How representative are the NCEES practice materials of the actual exam difficulty?

[K19]

Topic title says mostly all. As part of my study regimen in preparation the October 2012 exam I've been working problems from the Sample Questions and Solutions offered by the NCEES (Water Resources & Env. Depth):

http://www.ncees.org...als.php?exam=PE

To anyone who has recently taken the exam, how representative are these problems of the actual exam difficulty in general? To be honest I've found many of the sample questions to be quite easy and worry that I might be gaining false overconfidence as a result.

Also, if anyone has any recommendations for additional practice problem resources I'd be much obliged. I plan on working the PPI/CERM Practice Exam and possibly the CERM's accompanying Practice Problems workbook (though I understand problems in the latter are predominantly more difficult / time consuming than actual exam problems).

Thanks!

 

[ptatohed]

K,

This has been discussed here countless times. The NCEES sample problems are the most accurate as far as level of difficulty. They are dead on. Almost every other source (Lindburg, Goswami, 6 Mins, etc.) are more difficult than the exam. But, I still feel "over studying" can be a really good thing - so still do those problems - just don't kick yourself when it takes 20-30 minutes to do one "6-min" problem. Good luck.

 

[bk2ftr812]

My experience with the exam was that 70 out of the 80 problems on the actual exam should easily take you less than 6 mins. There are maybe 10 or so that are more challenging, but if you save them to the end you should have time to come back to them. Most problems are going to be the most basic, straight-forward examples of any topic. If it's an open channel flow problem, they will likely give you all the variables and you just need to know to plug them into the Manning equation, etc. In other words, knowing your reference materials is 50% of the battle. Tab the daylights out of them. You'll know you over studied when you finish the exam in 6 hours instead of 8 like me. Good thing is that you most likely passed if thats the case.

 

[LA07]

I agree with ptatohed. I went through all of the references he mentioned first and then took the NCEES exam as a confidence booster (or serious wake up call) around 3 weeks-month out. I did well on it (Trans) and it gave me tons of confidence going in to the exam because it was much easier than everything I had been studying.

 

[bennyG19]

I passed in April!

My strategy had its flaws but it worked. I studied aimlessly for about a month, then I sat down and read through the Goswami book to see what I could remember and what I had no chance at learning in two months. Next I started working through the Goswami sample exams. It took what seemed like forever to get through the two AM sample exams and just as long to get through the PM transpo exam. Some of them were too hard and I just decided to skip them and move on. Two weeks before the actual exam date I sat down and did the NCEES sample exam in its entirety. It took me 2.5 hours for the morning and 4 hours for the afternoon. I think my score was 64/80 on the practice exam. For the next two weeks I just cruised through the books looking over material, making sure everything was tabbed, etc. I might have worked 10 problems from the 6 minute solution transpo book. I tabbed everything in both Goswami and CERM. In the end it worked for me.

I think the Goswami sample exams are harder than the real thing but will make you learn enough to think that the real exam is fairly easy. The NCEES sample exam seemed to be dead on as far as difficulty.

Good luck!

 

[GWUPhD]

I agree with all of the above. The most important thing is being comfortable with your references, so working the harder problems in Goswami, CERM, and 6 Min Solutions is helpful in that regard. I worked through those first, and then about three weeks before the exam I worked the NCEES practice exam and did very well on it. BIG confidence booster.... but like it was mentioned previously it is much better to over study, because then you are well prepared. The first time I took the exam in October 2011, I was not famaliar with my references and was not as prepapred as I should have been, and my score reflected it. Good luck study hard and use this board as a study tool as well because there are tons of people that can offer help on questions or advice.

good luck

 

[K19]

Thank you all for your wisdom and insight! It feels good to know that the practice questions are more or less on par with the difficulty of actual exam problems, though I'll certainly be over-preparing as suggested.

Cheers,

Kevin

 

[ptatohed]

My experience with the exam was that 70 out of the 80 problems on the actual exam should easily take you less than 6 mins. There are maybe 10 or so that are more challenging, but if you save them to the end you should have time to come back to them. Most problems are going to be the most basic, straight-forward examples of any topic. If it's an open channel flow problem, they will likely give you all the variables and you just need to know to plug them into the Manning equation, etc. In other words, knowing your reference materials is 50% of the battle. Tab the daylights out of them. You'll know you over studied when you finish the exam in 6 hours instead of 8 like me. Good thing is that you most likely passed if thats the case.

bk, I don't think you answered K's original question - lol, but this is still good stuff. I'm always jealous when I hear that people finished in 6 hours and had time to review their work. Not me. On both the FE and PE exams, I was lucky to complete 80-85% of the problems and the last 20% were random bubble fill-ins during the last 5 minutes.

Thank you all for your wisdom and insight! It feels good to know that the practice questions are more or less on par with the difficulty of actual exam problems, though I'll certainly be over-preparing as suggested.

Cheers,

Kevin

Kevin (that's my son's name), you are welcome. You might also consider hunting down the 2007 and the 2001 NCEES sample probs/sols. I know the 01' is pretty dated but some things never change (loads/forces, Q=VA, geometric design, soil classification, etc.). I figure the more problems from the actual exam writers, the better. Best of luck to you!

 

[kozac]

My experience with the exam was that 70 out of the 80 problems on the actual exam should easily take you less than 6 mins. There are maybe 10 or so that are more challenging, but if you save them to the end you should have time to come back to them. Most problems are going to be the most basic, straight-forward examples of any topic. If it's an open channel flow problem, they will likely give you all the variables and you just need to know to plug them into the Manning equation, etc. In other words, knowing your reference materials is 50% of the battle. Tab the daylights out of them. You'll know you over studied when you finish the exam in 6 hours instead of 8 like me. Good thing is that you most likely passed if thats the case.

bk, I don't think you answered K's original question - lol, but this is still good stuff. I'm always jealous when I hear that people finished in 6 hours and had time to review their work. Not me. On both the FE and PE exams, I was lucky to complete 80-85% of the problems and the last 20% were random bubble fill-ins during the last 5 minutes.

Thank you all for your wisdom and insight! It feels good to know that the practice questions are more or less on par with the difficulty of actual exam problems, though I'll certainly be over-preparing as suggested.

Cheers,

Kevin

Kevin (that's my son's name), you are welcome. You might also consider hunting down the 2007 and the 2001 NCEES sample probs/sols. I know the 01' is pretty dated but some things never change (loads/forces, Q=VA, geometric design, soil classification, etc.). I figure the more problems from the actual exam writers, the better. Best of luck to you!

Hi, why did you reference those years specifically? Do they update every year or are those years the 2 previous updates?

-Stan

 

[ptatohed]

My experience with the exam was that 70 out of the 80 problems on the actual exam should easily take you less than 6 mins. There are maybe 10 or so that are more challenging, but if you save them to the end you should have time to come back to them. Most problems are going to be the most basic, straight-forward examples of any topic. If it's an open channel flow problem, they will likely give you all the variables and you just need to know to plug them into the Manning equation, etc. In other words, knowing your reference materials is 50% of the battle. Tab the daylights out of them. You'll know you over studied when you finish the exam in 6 hours instead of 8 like me. Good thing is that you most likely passed if thats the case.

bk, I don't think you answered K's original question - lol, but this is still good stuff. I'm always jealous when I hear that people finished in 6 hours and had time to review their work. Not me. On both the FE and PE exams, I was lucky to complete 80-85% of the problems and the last 20% were random bubble fill-ins during the last 5 minutes.

Thank you all for your wisdom and insight! It feels good to know that the practice questions are more or less on par with the difficulty of actual exam problems, though I'll certainly be over-preparing as suggested.

Cheers,

Kevin

Kevin (that's my son's name), you are welcome. You might also consider hunting down the 2007 and the 2001 NCEES sample probs/sols. I know the 01' is pretty dated but some things never change (loads/forces, Q=VA, geometric design, soil classification, etc.). I figure the more problems from the actual exam writers, the better. Best of luck to you!

Hi, why did you reference those years specifically? Do they update every year or are those years the 2 previous updates?

-Stan

Stan, I was just suggesting that you try to acquire the NCEES-published sample Q&Ss in "recent" history. They seem to come out every 3-4 years. I think there is a 2004 too that I forgot to mention. So, try to find the 2001, 2004, 2008 - and of course the 2011.