Continue to Site

Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

Register Log in
  • Congratulations KootK on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

SE 2

Status
Not open for further replies.
ahunt

ahunt

Structural
Sep 10, 2005
44
Hi Guys,
I took the SE 2 on Friday. I went in with the attitude that I need to provide them a good final design for the questions. I felt pretty beatup and didn't have enough time to finish with the quality I'd like. In some panic areas, I think I missed some things too.

How did you guys feel after taking the SE 2 (for those who took it and finaly passed)? Do most engineers come out feeling pretty beat? Did I go in with too much emphisis on getting the final product perfect (like we try to do at work)?
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

Sort by date Sort by votes
It took twice for me to pass it. It seemed to me like a crapshoot. You either get something you know how to do or you're toast. On my first one, they gave us a REALLY hard seismic design problem. One of my buddies is a seismic nerd ;) from the west coast who'd just moved east and he flunked too, so I didn't feel bad. By an hour into the afternoon, I knew I was deadmeat.

The second one had easier seismic stuff and a bunch of concrete design, so I came out of there knowing that I passed by a mile. I had a buddy who hadn't done as much concrete and he wasn't fast enough at those specific tasks, so he flunked that one too.

Anyway--that's how it was when I took it (2001-2002? can't remember exactly).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm from Ohio. Funny thing is, I felt better about the seismic than anything else :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm a mid-Atlantic guy. SE in Illinois.

It took a while to get the Illinois license, but I screwed up a couple of things on the application.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The Strl I exam has a lot of easier questions across the breadth of structural engineering. It includes 20% +/- bridge the last I heard. The Strl II contains a smaller number of much harder questions. Most folks I know passed the Strl I the first time, but took multiple tries at the Strl II. That was 8-10 years ago, so it could be different now.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
If I recall correctly, a few years ago the passing rate was under 10% for the SE 2.

I see last October the passing rate of first timers was over 60%. The structural 1 pass rates for first timers was 47%.

Maybe they are a little easier now?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ahunt, perhaps you're right. I think the Strl II was about 15% the time I took it and the Strl I was around 50%.

I do think it's really cool that one can completely avoid bridges in the Strl II--gotta focus on the positives!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I was so glad to be able to avoid bridges!

I wonder though, if Oct will go to AISC 13th, and IBC 2006, as well as AISC 7-05? That will be ugly if we have to re take it.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
i did notice that the passing rate is generally higher for the S-2 exam than the S-1.

what dumbfounds me is that the repeat rate for the S-1 is lower than the first time rate.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
swivel63, LOL, I think the repeat rate is lower than the first-timers for the Strl I because most of the superstars pass it the first time!

No offense to anybody who didn't pass it--anybody can have a bad day.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
LOLOL, that's what i tell myself to make myself feel better.....but all BS aside, i've never understood that. and it's not lower by just a smidgen, it's lower by a whole lot.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
so are there any books that one can buy to study for this exam? i'm taking it in april next year.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I don't know if I passed it, but I thought the Seismic and Wind examples by Alan Williams did a nice job.

From what I can tell, you just need to know all the referenced codes pretty well. I also think the NCEES examples do a good job.

In the end, it all comes down to prayer.

A.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
swivel63: "...but all BS aside, i've never understood that. and it's not lower by just a smidgen, it's lower by a whole lot."

No, I'm dead serious. I think it's because the superstars mostly pass it the first time, so they're out of the statistical sample for the repeat tries.

I'd also speculate that a lot of folks taking it over and over again probably aren't in jobs that are helpful.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
lol, so you're saying that superstar level engineers are only about 25 to 40 percent of the population?

<== passed it first time

but i would hardly call myself anything close to a superstar just yet. and i've seen good engineers get bit in the behind by this exam.

*shrugs*
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
swivel63, OK, forget the word "superstar" LOL.

How 'bout this: The "better" candidates more often pass the first time, leaving a smaller percentage of "better" candidates for repeat tries.

I agree that anybody can have a bad day, but that probably doesn't affect the overall percentage.

Heck, I don't even remember the point of all this.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

skych
  • Question
Remote SE Work 4
Replies
14
Views
3K
LOTE
LOTE
N
  • Question
SE Practice Exam Vertical Forces Breadth #26
Replies
14
Views
2K
canwesteng
canwesteng
VSS Engineering
  • Locked
  • Question
SE Exam
Replies
7
Views
830
strucbells
strucbells
Sam1993
  • Question
SE Exam New format April 2024 34
4 5 6
Replies
106
Views
9K
Harbringer80
H
struct_eeyore
  • Locked
  • Question
ASCE 7 22 Supplement 2
Replies
8
Views
407
lexpatrie
lexpatrie

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top Bottom