Nearly 50 years ago when I took the Engineer-in-Training eight-hour exam the morning session consisted of an outrageous number of questions with multiple choice answers.?ÿ Seems like it was 300 questions in four hours or 1.25 questions per minute solid for 240 minutes.?ÿ No time to do much more than to read and analyze the question.?ÿ You either knew the answer or you didn't.?ÿ Guessing was common, but educated guessing.?ÿ The questions covered virtually every area addressed in the formal education of engineering students, including those areas normally only acquired by those majoring in different areas (mechanical, civil, electrical, industrial, nuclear, agricultural, chemical) from your major. I recall reading a specific question involving metallurgy and promptly grabbed an answer and moved on to the next question.?ÿ I didn't have a clue on that one.
The afternoon session seemed like a breeze, comparably, as you chose from a small number of complex engineering problems to solve.
Nearly 50 years ago when I took the Engineer-in-Training eight-hour exam the morning session consisted of an outrageous number of questions with multiple choice answers.?ÿ Seems like it was 300 questions in four hours or 1.25 questions per minute solid for 240 minutes.?ÿ No time to do much more than to read and analyze the question.?ÿ You either knew the answer or you didn't.?ÿ Guessing was common, but educated guessing.?ÿ The questions covered virtually every area addressed in the formal education of engineering students, including those areas normally only acquired by those majoring in different areas (mechanical, civil, electrical, industrial, nuclear, agricultural, chemical) from your major. I recall reading a specific question involving metallurgy and promptly grabbed an answer and moved on to the next question.?ÿ I didn't have a clue on that one.
The afternoon session seemed like a breeze, comparably, as you chose from a small number of complex engineering problems to solve.
I distinctly remember an electrical problem, "When line voltage is equal to phase voltage, then...".?ÿ The answer is "C", I have NO IDEA.?ÿ?ÿ
Andy
Trees with opposite leaves: MAD Bucking Horse
Maple, Ash, Dogwood, Buckeye, Horse Chestnut.?ÿ
Mad, Bucking nut-chested horse?
On the state exam I took recently, mostly multiple choice, one of the questions had and an answer C that stated, "both B and C are correct"...
As answer C....
I chalked it up to the overall general governmental and professional incompetency that vexes this state, and it made me a bit nervous about the integrity of the entire test.?ÿ Years, decades even, of state association oversight of maybe 1000 questions designed for a professional license should never have a question like that presented.?ÿ It's rationally invalid.?ÿ Frustrating.
@jitterboogie Hey dendrology is more important than you could imagine in boundary surveying. Not to say you need to be an expert. ?ÿBut just last year i was subbed to another company for a bit. His young crew was smart as a whip. Good kids or good young me. ?ÿI say kids because i have a son there age. But we had a crazy shaped boundary with all sorts of math problems. Anyway they had found a couple front pins and did the famous translate and rotate. ?ÿI had grabbed my superman eyes and started reeding the deed well as they ran around traversing and searching madly with schon. Mag locator. I walked the boundary in reverse of them. Found a 36? hickory only could tell by bark no leaves. Found the slight blaze marks. Flagged it up. Continued on and came into an area that had been timbered. The property had been timbered 2 times since the survey ?ÿUsed arial imagery to confirm called for a 24? pine . ?ÿThe young guys were now where i was. They said we can??t find anything. I said we are looking for a tree that was 36? pine almost 40 years ago. Now we don??t know if it had been left for a re seed tree or not but i came across a 48? diameter stump roughly in amidst the smaller pine stumps. Found some 8 and 4 ft logs various diameters laying about. Took mag locator found barbed wire. I said locate that stump in the middle. Ran the rest of the property. All evidence and adjoiners evidence pointed and supported that stump. ?ÿPine stump. The logs where left because of the wire left in them on that line. Understanding of tree growth and how timber companies leave certain pines for re seeding and type of trees is important. The FS exam is geared more towards seeing if you can solve and understand basic math and survey math . And items or topics of some history and legal terms. Basic business and safety questions. ?ÿI had a few riparian rights questions that were probably a good chance i will see on PS or my state specific exam. I studied materials from ncees early 90??s up to present day practice exams. ?ÿThey have slowly moved more to applicable survey problems versus just algebra and trig calculus from college type problems. Which i was thankful for. Some of the math terminology my daughter has going into 6th grade i had never heard it that way. When she explained what it was i said oh i can help with that they just renamed it. I have been setting funds aside a little at a time so i can take a dendrology class since being back in private sector side. I felt bad my son was putting me to shame on tree identification from his ffa forestry class in high-school. We also do a lot of tree surveys here in the east and need to identify them so engineers can design around certain types etc. county requirements for some subdivisions. I can see your frustration just like many here wonder why they need to study sections from a plss state to prepare for the FS exam. I was lucky i had worked in both so at a basic level I could get the correct answer. I will say make sure you understand priority of calls. And when it comes to bearings and distance know both how PLSS and metes and bounds differ. ?ÿYou got this. You will be fine on the exam. I was a kid that feared the principal and my dad before punishment for doing something wrong. Don??t let that fear be greater than the knowledge and your ability. You will do fine on the exam don??t sweat the little things. Remember its not how much you get wrong but how many points you can accumulate. So all the crazy far out questions you hear or read about. Just find the answer and know that will get you more points. ?ÿ
It is fun to be able to work with your children and point out various trees, plants. bugs, and critter tracks, such as witch hazel and sassafras.?ÿ It sort of balances out their knowledge of smart phones and new total station operation : )
We encountered box elder bugs all over the southern yellow pines recently
@dave-o Neighhhhhhhhhhhh
I will admit that I'm as dumb as a rock on most anything involving identification and naming of natural things.?ÿ Never had any meaningful training on the topic.?ÿ Trees, birds, bugs, rocks, scat, etc.?ÿ Don't ask me.?ÿ Ask anyone else as they at least might know the answer.
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I don't expect to get 100 percent, but this test is to show minimum competency at a 70 percent pass grade, not the world's complete knowledge base of the field.
And yeah, I'm going into it with a chip on my shoulder because I want to get 71 percent just in case.
What I bolded is not correct.?ÿ A preset pass rate, 70% or otherwise, is not established.
understood.?ÿ The JackHoles at PPI aka Kaplan Testing services et al publish this inside their dated and LSAT similar psychometric BS testing policies description that you pay north of 100 dollars to get acopy of anotherfull length pseudo test.
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Doesnt matter anyway...
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I passed.?ÿ
didnt feel like it,
still questioning if I should have passed.?ÿ Either way, i intend to sit down and study how to do curve calculations from scratch more to help the next poor slobs facing this mentally deranging and exhaustive test.
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I left an hour early, because, i didnt want to suffer thinking about the questions i wasnt sure about.
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THANK YOU ALL FOR ALL OF YOUR INPUT AND EVEN SNIPPY COMMENTS, i USED THAT AS MY FUEL TO GET PAST THIS FIRST STEP.
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now my head needs to be filled with even more,
as this basic competency feels
wholly inadequate for what i do and I still suck at construction staking but am getting better at it.......
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this older dog is still learning new tricks,
and can definitely still hunt.
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Eastern Black Walnut.
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Historic boundaries and conservation efforts.
Congratulations.?ÿ Just remember this is one step to reaching the point where other people assume you know EVERYTHING.................but you don't.
I still don't know how I passed
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I know nutting....
even less now....
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and thank you.
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ALL OF YOU!
I still don't know how I passed
Just a wild guess, but I would bet you studied and learned and studied and learned some more.?ÿ LOL.?ÿ It is sometimes hard to accept success based on your own hard work.
Congratulations!!
Congratulations!
@jitterboogie didn??t i tell you to stop worrying and just go take the blasted thing. You passed because you care and we??re preparing for the worst planning ahead and doing what ya needed to to. You were on here probably studying every section you could. Congratulations man. Drinks ??§ on me one day. It took me 47 years to realize if I prepare it works out much better lol. Awesome. So glad. Mow join me in preparing for next exam. ?ÿBack to the grind.
oh studied every second. Now join me not not mow. To do not to to. Geezers this field is a new field and bumpy. Sorry. Lol but congrats.?ÿ
@jon-payne you have shucked the corn plum down to the cob. ?ÿGreat points. When i was in the military I had a wise old Master gunnery sgt that was retiring and he came by the house to meet me after I had taken on an injury and refused to be medically discharged. He said i didn??t come here to talk you out of staying in the USMC because You have made up your mind and no one can change that. He said what I am about to tell you is over simplified but take it for what its worth. He said you will have two choices as you progress in your career and those two choices you are going to see face to face for the rest of your life in both the Marines and whenever you get out. He said there are two distinct leaders out there. More but to simplify two. One who leads by example and mentors and does everything he or she can to make those below him or her self better than they are and better than you are. 2nd those who protect themselves and make sure no one can rise above them. They make themselves look good by making others look bad or they steal the credit of those better than than them . They teach or mentor only enough to keep themselves in the spotlight. He said once you heal and pass the requirements to continue on for however long you stay in the USMC or go on back to the civy life which one you become is up to you. But I am signing this release so you can do what you say you want and that is to finish your enlistment as anyone that can fight like you have and go through the pain and want to continue on has to be option 1. Don??t let me down. I see this same thing in surveying government all the time. Managers that are smart and productive but refuse to mentor or help promote and or flat out push those who should be moving to the next level. I see it where I am now and it makes me cringe to see personal that have so much talent and knowledge but some by there own issues but the leadership at the top refuses to do whatever it takes to push them out of their comfort zone by whatever means necessary even sometimes they need to be given a directive of if you don??t do X then you need to go. I know it is hard to find people and many companies have lifers they don??t want to lose because they make the company money as crew chiefs etc. But would those same people do the same with there children or would they push them in a reasonable way to be better. I push my kids. I challenge them. I don??t mean i am a drill instructor to them i do my best to force them a little at a time out of there comfort zone to learn to challenge themselves to learn that if they fail it is not the end of the world they only need to try try again after figuring out why they failed. ?ÿI am by no means a perfect parent i fail continuously. No instructions came out on their toes on how to operate them. Each one is different each one responds differently to me and my wife and challenges we set for them. No different other than money ???ø for those below us or above us. I know a company know the owner well. He will fire in a heartbeat anyone no matter how much money they bring to the company if they don??t make those below better. I saw him personally let a very smart and very well connected person go away. We are talking great money because he saw him holding people back for his own protection. His company has flourished from a mom and pop to multi state engineering and surveying company. If he ever made it out my way i would not hesitate to ask for a job. Because i know his leadership is passed on through out the company. He is not in business just to make money but he does. He grows people to their best ability. Thats a mindset we all should reach fore. And I know it is easier said than done. Especially in to days economic culture.
Way to go, fella! ?ÿWell done.