Post here if you passed

Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum

Help Support Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Passed all three exams in California! Feels so good now I can get rid of all these books my girlfriend is yelling me at to "do something with them". Garage sale time :D

 
Same here. Got all three first try. Time to hit the cash only bars on Mission. Survey was the hardest IMO, What a tumultuous 3 months it has been.

 
Same here. Got all three first try. Time to hit the cash only bars on Mission. Survey was the hardest IMO, What a tumultuous 3 months it has been.
Any tips for someone taking all three exams together? I plan to do structural depth. How did you study for Surveying? Thank you.

 
Any tips for someone taking all three exams together? I plan to do structural depth. How did you study for Surveying? Thank you.
When you get the email that you can now schedule exams, schedule the Seismic Exam ASAP (for me that was Oct 20) and schedule the Surveying Exam on the LAST day (for me that was like Nov 6). This gives you a little buffer between exams.

I mostly did some practice exams and read up on my old college surveying textbook (Ghilani and Wolf, an old ed is like $20) while looking at the list of topics. I also wrote down my own notesheet that I bound where I wrote basic equations, concepts and ideas (Vertical Curves, Horizontal Curves, FS/BS, sources of errors, accuracy, GPS, etc) so I could easily reference that.

Surveying was not HARD topic wise, but very very hard time-wise. A lot of it can be reasoned through with some basic trig/law of sines/similar triangles/parabolic equations if you sat down to actually do them, but they don't give you enough time to do it meticulously so you need to work fast and know exactly what short-cut you can take to solve whatever departure/lattitude/bearing they want you to solve. I bet if I made you sit down and take the exam right now, no references or prior studying, and given you a day you'd probably get 50% or more just because of reasoning through them from your knowledge of algebra and trig.

There's only so many ways they can ask you vertical/horizontal curve so make sure you're comfortable solving them backwards and forwards, and the highest level that those problems are ever taken to in textbooks and listed on the topic list (combined curves, avoiding an obstruction on a curve, etc). Even if they don't ask you a specific form of those problems, they might ask you a shorter concept question.  But I think they even say a huge % of problems are geometric problems and it definitely felt like it.

Also don't forget you can use a TI-89 so if they ask you to calculate area by coordinates or whatever method, you can do it a lot faster + check your work easier than those crummy scientific calculators you have to use on the PE. It saved my butt, or at least helped me a lot. It was definitely the most challenging of the three exams, but only because of time. I know I definitely just made a best-guess at a quick panic-glance for a good 5+ and a slightly more educated but still very unsure guess at another 5 or more.

 
I have been reviewing posts from engineering boards for years. Thank you to all who posted helpful insights. I put in the effort and passed!!!!!!!  WRE switching from construction. What a great feeling. 

 
  14 hours ago, Haritha said:
16 hours ago, MCeatalot said:
1 hour ago, MCeatalot said: Representing CA here. Just got our NCEES results. Passed Civil WRE on my 2nd attempt! I have to credit to EET-California review course. Without them it would've been another tough climb for me.
DISCLAIMER: I do not get paid by EET for this post.
Me too - I took the webinars for breadth and WRE depth.
EET class of Winter 2015! I also took the WRE Depth and Seismic webinars and passed! The material they send out was so thorough and effective. Following their scheduled really boosted my confidence going into the exams.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Passed the Petroleum exam in Louisiana, first time taker, 11 years after passing FE, LOL.  Late bloomer.  Glad I don't have to study again.  For some weird reason I want to know my score though...I guess I should just be happy!

 
Passed Civil -WR, 2nd time thanks to the good folks at EET! Congrats to all new PE's and those that will take the journey again to become one.

 
I passed CA ME Thermal and fluids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So.... now what is the process for obtaining the license? Is it automatic now that all requirements are fulfilled or do I need to apply to get the actual stamp/license?

 
When you get the email that you can now schedule exams, schedule the Seismic Exam ASAP (for me that was Oct 20) and schedule the Surveying Exam on the LAST day (for me that was like Nov 6). This gives you a little buffer between exams.

I mostly did some practice exams and read up on my old college surveying textbook (Ghilani and Wolf, an old ed is like $20) while looking at the list of topics. I also wrote down my own notesheet that I bound where I wrote basic equations, concepts and ideas (Vertical Curves, Horizontal Curves, FS/BS, sources of errors, accuracy, GPS, etc) so I could easily reference that.

Surveying was not HARD topic wise, but very very hard time-wise. A lot of it can be reasoned through with some basic trig/law of sines/similar triangles/parabolic equations if you sat down to actually do them, but they don't give you enough time to do it meticulously so you need to work fast and know exactly what short-cut you can take to solve whatever departure/lattitude/bearing they want you to solve. I bet if I made you sit down and take the exam right now, no references or prior studying, and given you a day you'd probably get 50% or more just because of reasoning through them from your knowledge of algebra and trig.

There's only so many ways they can ask you vertical/horizontal curve so make sure you're comfortable solving them backwards and forwards, and the highest level that those problems are ever taken to in textbooks and listed on the topic list (combined curves, avoiding an obstruction on a curve, etc). Even if they don't ask you a specific form of those problems, they might ask you a shorter concept question.  But I think they even say a huge % of problems are geometric problems and it definitely felt like it.

Also don't forget you can use a TI-89 so if they ask you to calculate area by coordinates or whatever method, you can do it a lot faster + check your work easier than those crummy scientific calculators you have to use on the PE. It saved my butt, or at least helped me a lot. It was definitely the most challenging of the three exams, but only because of time. I know I definitely just made a best-guess at a quick panic-glance for a good 5+ and a slightly more educated but still very unsure guess at another 5 or more.
Thanks. When do you get the email to register for the exams? I got approved. Do I just register on NCEES? When do I get the information for the Seismic and Surveying?

 
Thanks. When do you get the email to register for the exams? I got approved. Do I just register on NCEES? When do I get the information for the Seismic and Surveying?
You get them about 2 months or so before the first date you can take it. I think I got my notice to register for Seismic/Surveying on Aug 25, first exam date was Oct 20. So yeah, about 2 months. You'll get an ID number  from the email and go onto Prometric. I was panicing for awhile because I never got an email on how to register with Prometric but it'll come.

NCEES is open a lot earlier--I could register on July 16th or so for the Oct 31 exam. So.. about 3 months? I just went on the website for that one one day and was like "oh yeah I can register this now"

 
I passed CA ME Thermal and fluids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!So.... now what is the process for obtaining the license? Is it automatic now that all requirements are fulfilled or do I need to apply to get the actual stamp/license?
Congrats!

I got my number in an email from BPELS today, so check your email. If you didn't get the email, make sure you have everything submitted. Fingerprints and take home exam etc.

In my email there are instructions on the next steps (getting your stamp, renewing at end of March, etc) as well as what laws and board rules you will be responsible to know.

Pretty awesome seeing the letter start off with "Congratulations! You are now a California licensed Professional Mechanical Engineer..."

You can also check the license lookup and search for your name. http://www2.dca.ca.gov/pls/wllpub/wllqryna$lcev2.startup?p_qte_code=ENG&p_qte_pgm_code=7500

 

Latest posts

Back
Top