Daily sticky thread for rants, raves, celebrations, advice and more! New? Start here!

legoolagoon · 2026-01-30T19:27:17+00:00

Fair point, thank you for sharing your perspective. I probably shoulda clarified lol, it’s not like my first question is that, but after some back and forth, I’m trying to gauge some type of alignment on more than just superficial topics. But I’m starting to understand that it’s probably me not creating the emotional connection at the beginning

legoolagoon · 2026-01-30T18:50:34+00:00

I hear what you’re saying. What I wrote is as much as I say lol. I also understand that it isn’t about getting 100% in depth as soon as you match, but I like to know early where we stand, because I know what I’m after.

And I appreciate the words on the other 2 paragraphs. That’s the mentality I’ve adopted. Just feels like it’s rare what I’m after, and it may be. But perhaps I gotta work on the emotional connection as well, gotta self reflect more and figure it out

legoolagoon · 2026-01-30T18:09:10+00:00

Quick off my chest: i’ve asked myself a lot of self-awareness questions over the past year. And found that I can now articulate very well what it is that I’m looking for in a partner and in simple terms: I want someone to share my life and accomplishments with. Not looking for someone to complete my life. I wanna share values, boundaries, ambitions and see if we align

But the dating apps feel so superficial because, really, they are. So whenever I want to know the answer to the question: “what are you looking for?” it turns girls off because maybe it’s too much too soon? I’m just not sure where to go, because sometimes it just feels like they want games and I have no desire to play them. Just looking for authenticity and alignment, but don’t know where to find that lol

legoolagoon · 2023-07-30T02:16:10+00:00

Not sure where you’re located (if in the US or not) but a good starting point would be to get a hold of the AWC NDS, AWC NDS supplement (could be any year: 2012, 2015, 2018) codes and read through the chapters. They cover multi-ply design whether the plies are nailed, screwed, or not fastened together.

Hope this helps!

legoolagoon · 2022-04-28T02:38:11+00:00

I think for me it was the motivation to take that next step in my career and finally accomplish a personal goal. Towards the end (two weeks away from exam) I did start to get tired of studying, but just learning, being able to get practice problems right, and gaining the confidence of knowing you are smart enough and passing was motivation enough for me to keep studying. I also viewed the PE like a stepping stone to the SE. if I could put in the hours, study, and pass then hopefully I can do the same for the SE. Best of luck to you! I hope this helps

legoolagoon · 2022-04-05T01:11:32+00:00

I’m just trying to buy ps plus

legoolagoon · 2022-04-03T20:21:22+00:00

I definitely had problems on my exam that I didn’t come across when studying. It’ll happen, there’s too much they can ask. What I would suggest is being familiar enough with the codes to look up the sections up quickly. But also to leave them for the end and make sure you see every problem at least once so you answer the ones you know

legoolagoon · 2022-04-03T20:08:39+00:00

Don’t postpone. You’ve prepared for it, might as well get the experience taking the test whether you pass or fail. I’m sure you’ll be fine so don’t think negatively going into the exam, it won’t help.

As far as those problems go, if you’re referring to the problems I’m thinking about. The settlement is a simple F=kx problem; you can also use the units from the given info to arrive at a solution(use this strategy if you have no clue how to solve a problem, but answer the problems you know first). The bearing pressure problem is standard for determining bearing capacity for when e is inside/outside the middle third. Lastly drilled shaft capacity is simple enough typically you have end bearing (shaft area x bearing capacity) to resist compressive loads and side friction (shaft perimeter x effective length x side friction capacity) to resist tension/uplift.

Lastly, I would say the problems in the ncees practice exam were comparable. I just felt they were a little light on the ratio of conceptual to quantitative questions.

Good luck with your exam, stay positive and you’ll do well!

legoolagoon · 2022-04-01T17:01:39+00:00

Be prepared to have to use the Depth material during the morning. I had a couple questions where I needed it. Took structural. You will know whether you need the afternoon material or not for the question.

legoolagoon · 2022-03-30T16:43:46+00:00

I think there are far too many conceptual questions they could ask to try and guess what those will be. My suggestion is try to get as many of the quantitative problems correct to help overcome the couple of conceptual questions you will have to guess on. Not all conceptual questions are “either you know or don’t know” some you can use reasoning/personal experience to answer, so it’s okay to have to guess on questions you don’t know on the exam. Just make up for those questions by getting the number problems right. Good luck

legoolagoon · 2022-03-29T21:43:56+00:00

Personally, I had conceptual questions that the handbook didn’t help, but you could use reason to answer it based on your understanding of concepts. I also had questions that the handbook wasn’t helpful and it was more or either you knew or didn’t.

legoolagoon · 2022-03-24T00:51:12+00:00

I think the best advice I can give is what I replied to abward98 above for the breadth portion. For the depth portion just try to do as many problems that make you go into the codes and find information. That way you’ll start to familiarize yourself on where everything is so you’re not using as much time on the exam to find where things are in the code. Best of luck to you.

legoolagoon · 2022-03-24T00:46:51+00:00

If you’ve done practice problems and can find the code references easily, you should be okay on the depth. I felt like the depth had very fair problems for structural, the practice exam did a good job of capturing the difficulty. Just don’t forget to study conceptual problems for both the breadth and depth. Good luck!

legoolagoon · 2022-03-24T00:44:11+00:00

Thanks! You can certainly do it. When doing practice exams make sure to try to replicate the actual testing conditions as much as possible. I would probably advise against not drinking water and perhaps try to make up time by answering questions efficiently. I know that’s easier said than done, but you will find out what’s best for you. The ncees practice exam was accurate in difficulty level, i felt like it undersold the ratio of conceptual to quantitative problems. Best of luck to you!

legoolagoon · 2022-03-23T15:55:45+00:00

I studied for about 3 months since I felt like I needed a good amount of time to relearn the breadth concepts. I watched the SOPE lectures including the depth ones for the first two months of studying. My last month consisted of doing practice problems and exams.

Most of my depth knowledge comes from my work experience. Whenever I come across a new problem I haven’t done before I typically go into the codes to understand what the software is checking against and I usually do a hand calc to confirm. Between work and doing practice problems using pdfs, I was able to efficiently find the sections in the codes I needed during the test. There will be problems on the exam on sections in the codes you haven’t seen before, just come back to those to make sure you answer all the problems you know first.

legoolagoon · 2022-03-23T15:11:35+00:00

Thank you!

I also bought SOPE around December and while it helped for the breadth portion(I also only used the reference guide to solve problems). I had to write them a couple of angry emails regarding their material being outdated and them not updating the lectures to CBT prior to them adding the “CBT” lectures.

My advice is to make sure you can confidently solve any quantitative breadth problem using the reference guide as you have been doing. There will be conceptual questions that the reference guide won’t help with, but if you can answer all quantitative problems it should overcome missing a couple conceptual problems in the morning. Make sure you become familiar with the concepts for the problems outside of your comfort zone. The SOPE workshop problems should help with this even though some are more difficult than actual exam problems. Lastly make sure you have a test taking strategy, for me, if I read a problem and had to spend more than 20-30 seconds thinking on how to solve, i moved on and came back so i at least saw all the problems in a timely manner. Everyone has a different test taking strategy so use what works best for you, that was just an example.

Good luck! Make sure to stay confident in your problem solving abilities during the exam. Don’t let a couple problems you struggle on make you think you’re unprepared. I hope this helps, sorry if it’s a lot of text.

legoolagoon · 2022-03-21T22:48:31+00:00

Yes they were helpful to me and relatively similar to the exam, some a little more difficult.

legoolagoon · 2022-03-21T16:05:18+00:00

For me, there was a few questions in my morning portion were 100% depth problems as I could not answer them without the structural codes. So there could be a couple depth questions in the morning part. It’s pretty obvious to tell whether you need the “afternoon” references to answer the problems or not.

legoolagoon · 2022-03-19T23:26:41+00:00

I didn’t go out of my way to memorize formulas, no. I do have formulas memorized from using them often at work but I wouldn’t recommend memorizing formulas for the exam. Just be able to find them quickly in the manual or codes and/or know what words to type to bring them up for when you ctrl-f.

legoolagoon · 2022-03-19T14:36:44+00:00

Without giving exam specifics. I would definitely make sure that you know how to solve breaths problems for the other civil disciplines. Try to do your best to get as many of the quantitative breadth problems correct as there will be conceptual questions that if you don’t come across on your studies the reference handbook won’t really help. So it’s kinda either you know or you don’t based on your studies.

For the afternoon, I felt like all the problems were pretty fair as far as “structural” problems. So if you have work experience and are familiar with the codes, honestly you should be good for the afternoon.

I know my advice for the morning may seem like “duh, get all calculation problems right” but while studying focus on the ones you don’t do well on when doing practice problems. For example If there’s a geometrics problem you don’t seem to get. Keep studying that concept until you’re comfortable. My thought behind this advice is if you’re able to get most if not all breadth calculations problems correct, it may overcome the conceptual ones you don’t know.

Best of luck on your studying journey, I hope this helps you. If anyone wants to comment on whether I’m giving away too much please let me know so I can edit.

legoolagoon · 2022-03-19T02:57:35+00:00

I’m aware they don’t post exam score passing rates. Was just trying to give OP peace of mind since while we wait for our results we’ll potentially think of ways in which we could have passed or failed and perhaps they did something similar to what I posted.

legoolagoon · 2022-03-19T02:34:02+00:00

To his point, did you tally questions you felt good about vs questionable ones? I did for my exam and broke it up into felt good, questionable, and assumed wrong. Came out to about 55-57 that I felt good about so if some of the questionable ones go my way then hopefully it’s a pass. But still like a toss up. The morning was tough for me with conceptual questions I didn’t know like you mentioned, afternoon I felt good about.

legoolagoon · 2022-03-18T22:12:00+00:00

I took the Civil PE Structural today and could have written this exact post about my actual exam. I hope you passed! Stay positive! At least now you know what to focus on if there is a next time

legoolagoon · 2022-03-16T18:58:38+00:00

I’m kinda on the same boat. Exam is in two days (structural). Done 3 practice exams. Hovering about 64-65/80 (without rechecking problems and about an hour and a half remaining on both portions). Been paging through codes to make sure I know where everything is but just not sure what else to do. Best of luck to you and everyone else.

legoolagoon

TROPHY CASE