WHAT IS YOUR DEGREE?

[DVINNY]

I don't have options about whether you think it is relevant to passing, but would like to hear your opinions on this thread.

If you have a Masters, do you feel that it was responsible for passing/failing?

If you have a 4 yr. Tech Degree, do you feel it was responsible for passing/failing?

 

[NCcarguy]

You need to add one more.......H.S.

I don't have a degree!!!! And other's here are in the same boat. 20 years of experience (or less in some states) :true:

and I don't think there's much doubt that it's what's keeping me from passing the test. Most of what's on the exam, I'd not seen before I started disecting every book I could find on each subject, but trying to learn without an instructor is EXTREMELY difficult! I also don't have a lot of the reference material that most college graduates would have. Try learning moments and shear in a spare bedroom by yourself, or phase relationships???? as my last results would show!

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

M.S. in engineering.

It helped me take the exam a year early, and a lot of the questions during prep/exam were comparable to a grad level homework or quiz question.

Definitely helped me. Plus, I started studying for the PE 6 months out of grad school. Study habits and long nights/busted weekends were still familiar to me. If I had stopped at a B.S., it would have been 3+ years since I'd picked up a book and a lot harder to get back on the wagon.

 

[grover]

My B.S. Engineering degree certainly helped with the FE exam, but we didn't cover hardly ANY of the PE coursework in school, just on-the-job. (EE Power)

 

[MattC]

I had a BS in Environmental Science, and an MS in Environmental Engineering. With eight years of experience IL let me sit for the exams. The board reviewed my total educational background and decieded that to be ABET equivalent I had to take 5 more hours of advanced math either differential equations or Calc 3. Problem was I graduated in 1995 and this was in 2002. So I had to take the entire calc sequence over as I barely remembered what the integral symbol meant. I took the FE last april and passed 1st try and the PE this OCt and passed 1st try. I passed only because of what I learned from my MS. MY BS undergraduate was namby pamby science/engineering light. The env. PE had very few difficult problems, it was just broad and covered everything under the sun. The level of difficulty of the problems was far less involved than in grad school. They had to be as you have to solve 100 in 8 hours.

 

[tmckeon_PE]

Got my degree from ABET approved Engineering from UCF in 1990. Graduated with 160+ hours (145 needed for the eng degree). Passed the EI/FE in the same year. Got lazy, difficult circumstances, etc. and didn't get my PE until this last Oct exam 2006. That's 16 years (one would think I would have had it much earlier).

:true:

 

[DVINNY]

The reason I ask is because my degree is a 4 yr. Engineering Tech Mechanical. It is ABET/TAC accredited however, which is what qualifies me to take the exam.

My degree and 4 yrs in school contribute absolutely ZERO to what I have seen on the PE exam thus far, and therefor the reason for this poll/thread. I am trying to decipher if it is just because I took Mechanical in school, and am taking the PE in Civil.

Basically, 90+% of everything I'm studying for the PE, I've never seen in my life. I work with 5-6 guys that have a B.S. Eng. Tech Civil, and they had all of the coursework, so I think it mostly has to do with the major.

I also want to see everyone's take on it, since ASCE wants B.S. + 30 hrs to sit for the exam

 

[DVINNY]

Also, with my Tech degree, my state board requires that I had the FE and then 6 years of documented experience before allowing me to take the exam. I graduated in '97, took the FE in April of '00, and took the PE for the first time in October '05.

 

[cement]

I have the BSCE and alot of grad work in transportation, which perepared me pretty well. But I was 20 yrs out of school, which didn't help much!

The guy I work with has a BS in Manufacturing Engineering, but is working in construction and took CE transportation. He had to learn most everything from that damn CERM. The HCM is an excellent teaching tool, and the AASHTO green book is packed full of knowlege.

It is an uphill battle DV, but the view is sweet from the summit! :thumbsup:

 

[Mike1144]

Add another choice, I didn't get a BS, I got a BE. Bachelor in Engineering. I was a mechanical major. And no, it didn't help me on the SE1.

 

[DVINNY]

Add another choice, I didn't get a BS, I got a BE. Bachelor in Engineering. I was a mechanical major. And no, it didn't help me on the SE1.

Really? Why wouldn't they just call is a Bachelor of Science in Engineering? Is it not science?

I've never heard of that before. :true:

 

[jfusilloPE]

Also, with my Tech degree, my state board requires that I had the FE and then 6 years of documented experience before allowing me to take the exam. I graduated in '97, took the FE in April of '00, and took the PE for the first time in October '05.

I am in a similar boat as you. I graduated with a 4-year Civil Tech degree (TAC/ABET).

I live in Ohio, but they require 8 years after graduation, with two waiverable (so 6 years internship). So, I jumped the border and took it PA (where they see B.S.E. and B.S.A.S. as the same).

However, it did take me 4 times to pass the damn thing.

I had no problem with the FE, but for some reason the PE was killing me. So, I don't think that it was the difference in degrees.

This last time, I did take a class put on by that other website, and I think that the class had a lot to do with it (just by teaching us how to use the charts in the appendix).

 

[Mike1144]

Add another choice, I didn't get a BS, I got a BE. Bachelor in Engineering. I was a mechanical major. And no, it didn't help me on the SE1.

Really? Why wouldn't they just call is a Bachelor of Science in Engineering? Is it not science?

I've never heard of that before. :true:

People always think I'm making it up. In their defence, it's not a very common degree.

 

[jmquadrunner]

For me, the FE was not a problem because of all the General Engineering courses I took in college. I have a B.S. in General Engineering with an Emphasis in Civil Engineering (that's a mouthful I know) from Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. The PE in my opinion wasn't too bad b/c I do Engineering work all day. For the PE my practical experiance really helped. I can imagine it would have been a nightmare and required a ton of studying had I stayed in my previous job where I did minimal actual engineering. Also, the testmasters course was a real help for the subjects that I do not delve into quite as often. I would recommend their course to anyone.

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

Technically, mine is a "Master of Engineering". I hadn't heard of it either. I had a choice of what I wanted the degree. I don't know what the difference between an M.S. and an M.Eng. is, but apparently it's nothing significant.

I took the M.Eng. because, well, I'm an engineer .

 

[ktulu]

This is what I have been told, by a colleague: getting a Master of Science over a Master in Engineering lies in what you want to do afterwards. I am in research, involving report writing, etc., etc. So I got a Master of Science for which I had to write a thesis. Academia work, so to speak....

For a Master in Engineering, no thesis is necessary (at least this is the case at Auburn University)

So I guess it depends on each person future goals....

ktulu

 

[whitley85]

I think the important thing is what you studied in school, not what degree you got. I'm a geotech. My bachlor's is in geological engineering and my masters is in civil-geotechnical. So, I've never once taken a structures class or an environmental class. I've taken one or two classes that were relavent to water resources and the only tranportation classes I took were related to pavement materials. So, although I know geotech pretty well, there's so much stuff on the PE that I've never seen before. But I knew that going in. So I took a review class that went over each area in just a few hours, nothing intense. I took that intro and built on it studying on my own. And I really didn't study geotech too much overall, since I was pretty confident in that. I also started studying way in advance (I was supposed to test in April, but a board snafu pushed me back to Oct). Something worked, since I passed.

 

[Bminer]

I took the mining exam. I have a B.S. in Geological Engineering and Master of Engineering in Mining Engineering - neither of which helped on the exam. It was all practical experience that counted. There is limited study material geared specifically towards this exam, so I relied on a few general mining references, a few colleagues who took the exam five years ago, and eight years in operations and engineering in the aggregates industry. The extra education is great, but on any given day I actually have to solve many of the same types of problems found on the exam.

 

[screw]

I feel like the anomaly here. BS in Industrial Engineering in 1989. Then went technical as a Navy nuke : USA : for 6 years. Then went business with an MBA after that.

The FE, which I took and passed in April 2006, was a real brain-squisher. :brick: It was the Navy discipline :dsgt: that kept me studying material I haven't seen or used in 15+ years. "oldtimer"

The PE, which I took and passed in October 2006, I suprised myself.

Even though I'm not strapped to the calculator like most of you, it was tough.

When I was interviewing for a position after getting my MBA, the interviewer told me he was not at all impressed with the degree itself. He said I would learn everything I need on the job. But he was impressed with the hoops that I had to jump through to get it.

Bottom line, in my opinion, its the discipline :tone: to get the degree (no matter what it is), to get the experience, and to study when there are other things you could be doing....

 

[NCcarguy]

I feel like the anomaly here. BS in Industrial Engineering in 1989. Then went technical as a Navy nuke : USA : for 6 years. Then went business with an MBA after that.
The FE, which I took and passed in April 2006, was a real brain-squisher. :brick: It was the Navy discipline :dsgt: that kept me studying material I haven't seen or used in 15+ years. "oldtimer"

The PE, which I took and passed in April 2006, I suprised myself.

Even though I'm not strapped to the calculator like most of you, it was tough.

When I was interviewing for a position after getting my MBA, the interviewer told me he was not at all impressed with the degree itself. He said I would learn everything I need on the job. But he was impressed with the hoops that I had to jump through to get it.

Bottom line, in my opinion, its the discipline :tone: to get the degree (no matter what it is), to get the experience, and to study when there are other things you could be doing....

you might just be correct there! There were obviously times that I bacame distracted, and if I had studied a bit harder (or maybe smarter), I might just NOT be here whining about missing the cut score by one or two questions... :read: