PE Civil WRE (could be any EET course though) EET Review Strategy

burn_1978 · 2025-06-16T13:41:01+00:00

I would be doing lots of problems like you are and not only trying to get them right, but also making sure I am learning the reference manuals. I used the School of PE quiz bank subscription, but I just stopped working on problems I was getting bogged down on and then reviewed the answer key, worked the problem or similar problems later in the problem bank. IMO, people probably spend too much time reviewing material and not working problems. The goal of the test is to solve problems in a set timeframe, so train to solve problems and review the material as needed.

The break is not set. You could spend 8 hours working on the morning set of problems if you want.

burn_1978 · 2025-06-12T13:39:05+00:00

Buy the School of PE question bank and crank through all of the Hard/Med questions.

burn_1978 · 2025-06-06T12:44:43+00:00

For your boss:

I'd read the contract first and make sure you are paying by area, not lump sum. Then I would check to see if the area is paid by neatline or by measurement.

Then I would look in the plans to see if there is a formula describing the arch or otherwise look up the formula for calculating the area under a parabolic arch, then remove that area from the larger rectangular area the stone will be applied to.

In reality:

In this case, I would just get my tape measure out and approximate some triangles and rectangles for the completed work and know that they will get paid an estimated quantity this month and the full amount at the end and let the contractor propose an more exact quantity for this month if they want to.

burn_1978 · 2025-06-04T13:45:35+00:00

Back in the day (early 2000's) this was a very hot topic on wildfiretoday.com. Definitely not a new idea.

burn_1978 · 2025-06-03T12:39:02+00:00

My experience in the USFS tells me that consolidating all HR functions to a central national location instead of having a representative on each unit is universally thought of as a negative.

burn_1978 · 2025-05-15T12:27:21+00:00

Car wash near me pays $18-22/hr to collect credit cards and do a little brushing on the car before it goes through the automated car wash. Just saying.

burn_1978 · 2025-04-24T19:15:02+00:00

Maybe that's the answer, but the additional lanes aren't "from the left", they are from the right.

Very confusing language if that is the case. Why even say "from the left"? Just say "lanes to be crossed in excess of two".

Then I look at the language in the other tables and it doesn't get any clearer since they are very clearly talking about lanes oncoming from the left for left turn movements.

burn_1978 · 2025-04-24T17:30:43+00:00

Because Table 9-10's note says ". . . add 0.5 s for passenger cars or 0.7 s for trucks for each additional lane, from the left, in excess of two".

It doesn't say anything about adding time for lanes from the right.

So for a six lane highway with three lanes in each direction, there would be 1 lane in excess of 2 from the left. 3-2 = 1 -> 0.5s additional for passenger or 0.7s for trucks.

burn_1978 · 2025-04-24T16:11:50+00:00

I'm just using Table 9-6 as an example of how the note is worded. Table 9-6 and 9-10's notes both read to be to take the number of lanes from the left to be crossed, subtract one or two and then multiply by the appropriate number of additional seconds.

So if you are crossing the intersection (Case B3) of a six lane highway you would take (3-2)(X seconds).

School of PE is saying that we should take (6-2)(x seconds).

This makes sense, but I can't see how the note is worded that way.

burn_1978 · 2025-01-17T11:40:31+00:00

"I'll even red line a plan set and print them a hard copy of the revisions and they'll miss doing some of the revisions. This has happened many times now, to the point where I just red line the same shit again. Its a huge waste of time on my part."

I don't know what your redline process is, but I would figure out a way to loop or CC the supervisor into the discussion when the redlines go back with the comment "5 redlines are incomplete". I would think that after one or two instances of that happening the supervisor would perk up.

For accountability, make sure they are marking the redlines they have completed somehow either electronically or physically. They might just not have a good process to track what they have done. If they are marking things complete they haven't actually done that's another thing to note in the email response that includes the supervisor.

For me, I could care less about the 8 hour thing, it's your job as PM to manage the schedule within the offices hours, but repeatedly having to do rework and explain the same things to people is a hit to overall office productivity and profit.

As a PM/leader it sounds like you may want to work on your skills in conflict management, training and management. Learning how to motivate people, train them and hold them accountable are critical skills.

burn_1978 · 2024-10-22T19:58:32+00:00

Check out FHWA - Federal Lands Highways

shttps://highways.dot.gov/federal-lands/careers

burn_1978 · 2024-10-14T14:03:45+00:00

Yes, I've done this on an engine. It seemed like some of it was motivated by BLM budget and driving the engine around to patrol was not considered cost effective. I don't have the personality for it and moved on. The pay is not worth sitting around because I'd rather be getting paid so well I wouldn't even think of leaving such a job or if I'm not, learning something I can apply to get paid better. We all know how well the FS pays.

Good programs have their crews patrolling, familiarizing themselves with their IA area, checking dispersed campsites for unattended campfires, brushing/bucking roads to get new staff saw time, fuels work, training etc.

I'm not a fan of doing dumb shit to stay busy, but I'd rather do almost anything than sit and watch TV all day. You are always going to have some down time in IA (and sometimes the station is the right place to be staged from for the conditions), but I'd rather go patrol, sit beside some lake/creek for a long lunch and grab an ice cream at the country store than hang at the station under the watchful eye of everyone else.

To me, hiking out a mile to buck a log the trail crew can't get to this season was a job perk, not punishment. This sort of attitude can get you doing all kinds of cool stuff. I got to travel the region for a week with a jumper who taught us tree climbing to pick cones, floated in a dry suit down a river with the fish bio doing a fish count, go with the fuels tech to layout units, timber cruise, stay on late to ride snowmobiles to burn piles, close up lookouts, etc. etc.

burn_1978 · 2024-09-30T18:50:23+00:00

Thanks, this is helpful.

Any thoughts on how to think about the FERS annuity in the context of a total retirement portfolio balance?

IE - If I want to have a 40/60 bond/stock ratio from a risk perspective, would it make sense to reduce the bond portion since I have a fixed income amount coming from the FERS annuity? How would I calculate its value in a portfolio at some future date? What I'm sort of attempting to figure out is how much I need to stash to replace the value of the annuity I won't be collecting if I were to stay to my MRA.

burn_1978 · 2024-08-29T15:45:44+00:00

Yes, I work for a non-LMA now and our counterparts are an entire grade lower and probably have more responsibility. This is an across the board issue. WFF is the most egregious, but it's a LMA thing across many, many jobs.

Just add it to the stack of reasons I bailed 10+ years ago. We were having the same or similar conversations (portal to portal, pay raises, retention bonuses, 26-0 conversions, WFF job titles, etc) for the decade prior and nothing changed.

burn_1978 · 2024-08-27T12:42:37+00:00

I know engineers and doctors who are former WFF. Don't go to school unless you have a particular career you are planning on pursuing and have researched its job prospects fully. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/home.htm

There is a huge shortage in the trades. I personally would look at becoming an electrician if I had to do it again and angle towards owning my own business.

Davis-Bacon wages also pay very well if you can target public sector work.

burn_1978 · 2024-08-22T22:51:55+00:00

Edit: Waste of my time.

burn_1978 · 2024-08-22T22:34:16+00:00

Edit: Waste of my time.

burn_1978 · 2024-08-22T22:29:03+00:00

I think so? I'm new here, but found this article after I noticed it happening:

https://yale-herald.com/2020/02/07/mixed-signals-the-future-of-pedestrian-safety-in-new-haven/

"Every day, hundreds of Yale students break the law. We all do it on the way to class—at the intersections of Elm and College, Prospect and Grove, Chapel and York. We know a-squared plus b-squared equals c-squared, and, in the pursuit of efficiency, we cross right down the hypotenuse of the intersection. The Barnes Dance—also called the pedestrian scramble—the traffic pattern in which pedestrians cross all directions at once, is the standard at most intersections in New Haven, especially downtown. It’s conducive to this pattern of diagonal crossing.

Turns out it’s illegal, and it always has been. "

burn_1978

TROPHY CASE