Hours put in to pass october 2013 exam

[floridamose]

Started studying July 5th. I had just passed the FE, and was already used to studying. After my little calculation, I figured out that I had spent almost 400 hours studying for the PE. I had the PPI material and I used the Complex Imaginary tests and the NCEES test. All in all, I had 7 practice tests. I started out by reading through the entire PPI book and doing all of the practice problems. Then I took a PPI practice test. I took a practice test every two weeks. I would take a test, check it, then go back another day and take the same test untuned to see if I was making stupid decisions because of time, or because I didn't know how to solve the problem. Then I would take the problems that I thought were difficult and work through the solutions. I spent an entire two weeks with each test I took. It paid off. I would say not to waste your time with the PPI tests. They are not very realistic. The Complex Imaginary tests were great! They were a little simplistic, but very close to the test. As usual, the best practice was from the NCEES. I will tell you, I thought this material helped me with the AM test, but Nit at all for the afternoon. I was on my own.

 

[ptatohed]

Just asking those who passed....

For posterity sake, how many hours did you put in for oct 2013 exam?

I did ~115 but I would estimate 30 of those were wasted on things that were not on the exam (basic calc, matrix theory, etc) would have been better off if I had watched a few of dr. Tom's YouTube videos beforehand to develop a strategy. Included in that time was taking two separate practice exams.

My advice to any candidate taking any administration (not just the Oct 2013 administration) would be as follows:

NCEES 8 Hr: 300 +/- 50 Hours

CA Survey: 200 +/- 50 Hours

CA Seismic: 200 +/- 50 Hours

 

[benjaminb]

October 2012 - 175 hours - fail

April 2013 - 200 hours - fail

October 2013 - 8 hours - PASS!!!

 

[crunchercrunch]

An hour per night starting in July, closer to two hours per night the first two weeks of October. Eased up the last week and didn't study the last two nights before the exam. I did nothing but go through the 2011 sample exam from NCEES. So all in all, maybe around 130-140 hours.

How did you spend 140 hours doing nothing but go through the sample exam???