Q2 2021 Post-Surveying Exam Thoughts

[user 40777]

Wanted to start a thread for some post-exam therapy/ranting/venting/shared experiences. Interested to hear other's experiences as more testers sit through Q2.

My experience:
I took my surveying exam today (April 3rd) for the first time and felt really beat up after. I approached this exam by trying to knock out all of the no-calc definition/concept questions (I want to say there were at least 9 to 11) and managed to do that in good time but then it was all downhill from there. I seemed to end up with a lot more really wordy questions than I anticipated and it flustered the hell out of me so I would skip. Also, time became a major issue despite feeling confident after taking 5 different practice tests and a month of nightly + weekend studying. I ended up with 15 questions or so I was struggling to finish at the 30 min mark. Anyway, I am telling myself that I will most likely need to retake but the good thing is now I know the testing facility, format, and exam areas of focus. Seismic is next but I gave myself more time to focus on that since I completely do not know what to expect on that subject.

Also, can anyone can offer advice on getting through these wordy type problems? I get hit with major anxiety when I see those types of problems and tend to lock up hard...

Good luck to all Q2 testers!

 

[Takniki]

I feel like you had the same experience as I did in January. I have reapplied and have bought all three courses. Hope to pass the next time -if I can get the ATT for this quarter!

 

[Assistant to the RM]

Wanted to start a thread for some post-exam therapy/ranting/venting/shared experiences. Interested to hear other's experiences as more testers sit through Q2.

My experience:
I took my surveying exam today (April 3rd) for the first time and felt really beat up after. I approached this exam by trying to knock out all of the no-calc definition/concept questions (I want to say there were at least 9 to 11) and managed to do that in good time but then it was all downhill from there. I seemed to end up with a lot more really wordy questions than I anticipated and it flustered the hell out of me so I would skip. Also, time became a major issue despite feeling confident after taking 5 different practice tests and a month of nightly + weekend studying. I ended up with 15 questions or so I was struggling to finish at the 30 min mark. Anyway, I am telling myself that I will most likely need to retake but the good thing is now I know the testing facility, format, and exam areas of focus. Seismic is next but I gave myself more time to focus on that since I completely do not know what to expect on that subject.

Also, can anyone can offer advice on getting through these wordy type problems? I get hit with major anxiety when I see those types of problems and tend to lock up hard...

Good luck to all Q2 testers!

What review course and practice CBT's did you take, was it CPESR by chance? I only ask because CPESR has 5 CBT's, but I'm not sure about some of the other courses. If it was CPESR I'd be curious as to where you would rank the actual exam among the practice tests. CPESR has 1 marked "easy" 2 marked "medium" and 2 marked "hard". I took the easy and scored an 80, and I just took the last "hard" and scored a 70. Like you on the actual exam, I was struggling with about 15 ?s with 30 min to go. I felt like if I had another 30 min or so I could've gotten a few more. If you were struggling with 15 and had a few correct guesses to balance out a few possible mistakes, you might be sitting at 70% which may be enough... good luck!

I know what you mean on the wordy problems, it can be difficult to extract the relevant information, my best strategy has been to draw a sketch to help me visualize, even if I don't ultimately use it to solve the problem. The issue I have is trying to conserve space on my limited scratch paper, I end up sketching too small and it's not as usable as it would be if space wasn't an issue. I've been taking the practice tests with 2 blank sheets of paper, both sides, which is equivalent to the 11x17 folded "bluebook" I got at Prometric for the seismic. So far I haven't run out, but I've come close each time.

Edit - to expand on the Practice vs Exam comparison a bit, for example I took Hiner's Seismic review course with 2 book practice exams and 1 CBT practice exam. I also took the 3 AEI practice exams. I thought the material and content of all 6 practice exams matched the real exam pretty well, but the real exam was a bit simpler computations. Like if many of the practice problems were 2-step solves, use A to find B to calculate C, the real exam was just one of the two steps for the most part. Of course with 6 practice exams and the real thing, then jumping into surveying right away, it is all jumbled up in my head, but that's my recollection.

 

[user 40777]

What review course and practice CBT's did you take, was it CPESR by chance? I only ask because CPESR has 5 CBT's, but I'm not sure about some of the other courses. If it was CPESR I'd be curious as to where you would rank the actual exam among the practice tests. CPESR has 1 marked "easy" 2 marked "medium" and 2 marked "hard". I took the easy and scored an 80, and I just took the last "hard" and scored a 70. Like you on the actual exam, I was struggling with about 15 ?s with 30 min to go. I felt like if I had another 30 min or so I could've gotten a few more. If you were struggling with 15 and had a few correct guesses to balance out a few possible mistakes, you might be sitting at 70% which may be enough... good luck!

I know what you mean on the wordy problems, it can be difficult to extract the relevant information, my best strategy has been to draw a sketch to help me visualize, even if I don't ultimately use it to solve the problem. The issue I have is trying to conserve space on my limited scratch paper, I end up sketching too small and it's not as usable as it would be if space wasn't an issue. I've been taking the practice tests with 2 blank sheets of paper, both sides, which is equivalent to the 11x17 folded "bluebook" I got at Prometric for the seismic. So far I haven't run out, but I've come close each time.

Edit - to expand on the Practice vs Exam comparison a bit, for example I took Hiner's Seismic review course with 2 book practice exams and 1 CBT practice exam. I also took the 3 AEI practice exams. I thought the material and content of all 6 practice exams matched the real exam pretty well, but the real exam was a bit simpler computations. Like if many of the practice problems were 2-step solves, use A to find B to calculate C, the real exam was just one of the two steps for the most part. Of course with 6 practice exams and the real thing, then jumping into surveying right away, it is all jumbled up in my head, but that's my recollection.

I took the on-demand CPESR course. Scored 86 on the easy and 67 on the last hard but I was most consistent with the medium tests. I am hoping I did/guessed enough to pass but no biggie if not. I chalked some of the time loss to getting used to the Prometric test center and system versus taking it at home and having a simpler interface with the CPESR CBT practice exams. I am focusing on seismic now for June (taking AEI review). Hopefully, I can do enough for that so I won't have to worry about it down the road...

 

[Assistant to the RM]

I took the on-demand CPESR course. Scored 86 on the easy and 67 on the last hard but I was most consistent with the medium tests. I am hoping I did/guessed enough to pass but no biggie if not. I chalked some of the time loss to getting used to the Prometric test center and system versus taking it at home and having a simpler interface with the CPESR CBT practice exams. I am focusing on seismic now for June (taking AEI review). Hopefully, I can do enough for that so I won't have to worry about it down the road...

That was the attitude I took when the seismic exam glitched at the beginning of my first attempt in Q1 and I had to cancel, at least I got a walk-through of the test center and knew what to expect. I was much more comfortable the 2nd time, a couple weeks ago. Because of all the delays I was hoping to crash through the surveying and take it at the end of April so I could get both results in May. The last week in April is not an option for me, so it's either this week or push it to May. I think I'm going to just push it to May so I can continue to work more practice problems and do the last couple of practice CBT's from CPESR.

 

[Crispybacon]

Wanted to start a thread for some post-exam therapy/ranting/venting/shared experiences. Interested to hear other's experiences as more testers sit through Q2.

My experience:
I took my surveying exam today (April 3rd) for the first time and felt really beat up after. I approached this exam by trying to knock out all of the no-calc definition/concept questions (I want to say there were at least 9 to 11) and managed to do that in good time but then it was all downhill from there. I seemed to end up with a lot more really wordy questions than I anticipated and it flustered the hell out of me so I would skip. Also, time became a major issue despite feeling confident after taking 5 different practice tests and a month of nightly + weekend studying. I ended up with 15 questions or so I was struggling to finish at the 30 min mark. Anyway, I am telling myself that I will most likely need to retake but the good thing is now I know the testing facility, format, and exam areas of focus. Seismic is next but I gave myself more time to focus on that since I completely do not know what to expect on that subject.

Also, can anyone can offer advice on getting through these wordy type problems? I get hit with major anxiety when I see those types of problems and tend to lock up hard...

Good luck to all Q2 testers!

That was exactly the same experience I had the first time I took the Survey exam. I also used CPESR on-demand course and managed to do well on the CBT practice exams. During the exam, I remember that the problems were worded differently than what I was used to seeing from the CPESR. So, I figured I should get more practice problems under my belt from different sources such as Boniface, Mansour and Mahallati. I felt the questions that were most similar to the Survey exam were a combination from CPESR and Mahallati.

I just finished my Survey exam on Friday, April 23rd. However, I haven't received my email notice of completion for the exam. Usually, they will send the email the same day you complete the exam. I was also affected by the computer glitch during my survey exam last February. Perhaps they are delaying the confirmation email after further review of the exam? I'm curious if anyone else hasn't received their confirmation of completion email the same day of their exam, or if they received it a few days later.

 

[Schmitty]

That was exactly the same experience I had the first time I took the Survey exam. I also used CPESR on-demand course and managed to do well on the CBT practice exams. During the exam, I remember that the problems were worded differently than what I was used to seeing from the CPESR. So, I figured I should get more practice problems under my belt from different sources such as Boniface, Mansour and Mahallati. I felt the questions that were most similar to the Survey exam were a combination from CPESR and Mahallati.

I just finished my Survey exam on Friday, April 23rd. However, I haven't received my email notice of completion for the exam. Usually, they will send the email the same day you complete the exam. I was also affected by the computer glitch during my survey exam last February. Perhaps they are delaying the confirmation email after further review of the exam? I'm curious if anyone else hasn't received their confirmation of completion email the same day of their exam, or if they received it a few days later.

I got mine the same day. Took the exam April 17th.

 

[Crispybacon]

That was exactly the same experience I had the first time I took the Survey exam. I also used CPESR on-demand course and managed to do well on the CBT practice exams. During the exam, I remember that the problems were worded differently than what I was used to seeing from the CPESR. So, I figured I should get more practice problems under my belt from different sources such as Boniface, Mansour and Mahallati. I felt the questions that were most similar to the Survey exam were a combination from CPESR and Mahallati.

I just finished my Survey exam on Friday, April 23rd. However, I haven't received my email notice of completion for the exam. Usually, they will send the email the same day you complete the exam. I was also affected by the computer glitch during my survey exam last February. Perhaps they are delaying the confirmation email after further review of the exam? I'm curious if anyone else hasn't received their confirmation of completion email the same day of their exam, or if they received it a few days later.

Update: I just received the email of notice of completion of the survey exam. Whew, one less thing to worry about.

 

[orlando503]

Hi, I hope be tomorrow (May 6th) the date of results release. Or may be on Monday 10th.

 

[Schmitty]

Hi, I hope be tomorrow (May 6th) the date of results release. Or may be on Monday 10th.

Looking like next week then? No chance for a Friday release?

 

[Crispybacon]

Looking like next week then? No chance for a Friday release?

Looking at previous posts, historically (2018 to present) they haven't released any Seismic/Survey results on a Friday. Perhaps we will know next Monday.

 

[Water_engineer]

Most likely it will be next week, fingers crossed and good luck everyone

 

[Schmitty]

Looking at previous posts, historically (2018 to present) they haven't released any Seismic/Survey results on a Friday. Perhaps we will know next Monday.

Well good, I can relax today and this weekend and just enjoy the weather...

 

[Assistant to the RM]

I am also waiting for results, but just seismic for now. I had mid-month in my head, but most of you seem to be expecting early in the month?

I took the surveying exam this morning, so thought I would add my 2 cents. As I mentioned, I also took the CPESR course. I was only able to do 4 of the practice exams, I wanted to do the fifth two days ago, first thing in the morning before work, but the website was down... So I took one of the practice exams from an older Boniface book I had borrowed from someone, better than nothing.

Maybe I was expecting the worst from a couple other posts in this thread, but I didn't think most problems were too bad. There were definitely a few time-consuming ones, but I also thought there were a few where they gave quite a bit more information than was needed. They looked overwhelming at first, but once I realized what they were asking for I didn't think they were too bad. With 30 min to go I had 5-7 that I hadn't attempted yet, and 5-7 that I had guessed but flagged. I was able to work out about half of the blank ones, and fixed a couple answers on the flagged. There was one fairly basic one that for some reason I was drawing a blank on how to set up the equation, and finally realized what to do with about 30 seconds remaining. I tried to write it out quickly, but did not get it solved in time. I did have a guess registered, but I was not able to confirm my answer. If I'd had just 30 more seconds I probably could've finished it, that one will eat at me for the next month...
Overall I'd say I had 7-10 complete guesses, and a few more educated guesses that I wasn't confident in. Assuming there are a few that I thought I nailed but missed something, hopefully those are offset by a few correct guesses. I don't feel quite as confident as I did after the seismic exam, but I'm not too worried. Better to not worry about it for the next month and see what happens...

 

[angelova]

You guys think today is the day we'll receive the results?

 

[user 40777]

You guys think today is the day we'll receive the results?

feel like it should be this week according to other threads tracking of result dates.

 

[XrayCP1]

Man, I hope it's today. I'm so anxious for the results. I felt so good about my seismic test. It's my last test to pass, and this was my second attempt. I just want to see that green PASS and I'll be done studying forever!

 

[XrayCP1]

Man, I hope it's today. I'm so anxious for the results. I felt so good about my seismic test. It's my last test to pass, and this was my second attempt. I just want to see that green PASS and I'll be done studying forever!

Results for seismic are in, I received my email at 13:11. (pass!) good luck to everyone else!

 

[Dynamic Dirt Engineer]

Got the pass (seismic)! Haha kinda concerning when I saw the link for diagnostic reports and re-examination forms.

 

[Crispybacon]

Passed! and finally done Wishing everyone the best of luck.