Study for 8-hour in April, wait to take Surveying/Seismic in October?

Environmental_Guy · Mar 24, 2010

Hope this hasn't been asked a million times before - Sorry if it has I couldn't find anything.

I am considering a run at the Civil (WR & E) 8-hour in April '11. Would it be helpful to just concentrate on the 8 hour, hopefully pass that, then go on the seismic and surveying in October? Will California allow that?

In studying for the FE, I gave everything I had at the 8 hour, my brain would :blowup: trying to cram that much more info in!

PS - this site has the best emoticons ever!

sac_engineer · Mar 24, 2010

Environmental_Guy said:
Hope this hasn't been asked a million times before - Sorry if it has I couldn't find anything.
I am considering a run at the Civil (WR & E) 8-hour in April '11. Would it be helpful to just concentrate on the 8 hour, hopefully pass that, then go on the seismic and surveying in October? Will California allow that?

In studying for the FE, I gave everything I had at the 8 hour, my brain would :blowup: trying to cram that much more info in!

PS - this site has the best emoticons ever!

You pay the same fee for the exams you need to pass, whether it's all 3 or just one. There's no discount on taking just one exam. I suggest you study and take all 3 exams first time around. Statistically, the passing rate for first-time takers for all 3 exams is about 50%. Unfortunately, the odds go down for repeat takers.

Don't worry, you have a year to prepare, but I suggest you begin studying no later than 3 months before the exam. If you know that some topics will be harder to study because either you've never learned them before or it's been a while since you took them in school, then you should crack open a book as early as possible, but don't obsess.

I admit I over-studied, but passed all 3 the first time, so it paid off.

Good luck!

EnvEngineer · Mar 25, 2010

I am going to differ, I tried taking all three and it was a disaster, I just could not cover all the depth needed to pass the exams. That being said, I think if you are a structural, transportation or construction engineer then you have a big head start in that you can do the afternoon test, know some survey and probably have a background in seismic. My problem was I am environmental on the non-water resouces side so I did not have a afternoon, surveying or seismic. Thus all three were impossible.

I did not know but if you tell them you are not going to sit for the survey and seismic you will not have to pay again, I found this out after I did not do the tests and was informed I would have to pay again and send in the retake application. The 8 hour is very doable given good study, make no mistake the survey and seimic are big hurdles and require a terrible amount of effort and luck.

Environmental_Guy · Mar 25, 2010

Thank you both, I appreciate the responses. I will contact California board, maybe they will let me take 8-hour and postpone the other two till Oct. If not, then I'll do what I gotta do. :bananapowerslide:

sac_engineer · Mar 25, 2010

Environmental_Guy said:
Thank you both, I appreciate the responses. I will contact California board, maybe they will let me take 8-hour and postpone the other two till Oct. If not, then I'll do what I gotta do. :bananapowerslide:

You don't have to contact them at all. They don't care which exams you'll take. They just know which ones you need to pass. Whether you show up after you've paid the fee, they're not going to scratch their heads wondering why you didn't take the other exams. You won't get a letter from them acknowledging your decision to only take the 8-hour exam. It's a pretty no-nonsense and dry process.

Good luck!

Dexman PE · Mar 25, 2010

I've heard from several friends who have counted on multiple attempts. Basically they focus on the PE the first time, but still sit for all 3. This gives them a good chance to get the PE out of the way, but still give them a good basis for studying the other 2 (plus, who knows, you may get lucky and pass one of the seismic/surveying). Then they will change their studying habits to focus on the remaining exams. They would then only show up for the exams they have left to pass for the 2nd go around. A few have even counted on 3 attempts: each attempt only focusing on 1 exam.

As stated above, the Board doesn't care which exams you show up for because the fee is the same regardless. I would obviously advise not showing up on the 2nd attempt to re-take any exams you have already passed though.