There are many general test taking strategies out there that you probably already know. For this post I want to focus on 3 test taking strategies that specifically apply to the PE and SE exams. Putting these 3 strategies on the actual exam can greatly increase your chance of passing!
Strategy 1: Answer Questions You Know First
When you open up the exam for the first time, the temptation is to start working on question 1 first and work through the exam in a chronological order. That’s a bad strategy because the questions have varying level of difficulties (i.e. it could take anywhere from a few seconds to 20 minutes to solve) but they are randomly distributed throughout the exam. Your objective should be to get the MOST questions right, so if you don’t know how to do a question or think it will take too long to answer, the wise thing to do is to SKIP it and come back to it later. You need to make sure you get all the easy questions right first and reserve the balance of your exam time to work on the difficult questions.
I remember reading the first question on the SE exam and had no clue how to answer it since it was on a subject that I was not familiar with. I slightly panicked but gathered myself and moved on to the next question because I wanted to make sure that I answered all the questions I know first. Of course as I went through the exam I found that some of the questions at the end of the exam took literally a few seconds to solve. If I had done the questions in the chronological fashion, I might not had the time to get to those easy questions at the end of the exam and would have missed those easy points.
So what do you do if you don’t know how to answer a question right away? See Strategy 2 below.
Strategy 2: Use Your Engineering Instinct To Narrow Down Choices
If you see a question you don’t know how to do, don’t panic! Move on from it and come back after you answered all the easy ones. What I have found for myself is that when I see the same question for a second time, a light bulb will go up in my head and I will be able to figure out how to do that problem (maybe my brain had a little bit more time to unconsciously process this difficult question while I was working on the easy ones?). If you still don’t know the answer after seeing the question for a second time, try to eliminate some of the multiple choices by using your engineering common sense. Let me demonstrate this with an example problem below. See if you can eliminate a few choices for this question without doing any calculations. Try to not look at the answer!
Note that the numbers for the answer choices in the PE and SE exams are listed either from lowest to highest or highest to lowest so you can easily eliminate choices if you have a rough idea of what the final answer should be. For this question we can use common sense to eliminate a few choices. The flat roof snow load is said to be 92.4 lbf/ft^2. If we have a sloped roof, we can’t have the whole 92.4 lbf/ft^2 load on the roof because the angle of the roof slope will cause some of the snow to fall off the roof. Therefore, we know the answer has to be less than the 92.4 lbf/ft^2 load. This eliminates both option C and D. So now we have a 50-50 chance of getting this question right instead of 1 in 4. For the record, here’s the full solution to this problem (assuming the building is unheated):
Even if you know how to solve a problem, it’s also very important to pause after you calculated an answer and ask yourself: Does this answer make sense? If it doesn’t, go back and check your units and equations to make sure you didn’t do a calculation error.
Strategy 3: Keep Good Track of Time
Keeping track of time is especially important for the PE and SE exam. I suggest you spend no more than 6 minutes for each multiple choice question. If you find that you are spending too much time on one question, move on from it and come back to it later in the exam. Check your exam progress every hour (i.e. did you answer at least 10 questions in the first hour? 20 by the second hour? etc…). Adjust your speed accordingly depending on how many questions you answered.
As you eliminate answer choices based on Strategy 2, make sure you mark the eliminated answers on the exam itself. This will make it easier for you to recognize the incorrect choices when come back to it later. I suggest that you leave at least 5 minutes at the end of the exam to make sure all the questions are answered. There’s no penalty for guessing so make as many educated guesses as you can per Strategy 2. Even if you have no idea how to do a question, make your best guess and do not leave any answers blank! Remember that a blank answer for a question is a automatic zero but if you guess at least you have a 1 in 4 chance of getting it right.
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