October 2019 PE Civil - Structural Results

[LaRCos]

Thank you @biffnater.

Do any of you remember using the NDS SDPWS specification?

 

[PlanCheckEng]

Is it worth spending time practicing on complicated wood connection problems (like Bolt Lateral - Single Shear Wood-to-Wood,  Bolted Wood-to-Wood Tension Splice Connection) for the Structural depth exam?

Like biffnater said, the wood design problems should be very very basic. No design of wood connections. Basic lateral loads are valuable to study as well (shear walls, flexible diaphragms).

I'd say one of the most important pieces of advice I could offer would be, understand your ACI 318 and Steel Manual. Understand organization, table of contents, index. You can be sure you will use concrete and steel design codes intensively. 

 

[LaRCos]

Thank you @PlanCheckEng PE for you advice.

 

[biffnater]

Thank you @biffnater.

Do any of you remember using the NDS SDPWS specification?

I dont recall having to use that.   Like PlanCheckEng said, know the main manuals well.  Especially steel & ACI. Bring everything on the references listed in the structural exam specs.     I would have done better if I brought AASHTO & IBC.   Thought I would be good with just ASCE-710 and an all - in -one for seismic and the bridge questions... but I struggled. 

 

[LaRCos]

Thanks again @biffnater.

I've bought all the references except AASHTO and AWS welding. I believe I'll be able to manage fairly without those two codes.

Working on:

1. Structural analysis of beams and frames

2. Structural design focusing on Concrete, Steel, Wood and very basic problems of masonry design. 

My next focus will be thoroughly study the ASCE 7-10, especially wind and seismic load calculation.

 

[Rodman]

45/80 30 AM 15 PM South Carolina, First Attempt.

I pretty much "self studied" if you could consider my efforts "studying." It was really disappointing to know I did so well in the morning section and then fall completely flat on my face in the afternoon section. The structural stuff is what I deal with regularly so it's very disheartening. My main objective for the next round is just to work on problems for the afternoon section, and gain speed when looking through the references.

 

[biffnater]

45/80 30 AM 15 PM South Carolina, First Attempt.

I pretty much "self studied" if you could consider my efforts "studying." It was really disappointing to know I did so well in the morning section and then fall completely flat on my face in the afternoon section. The structural stuff is what I deal with regularly so it's very disheartening. My main objective for the next round is just to work on problems for the afternoon section, and gain speed when looking through the references.

Seems to me you almost made it!   I would still study the AM and strive for 35 for the AM portion.   15 for the afternoon is not too shabby. I think doing as you said as far as gaining speed when looking through the references is a good idea for the PM.  Also try not to overthink a problem.   In another thread a person posted a problem about camber in a prestressed concrete beam.  I recall a very similar problem on the test and remember going through the PCI text looking for help... Turns out it was more of a structural analysis type problem and I overthought it and just made an educated guess.  It had nothing to do with PCI prestressing calculations at all.    I also got burnt out out in the PM portion and left 2 hours early after thinking I felt like I made the best attempts on all problems.. Needless to say I barely passed. ... and literally on my drive home a problem donged on my that I did totally wrong.  Still barely passed but could have done better if I would have just ran through my thought process for every problem again after attempting it all.