In this article (and video above), I talk to Connor Adamsick, an EIT and bridge engineer at HDR in Denver Colorado who recently took the Civil Structural PE exam in April. He talks about his experience taking the exam, and how he thinks gymnastics correlates with studying for your PE Exam. He is also going to provide some very specific study prep tips that you won’t want to miss.
Here Are Some of the Questions We Ask Connor:
- You recently wrote an article on LinkedIn called: All-American to PE Hopeful where you talked about how while competing for your University, you also were studying for a degree in Civil Engineering. What has this experience taught you and how does gymnastics correlate with studying for your PE Exam?
- Take us through the preparation process, from the moment you decided to take the exam up to where you started to study for the exam. Are there any set guidelines, schedules, or procedures you used to determine how you will study for the exam?
- Why did you decide to take the exam a year early?
- How long did it take you to study for the Civil Structural PE exam?
- While studying for the exam, did you set goals for yourself, and if so, how did the goals help you along the way?
- Tell us more about exam day. Was it everything you expected, and how do you think you did in the exam?
- What advice can you give engineers out there considering taking the Civil Structural PE exam?
Here Are the Key Points Discussed in the Episode:
- My experience as a student-athlete prepared me for so many different aspects of my life. I started in Nebraska as a walk-on and worked extremely hard to earn my spot in the line-up. I eventually earned a scholarship and was able to achieve my ultimate goal of becoming an All-American. This gave me the confidence to know that I can achieve anything if I set my mind to it.
- Once I began studying for the PE exam that was about 15-20 hours on top of work and life, the correlation became pretty apparent. As a student-athlete, you are a student first, and to succeed at both, you have to become an expert in time management. This helped me to create a schedule that works, and to add room for flexibility into my schedule to allow for things that might come up.
- Gymnastics is a really brutal sport with a lot of injuries and setbacks that helped me to get past the tough days of studying for my exam and reminded me to just keep going.
- I started with my research and gathering everything I need to do to sign up for the PE exam in November 2020 to effectively start studying for the exam in January 2021. This gave me three months to prepare for the exam. I choose PPI’s self-guided study program that gave me a lot of access to practice problems, quizzes, and exams. I had a co-worker who passed the exam in October that provided me with a bunch of materials he used when studying, including the Civil Reference Manual that helped a lot while studying. On top of that, I also purchased the NCEES practice exam that I took a month before the exam to determine what I need to focus on during my last month of studies.
- I decided to take my PE one year earlier as I have large career aspirations for myself and wanted to continue growing in my career goals.
- Three months gave me all the time needed to prepare for the exam and allowed me more or less a week of study for each subject.
- I always envision my goals as a ladder where each rung of the ladder is a small goal that leads up to the top goal and brings you to the top of your ladder. I laid out goals for my gymnastics, and I also laid out goals for passing my PE exam. The top goal of my ladder was to pass my PE exam and some of the smaller goals were to create a study schedule, sticking to that study schedule, and pass each discipline quiz with a 70% pass rate. Another major goal was to pass the NCEES practice exam with 70%.
- As a gymnast, I was always extremely nervous going into a meet, so naturally, I figured that is how I would feel. Luckily, I felt confident that day and was ready as I realized I put a lot of practice into the exam. I was a bit worried about the kind of desk I would get and that I won’t be able to use all of my reference materials but luckily as I walked in there was a very large table and I was able to organize all my books and what I needed to take the exam successfully.
- Going through the morning exam, I finished about 25 minutes early after going through it a couple of times and was able to turn it in before they let you left the room. This gave me a little bit of extra time to take a break, clear my mind and get ready for the afternoon session.
- Once they handed out the afternoon test, I froze for a while as my nervousness finally caught up with me. I flipped through the questions and started with a question and I could answer and from there went to the next question I could answer. This relaxed me and gave me the confidence to continue and work through each question.
About Connor Adamsick, EIT
Connor Adamsick is a former walk-on gymnast at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He eventually became a scholarship athlete, was voted team captain, and on the last routine of his career earned All-American honors by placing 4th on Floor Exercise at the 2018 NC double A Gymnastics Championships. Now he works to use what he learned as a student-athlete while in the early stages of his career as a Bridge EIT.
I hope you found this article helpful. In upcoming articles, I will solve some more PE exam practice problems and answer other questions from our subscribers.
I hope you found this article helpful. In upcoming articles, I will solve some more PE exam practice problems and answer other questions from our subscribers.
Pass the PE Exam videos will publish weekly, so be sure to click the subscribe button so you don’t miss something that could make a substantial difference in your exam result.
Lastly, I encourage you to ask questions in the comments of this video, or on this page and I’ll read and respond to them in future videos. So if there’s a specific topic you want me to cover or answer, we have you covered.
I’ll see you next week… on Pass the PE Exam
Anthony Fasano, P.E.
Engineering Management Institute
Author of Engineer Your Own Success
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