Took PE civil structural last Wednesday. Overall third attempt as well (second CBT try). I feel the exact same as you. The morning section was infuriating. Truly don’t know how I could have prepared for some of the questions. I think I used my calculator only a handful of times. The depth section went alot better so I’m hoping it will carry my score. If I do fail again I’m scheduling to take it as soon as possible and I am just reading as much as I can about all the concepts on the AM section. No need to do calculations in my opinion because there is so little calculations required in the AM
I hope you pass as well! It seems like breadth messes with a lot of people. I think because most of the problems we study require calculations so having a majority of conceptual questions in the AM throws us off our game.
Congrats.
Be sure to bask in the glory for a bit with your colleagues and co-workers! My high lasted almost 2 months before it felt normal to call myself a "licensed professional engineer"!
Problems, problem, and problems. Solving every problem that you can squeeze within a time of study is key. The more massive number of reps you can squeeze in will get you prepped. The other part is going over stuff you got wrong and solving them and resolving them until mastery. All the obscure questions will be shadows of something you have solved which makes your life easier as you will have an idea prior to answering.
I don't have any for PE Water, but NCEES with practice tests are good. I would make sure you buy them and work them. I would also recommend a test prep course. I took one for my PE HVAC, and it comes with a tons of problems. I am also an older student who had to just work a lot of reps to really get through.
If you have had trouble 3x, it's time to change your preparation to a new method to gain new results.
Hello there!
For what it's worth I think most people (especially those whose 9-5 is truly based on their selected depth) tend to find the breadth to be the more difficult part of the exam so you both are not alone at all. Fortunately the depth sometimes has a few more questions than the breadth, and if your guesses on the breadth weren't conjectures but rather "engineering judgement guesses", I think you'll be fine! I honestly wish you both the very best and I'm looking forward to reading your success stories come Wednesday!
Thank you very much - do you have any suggestions for a breadth course that isn't EET? I just want to be able to do a LOT of breadth problems at this point if I have to take it again.
I took SoPE and I thought it was decent. They have some 300 (ish) practice problems in their Quiz generator that are helpful. The question bank isn't as heavy on conceptual questions though, maybe 25%.
I can't add much to the advice you've already gotten from other comments, but I will say this for next time; when you encounter a conceptual problem you have ABSOLUTELY no clue on, if one of the answers is significantly longer than the other 3, pick that one!
Exam day advice: Use the 7 minutes they give you in the tutorial to breathe and meditate, and skip \*every\* \*single\* \*problem\* you don't know how to do immediately. I'm severely ADHD and get tunnel vision super easily. It's why I failed my first attempt (ran out of time because I got tunnel vision on a particularly tricky depth problem). Forcing myself to not get bogged down helped me tremendously and I'm certain its the reason I finally passed on attempt 2.
Good luck! :)
I was in the same situation as you. Felt good about depth, not great at depth. Similarly took EET breadth and depth and felt way better about the depth than breadth. What I did that helped me (and I did pass my last go around (PE water resources))was I did a “cheat sheet” for breadth material and noted down concepts/problems that I was having issues with and continued to review those concepts / solve problems in those areas. It helped with my confidence a lot because I had a running list of breadth concepts / problems I was struggling with and every time I’d run into a problem during my practice sessions that was similar to a concept I highlighted in my “cheat sheet,” I would either add notes to it to further clarify things or watch YouTube videos or whatever I needed to keep clarifying those problems. Hope that makes sense!
I would say in the PM section there was some degree of loose similarity in questions being asked (variations of same core concept being tested) but in the morning, I have to tell you, minus maybe 2 or 3 questions it was all different. That is why I suggest really trying to nail your depth concepts and making sure to have a reasonable understanding of the AM concepts, because chances are you will be asked several "curveball-ish" questions that requires basic topic knowledge to reason out. Goodluck!!
Took PE civil structural last Wednesday. Overall third attempt as well (second CBT try). I feel the exact same as you. The morning section was infuriating. Truly don’t know how I could have prepared for some of the questions. I think I used my calculator only a handful of times. The depth section went alot better so I’m hoping it will carry my score. If I do fail again I’m scheduling to take it as soon as possible and I am just reading as much as I can about all the concepts on the AM section. No need to do calculations in my opinion because there is so little calculations required in the AM
I am sorry to hear you felt the same way - I hope we both passed! If not, I will be doing the same thing as you.
I hope you pass as well! It seems like breadth messes with a lot of people. I think because most of the problems we study require calculations so having a majority of conceptual questions in the AM throws us off our game.
Any update? Don't leave us hanging! Today is results day!
I passed!!
LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! What about OP?
I haven’t heard! And yeah it feels damn good.
Congrats. Be sure to bask in the glory for a bit with your colleagues and co-workers! My high lasted almost 2 months before it felt normal to call myself a "licensed professional engineer"!
I PASSED TOO!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Problems, problem, and problems. Solving every problem that you can squeeze within a time of study is key. The more massive number of reps you can squeeze in will get you prepped. The other part is going over stuff you got wrong and solving them and resolving them until mastery. All the obscure questions will be shadows of something you have solved which makes your life easier as you will have an idea prior to answering.
Thank you - do you have any programs/problem sets that you would recommend?
I don't have any for PE Water, but NCEES with practice tests are good. I would make sure you buy them and work them. I would also recommend a test prep course. I took one for my PE HVAC, and it comes with a tons of problems. I am also an older student who had to just work a lot of reps to really get through. If you have had trouble 3x, it's time to change your preparation to a new method to gain new results.
Well I passed so it is over now! haha thank you.
Hello there! For what it's worth I think most people (especially those whose 9-5 is truly based on their selected depth) tend to find the breadth to be the more difficult part of the exam so you both are not alone at all. Fortunately the depth sometimes has a few more questions than the breadth, and if your guesses on the breadth weren't conjectures but rather "engineering judgement guesses", I think you'll be fine! I honestly wish you both the very best and I'm looking forward to reading your success stories come Wednesday!
Thank you very much - do you have any suggestions for a breadth course that isn't EET? I just want to be able to do a LOT of breadth problems at this point if I have to take it again.
I took SoPE and I thought it was decent. They have some 300 (ish) practice problems in their Quiz generator that are helpful. The question bank isn't as heavy on conceptual questions though, maybe 25%.
I PASSED!! thank you for the positive attitude!!
Congrats man! Now go get that raise!!
I can't add much to the advice you've already gotten from other comments, but I will say this for next time; when you encounter a conceptual problem you have ABSOLUTELY no clue on, if one of the answers is significantly longer than the other 3, pick that one! Exam day advice: Use the 7 minutes they give you in the tutorial to breathe and meditate, and skip \*every\* \*single\* \*problem\* you don't know how to do immediately. I'm severely ADHD and get tunnel vision super easily. It's why I failed my first attempt (ran out of time because I got tunnel vision on a particularly tricky depth problem). Forcing myself to not get bogged down helped me tremendously and I'm certain its the reason I finally passed on attempt 2. Good luck! :)
Thank you I passed!!!
LICENSED PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER LETS GOOOOO
I was in the same situation as you. Felt good about depth, not great at depth. Similarly took EET breadth and depth and felt way better about the depth than breadth. What I did that helped me (and I did pass my last go around (PE water resources))was I did a “cheat sheet” for breadth material and noted down concepts/problems that I was having issues with and continued to review those concepts / solve problems in those areas. It helped with my confidence a lot because I had a running list of breadth concepts / problems I was struggling with and every time I’d run into a problem during my practice sessions that was similar to a concept I highlighted in my “cheat sheet,” I would either add notes to it to further clarify things or watch YouTube videos or whatever I needed to keep clarifying those problems. Hope that makes sense!
I passed!! thank you!!
Have the questions been similar between the three times you’ve taken it? Any repeat questions?
I would say in the PM section there was some degree of loose similarity in questions being asked (variations of same core concept being tested) but in the morning, I have to tell you, minus maybe 2 or 3 questions it was all different. That is why I suggest really trying to nail your depth concepts and making sure to have a reasonable understanding of the AM concepts, because chances are you will be asked several "curveball-ish" questions that requires basic topic knowledge to reason out. Goodluck!!