Pe score
- Thread starter John123
- Start date
Help Support Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum:
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2017
- Messages
- 9,797
- Reaction score
- 2,414
80
Orchid PE
Member? You 'member.
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2019
- Messages
- 6,834
- Reaction score
- 1,620
There's no set number. Different questions are weighted differently. Even if there was a fixed number, it probably wouldn't be released by NCEES.
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2017
- Messages
- 9,797
- Reaction score
- 2,414
Nobody knows. Thus, strive to get as many right as possible. It varies by test session and discipline.
liveelayne3
Member
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2021
- Messages
- 8
- Reaction score
- 1
In the review course I took, the instructor said to try to get 30/40 correct on the morning so you have a little bit of a cushion going into the afternoon session with harder questions.
civilrobot PE etc etc
The Beyonce of Construction
You are asking the wrong question. The question is 'what do I have to do to pass?' The answer is prepare. There's no quick and easy way to prepare for this exam. It takes focus and dedication. You can do it.
To give a little more context for @John123 and anyone else.
The passing score, called the cut score, is different for every exam. That includes both different exam topics and even taking the same exam topic at different times.
The way the exam is scored:
Every question is weighted by NCEES. They ask, "What percentage of competent, licensed PEs should be able to answer this question correctly?" If the answer is 80% then that question is weighted at 0.8. If the answer is 45%, then that question is weighted at 0.45. Then all the weights are added up to come up with the total score required for that specific set of questions of the exam. "Easy" question receive a higher weight than hard questions. That means the more "easy" questions on the exam the higher score that's required to pass.
What I said above is how they come up with the cut score. But when grading the exam, all questions count equally. You have to answer enough questions correctly to meet the score calculated in the paragraph above.
The passing score, called the cut score, is different for every exam. That includes both different exam topics and even taking the same exam topic at different times.
The way the exam is scored:
Every question is weighted by NCEES. They ask, "What percentage of competent, licensed PEs should be able to answer this question correctly?" If the answer is 80% then that question is weighted at 0.8. If the answer is 45%, then that question is weighted at 0.45. Then all the weights are added up to come up with the total score required for that specific set of questions of the exam. "Easy" question receive a higher weight than hard questions. That means the more "easy" questions on the exam the higher score that's required to pass.
What I said above is how they come up with the cut score. But when grading the exam, all questions count equally. You have to answer enough questions correctly to meet the score calculated in the paragraph above.
Last edited:
I'm not sure if what I said was clear. I think it's much easier to see with an example. Here's 2 different hypothetical 10 question exams. In the top example the person passed with a score of 7. In the bottom example the person failed with a score of 7.
Last edited:
morphe83 PE
Well-known member
Thank you for clarifying that definitely makes sense, I was wondering how they come up with those cut score and see 70% coming back over and over and then score varying every year instead of 56 (70% of 80) so that confirms the theory that cut score can't be higher than 56, since they won't give more than 1 I assume for easy questions. It makes me feel better
and gives me some hope because saw in some threads cut score like 58!!! or even 60!!!.
70% comes up for a few reason.Thank you for clarifying that definitely makes sense, I was wondering how they come up with those cut score and see 70% coming back over and over and then score varying every year instead of 56 (70% of 80) so that confirms the theory that cut score can't be higher than 56, since they won't give more than 1 I assume for easy questions. It makes me feel better
- Texas law requires scores on licensure exams to be released to test takers. Normally if you fail you get a diagnostic with your score, but if you pass you don't get a score. In Texas everyone receives a score, even if they pass. But either NCEES or the Texas board applies an unknown curve to the raw score to normalize it to 70% as the passing score. Some people track this and use it to try and figure out the cut score. With enough data they could probably get pretty close, but it's a lot of effort for not a lot of useful info.
- I've seen more than one PE prep course tell students to aim for 70% as a should-be-realistic passing score.
morphe83 PE
Well-known member
I read in NCEES or somewhere they don't do curve! Thank you for the input, I don't even know why I am obsessing about cut score as if I know it I would know if I passed or not lol I have no clue how many questions I got right. I took mine in Houston so I guess I should feel lucky or not to eventually know how barely I passed if I do?
I know for failing they do communicate the score in all States.
Maybe "curve" isn't the right word. They don't grade on a curve. The cut score is the cut score regardless of how the test takers do. But they report an altered(?) normalized(?) percentage score to Texas test takers.
Decades ago 70% was the cut score for the FE and the PE. I'm not sure that it's been a consistent 70% for the PE this century. The FE was 70% when I took it in 2005 but IIRC that's no longer the case.
Decades ago, Texas wrote the status-quo into State law, hence why 70% is passing and all scores must be reported. But the exam isn't handled that way anymore so NCEES and/or Texas does a bunch of acrobatics (mentioned above) to scale the cut score to 70% and report the examinees examinees "score" after the exam.
And 56/80 is not always a pass. We saw a CE exam a few years ago where a 56 was a fail.
tl;dr the cut score varies between exams and administrations. Its not worth the effort to try to figure it out.
Decades ago, Texas wrote the status-quo into State law, hence why 70% is passing and all scores must be reported. But the exam isn't handled that way anymore so NCEES and/or Texas does a bunch of acrobatics (mentioned above) to scale the cut score to 70% and report the examinees examinees "score" after the exam.
And 56/80 is not always a pass. We saw a CE exam a few years ago where a 56 was a fail.
tl;dr the cut score varies between exams and administrations. Its not worth the effort to try to figure it out.
morphe83 PE
Well-known member
Got you!
morphe83 PE
Well-known member
I agree that's the rational me, can you please convince the irrational me that shows up some days like today because it is a slow day at work and have so much free time on my hand
go burn off stress in the spam thread or at the gym. Or join the mafia game.
johnengely
Member
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2021
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 22
I read in NCEES or somewhere they don't do curve! Thank you for the input, I don't even know why I am obsessing about cut score as if I know it I would know if I passed or not lol I have no clue how many questions I got right. I took mine in Houston so I guess I should feel lucky or not to eventually know how barely I passed if I do?
Last edited:
