ASABE Logo Comments from Participants

PEI,

Thank you for supporting the 2006 Webinar that helped me prepare for the Agricultural Engineering Professional Engineering Exam.  The presenters were open, knowledgable, friendly, and helpful.  The webinar platform worked easily on my computer allowing students to ask and answer questions, raise our hands, navigate the presentations, and properly interact with the presenter.  Additionally, it was accessible nationwide during a time that was workable for folks across the country.  I can truly attribute part of my success in taking the exam to my participation in the review.  It was a great refresher on topics I am more familiar with and covered just enough on topics I was less familiar with to give me a better chance at answering those questions.  I, honestly, think that it had a lot to do with this year's pass rate.  I encourage you to continue to support the webinar. 

Thanks again,

Carolyn M. Jones, PE

Excerpts Reflections of the Ag PE, by Carolyn M. Jones, in the January 2007 issue of Resource:

“The test is fairly comprehensive in nature. I could have solved most of the problems from about eight or nine references. Rules were strictly enforced in Brookings, S.D. The proctors checked our calculators and kept a tight schedule. The webcasts and study manual from PEI were very helpful in preparing for the exam. I got help from a few of the professors at South Dakota State. Four tips: 1) be ready to use both English and SI units; 2) know where to find information in your references; 3) remember that all questions carry equal weight – work what you know first; and 4) take the exam as soon as you have the necessary experience.”

Justin Bonnema, NRCS, South Dakota

“Use of both SI and English units made the test more challenging. I taped the webinars to listen to in the car. Rod Huffman did a super job of lining up the presenters. I would have liked to have had one structural review. It’s good to hear from folks that have taken the test recently.”

Brian Strobel, Strobel Home and Farm Services, Inc., Ohio

“When I took the exam, the online review helped immensely by focusing my study time. It was nice to be in a position to pass that on this year.”

Marybeth Lima, Louisiana State University
(2005 participant & 2006-7 presenter)

2007

I passed the exam in Lincoln, NE. The exam was very intimidating. If I hadn't participated in the webinars, I would have panicked on the first question and then gone downhill from there. The webinars were an excellent review. The taped sessions worked better for me. I could watch them as many times as needed when my schedule would allow. The sessions did a good job of reviewing all of the topics covered in the exam and all of the presenters did a excellent job. If I had to take the exam again, I would spend more time studying sterilization, combined R-Values.

Thanks again for your help.

Robert L. Atkeson, P.E.

I passed!!!

I don't know what my score was. The test was advertised as being SI units for both AM and PM exams. The units were actually mixed SI and English. I had to guess on a pipe friction question because I couldn't find water viscosity in English units used in the Reynolds # calculation. I only practiced SI units for that problem and in the heat of the moment it bit me.

The exam was well run. The table was too small for all my references.

Thank you for your help! Passing the test is a big deal.

Arde Ramthun, P.E.

I passed the PE exam last fall! I was unable to participate in the webinar live but downloaded the Powerpoints, etc and reviewed using them. They definitely helped and the study tips were very useful - things like needing to be familiar with the Standards, etc.

Thanks,

Steve Walder, P.E.

I thought the series was good and it helped a lot. I passed. It has been a few years since I worked problems in many of the areas on the exam and the review was important. One thing that would be helpful would be for the presenters to send out a list of specific references they will be using for their session. When the presenter says to look in table 2 on page 369, the participant would have a much better chance of having that specific edition of the reference if they knew which edition before hand. I could have borrowed the correct editions for the review sessions even though I used my personal references that have my own notes in the margins for the exam.

Van C. Kelley, P.E.

I participated in 2007 Webinar Series and managed to pass the exam on the first try. Thanks for your efforts with the Webinars I think they present an effective way of preparing for the exam.

Darren M. George, P.E.

ASABE PE review webinar series presenters and organizers:

I wanted to take a moment to thank each of you for your time and effort in preparing and presenting the review webinars. I recently received the results that I passed my exam, and the review series was certainly instrumental in my success. The review series was very effective in helping focus my studying and preparation for the exam. As a water resources engineer who is 15+ years removed from coursework in the other agricultural engineering specialties, I was surprised to find that some areas that I would have never considered strengths beforehand became strength areas on the exam thanks to the webinar presentations. The presence of the review series also made the decision to take the Agricultural Engineering exam instead of the Civil exam an easier one.

Thank you again,

Chris Hay, P.E.

I want to thank you and all of the lecturers who participated in the Webinar series for your hard work on it. My first thought after the exam was that there was no way that I passed, but in fact there were few questions that completely stumped me. All of it looked familiar and manageable. The hang up was in the amount of time required to complete them.

But, regardless, the lectures were excellent and it seemed obvious to me that you personally put a lot of effort into organizing the series and the speakers.

After all of the effort in studies and purchasing all of the reference books, I would never have made it through without the organized lecture series. There is just too much information to cover without some guidance from others who have been through the process... and not many, around my office at least, have been through the Ag engineering exam. So the series was important.

Another comment, regarding the Webinar, having the ability to review the lectures after the original lecture, stop them and make notes, re-wind, review, and really have control as was possible with the series lectures was also important in the study process. I would recommend continuing that format and the series. It might even be good to keep the recorded lectures as archived resources for future groups. There were segments of each of the lectures that were important and valuable for future reference.

Thanks again,

Randal Leek

I want to thank you and all of the class presenters for a great PE review. This on-line format was very flexible and useful. Please pass this note along to all the presenters for me.

Sincerely,

Ty Mull

Thank you very much for putting together such a great PE Review Series last fall!! I took the AG exam for the first time in October 2007 and passed!!! The ASABE PE Review Webinar Series was a huge help and I would like to thank you and all the presenters that prepared me well for the exam. One area that should be increased in the next series is more on ventilation in livestock and processing facilities. There were quite a few ventilation problems on the exam and I think having a separate session on the topic would be helpfull.

THANK YOU,

Nic Rowe, P.E.

I took the PE exam last fall and passed. I found the webinar review series to be helpful, especially in getting a better idea of what to expect on the exam. The web program and format worked very well and it was especially beneficial to be able to participate live or view the recording at a later time. Thanks for all you hard work and time in putting this together.

Respectfully,

John Gilbert, P.E.

I took the exam last fall and passed. The Webinar was very helpful to me in getting an idea of the breadth of the material that might be on the exam. Thanks much for all your efforts in organizing the effort. They are much appreciated.

Best regards,

Brian Steward, P.E.

First of all, thank you very much for all of your hard work you put into the webinars! They were very helpful! I passed the exam and there were actually only three problems on the test that I had to guess on. This would not have been possible without the webinars. One of my college classmates took the Ag. exam also, but he didn't know about the webinars. He passed, but thought the exam was a lot harder then I did. I have and will suggest anyone taking the PE exam to register for the webinars. Some of the most useful webinars where actually the ones that I thought at the time were going to be the least relative. I work in soil and water and I thought the questions on the exam on irrigation and soil and water were the toughest.

I don't know if it is a good idea to start the seminars in May. That seems to be a month or two too early. But that is just my opinion because starting in August worked out for me very well for me the way I was studying. But some people may not have had the times in the evenings I had.

Thanks again,

Daniel Bockhold, PE

I took the PE exam in October and passed.

I think some key factors were:

My thanks to those who were willing to sacrifice their time to put the webinars together. I doubt if I would have passed the first time without having the opportunity to review the webinar recordings.

Loren Steenhoek