[Anonymous]

{Disclaimer, I am married to an engineer and this topic was brought up recently}

I have passed 3 exams so far yet I have taken the exams in aggregate more times that I feel comfortable admitting. I have lost credit for one exam and I am convinced that there are some strategies that are helpful to know and use that are not widely known (or at least I don’t know them). I don’t believe this question falls under the disclosure of info as I am asking about individual judgement calls, tips and tricks for dealing with the exam as a function, not topic or question specific.

I am looking for higher level data such as do you answer questions one to the next or do you skip around, do you plan to leave the exam with time on the clock or do you deliberately use every last second, for JE questions do you fill in all blanks with Zeros or leave them blank? Those types of individual judgement calls we all make when taking the exam.

I have found that I pass exams I answer the questions in order and leave time at the end. I was trying to be smart the first several times I tested and would pass through the questions answering the basic theory questions first and passing through the second time to answer the calculation more involved story problem type questions second. It was pointed out to me that the way I was taking the exam may not be the best way as many instructors will tell you to answer the questions in order. I wonder if it REALLY is better to answer questions one at a time rather than in some way (although counter intuitive as most other professional timed exams suggest the method I tried first with the theory being get the easy ones out of the way first).

If this is an inappropriate topic admins feel free to delete.

Thanks!