Repeat Takers Strategies - Civil PE CBT

[bensign]

I am leaning towards a March exam date (maybe mid March) I have the EET binders for both Civil Breadth and Transportation depth. I was planning to buy the NCEES Practice exam as well. Microsoft Teams or Zoom would probably be easiest. I am a little concerned with the new CBT format which seems VERY similar to the CBT FE. Not having your own materials/examples will be a huge drawback in my opinion. What else are you guys thinking for practice problems?

 

[sunnykc999]

Let’s come up with a plan once the grieving period is over. Also please let’s discuss when everyone’s planning to give the next exam. Working together largely depend on that, I think. Let’s focus and get started. I have some points below for discussion or planning if you agree / disagree or add more to it.

-exam date
-materials/classes
-strategies
-how to work together online/offline
-exchange materials/information

I am in. I am PE Civil Structural and got 44/80 this time and it sux. Study strategy will be according to the PE Civil handbook. But for the depth it will be upto memorization of lot of stuff.

 

[sunnykc999]

I am leaning towards a March exam date (maybe mid March) I have the EET binders for both Civil Breadth and Transportation depth. I was planning to buy the NCEES Practice exam as well. Microsoft Teams or Zoom would probably be easiest. I am a little concerned with the new CBT format which seems VERY similar to the CBT FE. Not having your own materials/examples will be a huge drawback in my opinion. What else are you guys thinking for practice problems?

I have EET binder for AM and AEI for PM. Anyone has codes in pdf format?

 

[rodr]

Let’s come up with a plan once the grieving period is over. Also please let’s discuss when everyone’s planning to give the next exam. Working together largely depend on that, I think. Let’s focus and get started. I have some points below for discussion or planning if you agree / disagree or add more to it.

-exam date
-materials/classes
-strategies
-how to work together online/offline
-exchange materials/information

I think I will take it in April/May.

We can put together a Google Drive folder and share it with everyone. Not sure how much the resources will help since we are no longer allowed to bring them. I understand that the test will provide the appropriate resource as needed but I'm not sure what that looks like. But sharing the resources could be good, we can use the shared items to set up study sessions where we can all be working from the same set of problems.

Ok these are my thoughts. We start with overall strategy in a structured format.

1. How many attempts we each made and what was our correct number answered.

2. Study strategy for each prior exam that didn’t work and what to avoid including practice exams that are poor from internet.

3. Diagnostic list in order with worse area being # 1 and discuss how we can help each other on our weak areas.

4. For anyone who passed after multiple times what did you do that finally worked in your study strategy

5. Ncees CBT reference manual strategy

6. Suggested classes

7. Possible zoom meeting and teaming up.

8. Common mistakes such as waste factors , units, etc.

These are my initial thoughts and of course we have to be careful not to violate the Ncees guidelines. Any thoughts or ideas?

This seems like a great place to start. Perhaps our first meeting should be to discuss these points and collect the data associated.

I will be re-taking the SoPE course for construction. It is weekdays M-Th in the evenings.

When do we plan to have the call/meeting?

 

[sunnykc999]

I think I will take it in April/May.

We can put together a Google Drive folder and share it with everyone. Not sure how much the resources will help since we are no longer allowed to bring them. I understand that the test will provide the appropriate resource as needed but I'm not sure what that looks like. But sharing the resources could be good, we can use the shared items to set up study sessions where we can all be working from the same set of problems.




This seems like a great place to start. Perhaps our first meeting should be to discuss these points and collect the data associated.

I will be re-taking the SoPE course for construction. It is weekdays M-Th in the evenings.

When do we plan to have the call/meeting?

AEI for PE civil Structural depth will have lectures starting on 2/20/22 according to new strategy. I will need to see those before I give exam. Whole ball game is different now with CBT.

 

[bensign]

How about timezones to start, I am in Wilmington, NC (Eastern Time zone). If we have a few different timezones we will need to plan accordingly! Also my initial thought is to try and focus on Civil Breadth- Afternoon subjects maybe can be broken out into smaller groups.

 

[Liz06]

I have EET binder for AM and AEI for PM. Anyone has codes in pdf format?

I am taking transportation for the depth and planning to take CBT March 19 th
Is AEI for transportation? or only structural
What is AEI stands for?
Thanks

 

[sunnykc999]

I am taking transportation for the depth and planning to take CBT March 19 th
Is AEI for transportation? or only structural
What is AEI stands for?
Thanks

AEI stands for Advanced engineering Institute- it’s for Structural Depth and for Civil Am too, But I am taking only for PM as EET I have binder for AM

 

[Liz06]

AEI stands for Advanced engineering Institute- it’s for Structural Depth and for Civil Am too, But I am taking only for PM as EET I have binder for AM

@sunnykc999 thank you for the clarification

 

[rodr]

Should we set up a survey to help us answer these initial questions?


1. How many attempts we each made and what was our correct number answered.

2. Which course(s) have you taken?

3. Diagnostic list in order with worse area being # 1 and discuss how we can help each other on our weak areas.

4. Possible zoom meeting and teaming up. What times work for people?

...just to name a few

I've never set up a survey so I don't know what goes into it. But if anyone has a good free survey tool I can take a stab at it.

 

[2folxtrynapass]

Starting this new thread for anyone who is interested in teaming up. After my second failed attempt I feel like I need a drastic change in strategy. My first attempt was 34/80. My recent second attempt was 44/80. First go around I took ITRE class and was convinced this was the way to go. I spent most of my time on my references and a couple of practice tests. That exam day was brutal and I knew I planned incorrectly. Second attempt I spent my entire focus on working problems and worked over 1200 +. That exam the recent Oct exam went way better in my mind and while I did improve I thought I did better than my diagnostics showed. So now it is a CBT and new approach all together. It would be great to team up with anyone interested and share ideas on strategies. One thing that comes to mind is how to better understand the diagnostics and those poor areas. I definitely have some weak areas I tried to work around and thought my strengths would make up for my weakness’s. Well that didn’t work. So for anyone interested let’s use every resource we have to get this done! That being said this forum is a great resource and perhaps something we can utilize better to our advantage. Who’s with me let’s get this done!!!

I'm in! I unfortunately took about 6 years off from taking. I sat for the Fall 2021 and did not have success.

 

[KOKOMO777]

I think I will take it in April/May.

We can put together a Google Drive folder and share it with everyone. Not sure how much the resources will help since we are no longer allowed to bring them. I understand that the test will provide the appropriate resource as needed but I'm not sure what that looks like. But sharing the resources could be good, we can use the shared items to set up study sessions where we can all be working from the same set of problems.




This seems like a great place to start. Perhaps our first meeting should be to discuss these points and collect the data associated.

I will be re-taking the SoPE course for construction. It is weekdays M-Th in the evenings.

When do we plan to have the call/meeting?

Should we set up a survey to help us answer these initial questions?


1. How many attempts we each made and what was our correct number answered.

2. Which course(s) have you taken?

3. Diagnostic list in order with worse area being # 1 and discuss how we can help each other on our weak areas.

4. Possible zoom meeting and teaming up. What times work for people?

...just to name a few

I've never set up a survey so I don't know what goes into it. But if anyone has a good free survey tool I can take a stab at it.

We can share codes, notes and courses taken. I have taken both breadth/depth EET and SOPE in transportation.

 

[Pra4surf1]

How about timezones to start, I am in Wilmington, NC (Eastern Time zone). If we have a few different timezones we will need to plan accordingly! Also my initial thought is to try and focus on Civil Breadth- Afternoon subjects maybe can be broken out into smaller groups.

Ben I’m in Wilmington as well. And I agree starting with morning focus and strategy as we will all have the same morning. I’m sure we’ve all heard we need to crush the morning to give a little breathing room for afternoon tougher questions. The survey idea sounds great but may be tough logistically. Maybe before we all talk we firm up the list of topics that will be most valuable to us. For example most of us have taken classes that helped or didn’t that we can share and maybe we can all start with ncees practice exam since it seems to be closest to the real thing. Maybe work certain problems we agree on and use nothing but the new reference manual online and see what it’s like to navigate through and examples of key words. Last night I was working a problem regarding rebar as it was called out in the problem. I typed in “rebar” and got zero search results. I typed in “reinforcement” and bam their it was. I bet there is a lot of examples like this. And maybe we should decide on some type of assignment like that before we all talk. After 5 eastern time is usually best for me except Wednesday because of EET class. Next week is looking pretty open at this time too!

 

[KOKOMO777]

We need to compile a list of everyone that wants to join, availability, when he or she planning to re-take the exam, depth, etc. I am in Texas and availability to meet on weekend. I plan to retake in March/April.

 

[sunnykc999]

Ben I’m in Wilmington as well. And I agree starting with morning focus and strategy as we will all have the same morning. I’m sure we’ve all heard we need to crush the morning to give a little breathing room for afternoon tougher questions. The survey idea sounds great but may be tough logistically. Maybe before we all talk we firm up the list of topics that will be most valuable to us. For example most of us have taken classes that helped or didn’t that we can share and maybe we can all start with ncees practice exam since it seems to be closest to the real thing. Maybe work certain problems we agree on and use nothing but the new reference manual online and see what it’s like to navigate through and examples of key words. Last night I was working a problem regarding rebar as it was called out in the problem. I typed in “rebar” and got zero search results. I typed in “reinforcement” and bam their it was. I bet there is a lot of examples like this. And maybe we should decide on some type of assignment like that before we all talk. After 5 eastern time is usually best for me except Wednesday because of EET class. Next week is looking pretty open at this time too!

There was a video on YouTube I saw this weekend which said that now in CBT morning and evening questions will be mixed and that is another ball game too.

 

[AngelaK]

I am available on weeknds mostly, but I can make time on weekdays for one or two meetings. I am in central time zone.

 

[Pra4surf1]

There was a video on YouTube I saw this weekend which said that now in CBT morning and evening questions will be mixed and that is another ball game too.

Could you share this link?

 

[Pra4surf1]

Rod put together a spreadsheet he is going to share for us to fill in. Before we all fill it our info feel free to offer any suggestions you may feel will help. Thanks Rod!

 

[vishwa]

I would like to join the group
Civil - Construction
First attempt - 53/80
Planning to take the CBT in January

 

[vishwa]

i was lacking in soil mechanics, Structural mechanics and temp structures