I would hate to pay the $1600 only to get the same questions I have already worked..
Would you feel that way when you got the passing letter? I didn't think so. I had a hard time coughing up that much cash too but ya know what? I justified it in my own head that if that class gives me the edge to correctly answer just one question that pushes me past the cut-off then it's worth every penny of cost.
I'm not proud of my "PE" history but I'll lay it all out here just because if it helps one person out there it'll be justified. I first took the PE in Oct. 2004. Didn't really take it seriously (don't ask me why, just didn't) and never cracked a book. Yep, went in cold. It was the last time they actually gave scores and I got a 64, failed. I decided I wasn't ready to jump in full steam and take it that April 05 so I waited till Oct 05 to re-take it. This time around I actually studied but ONLY focused on the areas that my diagnostic report (from the exam) showed I was slacking. Took the exam in Oct. 05 and failed. Diagnostic report showed that I kicked ass in all the areas that I sucked in the first go round (cause I studied hard on those) and dropped in the areas that I exceeded on the first go round, obviously because I didn't study those. Man was I disappointed and felt like such a jackass. It wasn't a week after I got those results when I started studying again and signed back up for the April exam. I was going to pass that motherfucker. :fool: I studied ALL subjects starting every night after work Mon-Thurs, and then hit it on the weekends, either Sat or Sun morning so I could stay sane with some play time. I then heard about Testmasters, probably about where you are at right now RoadGuy in the time frame of things regarding preparing for the exam. I talked it over with my boss, fiance, and a couple friends who had already passed and they all said take it.....what can it hurt? Florida's rules are such that after failing 3 times you have to go back to school and re-take classes. That was the LAST thing I wanted to do so my thoughts were that I needed to put everything I possibly could into passing this time around. So I signed up and continued studying up unitl I had to take the course and then I just studied the material we covered in class the days when I wasn't in the class. I never even studied the nights I was taking the class.....I figured sitting in that classroom for 8 hrs a day was enough, the evenings were mine. ****, one of the nights I pulled an all-nighter and went sword fishing with some friends and fought the biggest fish I've ever seen, didn't land it though :brick: I slept maybe an hour in my truck in the parking lot of the hotel where the class was being held and then went in and pulled the full 8 hrs of class. There were things that I learned in that class that probably saved me 3-5 minutes on questions. Was the class what I needed to pass? I don't know cause I know I studied hard. Do I even care now? No. Do I care about that course fee? No (but my fiance probably does :lmao: ) One thing that I did like about the course was that it kept me focused on passing AND studying.
Have they changed the book since Oct 04? Most likely but probably not a whole hell of a lot. Civil engineering as we know it (besides software and some of the tools we use) hasn't changed in 40 to 100+ years.
Were there people in the class that had failed the time before and were sitting in the class again? Yep. But ya know, there's ALWAYS going to be people who just can't pass the PE exam no matter how much they study or how many refresher courses they take. That's why there's an exam in the first place. You've seen these types of people in all facites (sp?) of life......they
just don't get it.
So there ya have it. IMO, if you can afford the time off and the course take it, it's not going to hinder you by any means. Upon passing that $1600 is chump change in the grand scheme of it all after you have that PE.