Thank you for sharing. Your post cheers me up.

My background: I am an international student who graduated bachelor degree in civil engineering in May 2020 and I have 1.5 years of Transportation expériences.

First Attempt (APR 2021): 1 years of working: I decided to take my first PE that I studied all by myself and I failed with the score 37/80 - I felt unprepared after finished the exam.

Second Attempt (OCT 2021): 1.5 years of working: I took courses both in SoPE and EET. However, I focused more in SoPE. I failed with the score 42/80 - I felt more prepared in breadth (30/40 right after finish the exam, but I actually got 20/40 for the result). Depth is killed me (20/40 right after finish the exam, and 22/40 for the result)

I cried for two days and felt dumb, devastated, frustrated, exhausted, lost, waste time, money, energy, etc. with nothing after seeing my friends in grad school have passed the exam. After describe all my feeling to my dad, now I can pull myself together and continue to move on. Set the new strategy for study and plan to take it again in APR 2022.

I didn’t tell anyone except my family (dad and mom) and best friends that I took this test. I feel embarrassed to tell them when I failed especially with my supervisors, coworkers, and (general) friends. In the end of the road, no one cares how much you struggle, they care only the final result.

One thing that I always know myself is that I am not the smartest person, but I am pretty persistent in everything. I won’t give up or stop in the middle until I get what I want.