Bridge Questions on SE Exam 2

[ttriest]

It STILL baffles me why they have not introduced two exam choices for the morning session.... My profession is building structures, I can only think how the bridge engineers view the LARGE percentage of building questions in the morning session....

The only time I open the AASHTO is to study for the exam. I think the IBC code would be the same for bridge engineers.

Another way to look at it -- are they truly testing the capabilities of the bridge engineers' skill sets for designing with bridge codes?

This time around I will not be studying any bridge content. I will concentrate my efforts on building design.

 

[canwesteng]

The whole idea of competency testing seems odd to me. There is lots of stuff relevant to some structural engineers left off these tests, and lots of stuff that is irrelevant to most of the people studying it. With 4 years of experience in low rise buildings, are you competent to design bridges after the SE? With 4 years of designing industrial structures, are you competent to do high rise buildings? These are areas with very little overlap, but everyone takes the same test.

 

[RWW0002]

I feel like the idea is not to necessarily test complete competence in every (or any) field, but to test the ability to become competent on a given engineering related subject matter. It would be impossible to test everyone in exactly what they do, or will do at some point in the future. Instead we are tested on some agreed upon and documented engineering material and expected to show that, with preparation, we can demonstrate a near mastery of that material. In all honesty this is not much different than the everyday tasks of engineers. We are faced with problems, some of which we have never seen before, and expected to apply engineering principals and do the required research to solve the problem. The engineering field will always have to rely on the ethics of individual engineers to practice within their own expertise and to validate designs through peer review as necessary because there just is not any way to reasonably test true engineering competence in every field. But there still has to be a minimum standard of competence-potential that must be demonstrated before an engineer can be relied on.

So yes, it is annoying for bridge/building engineers to have to study material outside their field. But just buckle down and show that you can dig into the code a little and figure out a problem, even if you have never seen it before. I mean AASHTO is only what, 1600 pages or so? Should be no problem at all to find in your 2 minutes allotted...

 

[BadgerPE]

@RWW: I never looked at it that way. Awesome breakdown of what could be the motivation behind the combined test. An unfortunate outcome of having separate Bridge and Building exams would be that it would limit the mobility of an SE within the job market. If someone was burnt out designing bridges and wanted to switch to buildings, they would need to take the SE yet again to be licensed to building design. I think the core concepts are similar enough that only one test is warranted. Before anyone beats me up over this, it would be upon the SE with a bridge background to follow ethical guidelines before taking full responsibility for a building design, and vice versa.

You changed my stance on multiple SE exams RWW. Way to go!

 

[ttriest]

I can agree with the above viewpoints. I just believe that if the applicant is proficient in one area, it would demonstrate that they have the aptitude to learn the other area, if needed. After all, it is their professional reputation on the line.

I just need to passed the darn thing before the following happens:

1) they update the code references again
2) they equalize the amount of bridge questions on the morning exam. (maybe I should not have said that out loud....)


If I cannot find them, I will be creating my own flowcharts to help with the gravity test in the fall.

 

[BadgerPE]

@ttriest: Have you looked at the Structural Engineer HQ website? Andy and Ian have provided some handy flowcharts on there that will get you started for a lot of your gravity design and you can see what makes an effective flow chart for two guys that have passed the test. I personally haven't taken it yet, but I have worked through one or two and they are quite comprehensive.

SE HQ

 

[ttriest]

BadgerPE, I do have his flowcharts. I will be expanding on them, as needed.