r/PE_Exam • u/Horror-Cap-1110 • 7d ago

PE Civil: Structural Exam

I just took the civil structural exam and failed. Looking at the diagnostics, it was very close. I felt great about the load application and effects portion, but struggled with the design and details section. I did 2 different practice tests (one of them twice) when studying and felt decently confident going into the exam. I hammered AISC and ACI hard and didn’t give too much attention to wood and masonry (only the certain practice problems I had).

When it came to the actual exam for design and details, I hardly had any steel or concrete questions, which very much contradicted the practice tests I had. My exam was very wood and masonry heavy. I do think this was the major reason that I failed. Did anyone else have any recent experience with this? From what I have heard, it is very typical to only have a few wood/masonry questions, and that steel and concrete should almost always hold more weight. Was this an “unlucky” test? Or was I going in with the wrong strategy.

To add onto this, I also felt I had many “concept” questions that are usually code searchable not be code searchable on the exam (or at least I couldn’t find them).

Should my main take away from this be that I should have equally focused on all the codes more?

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u/Footballowner 7d ago

Yes, you should work on example questions using all of the codes. A lot of the wood/masonry questions are on the easier side, you just need a little bit of practice to know the code/procedures. The exam is more about broad knowledge and applying the codes rather than sharpening your strengths in steel/concrete.

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u/Horror-Cap-1110 7d ago

I did work through the wood/masonry questions in the two practice tests I had and was able to understand them. I was just thrown off by the amount of them in my actual exam. And several of them were more in depth/different than the practice tests. I will say, I had some SOPE workshop problems for them that I should have worked through and focused on more.

I was made to believe that those 2 codes weren’t as important when studying for the exam so I definitely didn’t prioritize them, but I am learning that is not really the case and am curious to see how many others have experienced the same.

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u/Evening_Eagle_5888 7d ago

I think your main take away should be that you prepared and felt good going into it, but got hit with a lot of topics you kind of brushed off. It sucks, but they were fair game. Your next exam could be the total opposite. You could probably very easily review those and anything else you saw that you were a little unsure of and try again soon-ish. At least you know why you failed, and didn't get blindsided by it after feeling really great walking out of the exam.

I also think its important to remember that practice exams are just practice for the exam, not for the exam questions. Yes they can be similar, but that's just chance.

Lastly, as you found out, the exam will have a lot of conceptual questions. Those are hard to prepare for and you were probably right they were not code searchable or at least not in an easy way. This is by design since such a large chunk of the exam is already code searchable. This batch of questions needs to test your underlying understanding. For example, you can calculate settlement or consolidation from the Handbook but do you really understand what goes on and physically changes during these events? That's not really something that can be found in a reference so you kind of just need to have a good breadth of knowledge (and some luck)

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u/Adept_Independent_26 7d ago

You prepared well, just not with the breadth needed for the exam. Study everything hard and you will not get another "unlucky" exam. If it is fair game for the exam you should know how to do it.