louisianapipeline
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- Joined
- May 19, 2015
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- 16
Looks good GB! This should be the one!
nice job, LP. Sounds like a good report.Good Morning Friends,
This was my second time taking the Civil exam. Last April I took the Construction depth after someone suggested it to me for my line of work, and I did very poor. I scored around 58% and did worse in the afternoon. For that exam I studied around 40 hours of lecture (Testmasters On-Demand), and about 20 hours of problems (two practice test). I was not heavily invested as I went offshore quite a bit during this time.
After the exam was worried sick for a month. I knew in my heart the only way I could have passed was from the grace of God. Basically Divine intervention. I failed of course, which did not surprise me. It was difficult.
I took the advice of many folks on the EB and switched to Water Resources. (I do some pipeline design). I also went the route of doing EET's review with Dr. Nazrul. It was the best study experience I've ever had.
His depth review was phenomenal.
During the morning sessions, I finished with about 30-40mins left, and checked my work. I found an error and changed it. I also was able to go through to count what I felt strong about. Here was my break down:
30 Questions - I felt comfortable I got right or knew how to work
6 Questions - I was able to remove 1-2 answers from to guess
4 Questions - I guessed outright
Not a bad breakdown. I felt pretty good at lunch.
During the afternoon It was relatively similar.
30-32 Questions - I felt comfortable with
4 Questions - I removed two choices and guessed
4 Questions - I had to throw out a hail mary answer
I had about 15mins left in the afternoon, and again checked my work and used the time to try and find any reference in my CERM.
I left the exam happy, satisfied. I reviewed the Test Masters morning classes, which helped. I put in close to 300-400 hours since mid-july. I likely worked 500-600 problems, and did a very accurate simulated exam the week prior to really pin point my strong points.
The questions were tough, but luckily I was able to find a lot of the critical thinking questions in my notes from one of the exam reviews.
I never want to feel confident and overlook, but I feel good and am excited to see the results. Here's to praying still!
I do want to give another thanks to Dr. Nazrul (very accurate review) and the EB guys. (NJMike, Ram, etc) Your support and comments after my defeat last April helped a lot. I hope to rejoice this time.
Side Note: Saturday I was beyond sloshed.
I realized over weekend that I made math errors on 2 questions. Does the board care about the approach to solve the problem? Or is it just the final answer?
I took the HVAC afternoon... #Challenge. Was mad about electrical question showing up on the PM section though. I had to guess on about 4 or 5. Heat transfer problems took me for a loop. Who calculates composite wall systems by hand anyways????Anyone on here take HVAC afternoon? I'd love to hear your thoughts
That's a winner and you know it.30 Questions - I felt comfortable I got right or knew how to work
6 Questions - I was able to remove 1-2 answers from to guess
4 Questions - I guessed outright
Not a bad breakdown. I felt pretty good at lunch.
During the afternoon It was relatively similar.
30-32 Questions - I felt comfortable with
4 Questions - I removed two choices and guessed
4 Questions - I had to throw out a hail mary answer
True... I just botched the hell out of them... And ended up taking educated guesses based on knowledge of thermal resistance of an item... Glad there were only a few though.I took the HVAC afternoon... #Challenge. Was mad about electrical question showing up on the PM section though. I had to guess on about 4 or 5. Heat transfer problems took me for a loop. Who calculates composite wall systems by hand anyways????Anyone on here take HVAC afternoon? I'd love to hear your thoughts
Composite wall problems should not take that long to calculate once you set up your thermal circuit equation.
If that breakdown is conservative, looks like a sure bet you passed.That's a winner and you know it.30 Questions - I felt comfortable I got right or knew how to work
6 Questions - I was able to remove 1-2 answers from to guess
4 Questions - I guessed outright
Not a bad breakdown. I felt pretty good at lunch.
During the afternoon It was relatively similar.
30-32 Questions - I felt comfortable with
4 Questions - I removed two choices and guessed
4 Questions - I had to throw out a hail mary answer
NJMike,Took the Civil/Transpo Depth. Morning session was not what I expected at all. Thought that at least 30% of the session involved concepts that required more than a "breadth" knowledge of civil engineering. I still think I did "ok" but it wasn't anything like the practice exams I took (lindeburg, goswami, ncees and mikes morning). On the problems I didn't know - coming up with an answer was more about eliminating wrong answers. Scouring the CERM for clues on the right one was near impossible.
I'd be curious to see what geotech and water resources folks thought of the morning, as just about everyone I talked to was pretty frustrated after the morning except for one of my buddies who now specializes in WR/Geotech.
As for the afternoon, I think I did pretty well - but I would say being familiar with the resources (Green Book, MUTCD, HCM and Roadside Design Guide) was a necessity. The problems were not easy, but at least coming up with a confident answer was possible if you knew where to look, whereas in the morning I was convinced at times that NCEES was making up words.
Also had a guy with a leaf blower during the morning. Pretty sure he duct taped it on and left it right outside the window while he took a 45 minute poop break... Just glad i had earplugs.
so you're saying that the cut score will be low then?Fooz,
I was a WRE depth and I agree with you that the morning seemed to have some unexpected questions.
Edit:
It's somewhat comforting to know that I'm not the only one to have trouble in the AM. Hopefully this helps the bell curve in our favor.
You're going to fit in nicely around here..... it's time to drink a few beers and laugh at each other's freak out moments over the next 8 weeks.
True... I just botched the hell out of them... And ended up taking educated guesses based on knowledge of thermal resistance of an item... Glad there were only a few though.I took the HVAC afternoon... #Challenge. Was mad about electrical question showing up on the PM section though. I had to guess on about 4 or 5. Heat transfer problems took me for a loop. Who calculates composite wall systems by hand anyways????Anyone on here take HVAC afternoon? I'd love to hear your thoughts
Composite wall problems should not take that long to calculate once you set up your thermal circuit equation.
All in all I felt good. Would be devastated (like everybody else) if I fail though. I studied like a madman since labor day. Like a minimum of 5 hours per weekday and probably like 14 hours on the weekend. Nearly 40 hours per week while working full time! I'd be crushed if I fail!
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