Swimfastalex PE
Well-known member
Did anyone do the NCEES Practice Exam? Those questions in the practice exam for both AM and PM, are those sort of questions going to be asked on the exam day?
For the most part, yes. The word and engineering judgement problems weren't as easy on the exam in October, but I thought the design problems were comparable. One thing to keep an eye on while doing practice problems is the "gotchas". I remember the 2011 NCEES practice exam had a question about seismic design category and lateral force. The problem gave dead, live, snow, etc loads. Because it was seismic design category A, you only consider the dead load when you calculate the seismic lateral force. Structural engineers who work in seismic areas may already be familiar with this clause but I wasn't until I saw the practice problem. So remember to read the footnotes that typically don't apply because on the exam it probably will.
Okay thanks, that's good to know. I have 16 days left till the exam, and I just went through the practice NCEES exam, and did like 80% morning and 90% afternoon, in the allotted 4 hours for AM and 4 hours for PM. I'm going to keep working on practice problems more and more, but feel a little bit more comfortable and ready for this test.