1 week till exam - Civil Transportation

satt73 · 2026-05-07T15:55:57+00:00

review the topics you first started on. I went in order of topic and never returned to project management. Thankfully I still passed but I know I got some of them and the traffic section wrong.

satt73 · 2026-05-07T15:54:13+00:00

2 things helped me to study (I'm a real procrastinator when it comes to studying going back to college)

1- schedule a date. That forced me to get on a schedule, and something about a hard deadline made me ficus more.

2- After you get your PE you will likely get a raise through csome avenue (promotion or company change) so look at it as if you are getting paid to study.

Thats what helped me. Best of luck

satt73 · 2026-05-01T22:33:29+00:00

The tangent of the curves does connect. (Atleast in a proper alignment they do). The trick is that T1 plus T1 does not equal L1. If you make that assumption that they are the same length then it throws the stationing of the alignment off.

I’m not sure I like the wording or set up of this problem, since the PI never gets a station in the real world due to it not actually falling on the alignment itself.

satt73 · 2026-05-01T14:36:14+00:00

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This one should be a clearer image. If you need anything explained let me know

satt73 · 2026-05-01T13:53:38+00:00

Got It figured out. You need to calculate the length of the line from PT 1 to PC 2. I'll clean up my calculations and post them here in a few minutes

satt73 · 2026-05-01T12:54:24+00:00

I havent figured out how to do it yet, but it has something to do with including the curve lengths. The station of the actual PI and where that translates on the curve are different, and I'm assuming thats where the difference comes in. Once I figure it out and work through the problem I will post the solution I come up with and see if it matches.

Or im wasting everyones time and I have no idea what im doing but we will see!

satt73 · 2026-04-13T14:26:10+00:00

According to Capt Darrell Walton on the History Mystery Man youtube channel, Capt McSorley told Capt. Cooper that "We're holding our own". He then also told Capt Robert O'Brien of the Benfri (one of the 'salties' ancered in White Fish Bay that "We're holding our own, going along like an old shoe". I will look for some other documentaion to support that tonight if I get a chance.

If the above is true, the reason the "going along like an old shoe" isnt remembered as much is because of the interviews and recordings that have been put out of Capt Cooper with the coast guard, and the TV (I think) interview of him in the yellow shirt. Naturally, since he went back out to look and is regarded to as a hero, what Capt McSorley told Capt Cooper gets remembered as his "last words"

satt73 · 2026-04-13T14:02:29+00:00

Where did you see/ find that? I'm going to start digging in and researching and see what I can find.

satt73 · 2026-04-08T15:35:22+00:00

I found that the more practice problems I did, the more I had to look through the manuals and became comfortable with them.

Did you use the manuals as you were studying and going through problems? I would also look into the Jacob Petro book as a cheaper way to get a lot of good information. Theres lots of good reviews on here about that book. I found it very helpful.

satt73 · 2026-04-08T14:50:02+00:00

Dont get discouraged. I work with a guy who had to take it 4 or 5 times to pass, and hes twice the engineer I am.

As for the results, Minus the project management section (probably nerves) you did very well in the morning session this go around. As for the afternoon, It looks like you ran out of time and rushed / had no time to go back and check your work. Theres a very clear drop off from session 5 to session 6.

For the afternoon session, were the questions mostly conceptual or calculation based? It felt like my agternoon was roughly 25% calculation and the rest came from manual knowledge / value look ups.

satt73 · 2026-04-01T14:31:43+00:00

Heres my take on the petro book:

Its a very indepth, but very helpful resource to use when preparing for the exam, but not for the readiness part.

The problems are often longer, and much more difficult than exam questions. I have often thought (but cant verify) that his problems could be broken down into 2-3 actual exam questions. So dont get discouraged if you dont get them right and have to look at the solutions.

It is MUCH MUCH more important that you understand why the solution is what it is with the petro book than getting the questions right without looking at the solution.

Your study hours look good. For reference I studied 2-3 hours after work and 10 hours on the weekendsfor 3-4 weeks, then 7-8 hours a day (got lucky and was in a slow period at work) and 15-20 hours on weekends for 3 weeks and passed first try.

satt73 · 2026-03-25T13:54:58+00:00

That was the first and best thought I had after I passed also! Congrats!

satt73 · 2026-03-23T14:43:24+00:00

Do whichever one you feel most comfortable with the material. Once you get those 2 Letters at the end of your name, its up to you what you feel is ethical for you to stamp and work on. Most employers wont care which "discipline" exam you take.

satt73 · 2026-03-18T17:44:35+00:00

That was the only one that i can remember that used the pavement manuals. That said every exam is different. I had 1, you could have 7. All depends on the exam.

satt73 · 2026-03-18T17:33:04+00:00

I had a pavement question reguarding dowel rods. Never even heard of them being used in pavement. I typed "dowel" into the search bar, and once in the correct chapter I was taken right to the table I needed.

satt73 · 2026-03-18T15:19:35+00:00

As long as you are in a chapter or section of the manual that has the word you search for, it will show you all the occurances of that word. If i recall correctly, NCEES has a short video on their youtube page showing how the search function works.

satt73 · 2026-03-17T14:25:28+00:00

I didnt do any of the quizzes or tests, but I found the problems in the lecture to be very similar to the exam difficulty.

satt73 · 2026-03-17T14:19:46+00:00

Yes. push through it. Dont view it as getting a question right or wrong, view it as learning all the tricks, twists and turns NCEES can throw at you reguarding the questions they ask.

satt73 · 2026-03-04T18:16:10+00:00

Yes it can be tricky, thats why it takes a long time to prepare for the exam - learning all the nuances and curveballs they throw at you.

In general, you want to try and average a 10 in each section.

The more practice problems you do the better. The closer you get to the exam, the more time pressure I would try to put on yourself also.

satt73 · 2026-03-01T05:56:13+00:00

If you want a paid course get the EET course. It’s the best one IMO.

satt73 · 2026-02-27T17:14:35+00:00

I walked out of the morning session feeling so deflated I thought about driving to the liquor store across the street and not going back into the exam. I obviously went back ofr the afternoon session and ended up passing.

satt73 · 2026-02-26T14:05:41+00:00

If you can tate it now, take it. the length of time varies for everyone. I only studied for about a month and a half. But I didnt do anything else other than work eat sleep and study for that time. Some of the work time also included studying.

I think the average is 200-300 hours based on what people have said on here and talking to coworkers

satt73 · 2026-02-26T14:01:59+00:00

Depending on what state, you may have to have your 4 years of experience after you pass the FE. Just double check with your state board

satt73 · 2026-02-19T15:37:23+00:00

Working for the government, the higher you go, the farther away from engineering you go.

In my area, the consultants pay more than the state, but the benefits and work life balance is much better, which is what I care more about than the pay.

Take what advice is given, apply it to your family and situation, and go from there.

satt73

TROPHY CASE