SE Exam Scoring Workshop

[NMStruc]

I used School of PE on demand option, PPI practice exams and NCEES practice exams.  I design bridges in a high-seismic state so  I supplemented my notes with examples from work and I relied on these heavily in the Lateral Bridge PM.  David's book was pretty much all I used for Lateral AM bridge questions.  David listed every pertinent code section in the solutions so it made for a time-saving test resource.

For building guys, I always hear that working through SEAOC Seismic Design examples is a must, especially Volume 1.  There are more volumes available but make sure you get the version that corresponds to the version of IBC currently spec'd by NCEES. Definitely get at lease Volume 1 of SEAOC. 

I strongly recommend a review course.  You can probably pass without one, but I felt that the benefits of my review course went far beyond the test and just helped me solidify my knowledge.  You know you learn about ductility etc in college, but then years later you're detailing columns in SDC D/Seismic Zone 4 and you become foggy on all of the theory behind what you're doing.  Review courses really refresh and reinforce that collegiate knowledge and apply it in practical, code-base examples.  School of PE was just fine, really strong on theory.  I hear PPI is great as well. 

Thanks. I will definitely do volume 1 of the SEAOC this time. Anyone used Volumes 2-4? I did the ASCE review course so I can review some of those slides again. If I buckle down on the bridge problems and fine tune wood and masonry I should be fine. Thanks for the input. 

I got really lucky in my office, and had two large seismic design category D projects in the past year.  I had a very vertically irregular concrete shear wall hotel, and horizontally and vertically irregular steel moment frame hospital.  I had spent a lot of time getting to know the code.  Other than that, I did the practice exams from NCEES and PPI. 

That's perfect. I've had a couple SDC C but haven't run into SDC D yet. I plan on redoing those practice exams and reading everything again in ASCE 7 regarding seismic and wind. 

 

[Wilsminator]

IL just released results.  Passed lateral, had passed vertical in April.  Glad to be done!

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

Congratulations!

 

[tj_PE]

IL just released results.  Passed lateral, had passed vertical in April.  Glad to be done!

congrats! are you listed on lookup site yet?

 

[smahurin]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who found lateral easier.

I wish they'd give passing scores.   Or maybe I don't want to know my scores?  

My thought behind why they don't publish passing scores is that they don't want to publicize the fact that the bridge you drive over to work every day might have been designed by someone who got a 72% on their exam.  That wouldn't promote a great sense of trust or assurance among the general public. 

Just think of it this way... if you went in for a heart transplant would you want your surgeon to tell you right before the anesthesia kicks in: "don't worry about a thing, I got a C on my exam!".  
Transparency is a good thing, but too much of a good thing can be quite damaging. Publicizing the scores may be beneficial to potential test takers, but the public perception if it were to hit the news could be quite ugly.