Test Taking Strategy/Approach (Surveying)

turiaf · Oct 14, 2017

What's the best strategy for attacking the surveying exam?

Last time I took the exam, I just went in order, from 1 to 55. If there was a complicated problem, I guess and moved on to the next. I admit I spent too much time on some problems that I should have just skipped. I ended up missing out on some questions at the end that looked answerable (but I only had time to guess).

I see some people on this forum say it's better to take some time at the beginning of the exam to go thru the exam, and mark which ones are easy and hard. Then do the easy ones first and hard ones after. I am scared to try that though, as I feel I will waste too much at the beginning marking questions. Also, it's easier to skip around and do questions out of order on a paper/pencil exam (like the 8 hour exam), than it is on a computerized exam.

What do you guys think? What is the best way of doing the exam? What approach worked for you?

Thanks!

ExhibitGuy · Oct 14, 2017

I agree with you that it takes too much time to go through all the questions and mark them. Instead, I used the same method you did by going through each of the problems in order. However, I would only answer the very easy ones (like less than 1-2 minutes without having to look anything up) first and skip all others until I got to Question #55. While going through, I would flag questions I thought were definitely solveable, but required maybe a little more in depth analysis, and left the harder ones unflagged. The goal in the first 30 minutes of the test is to answer at least 15 with confidence, and to get a feel for the rest of the test.

After my initial screening, I went through the test again and answered these flagged questions. These flagged questions are probably easy-moderate level.Then after that I went through the test once more and tried solving the unflagged ones, which weren't necessarily impossible to solve, but just required alot of time (maybe 4-5 minutes to solve).

In summary, go through the test in three-four cycles:

1st Cycle: Very-easy questions only (aim for 15 in the first 30 minutes)

2nd Cycle: Easy-moderate questions

3rd Cycle: Hard Questions

4th Cycle: Brain-teasing questions (only if you feel good on 40 questions by this point), but it's fine to guess on these if you run out of time.

If you can feel decent on 40/55 of the questions, you should really have this test in the bag. I also recommend making a tally sheet somewhere on your test paper so you can keep track of questions that (1) you rocked, (2) feel decent on, (3) got an answer but not sure if it's right. If the sum of (1) and (2) is 40 or more, you're pretty much guaranteed to pass. Good luck!

ptatohed · Oct 15, 2017

I have absolutely nothing more to add that EG did not cover. Excellent, excellent response EG! I am tempted to add your reply to the sticky in this forum " Everything you wanted to know about the CA-Survey/Seismic Civil PE Exams" if you wouldn't mind.

turiaf · Oct 15, 2017

@ExhibitGuy Thanks for the breakdown!

ExhibitGuy · Oct 16, 2017

ptatohed said:
I have absolutely nothing more to add that EG did not cover. Excellent, excellent response EG! I am tempted to add your reply to the sticky in this forum " Everything you wanted to know about the CA-Survey/Seismic Civil PE Exams" if you wouldn't mind.

Thanks Ptatohed! No I don't mind at all if its stickied.

doubleH · Nov 1, 2017

I'm pretty much in the exact same boat as turiaf. I allowed myself to get personally challenged by some of the problems and ended up wasting a bunch of time. I too saw a bunch of problems at the end that seemed way easy, but I had no time to solve.

Going into this second exam, I rationalized essentially the same strategy as ExhibitGuy before reading his post. That makes me feel more confident about that approach. However, I'm contemplating whether or not to start from the end. Thanks guys.

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