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stuckinjersey

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I've failed the exam twice and both times I thought I did better than my results showed, every question I got an answer that was given, circled it and moved on. I am at a depressing loss for what to do. At any rate, what exactly do the percentages mean that they give you when you don't pass? are these curved? I've averaged them out and both times its been 65%.

 
I've failed the exam twice and both times I thought I did better than my results showed, every question I got an answer that was given, circled it and moved on. I am at a depressing loss for what to do. At any rate, what exactly do the percentages mean that they give you when you don't pass? are these curved? I've averaged them out and both times its been 65%.
You need 70%. Once they run the results through a statistical analysis, there is a chance a question could be throw out do to an error in the question or for whatever other reason. Keep head up and try try again ... GOOD LUCK next time, you are very close!!!

 
sorry to hear you didn't pass. i'm still waiting on results, it could be i'm in the same boat, although i felt decent about it when i was done, but maybe i just missed ones i thought i got right! what are you doing to prepare? I put a lot of time into studying, and took a review course. i think the best advice is to just to A LOT of problems. i started studying at the beginning of january, and spent at least 10-15 hours per week studying. it felt worth it when i took the exam.

you may need to try a different depth section. just because you may have experience with a subject doesn't mean that it will be the easiest to pass. i work in construction, but was told (and saw from sample probs) that they can ask a lot of random stuff that people who work in the industry wouldn't know. i also tried to steer away from subjects that required a lot of references that i wasn't going to have (such as structural). i ended up taking geotech, and did every sample problem i could find, including all the ones in CERM, 6 minutes, and NCEES sample probs. i learned a lot from doing the sample problems that i didn't know before.

as far as getting an answer, they often anticipate the common errors people will make and have that answer waiting for you

 
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sorry, replied twice and can't seem to delete it

 
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You also need to realize that the incorrect answers aren't random and that common mathematical errors or the improper application of an equation can result in an error that would match one of the multiple choice answers. It also sounds like you may need a different studying approach. Really focus on your strengths. Most often, you'll find that when you're strong in one subject, all other subjects will be easily understood because you're exercising your brain.

Good luck!

 
thanks for the advice. its much appreciated. I am going to try a different studying approach this time with some online help. its the worst feeling in the world to actually do work, get answers and still not pass. I honestly have no idea where I went wrong, especially in the afternoon, I swear they got my test results mixed up! i get (most) of the review questions right! and I can't believe that I made "stupid mistakes" on that many problems! i do sometimes struggle with some subjects because my focus now is almost purely water related...

any other tips, advice, review course recommendations would be much appreciated. thank you.

 
Just because you got a listed answer does not mean you got a right answer. These tests are meant to trick you into thinking you got it right. There is always a footnote or a caveat. The key lies in finding them.

 
thanks for the advice. its much appreciated. I am going to try a different studying approach this time with some online help. its the worst feeling in the world to actually do work, get answers and still not pass. I honestly have no idea where I went wrong, especially in the afternoon, I swear they got my test results mixed up! i get (most) of the review questions right! and I can't believe that I made "stupid mistakes" on that many problems! i do sometimes struggle with some subjects because my focus now is almost purely water related...
any other tips, advice, review course recommendations would be much appreciated. thank you.
I took Mechanical but the test tip should be the same. Beside your hard working that you have to prepare smart. In mechanical there are 3 deapths in the afternoon and morning are mix. I created several pages for each deapth. I put down the tables and next to the table that I put down related equations and important information. (I did for all afternoon deapths). I study day and night from the end of Jan to the exam. After I finish one topic that I refresh again until I finally got it.

 
thanks for the advice. its much appreciated. I am going to try a different studying approach this time with some online help. its the worst feeling in the world to actually do work, get answers and still not pass. I honestly have no idea where I went wrong, especially in the afternoon, I swear they got my test results mixed up! i get (most) of the review questions right! and I can't believe that I made "stupid mistakes" on that many problems! i do sometimes struggle with some subjects because my focus now is almost purely water related...
any other tips, advice, review course recommendations would be much appreciated. thank you.
I took Mechanical but the test tip should be the same. Beside your hard working that you have to prepare smart. In mechanical there are 3 deapths in the afternoon and morning are mix. I created several pages for each deapth. I put down the tables and next to the table that I put down related equations and important information. (I did for all afternoon deapths). I study day and night from the end of Jan to the exam. After I finish one topic that I refresh again until I finally got it.
I took Mechanical. I prepared for two depth module (HVAC and T&F). I also prepared for MD but not too hard as the other two. It help me because in the AM, i was confident with all the HVAC problems and almost T&F problems. I was able to answer few question in MD and guessed about 4 questions at the end. I budgeted six months for preparing for the exam including day and night and two weeks off from job close to exam period. On getting to the exam, i saw that HVAC has a lot of problems with long sentences that if care is not taken, you may miss an important detail and get distabized. I glansed through both modules using 10 minutes. I decided to do T&F. Pay particular attention to small thing like efficiency, Have a conversion book, Beside your hard work, you need to work smart.

Thank God I passsed first try.

 
I've failed the exam twice and both times I thought I did better than my results showed, every question I got an answer that was given, circled it and moved on. I am at a depressing loss for what to do. At any rate, what exactly do the percentages mean that they give you when you don't pass? are these curved? I've averaged them out and both times its been 65%.

Try SchoolofPE, I heard a lot of good things about it. Obviously it looks like you are not studying what shows up on the exams and you need these guys that know exactly what you need to know to pass. If I didn't pass I would have used them. They are pricy but they can save you 6 month raise and time which is worth more than what you will pay them ( if you don't think your raise times 6 months isn't more than 1200 dollars then don't even bother to get licensed and quit your job today :) ) and best luck to you next time.

Another thing I like to tell people is not to rush on finding solutions for the problems you are given. If you can answer 50 correctly within 8 hours then that's all you need to pass, you will get 6 correct out of the other 30 if you just guess whatever and that's 56. Moreover, you should answer almost all the questions correctly in the mornng session, they are always easier but can be tricky if you are rushing and not careful( you have a lot of time to answer them, and when you decide on an answer, reverify it, believe me. it happened to me before, when I thought I had the answer, I spent an extra 30 second to make sure I was right and to my surprise I find out that I made a silly mistake and NCEES loves their tricks. )

BEST LUCK TO YOU,

 
I've failed the exam twice and both times I thought I did better than my results showed, every question I got an answer that was given, circled it and moved on. I am at a depressing loss for what to do. At any rate, what exactly do the percentages mean that they give you when you don't pass? are these curved? I've averaged them out and both times its been 65%.

Civil surveying review workshop by Reza Mahallati is very good, suggest- run the sample exercises 2 - 3 times.

I passed the exam -surveying

The other guys are too superficial.

Sam Anukorn

 
thanks for the advice. its much appreciated. I am going to try a different studying approach this time with some online help. its the worst feeling in the world to actually do work, get answers and still not pass. I honestly have no idea where I went wrong, especially in the afternoon, I swear they got my test results mixed up! i get (most) of the review questions right! and I can't believe that I made "stupid mistakes" on that many problems! i do sometimes struggle with some subjects because my focus now is almost purely water related...
any other tips, advice, review course recommendations would be much appreciated. thank you.
Hey Stuckin I just recently took the Testmasters course in Houston for the Electrical Power Section and I honestly can't say enough about this program. I passed on my second try which was this past April. The first time I took the exam I tried using The Other Guys and come test day practically 20% of the info provided to us in the class was relevant to the test. I'm not sure what discipline you are but I highly recommend this class. Check em out at testmasters.com to see if they offer a course near your location. Good luck on this next round!

 
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sorry to hear you didn't pass. i'm still waiting on results, it could be i'm in the same boat, although i felt decent about it when i was done, but maybe i just missed ones i thought i got right! what are you doing to prepare? I put a lot of time into studying, and took a review course. i think the best advice is to just to A LOT of problems. i started studying at the beginning of january, and spent at least 10-15 hours per week studying. it felt worth it when i took the exam. you may need to try a different depth section. just because you may have experience with a subject doesn't mean that it will be the easiest to pass. i work in construction, but was told (and saw from sample probs) that they can ask a lot of random stuff that people who work in the industry wouldn't know. i also tried to steer away from subjects that required a lot of references that i wasn't going to have (such as structural). i ended up taking geotech, and did every sample problem i could find, including all the ones in CERM, 6 minutes, and NCEES sample probs. i learned a lot from doing the sample problems that i didn't know before.

as far as getting an answer, they often anticipate the common errors people will make and have that answer waiting for you
I took geotechnical too even though my field is structural. I did everything you did and I passed the 8hour exam and the seismic exam(California) last October. I just got my surveying exam results last week and I passed that too.

The key is to practice doing all the problems you can get your hands on and at the same time improve your time. Time is your worst enemy during these exams.

 
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