October 2019 Post Exam Wait Period - Welcome to the Suck

[The Running Man]

any word from DORA ?

Colorado is out 10:34 AM ET.

 

[98SF19]

I failed!!!! However, I feel that I did pretty good in the PM. My problem is in the temporary structures for the PM and Water in the AM... Any advice?!?!?!? I need help with those topics and school of PE is not been too helpful, at least I feel that the material provided is not helping me.   

I'll say this, there's NO WAY I could have passed w/o SOPE since I've been out of school for so long (and my degree was Mechanical).  However, they fell short in several areas, specifically with their Practice Portal content.  I was sure to give them feedback on this, and got responses (after the exam!) on the sample questions that were in fact errant/confusing/misleading and those where I had missed something or whatever.

Re: AM water resources - which area were you having trouble getting?  I got hung up on one of the WR questions in AM but was aided by process of elimination ultimately.

Re: Construction; temp structures - was this sheet piles, scaffolding, falsework?  I had considered Construction depth since that is the bulk of the work I've been doing but chose Transportation as it was a better option long-term.  Probably a good choice on my part if Construction contained any appreciable structural content; I never fully wrapped my head around the more complex zero-force member determination scenarios in the SOPE material, but knew enough to get a PASS I guess.

 

[0036SK]

I failed!!!! However, I feel that I did pretty good in the PM. My problem is in the temporary structures for the PM and Water in the AM... Any advice?!?!?!? I need help with those topics and school of PE is not been too helpful, at least I feel that the material provided is not helping me.   

I am sorry. And I failed too! I need to focus more on the Site development and Material section in AM.

For Water in AM, I have pretty thorough material and majority of the questions that came in the exam were covered in the material. I scored 6 out of 7 in this section. Let me know if you need the material and I scan these and email them to you.

 

[TSLT2010]

AM: Water resource - I'm having issues in fluids more than nothing. I don't even know exactly in  the test I did 3/7, which I think I  could o better.

PM: Earthwork construction and layout where I did 2/6 and Temp Structures 0/7  . This last section  include several formwork problems that you need to do with different reference manuals at least 4 of the 7 supposed to be answered using manuals. Indeed, I used the manuals, I went to the pages where talk about the problems, but couldn't answer correctly.  So probably I need to practice several problems using this manuals, but the SOPE only provided one problem for each book, which is not enough for me to understand and cover different points of view.

 

[ChooChooEngineer_PE]

Well, I was working in human space flight (External Tank of the space shuttle and crew cabin structure of Orion). So yeah, less opportunity for partial credit.

Just to stir this pot a bit more, all the PE exams before they went to multiple choice were hand graded long form problems that required a lot of partial credit for you to pass. Having spoken to those that took that version of the test, their licence is granted entirely on partial credit.

 

[PlanCheckEng]

Just to stir this pot a bit more, all the PE exams before they went to multiple choice were hand graded long form problems that required a lot of partial credit for you to pass. Having spoken to those that took that version of the test, their licence is granted entirely on partial credit.

Just thinking about it rationally, I believe the format of today's PE exam is more difficult than it was in the past.  In the old administration you could pick and choose subject matter you were familiar with, and you were also awarded partial credit.  Today you have to have minimum competence in all civil engineering fields, and no partial credit (obviously) is awarded.

 

[Tiger15]

So my friend who did ZERO studying, didn't have a full understanding of the logistics of the exam, and borrowed my binder at the last minute... he failed. So there's that.

He thinks he did well on the 40ish questions that he actually answered. But he ran out of time because he had to look everything up in references that he wasn't familiar with. Also he didn't bring a watch because he assumed there would be a clock. Fun times.

 

[Adem_5%_Pass]

FYI fellow engineers, (I sat for the exam in TX and I passed) I was able to look up my grade and the score was 75. I assume that's 75% of the total questions (60 out of 80 questions).

 

[Skylerjm]

Coloradoans if you registered With NCEES Don't forget to finish applying to the state for your license.

 

[Tiger15]

FYI fellow engineers, (I sat for the exam in TX and I passed) I was able to look up my grade and the score was 75. I assume that's 75% of the total questions (60 out of 80 questions).

Actually no. The percentage that Texas tell you is based on a curve that no one understands, except that they set 70% to be equal to whatever the NCEES determined cut score is. Apparently how the percentages change as you move away from that 7-% i inconsistent. See here: 

 

[12122019]

My exam result is also still on hold. I called Cal Board several times but was always forwarded by the operator to a voice mail box which is full and you can't even leave a message. Which number did you call and whom did you speak to? I also need help with my exam result. So anxious.....

 

[Adem_5%_Pass]

Actually no. The percentage that Texas tell you is based on a curve that no one understands, except that they set 70% to be equal to whatever the NCEES determined cut score is. Apparently how the percentages change as you move away from that 7-% i inconsistent. See here: 

I don't think I get these explanations but thanks. Anyway, I wish good luck for those fellow gentlemen and gentlewomen who didn't pass. 

 

[98SF19]

So my friend who did ZERO studying, didn't have a full understanding of the logistics of the exam, and borrowed my binder at the last minute... he failed. So there's that.

He thinks he did well on the 40ish questions that he actually answered. But he ran out of time because he had to look everything up in references that he wasn't familiar with. Also he didn't bring a watch because he assumed there would be a clock. Fun times.

Yeah, that was my first test experience as well . . . though I did answer all of them in one way or another.

It was during the PM session that I really knew this would just be a trial run to get a feel for the types of questions on exam.  My good feelings over AM test were squashed!  LOL

 

[LemmiwinksOwnz]

Well, I've been lurking around here while passing the suck with all of you. Colorado released this morning! However, because I have such a supportive wife, she wanted to be the one who tells me if I passed or failed. Since she is a nurse, I will not know my results until she gets back home! Yay, more suffering! Anyway, she did say that if I pass I get pizza . Needless to say, I received a text message this morning asking, "what flavour of pizza do you want and from where?" So, fingers crossed this isn't just more trolling! Congratulations to all who passed! For those who did not, pick yourself up and try again; we'll be here re-sucking the wait with you .

 

[Sambam]

Coloradoans if you registered With NCEES Don't forget to finish applying to the state for your license.

yep.  

 

[TwistedLeague]

Which Civil did you take?

I took Transportation Depth, 46/80

 

[Tiger15]

I don't think I get these explanations but thanks. Anyway, I wish good luck for those fellow gentlemen and gentlewomen who didn't pass. 

It's weird.

By law (? statute? regulation? rule? whatever), Texas has defined 70% as the score required to pass. But Texas doesn't get to determine the passing score. NCEES determines the passing score (called the cut score), and it's different for every exam and different every time the exam is administered.

NCEES determines the cut score by having a committee of existing PEs weigh the difficulty of each question and assess what percentage of PEs should reasonably be able to get that question right. It's a whole process. But the takeaway for this discussion is that the passing score is different for every exam (Civil: WRE, vs Civil: Construction, vs Mech: HVAC, etc). And it changes every time the exam is administered (Civil: WRE April 2019 is different than Civil: WRE Oct 2019, etc). Also we don't get to know what the cut score is.

So NCEES says the (unknown) cut score is passing, and Texas says you need 70% to pass. That doesn't match up. So what Texas does, is they arbitrarily define whatever the cut score is for each exam as 70%. That part is understood. But how the percentages change as you move away from 70% is not understood. From what I've heard people say, it doesn't appear to be linear. I assume it's some statistical distribution, but who knows.

Here's an example: In the "Cut Score" thread someone who didn't pass posted that their diagnostics from NCEES said they got 46/80, which is 57.5%. Their Texas provided result said they got a score of 69%. We know 70% is passing, so they were probably pretty close, but because it's weird and nonlinear, we still don't know exactly what the cut score is. (That being said, people like to speculate and to try and figure it out.)

 

[TwistedLeague]

Here's an example: In the "Cut Score" thread someone who didn't pass posted that their diagnostics from NCEES said they got 46/80, which is 57.5%. Their Texas provided result said they got a score of 69%.

What a crock of crap. I got the same score but only got a 68% in Texas....

 

[Tiger15]

What a crock of crap. I got the same score but only got a 68% in Texas....

For what exam? The distribution is probably different for every exam.

Their 46/80 =57.5% -> 69% was WRE.

 

[TwistedLeague]

For what exam? The distribution is probably different for every exam.

Their 46/80 =57.5% -> 69% was WRE.

Yep. I figured. Damn joke didnt land as well as i planned