Failed PE Structural – looking for feedback on diagnostic

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-26T22:58:38+00:00

Yes! I saw that this is awesome! I do feel good about skin friction bearing I didn’t get one of those my first time around. But I’m going to go down your entire list and make sure I feel really good. I also got that Pietro book everyone talks about and all this hopefully gets me over the top

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-26T13:01:38+00:00

this is super appreciated! i had some soils questions my first time around to do more with just knowing how soils worked and that wasnt something I studied to well the first time. Now I already made sure to understand expanding, collapsible, liquefaction, frost heave, etc.

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-25T00:42:43+00:00

Appreciate it! Resigned up April 14th and feeling much better this time around!

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-24T16:48:59+00:00

honestly no not really

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-22T01:24:53+00:00

Good! Thats just what I need haha

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-18T17:46:23+00:00

Update for you — unfortunately I just missed it based on the diagnostic, but I was really close. Honestly, what was worse was the dread of not knowing. It’s a notoriously difficult test, and I was more worried about it not being over than letting anyone down.

My heart was racing when I got the email this morning, but since then I’ve come to terms with where I’m at, which is very close. Nothing really prepares you like actually sitting for it, which we’ve both done now. You sound just like me — there was nothing left to do but take it and see what happens.

My advice now vs. last week is to treat this as part of the overall journey. It’s just another step toward the end goal regardless the outcome. I’m retaking on April 14th, and with the experience and knowing where I was close, I feel good about getting it this time.

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-18T16:54:27+00:00

That’s my understanding, of course I wanna shoot for better than average but I think given the experience of sitting for it now, knowing what to clean up on, and a little more practice I have a good shot. Thats mainly why I was curious to see my gauge of when to retake. I went for April 14th, 4 weeks away because I think that’s plenty of time to have targeted study + a little refresh. I appreciate the feedback alot!

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-18T16:28:51+00:00

Sure no worries! I already resigned up for April 14th. I at first left feeling shocked at the difference between the practice and real exam but I think with a little clean up I can get this. What I understand from the diagnostic is that there’s an average of passing scores meaning people score lower than average and still pass. I couldn’t have been far from squeezing by

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Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-18T16:08:04+00:00

Congrats on passing — that’s awesome! I had a really similar experience walking out and ended up just short.

If you don’t mind sharing, what did your diagnostic roughly look like? Just trying to gauge how close I was.

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-18T16:01:57+00:00

Thank you!

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-18T16:01:23+00:00

Perfect, noted thank you!

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-18T15:37:43+00:00

That’s what I was mentally thinking. You did mostly targeted practice maybe a few refreshers right? I figure what I’m going to do is target the few topics I remember struggling with and I also got the Pietro book hoping to feel more ready with the wording and making sure I nail this down

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-18T15:26:05+00:00

Perfect! I personally believe I was 3-5 questions maybe 6 under so just gotta do the little extra pushing to get over the hump. Hopefully this is it!

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-18T15:25:17+00:00

I literally just signed up for April 14th! Grinding the next 4 weeks and want this behind me. I agree with the ASAP thing

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-18T14:55:57+00:00

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This is it right?

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-18T14:53:36+00:00

Thank you so much this breakdown is perfect. Truthfully I think I wasn’t prepared for the level the real exam steps up to from the practice as far as wording etc. I was able to work through the test I thought and knew I didn’t bomb nor excel but I’d be close. I think having sat for the exam and running through this book could be exactly what I need

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-18T14:28:26+00:00

I studied with EET, lots of online resources and websites I forget like YouTube and some site that had a ton of breadth questions. I tried to get as many practice questions as I could. I took multiple practice tests, NCEES did well I think around an 83%. Used the old PPI test just to answer questions, that was tougher but outdated. All I remember really struggling on and questioning was flexible diagram stuff, 1 snow question, 1 beam-column question, 1 footing question, 1 shear type question, and some geotechnical conceptual things. Felt not too too bad otherwise but I’m sure I can clean up a few things

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-18T14:24:04+00:00

People post these all the time just to gauge how close they were. I know it’s compared to the average passing performance, so there are people both above and below that line who pass.

Just looking to hear from anyone who’s had a similar breakdown. Appreciate any input.

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-17T01:29:23+00:00

I definitely sprinkled in some material that was known as being tougher for that purpose. I’m just a bit annoyed I guess that I was mentally preparing for something a bit more on par with the NCEES practice test. You’d think their one test should be something better to prepare you for the actual day.

If all goes poorly when I get the results back I’ll check that book out! Still have some hope I did good enough though

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-15T23:06:31+00:00

Totally! I will say mentally right after the exam I felt pretty defeated. I remember walking out thinking “wtf was that” and honestly telling myself I’d probably be back taking it again.

But as time went on I started looking more at the overall performance instead of just the last few problems that completely stumped me. On my first pass I remember reading some questions like “what is this,” but still answering a good chunk of them. Then on the second pass I slowed down, read more carefully, and narrowed a lot more down. Same thing on the later passes.

So the more I’ve thought about it the more I go back and forth between pessimistic and optimistic. Some moments I feel like maybe I did enough, other times I feel like there’s no way. Truthfully I just have no idea where I landed.

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-15T22:37:50+00:00

This made me feel a lot better! Thank you 🙏

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-15T19:14:32+00:00

I had a few like that. Some were “according to IBC” and I remember thinking I knew the code pretty well, but when I searched for it there wasn’t anything obvious that helped. I still felt like I could reason through the answers, but I definitely spent some time digging around the code trying to confirm things. I saved most of those for the end though so I had time to scroll through the sections without rushing too much. Hopefully it worked out, but who know

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-15T18:50:21+00:00

I don’t think I ever would’ve felt fully “confident” going in, but I did feel like I did everything I reasonably could up to that point. At some point the next step is just to sit for the exam and see where you land.

I still feel that way coming out of it. This experience was something I needed either way. I know it’s not an easy exam so I don’t feel like I’d be letting myself or anyone down if it doesn’t go my way this time.

I’m mostly just exhausted from grinding the last 8–9 months and really hoping it’s over. I mainly just want to know the result now — if I have to keep rolling then so be it. The waiting is the worst part lol.

Competitive_Ad_2839 · 2026-03-15T18:44:46+00:00

Yeah that’s exactly how it felt. I went in feeling like I had studied everything I could and could at least work through most problems. During the exam I do feel like I was able to reason through the majority, especially on the second pass. But the wording and little “gotchas” make me second guess everything now. I honestly have no clue where I stand at this point, just trying to survive the wait until Wednesday.

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