How much did you study for the PE

[Kephart P.E.]

Started studying Jan for April Exam.

With the review class I took ( 4 hours a week in the class room).

I think I was around 230 hours total. Took the Thermal Fluids portion.

I probably spent another 20-30 talking about and reading (on this board) about strategies for passing. I.e. whether or not to cherry pick the thing or work straight thru, different tabbing methods, what references to bring etc.

 

[CivE Bricky]

How do you know 56 is passing?

For that exam, lots of people reported their failing scores here (calculated from the diagnostic). No one reported a failing score higher than 55 (and there were a few who reported that score) so I assumed 56/80 was passing - which coincidentally equates to 70%

For another exam, passing score could be a little different, but really different is very unlikely. (Keep in mind that stuff like throwing out a question completely is possible.)

 

[Matt-NM]

April 2008, ME PE (machine). Studied between 300-350 hours over the course of about 3.5 months. Passed 1st try (thank God cause I wasn't going to take it again).

 

[Summ97]

April 2009, Environmental PE. Approximately 260 hours between the middle of January and the end of April. Passed.

 

[chekkmate]

studied about an hour a day (approximately 6 questions) during the week. Weekends somewhere between 2 and 4 hours. From the middle of January until 1 week before the test

 

[RENG2000]

I didn't get a score - I figured that score from the diagnostic and the weighting of each subject area - as near as I can tell, for that exam 56/80 would have been a PASS.....but I learned a lot thru the subsequent studying that was valuable. (2nd exam I slept really poorly and was off my game.)

Mine was 56/80 (April 2009) STR 1 and was ..........F

 

[SCHokie02]

I took off of work the week of the exam and started cramming the sunday before the test. probably spent 60 hours that week with my nose in a book. Passed Civil/Transportation.

 

[cashel]

One and a half hours a day during the week. Four hours each day on the weekend. I started right after New Years. One weekend day was always doing a timed section to practice moving fast. Occasionally I would take a whole test on a weekend day but only a couple of times. I passed taking the transportation section.

 

[MEPE2B]

April 2008 ME, thermal/fluids. I had planned to study about 200 to 300 hours for the test, but a bunch of things came up that distracted me. By the time I sat for the exam, I only had done about 30 to 40 hours of studying. I felt like my chances to pass were slim, but I worked hard through the whole test, figuring I might as well, since I was there. When I left I felt certain I had not passed because I had run out of time and had to make quick, educated guesses on a bunch of problems. I was shocked two months later to find out I had passed. First and only attempt, thank God.

 

[steven_0078]

April 2008 ME, thermal/fluids. I had planned to study about 200 to 300 hours for the test, but a bunch of things came up that distracted me. By the time I sat for the exam, I only had done about 30 to 40 hours of studying. I felt like my chances to pass were slim, but I worked hard through the whole test, figuring I might as well, since I was there. When I left I felt certain I had not passed because I had run out of time and had to make quick, educated guesses on a bunch of problems. I was shocked two months later to find out I had passed. First and only attempt, thank God.

Similar experience with 09 thermal fluids. i planned to study a ton, i probably ended up putting in about 80-100 hours. I studied only depth information with an extreme attention to detail. i found alot of the question in the morning were from thermo fluids and did really well on those, i thought the rest were general enough in the morning that they werent difficult. The afternoon was a bit more difficult but i really focused and did not let fatigue get to me. With about a half hour left i went back through 5 problems or so and workedd through them and think i got the correct answer. i wasnt thinking straight initially and looked at those 5 problems for a long time and finally toward the end of the exam i started thinking about those problems in a different way after having worked the rest of the exam. I think that helped me get a few additional problems correct, which hopefully made the difference between being above and below the cut score. I took the test in california and at this point in time i feel really optimistic about getting my results, but havent received results yet..... When i left the exam i was thinking that i didnt feel like i would have done significantly better with another 100 hours of study. I felt there was a 50-50 shot of passing or failing. My guess is that 10% of the people taking the exam are very confident they passed when coming out, 20% are probably fairly confident that they failed due to lack of preparation, the rest of the people feel like they have a 50-50 shot. i think the difference in passing or failing for the remaining 70% of the people lies in overcoming fatigue and fighting through the exam while thinking clearly. My guess is for the remaining 70% (maybe less than 70%) of people are probably 4-5 questions above or below the cut score. I bet 70% of people get between 48-58 questions correct. Keeping from making silly mistakes during the exam is a key to passing i feel like. I didnt think it was a terribly difficult exam with adequate preparation in your depth section; i think the hardest part is being mentally prepared to sit for 8 hours and to avoid getting psyched out during the exam about time the questions that you dont think you can solve. I'll have to eat crow in a week if i get a failing result.

 

[CrazyHorse81]

two weeks prior to the april 09 exam i studied a total of 30 hours, passed first time Civil/Water - felt like i did well. i did subscribe to my physics teacher's philosophy that you won't learn anything by cramming so it is best to learn as you go and store your knowledge for "finals" and understand it.

 

[THUDore]

4~5 hour/per day for about 20 days b4 the exam. Passed SE 1.

 

[P.E. Luchion]

I studied for 3 months, at least 4-5 hours a day. And as the exam approached I took 2 weeks off from work and studied about 8-12 hours a day up til 2 days before the exam.

I passed on my first try. OCt.08

 

[Andy N]

I took an exam review course that began in the latter part of February. The class lasted 7 Saturdays, and was 8 hours each session. I studied probably 8 hours each week in between classes. About 4 weeks before the exam I started studying both weekend days for 4-6 hours, and a couple of nights throughout the week for a couple hours. I took practice tests (provided by NCEES) which were extremely helpful. The practice tests were similar to the exam format and the difficulty level of questions was comparable to the actual exam.

So I studied a total of maybe 150-175 hours (probably a little high).

Passed ME first time around.