so the PE on friday went quite well. Also in the going well category: studying on thursday, going to crown heights to stay with a friend who sweetly said yes when I invited myself over and then made me dinner and served me wine and then tea and then a brownie sundae, the car service from her house to pratt in the morning, and getting to the test on time and calmly.
The PE is structured into a “breadth” morning session and a “depth” afternoon session. the morning covered all kinds of civil engineering: transportation, structures, geotechnical, water resources, and environmental. I think the morning went pretty good, but y’all know me, I am WAY better at breadth than I am at depth! lunch was fun with two college friends, and then the afternoon went absolutely swimmingly for me, if I can compare my experience to the fellow next to me who kept cursing under his breath! A friend pointed out that if I don’t do well I can claim inhospitable testing conditions because seriously, this kid was turning the air blue. So, I didn’t feel like swearing, I didn’t run out of time really, and I only guessed absolutely out right on a few questions. The other ones I either knew straight out or was able to make up science for them. My units always worked out. Mostly the answers I got very closely matched the multiple choices, and if they didn’t they weren’t off by orders of magnitude or anything. I was happy to find that the afternoon questions were less heavily geared towards waste water treatment (i.e., not like my practice exam), and more towards other environmental things that I know better.
And after the test I had a quick bite with my college friend, picked matt up from work, and drove down to see gabulon who also took the test and was also feeling pretty good about it.
Now, I have to reserve my judgement on my actual performance until I find out from the testing board if I passed, though, because I have had MANY tests in the past where I thought I did just fine, and in reality, I wasn’t even able to comprehend how difficult and multifaceted the test was. But at least I didn’t run out of time, and I didn’t freak out or start to cry, and I didn’t have to guess on a lot of things. So, in general, YAY. it’s over. DOUBLE YAY.
