Errors in NCEES practice exams

[BigRy]

I apologize if this is in the wrong section. I did not see a sub-forum related to the PE.

I'm sitting for the PE (civil-structural) in two weeks. I've been running through NCEES official practice exams for preparation. Has anyone noticed the glaring errors in the "official" NCEES practice exams? Me and some friends have discovered quite a few. Some are corrected in the errata (which they should be plastering all over their website, not making us find [read: stumble upon] it!). But some have not been corrected to my knowledge. There are some really massive errors in fundamental engineering theory (using centroid instead of shear center) and there are some very misleading questions (uniformly distributed loads on stairs not acting on projected area of stairs). This is very unsettling given these are from THE official national testing agency for engineering. Even non-NCEES practice problems are riddled with errors. How am I even supposed to know if the actual test answers are correct!?

 

[SLTA]

Doesn't PPI have an online board? I remember that from back in my day (cue rocking chair squeaking). I'd try asking there, as well.

Please remember: we're not all guys!

 

[KootK]

Even non-NCEES practice problems are riddled with errors. How am I even supposed to know if the actual test answers are correct!?

I'm taking the very same exam at the end of the month. And, over the last sixteen years, I've taken a whopping nine US licensing exams, including two failures. I'm an expert of sorts. This may come across as a bit harsh but I'm going to roll with it anyhow as I think that it's sage advice.

1) All of the exams and practice materials are riddled with mistakes. Busy, non-academic, folks put these things together. And more things wind up being open to interpretation that one might expect from an engineering exam.

2) The following things are NOT your goals when it comes to writing the exam: getting a good GPA, feeling smart, being right, knowing your stuff. You have exactly one goal when writing the exam and it is to achieve the minimum required score with as much ruthless efficiency as you can muster.

3) You should also be prosecuting your studying with as much ruthless efficiency as you can muster. The fact that you even took the time to start this thread probably means that you're losing focus. Assume that the test questions are wrong, move on to the other questions, and go with your gut on the exam. Trying to chase down what's right is a poor use of your time in this endeavor. Some part of your lizard brain remembers this from FE.



I like to debate structural engineering theory -- a lot. If I challenge you on something, know that I'm doing so because I respect your opinion enough to either change it or adopt it.

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

I'm quite convinced that the NCEES sample exams are written from questions that were removed from the question pool for one reason or another. Perhaps they were not the best type of question for the exam, perhaps they were ambiguous, perhaps they were flat out wrong. Overall, once in the sample exam NCEES seems to do the minimum to keep them up to date from edition to edition. PPI's does better in some regards but it varies from author to author (see KootK's comment #1).

I also agree with KootK's comment, accept that there will be errors in the sample exams/problems. Identify where you think an error is and use that to further your studies, just don't spend so much time tracking down an error that you sacrifice efficient study time. Though, I would say I disagree with KootK on #3; I found that the occasional comment on a forum was definitely beneficial and I learned much from reading and chatting on eng-tips and engineerboards.

I'm taking the very same exam at the end of the month.

Wait, what? Is this because of the Oregon thing?

Professional Engineer (ME, NH, MA) Structural Engineer (IL)
American Concrete Industries

http://www.americanconcrete.com

 

[KootK]

Yeah, the darn Oregon thing. $600 and two long, non-billable days. And an interesting experiment in a near zero studying exam.

I like to debate structural engineering theory -- a lot. If I challenge you on something, know that I'm doing so because I respect your opinion enough to either change it or adopt it.

 

[JStephen]

Some thoughts on this:
One, these are questions from the past, so they are helpful to see what kind of material might crop up, and are furnished for that reason, but the details shouldn't matter. You wouldn't expect them to be wrong, but then again, any particular error on them doesn't matter, it's the questions of the future that you need to be concerned with.
Secondly, realize that as little as you'd like to admit it, there may be some of those where they're right and you're wrong, just the way that stuff works.
Thirdly, you might think that every day engineering doesn't have these issues and that the tests are obviously by clueless bozos. But in fact, real life and real engineering situations have similar problems, it's just part of life that you have to deal with. I recall the occasional errors, major and minor, in professor's lectures, in textbooks, in real-life engineering, etc.