seismic complexity

[loco]

Hi all,

I had a hard time looking at my fail letter from the board. I did not pass the seismic test.

I did all the problems from Hinner work book, all Mansour books, 345 solved seismic problems Baradar, the sample test book from Baradar. In all more than one thousand problems. three months of studying only seismic. the last three week nothing but test drills.

I knew how to do all the problem of the test, unfortunately I did not had time to even read some of the problems. I found the complexity of the test very hard. It does not make sense to me that the test has 50 problems out of those 50 only about five theory questions to solve in 2.5 hours. The eight hour national has 40 questions to solve in 4 hours, and the same in the afternoon. How can this be possible? it is twice as hard as the National.

the problems were design to look up all the information which is time consuming. Does any one understands the testing concept that California is using.I was more than familiar with all the concepts in the test and yet it was not enough for California.

I score proficient in the section of seismic forces, marginal in seismic detail. I did not had time to do more problems during the test.

My level of frustration is high. Has anyone else asked the California board why are they doing this to us?

 

[McEngr]

Sorry to hear your frustration loco. It sounds like you had the biggest issues with the time on the test. I would recommend using a timer on problems and try to work them as if it were the first time you had seen them. I also have some practice problems that I could probably scrounge up and throw your way via pdf. Let me know if you're interested.

 

[loco]

Hi McEngr,

I just sent you a PM message. Thank you for your help.

 

[EnvEngineer]

As unfair as it seems people do pass, I dont think the seismic or survey exams are good examples of engineering, if fact very poor, who does engineering that quickly.

How I passed, if the problems looks like it is not worth the effort to answere, skip it!! Like you said you can spend 5-10 minutes just trying to understand some of the problems, skip it and dont look back. The most important thing in these exams is to get to the end. I know when I passed the seismic I got behind in time and then skipped a few more only to find and nice bunch of easy question at the end. More than made up for the ones I skipped. You need 30 of the 50 correct to pass, I think there are less than 10 that need to be skipped, that means you if you get 75% of the ones you know and are workable you will pass.

Good Luck