Guys, be careful with your discussion on specific topics. 

Yes, this, please!

Please, please, no specific problem content. It should not be hard to gauge. All posts with content that could possibly violate NCEES's NDA have been edited.

 

[utilityeng]

I thought AM was tough too. I hope NCEES lower the cutoff!

For those of you who feel you might have to take it a second time, are you going to wait it out till we get the results or are you going to go ahead and apply for April exam? I am confused as to what to do because I have no idea how good or bad I did. 

In Florida, you have one week after receiving your fail notice to reapply. In the event I don't pass, I'm still trying to consider if I want to go back-to-back, or wait until next October. 

 

[utilityeng]

Oh and I forgot about the stupid question!  THAT one I had never seen one like that before, either in a practice test or in college.  I even was the Surveying TA during grad school and I never had to do one of those.

Not entirely sure which question you're referring to since the offending content was removed, but I assume it was one that dealt with this section of the NCEES Exam specifications:

VI. Geometrics 3: A. Basic circular curve elements (e.g., middle ordinate, length, chord, radius)

I practiced a LOT of problems under this topic, and what appeared on the test was nothing like any of the content I was exposed to. I specifically sought out this type of problem after the test because it really irked me and found it was a fairly simple problem as long as you had the correct equation.

Oh well. I'll add it to my arsenal for the next go round, if it comes to that.

 

[John QPE]

When can I re-register, I'm just going to go ahead and do it right now.

I heard the cut score was going to be 53 this time around, my friend is the stenographer for the FL Board.

MODERATOR NOTE:

1.  Per your NCEES policy, you are not allowed to discuss or disclose exam specific content.  Please do NOT post questions (or question content) on here.

2.  Your post has been edited to remove references to specific exam topics and questions.

3.  Please be mindful of your NDA. 

LOL.....who did this??

I hardly think reference to using Hazen instead of Williams and Mannings instead of Chezy in a WRE post by someone who passed this exam several years ago is an NDA violation.

I forgot Bernoulli....should've used that guy instead of Reynolds 

 

[BEL]

If we go by the 35 days rule...we're looking at December 1st for pass/fail releases. Is that the timeline others are using?