PE Civil (Construction)-- Highest failing score

[Bharat]

I took PE civil in construction and failed with 51 out of 80. Please put your failed score to determine cut score.

 

[knight1fox3]

to determine cut score.

LOL, here we go again.

 

[bopeters]

I took the same exam and I passed! They won't provide the score. But I only guessed at about 3-4 questions in each of the sessions. I didn't find that exam all that difficult and I have been out of school for two decades!

 

[upstatemike]

I finally passed mine and I had to take it many times. If i can make one recommendation to those looking to take the PE, DO NOT TAKE CONSTRUCTION. Take Trans or something else. Construction is a total wild card, I never broke 25 right in the afternoon; i'm pretty sure that i did very well in the morning this time too, the afternoon construction was brutal.

I used and bought every construction book I could get my hands on, there were times too that I had no idea and there wasn't an answer in any book. My co-workers who took and passed construction would tell you the same exact thing too.

 

[tpl146]

If you actually work on site as a Contractor, I actually reccomend doing construction.

 

[stilt02]

I finally passed mine and I had to take it many times. If i can make one recommendation to those looking to take the PE, DO NOT TAKE CONSTRUCTION. Take Trans or something else. Construction is a total wild card, I never broke 25 right in the afternoon; i'm pretty sure that i did very well in the morning this time too, the afternoon construction was brutal.

I used and bought every construction book I could get my hands on, there were times too that I had no idea and there wasn't an answer in any book. My co-workers who took and passed construction would tell you the same exact thing too.

This past October was my 2nd time taking the PE Construction and I must say I felt it was a lot more difficult this past October than it was in April. Don't know what was going on there but there was definetly a big change in the exam. Still don't know my results yet, waiting on VA.

 

[intern_no_more]

I am having the same reaction. I failed April 2012's with a 42!!! I was devastated because I thought it was pretty easy as well, the morning especially. The Oct 2012 was somewhat tough in the morning...I got stuck on a few of the "gimmes" and was very nervous @ lunch. Went in for the afternoon and struggled on almost half of the afternoon's questions. I have noticed that numerous on both exams were outside of the recommended references and the CERM and Goswami. I tried studying all the stuff I knew i missed on the first attempt and i didn't help one bit. My recommendation: study everything. MAYBE stay away from construction. I think it is a crapshoot. I don't know that i was all that much better this time around, but maybe more the other people just missed a few that I was able to muddle my way through. Keep your head up, you'll get this. I was prepared to start studying again Friday night (this agonizing journey began the day after Christmas last year.) I missed time with my wife and kids and financially have struggled and feel very fortunate to have passed, I didn't even want to open the mailbox! Good luck guys. I need to figure out how to change my screen name to no_longer_an_intern.

 

[who.is.the.gaucho]

Agree with still_an_intern, however I missed in Apr by one or two ....54/80. I had studied 300+ hours. My problem was I didn't rely on the resources enough for the quantitative questions, and I was somewhat thrown off by the quantity of qualitative questions. Instead of using common sense, I spent too much time looking for the answers to the word problems. I was equally worried after the morning portion in Oct; thought the afternoon was pretty easy though. I hear people saying to change to transpo because it's more concrete, no pun intended. I think if I would have failed Oct 12 in construction, I would have given it one more poke and switched to transpo.

Either way, stick with the PE. No one sees how many times you fail before you pass, at least for now.

 

[desantmf]

I don’t agree that construction is a wild card. It is just like any other depth portion, if you are not in the field it could be difficult to understand the more qualitative questions. Also you should be ready to answer 25-35% word problems(qualitative). However, the quantitative questions are pretty straight forward and it is just a matter of knowing what to study.

​

I hope you all do better on the next test.

​

"Know where to find the information and how to use it - That's the secret of success." - Albert Einstein

www.learncivilengineering.com

 

[who.is.the.gaucho]

I guess the point being made with regard to Construction being a wild card is that there doesn't seem to be a really great set of review manuals. Look at the CERM...I think there are all of 40 pages on Construction, no? The Rajapakse books are a joke. So many errors and miscalculations it's silly. All rec'd by NCEES and PPI. The only thing you can really rely on is the NCEES/6 min solns. Unless you want to invest in School of PE or maybe PPI to pass. There is some good info in there, but some of it is plain overkill. More like extensive design as opposed to what is actually on the exam. Oh yeah, and you can buy the OSHA manual for the one or two questions you get on the exam. I've just heard others say, even on these forums, they've taken Transportation, after having failed Construction. They've walked in there with the CERM, AASHTO GB, and the MUTCD and thought it was easy.

That being said, I think Construction is really doable. I felt more confident the second time around, and walked out knowing I had passed. I am a terrible standardized test taker, so having seen the test once, and experienced the environment, made all the difference in the world for me. I actually studied significantly less than I did the first time. The base of knowledge I had from the first go, along with the diagnostic report really helped me nail down where I needed to focus. Also, remember that the morning is half the test. No matter how much time you spend studying Construction, it's still only 60% of the exam. You need at least another 10% to pass, assuming you get all the Construction right in the AM and PM. Just my 2 cents.

Peace

 

[desantmf]

Good point – I agree with all, except Construction is actually 55% of the exam. 10% of the topics in the afternoon portion are from other sections depth portion (other topics). Transportation depth has 25% of the afternoon portion as other sections depth, so less than 50% of the exam is transportation related.

 

[fetzdog121]

I think the April exam is going to be different especially since they recently revised the exam specs for the construction portion. I have not looked to see what all of the changes are.

 

[ricochaz]

I only studied 6 weeks prior to the Construction PE test due to not knowing if I could sit for the exam until September 4th. I did study pretty hard for those six weeks. I used a 2007 CERM, plowed through both Rajapakse Construction PE and Construction PE practice problems books and other reference books for this test. I felt the morning and the afternoon went pretty well. I did run out of time and had to guess on a couple of problems. To my horror and surprise I got notification that I failed 45/80 on the October 2012 Exam. I use to be a professional estimator and have a really good understanding of construction cost estimating. As it turns out, I only got 25% correct on estimating. There must be something I’m missing with the estimating problems and how NCEES works them. Does anyone have any Idea what I may be missing?

 

[fetzdog121]

Have you tried any of the 6 minute problems or any of the books that have practice problems and solutions. I found that they have helped me to figure out what the "book" way of solving that type of problem was.

 

[anxiouspetaker]

As well as what

I only studied 6 weeks prior to the Construction PE test due to not knowing if I could sit for the exam until September 4th. I did study pretty hard for those six weeks. I used a 2007 CERM, plowed through both Rajapakse Construction PE and Construction PE practice problems books and other reference books for this test. I felt the morning and the afternoon went pretty well. I did run out of time and had to guess on a couple of problems. To my horror and surprise I got notification that I failed 45/80 on the October 2012 Exam. I use to be a professional estimator and have a really good understanding of construction cost estimating. As it turns out, I only got 25% correct on estimating. There must be something I’m missing with the estimating problems and how NCEES works them. Does anyone have any Idea what I may be missing?

I studied from the books you mentioned and I also had the all-in-one book by Goswami and the NCEES sample - I did that exam at least 10 times just to make sure I could answer those questions minimum ... 6-min is also pretty good and there was that book done by a Dr located in Cali ... didn't use any of the DVD stuff but there practice questions and the way they lay out all the material for construction is pretty good

Since, you have th e breakdown of where you are weak, I would just focus on that ... Good Luck!

 

[reptile_2007]

is walkers reference for estimating any good?

 

[Duke of PEarl]

I finally passed mine and I had to take it many times. If i can make one recommendation to those looking to take the PE, DO NOT TAKE CONSTRUCTION. Take Trans or something else. Construction is a total wild card, I never broke 25 right in the afternoon; i'm pretty sure that i did very well in the morning this time too, the afternoon construction was brutal.

I used and bought every construction book I could get my hands on, there were times too that I had no idea and there wasn't an answer in any book. My co-workers who took and passed construction would tell you the same exact thing too.

I have to agree with upstatemike on this one. I took Construction in my first attempt and fell short 50/80. I felt good in the morning, had difficulty in the afternoon but was expecting to pass. I decided to switch to Geotech (not that I'm saying its easy) and had helluva hard time during the exam. I barely finished both morning and afternoon and felt so defeated as I was pulling my two big luggage towards the parking lot. But to my amazement, the rest is history....

 

[Duke of PEarl]

I finally passed mine and I had to take it many times. If i can make one recommendation to those looking to take the PE, DO NOT TAKE CONSTRUCTION. Take Trans or something else. Construction is a total wild card, I never broke 25 right in the afternoon; i'm pretty sure that i did very well in the morning this time too, the afternoon construction was brutal.

I used and bought every construction book I could get my hands on, there were times too that I had no idea and there wasn't an answer in any book. My co-workers who took and passed construction would tell you the same exact thing too.

I have to agree with upstatemike on this one. I took Construction in my first attempt and fell short 50/80. I felt good in the morning, had difficulty in the afternoon but was expecting to pass. I decided to switch to Geotech (not that I'm saying its easy) and had helluva hard time during the exam. I barely finished both morning and afternoon and felt so defeated as I was pulling my two big luggage towards the parking lot. But to my amazement, the rest is history....

Oh and by the way, during my first attempt I had a colleague who took the exam the same time I did (April 2012) and he scored a 55/80 and still did not pass....just sharing

 

[ricochaz]

I haven't heard of Walkers estimating reference. Maybe I need to check it out though.

 

[ricochaz]

I finally passed mine and I had to take it many times. If i can make one recommendation to those looking to take the PE, DO NOT TAKE CONSTRUCTION. Take Trans or something else. Construction is a total wild card, I never broke 25 right in the afternoon; i'm pretty sure that i did very well in the morning this time too, the afternoon construction was brutal.

I used and bought every construction book I could get my hands on, there were times too that I had no idea and there wasn't an answer in any book. My co-workers who took and passed construction would tell you the same exact thing too.

I have to agree with upstatemike on this one. I took Construction in my first attempt and fell short 50/80. I felt good in the morning, had difficulty in the afternoon but was expecting to pass. I decided to switch to Geotech (not that I'm saying its easy) and had helluva hard time during the exam. I barely finished both morning and afternoon and felt so defeated as I was pulling my two big luggage towards the parking lot. But to my amazement, the rest is history....

Congratulations, bet it feels good.