Don’t let others tell you how hard the exam will be for you. Therefore, one of the main difficulties of the PE exam is simply not knowing what to expect. NCEES describes the ‘most nearly’ types of questions as the following: Many of the questions on the NCEES exams require calculations to arrive at a numerical answer. However, remember that everyone has differing opinions of what ‘difficult’ really means. 6 years ago. Study for the exam, take some practice exams, prepare your study material, etc. Disclaimer # 2: I have never been a PE exam grader and I personally do not know how the exam is scored. Probably one of the most difficult aspects of the PE exam is simply trying to stay focused for 8 hours. He was in the top percentile of his graduating university class and passed the FE exam on the first try when he was a senior in college. You still need to put in the hours and hard work to learn the necessary materials. What are your thoughts? Get more thoughts and advice from me about preparing for the exam at my website Mechanical PE Academy. Get my recommendations on the best practice exams here. Unlike the FE exam, the PE exam is open book, but don't let that fool you into thinking the PE exam is easy! I studied like crazy. Typically, this requires selecting a value that is closest to but larger than the current or load. I felt like I was scrambling through books the whole time with very little calculations. And for that I say thank you to all. I don’t see how anyone is expected to make a 70 percent given those ridiculous problems. Probably one of the most difficult aspects of the PE exam is simply trying to stay focused for 8 hours. Bill is an engineering intern at a big, multi-location civil engineering firm. Civil Construction PE Exam. The Structural Engineering exam, or SE, is what you take to become a licensed Structural Engineer. If you have thought about taking the PE Exam, you’ve most likely considered the difficulty.When compared to college exams or even the FE exam, the PE is a whole different animal. I did not recognize any of the roadside design problems or the mechanical empirical pavement primer problems. 300+ hours, took an online class, completed 5 practice exams, and countless practice problems. There are a lot of people who put in a lot of time studying for the PE exam but don’t pass. In the end, no matter what you take, you'll be locking yourself in your closet and hunkering down for 3 to 4 months. Structural; Pass rates. 2 years ago. But if I overestimate the downside of something or the challenge of something and I get too obsessed about the difficulty of it, then I don't leave enough room to be open to the upside, the possibility.”. Not knowing exactly what to expect on the PE exam is overwhelming for most engineers. Get a good night’s sleep the night before. It can very difficult to prepare for this experience. However, if the question asks you to select a fuse or circuit breaker to protect against a calculated current or to size a beam to carry a load, you should select an answer option that will safely carry the current or load. Now we’ve covered just the cost if you only want to take the test, with no reference materials or calculators. The exam is difficult, there's no question about that. The phrase “most nearly” is used to accommodate answers that have been derived correctly but that may be slightly different from the correct answer choice given on the exam. Structural (Paper) – This is not the same as the PE Civil Structural depth exam. I think the geotechnical exam is the easiest depth exam and the structural depth exam is the hardest one for the civil PE exam. It is important to note that not all practice exams provide a good representation of the actual test. View the PE Structural pass rates. I just want to take this time to thank all who helped, one way or another, those of us who took the exam April 2012. Also there are a lot of people who spend thousands on courses and don’t pass. It can very difficult to prepare for this experience. and don’t focus on the negative thoughts of the possible difficulty.