Serious 'how to pass PE exam' strategy advice needed

[WDWA 2018]

Hello all, just found out I failed second attempt at civil/transportation. Felt confident about AM exam and okay about PM depth. First time failed with 42/80. After 300 more hours got 44/80 this time. CERM was tabbed for both tests, plus about $5000 out of pocket for books, practice exams, airfare. MT only gives you one year to pass. If you don't pass you have to reapply. Very, very embarrassed. Don't want to face my coworkers, and peers who signed off on me, and have to tell them I failed again.

More importantly, I bought an online study guide, not worth it, borrowed a coworkers old guide, which was helpful, but very out of date for transportation. Paid for Transportation depth manual by Voigt (Ppi), don't waste your money, spent all my time double checking the tables to verify they were accurate after I noticed several errors on 2 lane roads.. Many,  many errors in the 2nd edition, and the only recourse they gave me was to post my findings to assist them, and others., which I didn't have time for. 

Transportation is new to me. Spent most of my time in heavy civil construction,  but was told the depth was extremely difficult., so opted for Transportation.  I love transportation  and am finally working in this area, but don't have 4 years of reality under my belt. Plus, I spent $2300 on books. Teaching myself transportation  is not easy either.  There is a lot to it, and it is ambiguous. CERM has different thoughts on transportation answers, so who is correct?

Now that I have to reapply, feeling pretty bad, and starting to wonder if I should. Not a quitter, but definitely a failure. Have test anxiety, but felt okay this last time, confident I had studied enough and was well prepared.

Needing to improve my score by 50%, is a lot.. Wondering what I did wrong. Won't be able to take it again until April 2019 now, as June 1st is the application approval deadline for the October exam.

Didn't go through the exam once and rank questions,  nor did I skip too many. Felt I could do most of them, especially AM. But obviously was lulled in to a false sense of security,  as most of the answers were on the list. Felt like I only got about 7 wrong in the AM. After a week, increased that to 8-10. But still felt like it was good enough to pass. Feeling now like there were a lot of tricks I didn't see. Obviously, moving forward,  will need to study even harder. I don't want to think I'm stupid, but it was a long time now since graduation, and even though I did well in school feeling pretty stupid.

Your advice is appreciated.

 

[geomane]

Take EET. 

 

[HomeRuns3s]

Take EET. 

Agreed, take EET and create an index for each section with problems and concepts.  I went from scoring 40/80 on the fall '17 Transportation exam the first time to passing on the second attempt, by creating my own A-Z index.  Be familiar with your reference materials and become savvy with using the indexes for each one.  The 1-3 numbering system people here suggest worked for me this go-around, the key is only working on 1s and 2s, then whatever you didn't answer, fill in the letter that you answered the least.

 

[Mr. Zane]

Hello all, just found out I failed second attempt at civil/transportation. Felt confident about AM exam and okay about PM depth. First time failed with 42/80. After 300 more hours got 44/80 this time. CERM was tabbed for both tests, plus about $5000 out of pocket for books, practice exams, airfare. MT only gives you one year to pass. If you don't pass you have to reapply. Very, very embarrassed. Don't want to face my coworkers, and peers who signed off on me, and have to tell them I failed again.

More importantly, I bought an online study guide, not worth it, borrowed a coworkers old guide, which was helpful, but very out of date for transportation. Paid for Transportation depth manual by Voigt (Ppi), don't waste your money, spent all my time double checking the tables to verify they were accurate after I noticed several errors on 2 lane roads.. Many,  many errors in the 2nd edition, and the only recourse they gave me was to post my findings to assist them, and others., which I didn't have time for. 

Transportation is new to me. Spent most of my time in heavy civil construction,  but was told the depth was extremely difficult., so opted for Transportation.  I love transportation  and am finally working in this area, but don't have 4 years of reality under my belt. Plus, I spent $2300 on books. Teaching myself transportation  is not easy either.  There is a lot to it, and it is ambiguous. CERM has different thoughts on transportation answers, so who is correct?

Now that I have to reapply, feeling pretty bad, and starting to wonder if I should. Not a quitter, but definitely a failure. Have test anxiety, but felt okay this last time, confident I had studied enough and was well prepared.

Needing to improve my score by 50%, is a lot.. Wondering what I did wrong. Won't be able to take it again until April 2019 now, as June 1st is the application approval deadline for the October exam.

Didn't go through the exam once and rank questions,  nor did I skip too many. Felt I could do most of them, especially AM. But obviously was lulled in to a false sense of security,  as most of the answers were on the list. Felt like I only got about 7 wrong in the AM. After a week, increased that to 8-10. But still felt like it was good enough to pass. Feeling now like there were a lot of tricks I didn't see. Obviously, moving forward,  will need to study even harder. I don't want to think I'm stupid, but it was a long time now since graduation, and even though I did well in school feeling pretty stupid.

Your advice is appreciated.

Seems you have invested alot on references. I would suggest you to take some good course and follow their schedule. I spent 400 plus hours including course time.

I will.not say thay you have to take course to pass, i had a friend passed by using other's book or reference, but you will spend more time to do that with a very good self-discipline. 

One more thing is just keep practicing questions and problems over and over. Its impottant...

 

[Mr. Zane]

Hello all, just found out I failed second attempt at civil/transportation. Felt confident about AM exam and okay about PM depth. First time failed with 42/80. After 300 more hours got 44/80 this time. CERM was tabbed for both tests, plus about $5000 out of pocket for books, practice exams, airfare. MT only gives you one year to pass. If you don't pass you have to reapply. Very, very embarrassed. Don't want to face my coworkers, and peers who signed off on me, and have to tell them I failed again.

More importantly, I bought an online study guide, not worth it, borrowed a coworkers old guide, which was helpful, but very out of date for transportation. Paid for Transportation depth manual by Voigt (Ppi), don't waste your money, spent all my time double checking the tables to verify they were accurate after I noticed several errors on 2 lane roads.. Many,  many errors in the 2nd edition, and the only recourse they gave me was to post my findings to assist them, and others., which I didn't have time for. 

Transportation is new to me. Spent most of my time in heavy civil construction,  but was told the depth was extremely difficult., so opted for Transportation.  I love transportation  and am finally working in this area, but don't have 4 years of reality under my belt. Plus, I spent $2300 on books. Teaching myself transportation  is not easy either.  There is a lot to it, and it is ambiguous. CERM has different thoughts on transportation answers, so who is correct?

Now that I have to reapply, feeling pretty bad, and starting to wonder if I should. Not a quitter, but definitely a failure. Have test anxiety, but felt okay this last time, confident I had studied enough and was well prepared.

Needing to improve my score by 50%, is a lot.. Wondering what I did wrong. Won't be able to take it again until April 2019 now, as June 1st is the application approval deadline for the October exam.

Didn't go through the exam once and rank questions,  nor did I skip too many. Felt I could do most of them, especially AM. But obviously was lulled in to a false sense of security,  as most of the answers were on the list. Felt like I only got about 7 wrong in the AM. After a week, increased that to 8-10. But still felt like it was good enough to pass. Feeling now like there were a lot of tricks I didn't see. Obviously, moving forward,  will need to study even harder. I don't want to think I'm stupid, but it was a long time now since graduation, and even though I did well in school feeling pretty stupid.

Your advice is appreciated.

One more thing has to be mentioned here is soemtimes we feel good in the exam but get bad grade, this is because you fall into the traps. the training course and the example questions can help you to get more experienced...

 

[JoshG2112]

For the AM civil portion I took 12 practice tests in the 2 months leading up to the exam.  I was at a point where I could get a 40 question practice test done in around 2 hours and score 35/40 or better.  I ended up taking the full 4 hours to complete the AM for Aprils test with checking and rechecking, but I felt very confident in 37/40 answers.

For the AM I only used the CERM with color coded tabs for each section, color coded tabs for problems I felt I would likely see on the exam, and the appendices and index tabbed as well.  I did reference a couple practice tests that had similar questions as well.

I think putting effort into making sure you have a high score in the AM is valuable so you can go into the afternoon thinking you only need about 50% of the afternoon questions correct to pass.  

 

[JDoobs]

Took Transportation exam after getting a degree in environmental. Testmasters online class was what pushed it over the edge for me. And im sure yo know, but make sure you have the HCM and Green Book. Cant do transportation without them.

 

[sayed]

Hello all, just found out I failed second attempt at civil/transportation. Felt confident about AM exam and okay about PM depth. First time failed with 42/80. After 300 more hours got 44/80 this time. CERM was tabbed for both tests, plus about $5000 out of pocket for books, practice exams, airfare. MT only gives you one year to pass. If you don't pass you have to reapply. Very, very embarrassed. Don't want to face my coworkers, and peers who signed off on me, and have to tell them I failed again.

More importantly, I bought an online study guide, not worth it, borrowed a coworkers old guide, which was helpful, but very out of date for transportation. Paid for Transportation depth manual by Voigt (Ppi), don't waste your money, spent all my time double checking the tables to verify they were accurate after I noticed several errors on 2 lane roads.. Many,  many errors in the 2nd edition, and the only recourse they gave me was to post my findings to assist them, and others., which I didn't have time for. 

Transportation is new to me. Spent most of my time in heavy civil construction,  but was told the depth was extremely difficult., so opted for Transportation.  I love transportation  and am finally working in this area, but don't have 4 years of reality under my belt. Plus, I spent $2300 on books. Teaching myself transportation  is not easy either.  There is a lot to it, and it is ambiguous. CERM has different thoughts on transportation answers, so who is correct?

Now that I have to reapply, feeling pretty bad, and starting to wonder if I should. Not a quitter, but definitely a failure. Have test anxiety, but felt okay this last time, confident I had studied enough and was well prepared.

Needing to improve my score by 50%, is a lot.. Wondering what I did wrong. Won't be able to take it again until April 2019 now, as June 1st is the application approval deadline for the October exam.

Didn't go through the exam once and rank questions,  nor did I skip too many. Felt I could do most of them, especially AM. But obviously was lulled in to a false sense of security,  as most of the answers were on the list. Felt like I only got about 7 wrong in the AM. After a week, increased that to 8-10. But still felt like it was good enough to pass. Feeling now like there were a lot of tricks I didn't see. Obviously, moving forward,  will need to study even harder. I don't want to think I'm stupid, but it was a long time now since graduation, and even though I did well in school feeling pretty stupid.

Your advice is appreciated.

i would make the drive to your board and hand deliver your application. I remember a classmate did that for the FE. No reason to lose another 6 months because of time constraints.

Have you tried the PPI exam cafe? you are probably an expert number cruncher, but maybe missing small conceptual aspects that would fill in the gap you need to be successful. 

 

[WDWA 2018]

Took Transportation exam after getting a degree in environmental. Testmasters online class was what pushed it over the edge for me. And im sure yo know, but make sure you have the HCM and Green Book. Cant do transportation without them.

Yes, on both occasions I had the latest version of all the books they said were required except the HSM. I read through the questions, studied the HCM, Green book for all the areas that were covered on my practice exams, and tabbed up their practice problems and equation sections. I studied MUTCD and even bought the FHWA culvert design book. But haven't had time to read through it.. Thought I was doing well, although not as well as others apparently. Couldn't get through AM in three hours, but was getting 32-35 pretty regularly. Did three 8 hour practice runs this last test and scored well. Which is why it is so defeating to not pass.

 

[WDWA 2018]

i would make the drive to your board and hand deliver your application. I remember a classmate did that for the FE. No reason to lose another 6 months because of time constraints.

Have you tried the PPI exam cafe? you are probably an expert number cruncher, but maybe missing small conceptual aspects that would fill in the gap you need to be successful. 

I called them last week, the only thing they would allow me to bring forward is my transcripts. I can't drive to MT now anyway as I  moved out of state for a position in January this year. Even if I could, the board only meets once a month to review applications, plus, I wouldn't have signed references to provide with the package. It's all just a sign. Maybe just need to go a little slower. Get some in depth course training, maybe switch to construction.???? But without really knowing where I went wrong, it's going to be difficult to correct.

 

[WDWA 2018]

Took Transportation exam after getting a degree in environmental. Testmasters online class was what pushed it over the edge for me. And im sure yo know, but make sure you have the HCM and Green Book. Cant do transportation without them.

What did you think of Testmasters for their coverage of transportation?

 

[WDWA 2018]

One more thing has to be mentioned here is soemtimes we feel good in the exam but get bad grade, this is because you fall into the traps. the training course and the example questions can help you to get more experienced...

Thank you. I've been out of school 9 years, so I agree some more in depth training should help. What test taking strategy worked for you?

 

[WDWA 2018]

i would make the drive to your board and hand deliver your application. I remember a classmate did that for the FE. No reason to lose another 6 months because of time constraints.

Have you tried the PPI exam cafe? you are probably an expert number cruncher, but maybe missing small conceptual aspects that would fill in the gap you need to be successful. 

I have not tried PPI cafe. This time I double checked questions before moving on, that I had the correct units and reread what they were looking for. But I wasnt good enough to have time to double check my work.Tried to avoid the pitfalls from the first try. Still though, am wondering how to prepare for tricks? Thought I had a pretty good handle on it. Apparently not.. Is it even possible to improve that much in a year?

 

[Mr. Zane]

Thank you. I've been out of school 9 years, so I agree some more in depth training should help. What test taking strategy worked for you?

I had some warmup review before the courses, for about 2 weeks with the latest exam specification. The aim was to grasp the things that we really learnt but have forgot. 

I chose weekend class and re-do all notes and practice problems and questions from Monday to Friday. 

There is usually a 2-week period before the exam, by then you will have completed the courses already. I kept going back to the knowledge points and practice questiobs over and over. 

It happened to me that i was more familiar in training material than in CERM. 

 

[WDWA 2018]

Yes, although I tabbed CERM up, I spent way too much time the first time on the heavy lifting portion of structural instead of trying to re-learn the concepts. There is a heck of a lot of stuff in CERM and searching for it ,even with a great index, is not the solution. This time I found what I thought I needed but would then get lost in trying to wade through the material to find what I wanted. I needed an equation sheet with letters I'm familiar with. 

 

[Mr. Zane]

Yes, although I tabbed CERM up, I spent way too much time the first time on the heavy lifting portion of structural instead of trying to re-learn the concepts. There is a heck of a lot of stuff in CERM and searching for it ,even with a great index, is not the solution. This time I found what I thought I needed but would then get lost in trying to wade through the material to find what I wanted. I needed an equation sheet with letters I'm familiar with. 

Sometimes practice problems will help you in the exam. If you solve them with complete steps, the equations shall be there already.

Dont forget to include the units when you solve the problems. 

 

[txjennah PE]

i would make the drive to your board and hand deliver your application. I remember a classmate did that for the FE. No reason to lose another 6 months because of time constraints.

Have you tried the PPI exam cafe? you are probably an expert number cruncher, but maybe missing small conceptual aspects that would fill in the gap you need to be successful. 

I haven't heard of the PPI exam cafe before...looks pretty decent, but expensive.  Would you recommend it?

 

[WDWA 2018]

Always!  Learned that year one from a great chemistry professor.

 

[Mr. Zane]

Always!  Learned that year one from a great chemistry professor.

I hate that 1.47 in the curve equation.

 

[WDWA 2018]

I haven't heard of the PPI exam cafe before...looks pretty decent, but expensive.  Would you recommend it?

Neither have I.  I haven't taken it..