Hi everyone! My name is Suzy and I took the PE in October 2015 in Water. I studied for about 4 months and dedicated about 1 (8 hour day), usually a weekend day to study. During this day I would practice problems by timing myself (1 hour increments and give myself 10 problems to do, 6 minutes each). At first, I was not doing well, getting about 20-30% right, but I would keep repeating the problems while timing myself and eventually I would start to get more and more right.
The resources I mainly used to solve problems for the water exam was the FE manual. You can print this online for free, just bind it for the exam. I believe I solved about 80% of the exam with just the FE manual for the water exam. The other exams, soils, structural, and transportation may need codes, but for water I found that the NCEES formula book had almost all the formulas needed to solve the water PE. I used the 2 NCEES water practice problem books and Mike's Civil PE Exam Guide (can be bought
here). I also enrolled in my local ASCE YMF's PE review course which also helped me review the basics of the 3 other topics.
The day of the exam will be stressful, so you want to minimize the amount of stress as much as possible by being completely prepared. I suggest doing a test drive to the test site days before, do not rely on google maps to guide you as some friends in my exam got lost the day of. Pack a lunch, snacks, and drinks (caffeine if you need it throughout the day) so you don't have to leave the test site. Be prepared to show your ID and have it out on the table the entire test. Also, leave your phone in the car! You can check it during the lunch break, but if they see it, even if it is off, they will kick you out. Bring a jacket in case the AC is cold, and wear comfy clothes. Lastly, bring TWO calculators. :)
------------------------------
Suzanne Trabia A.M.ASCE
Henderson NV
(702) 513-1419
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 02-15-2019 09:20
From: Alexander McCaskill
Subject: The PE Exam: 1st Versus 2nd Time Test Takers
I passed the Geotechnical PE on the first try. Counting practice exams, I spent 64 hours on studying. I would say that 60 to 120 hours is just about right. Spend at least 10 to 20 hours on each exam subject what you feel weak on (consult the exam specification). Two things were very helpful for me:
- In addition to your other studying (getting familiar with references, practice problems, etc.), I strongly recommend setting aside 4 or 5 Saturdays in the 6 to 8 weeks before the exam to do full-length practice exams. I personally found this very helpful to prepare for the mental and physical exertion of using your brain continuously for eight hours. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon.
- Score yourself during the exam. After you finish a question, write a number on the side in the exam booklet from 0.25 to 1.0 indicating your level of confidence in the answer. If you are confident in the work you did to arrive at the answer, that would be a 1.0. If you took a wild flying guess, that would be a 0.25. Use 0.5 or 0.75 for anything in between. Don't think too much about the number and keep moving. After you finish the last question, add up all these numbers - memorize this raw score total for the morning, then do the same thing in the afternoon, add the two raw scores together and divide by 80 questions. This is your estimated percentage score for the exam - I estimated 92% overall. The benefits here are twofold: (A) if you end up with some extra time after finishing the last question, you can go back and take a fresh approach to the low-confidence level questions, (B) having some sense of how you did (for good or bad) significantly reduces your post-exam anxiety while waiting for the results. The exam result (pass/fail) was viewable on the NCEES website six weeks after the exam, and I received the official letter from the stat board.
------------------------------
Alexander McCaskill, PE*
Geotechnical Section, Bridge Group
HNTB
Kansas City, MO
Original Message:
Sent: 02-14-2019 13:04
From: Kevin Woods
Subject: The PE Exam: 1st Versus 2nd Time Test Takers
Here are some tips that helped me pass the Environmental and CA Seismic exam on my first try.
Manage your time when practicing problems and practice problems from different sources to get familiar with how problems are worded. Think about borrowing practice problem resources from your peers or past attendees.
If you are taking the exam the second time, don't be discouraged. Focus on topics that give you the most trouble. Solve as any many problems you could and time yourself. Come back to the trouble topics closer to the exam (maybe 1 month) and check if you are still having problems. The trick is to continue the process until you are able to solve problems with little thinking.
------------------------------
Kevin Woods PE,MASCE
Los Angeles CA
(714)757-8865
------------------------------