April 2013 SE, how did you do?

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kevo_55

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So, how did everyone think that they did? Did anything crazy happen in the exam room during the test?

Please feel free to talk about the exam, but please remember your NCEES agreement. The NCEES will be snooping on this board.

With that said, welcome back!

 
I concur with Kevo's comment about NCEES. They will be watching, so be careful what you share. :)

 
I am honestly embarassed by how i did. It was very similar to my first time taking the vertical (which i passed on the second try). After a few problems i didnt know how to even start, i got demoralized and just lost hope during the morning. There was one bridge question (my specialization) which i didnt even know existed or how to solve for in the morning (which really embarassed me). The afternoon was alright. The two 1 hour problems were eh. The first i think they were really unfair and worded poorly, the second i just didnt study enough for, plus they asked for the same thing i didnt even know existed from the morning multiple choice questions. On the plus side, i think i did the 2 hour long analysis problem correctly, so small bright spot.

Also! Our test was directly over the national youth cheerleading finals ages 6 - 13. The entire test, i heard "lets get ready to rumbbbbbllllleeeee, duh duh dah dah duh duh" every 15 mintues because all the teams performed to it. Then they all came out in the hall and screamed in excitement after each round. In the afternoon, we heard Gangnam style in the finals every 20 minutes until all the teams were done. The announcer was talking the whole time, there wasnt one peaceful moment the whole test. The proctor i have known the whole time came up after the test and apologized to me. It was awful.

 
So sorry to hear about your experience BP. That really sucks. Gagnam Style!? I already wasn't able to eat anything from the nerves, but that would have made me nearly lose it!

I took the br lateral as well, and was having trouble with the wording of the afternoon problems also. The problem for us is that there really is a lack of study material available beyond the SERM (which is very thin on bridges, and does not cover lateral at all in the foundations section), and the NCEES sample exam. I will acknowledge that they do cover general analysis somewhat better however. I learned there were less than 5% in my cohort taking the bridge module. Perhaps the market isn't yet strong enough, but the niche is available for the publishers. (I know all my building friends despise the bridge problems though!) My expectation going in to the test was that nothing presented in the sample exam would be on the test, which I think is a reasonable expectation.

My advice to you is that it is normal to get those feelings of despair--there is so much to remember in such a compressed and sustained amount if time--for me when that happens, which was a couple times in the morning, and a few times in the afternoon, is to try to block it out of your mind. The pressure is certainly on for the last test, but just try to keep pushing. A big part of the challenge is the grind. Good luck to you, I hope you get it this time. For me, I'm staying hopeful, cautiously optimistic, and preparing for the worst. I'm just hoping also that if I do have to take it again that the codes don't change for at least another cycle!

Again, good luck to you, and all others. Thank you all for your help, camaraderie, and support.

 
Yeah, thanks for the words. I definetely need to brush up on my foundation work. The lack of info really didnt help on that problem in the afternoon

 
I'm pretty sure that I nailed the exam.

If you can't get 80% on that exam, then you should just take the easy civil exam.

 
Well I think I did okay. I only took the first day and did buildings. The morning was really easy for me, only had a few problems that I had to guess on or was a little fuzzy on the method. However, the afternoon did not go well. Two problems I felt were really poorly written. One problem even used the term "door jamb" to discribe a door header jack stud! Completely different things if you ask me. I also wasted about 20 minutes calculating something that they gave us in a note. Lastly I screwed up and forgot how to calculate the section modulus of a built-up section. Ran out of time near the end so I'm really hoping to get partial credit otherwise I'm probably screwed. At least I knew how to answer everything.

 
"At least I knew how to answer everything."

To your luck, I think that's all they are looking for. Try to relax and not think about it... enjoy life without studying for a while. :)

 
Yep, the day of the test I woke up thinking "development length!" or "live load reduction!" definitly kind of confusef now that I have my weekends back... at least for a few months.

 
I passed the vertical last fall but failed the lateral, so this was my second time taking the lateral-buildings test. I thought that the afternoon questions were a good bit more straight forward than they were last fall. I still believe if you see a question and don't know exactly how to start solving it you will run out of time. I felt like I efficiently and diligently worked in the afternoon and still was unable to finish a part of one problem, so I wrote down a solution method for what I would have done given more time.

I think the AM was a bit harder than I remembered from the fall. The buildings questions were not too bad, though there were a couple of wood design problems that may have gotten me. But I swear, AASHTO might just be the end of me. The bridges problems on the AM are always so tough for me, as I only design buildings for my job.

We'll see. I am optimistic. I think I am borderline in the morning, but felt good in the afternoon, though you never know if you just flubbed one and didn't realize it... We'll all find out in 10 weeks or so, I suppose.

 
I'm hopeful. I did fairly well, but you never know. I think I did great on both AM portions (finished both with about an hour to spare to go back and double-check my answers). The lateral PM felt pretty good, but I agree with jlkells it was fast. I felt like i knew exactly where to go for each problem, but was still writing as fast as I could for the full 4 hours.

I'm a little unsure of the Vertical PM. I think I was on the right track on all the problems and finished all the parts, but some of the questions caught me a little off guard. My answers to all of them seemed a little suspicious so I'm sure I made some errors (small, big who knows). Hoping for the best though...

 
I felt really good about the morning portion for the vertical buildings exam. I felt like I was doing just fine in the afternoon session too until I got to the last question with only 15 minutes remaining. I was able to get something down for each part of that question to at least get some partial credit, but I don't know how far that will take me. I feel like I got caught up trying to include too many references or details in the other questions. You live and learn. I still have hope that I'll get the vertical portion passed regardless. I just wish they gave us a better explanation of what it takes to pass. I took the lateral exam too, but I focused my studying on the vertical portion so I wasn't expecting much. Both exams felt pretty fair and about what I expected.

 
Looks like we have about 2 weeks to breath easy until we get results.

NCEES posted the following on their website:

Structural Scoring workshop
The Structural Scoring workshop will be held to grade the essay portion of the April 2013 SE exam. Learn more about the scoring process here.

When: June 06, 2013 - June 08, 2013

Where: Clemson, South Carolina

Event Contact: Jason J. Gamble, P.E., NCEES Exam Development Engineer

If memory serves, results are typically posted the week following the grading workshop. So we should be hearing about 1.5-2 weeks from now.
 
Looks like the end of next week... at least I know it won't be this week so I can stop checking...

 
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