October 2019 PE Civil - Structural Results

Hi everyone! I remember from the April 2019 group someone started a thread specific to this discipline for people to report their scores, so I figured I would go ahead and do the same. To those of you who passed: congratulations! I know it's got to be such a relief to see that beautiful green box. To those of you who were not as fortunate, please post your state, scores (AM/PM), what attempt number this was, and how you prepared. Best of luck to us next time!

Edit: Please also feel free to ask questions to each other about review courses! That was extremely helpful for me last time.

Gonna steal this for Transportation if you don't mind! Thanks for bringing this back around, I had forgotten about it!

I'll begin.

Failed. Kentucky. 27 AM/19 PM. 2nd Attempt. I prepared with the EET Structural Depth Review Course.

My first attempt was also a fail (obviously). My score that round was 31 AM/18 PM, and I had self-prepared.

cdunn2016 said:

Gonna steal this for Transportation if you don't mind! Thanks for bringing this back around, I had forgotten about it!

Click to expand...

I don't mind at all! I found it extremely helpful in April.

I got 30 AM/18 PM. 2nd attempt using the School of PE

Alexander said:

I got 30 AM/18 PM. 2nd attempt using the School of PE

Click to expand...

Did you use SoPE for both morning and afternoon review? If so, did you like it and feel like it helped?

This was my second unsuccessful attempt at the Civil Structural PE. April 19 I received 28 AM / 19 PM. October 19 I received 26 AM / 23 PM. I self studied both occasions and took it in the Mobile, AL area.

1st attempt south Carolina....not sure how to calculate AM and PM but i think categories 1-8 are AM and 9-14 are PM

but 43/80 what do you guys think the passing score was?

and i used SOPE and thought they were great actually will definitely take a repeat with them partially also because i cant afford another $1000 dollar course 

AND i feel like what helped the most were the SOPE class notes...i barely used the CERM in the test actually those SOPE class notes for every topic was very helpful

Structurebeast said:

View attachment 15329

1st attempt south Carolina....not sure how to calculate AM and PM but i think categories 1-8 are AM and 9-14 are PM

but 43/80 what do you guys think the passing score was?

Click to expand...

You're correct, it goes in order, starting from AM to PM. So 1-8 cover 40 questions, 9-14 cover 40 questions, meaning you were at 21 AM/22 PM. With just a little work on hydraulics and hydrology and geometrics in the morning, you're right there at the passing mark! You got this! For those two topics, the CERM goes through some great material that's usually the extent covered in the AM section.

hardhatsandpinkshoes said:

I'll begin.

Failed. Kentucky. 27 AM/19 PM. 2nd Attempt. I prepared with the EET Structural Depth Review Course.

My first attempt was also a fail (obviously). My score that round was 31 AM/18 PM, and I had self-prepared.

Click to expand...

@hardhatsandpinkshoes Hi!  I am a several time repeat civil structural taker and just passed.  Whew!  I'm also in Kentucky and also used EET to prepare (and failed that attempt). If you haven't yet tried it, call the Kentucky Engineering Center in Frankfort and ask about their Saturday review courses. (Affordable option compared to the online courses)  I used that this time to help prepare and passed.  The classes are in Frankfort on six Saturdays.  I found a group of people in my area and we carpooled together. Good luck to you! 

I got 26/20 on my 3rd attempt so 46/80

I got 30/19 on my 2nd attempt so 49/80

My first attempt I think overall score was 43/80

I took SoPE the first time and EET the second time.

I used all that material on my 3rd time mostly working problems.

I failed at my third attempt in Oct. 2019 (Total = 49/80, AM = 26/40, PM = 23/40). I used EET on demand this time around but was unable to watch any of the classes (due to busy fall schedule) and mostly just utilized the binders for things I was unfamiliar with from previous attempts. I'm pretty sure that EET offers free on-demand classes if you fail after purchasing their bundle the first time, so I'll probably try watching the classes this next time and report back. I took way more practice exams which I think helped me more than anything else this go around. Additionally, I kind of "zenned" while prepping this time. I think just taking deep breaths and not over doing it in terms of studying was super beneficial.

Second attempt was, also (obviously), a fail in April 2019 (Total = 45/80, AM = 25/40, PM = 20/40). I took a full-on 2x a week, 3 month long, online PPI course  to prep for this attempt. I thought I passed 100% after taking the exam this time and was shocked to find out that I did not. Looking back on it, I'm not sure how beneficial PPI was for me. I definitely knew what type of questions would be on the exam but the whole watching a class and not just sitting down to actually do the practice exams (& not look @ the  solutions along the way!!) did not help me at all. I did not utilize my free access to PPI (for failing after using their course) while prepping for my third attempt at all, and I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't have helped me if I had (this is just my opinion for myself - it obviously varies from person to person).

First attempt was in Oct. 2018 (Total = 44/80, AM = 26/40, PM = 18/40). I did self-study for this attempt, but was super disappointed to only get ONE more question right after prepping w/ the $$$ PPI course for the second try..

kkylet93 said:

This was my second unsuccessful attempt at the Civil Structural PE. April 19 I received 28 AM / 19 PM. October 19 I received 26 AM / 23 PM. I self studied both occasions and took it in the Mobile, AL area.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry!  You are extremely close and that can be frustrating!  It took me four times to pass..sometimes it takes having a better cycle of questions or having a couple more guesses go your way.  Don't quit fighting!  You will get it next time!

My two cents on taking “On Demand “ vs live class times... and only speaking for myself... As tempted as I was to try EET OnDemand, I did their Saturday classes and Tuesday workshop problems/ quizzes because it made me more accountable. The first two attempts of trying and self studying or OnDemand SoPE yielded bad results because it was at my own leisure to make myself study/ watch the videos...which in turn... was already a problem because had I studied efficiently, I wouldn’t have had to take it two more times to finally pass the exam. Me knowing that my free repeat depended on me being in attendance made it that much more important that I was in attendance and present...plus it allowed me to ask questions as soon as my confusion kicked in. But what do I know... I only failed twice before finally passing

TN is out:

Failed 4th attempt 27/40 AM: 20/40 PM: Total 47/80

hardhatsandpinkshoes said:

Did you use SoPE for both morning and afternoon review? If so, did you like it and feel like it helped?

Click to expand...

I used it for both the morning and afternoon. I found it extremely useful for the morning questions. The first time I took the PE Exam I got 33 right in the morning. 

For the afternoon I found it more useful to self study (tons of practice problems) because the first time I took the PE I bombed the afternoon, and the second time I did much better. 

I'm going to take a live class the third go around.

My coworkers in structural focus mostly on crushing the morning with a goal to get around 38 questions right because the afternoon session is just soul sucking entity where you never know what kind of questions you get.

Hello all,

just wanted to take a couple of minutes to commend your efforts and acknowledge your hard work.

Dont give up!

the civil structural exam is (in my opinion) one of the toughest out there because of the number of codes you have to know. 
 

my only advice to all of you is to get intimate with the codes. Just know them. When i prepared i spent about a week (per book) knowing each and every nook and cranny and tabbing the codes. One of the keys to passing is speed. And you will earn precious time by getting to relevant code provisions quickly. 
 

hope you all pass come April.

Hindianapolis said:

Hello all,

just wanted to take a couple of minutes to commend your efforts and acknowledge your hard work.

Dont give up!

the civil structural exam is (in my opinion) one of the toughest out there because of the number of codes you have to know. 
 

my only advice to all of you is to get intimate with the codes. Just know them. When i prepared i spent about a week (per book) knowing each and every nook and cranny and tabbing the codes. One of the keys to passing is speed. And you will earn precious time by getting to relevant code provisions quickly. 
 

hope you all pass come April.

Click to expand...

I'd second this.  While it seemed about half of the structural depth portion was member design, the other half was just knowing how to use the codes.  My suggestion would be to just become very familiar with the organizational layout of the codes (especially ACI which is tricky).  You can be sure they are going to ask 2-5 questions on random code sections that no one uses in their typical work year.

Pennsylvania - 46/80 (24 AM/22 PM) - 1st attempt - All self study using CERM, 1 practice exam, code reviews, some Six Minute Solutions. Probably around 100 hours total study time but a lot of crunch in the final two weeks and a lot of that time after 9 PM because life. 

Feeling pretty dumb about portions of my diagnostic. I know I flat out had to guess on probably 6 in the morning and 6 in the afternoon (last 5 minutes of each portion). I'm torn. on one hand I feel like I'm close and some sharpening will have me passing. On the other, I feel that if & when the exam is different in April, I could easily put another 100 hours in and still get a mid 40's result just because of how the exam changes.

- Geometrics I am pretty sure I punted due to time. I just couldn't "see" this direction to take like I should have been able to so I panicked, waited, and then guessed. 

- Design and Details of Structures : Component Design and Detailing is a huge blow, humbling, embarrassing and is leaving me wonder just what did I do wrong? I mean this one hurts and makes me feel like I don't deserve to be designing diddly squat right now. Like yeah, I don't deserve a PE anytime soon.

My game plan? Take it again in April 2020 with review of the parts I did good on, hard core review/study on the parts I boned. I feel like I learned a really good time management lesson during the exam, so that's something I am going to practice that. Probably use at least 1 practice exam to reproduce those 8 hours so I can hopefully not scramble in the last minutes for 10+ questions. 

I've always known the "cut score" to be 52/80. I never seen a 52+ person fail...but I would love to see examples of it (if it exists).