2001-04-21 - 2:53 p.m.

Seismic Exam

So I finished most of this morning's Professional Engineer's Special Seismic Exam. It is the last step to me becoming a registered Professional Engineer.

Something interesting to think about. I'm around engineer #30,000 for the state. This means that in the entire history of registered engineers in California (which would be some time post WWII, but pre Vietnam) that there are only some 30,000 Civil Engineers before me.

It is interesting to think that in a State that represents about 1/5 of the total U.S. population, that such a small percentage of the population is engineers. We are kind of a rare and dying breed. Well, not dying, we never really existed in large numbers.

The Exam

I feel better about the exam this year. I had 6 questions (2 problems, some problems have multiple questions) left when the exam ended. I went ahead and guessed "B", which is my magic guessing letter. But I felt like I am starting to understand the basic concepts behind seismic design.

As usual, when people came out of the exam they looked like shit. I was put in the "Only Seismic" room. That means the people I was with already have passed the Surveying exam. I sat at the very back of the room, which also means very few people in my age group had passed the surveying and 8-hour last fall.

Basically your engineer number is given on a first come first served basis. And I'm still at the very end of the line, even for second time test takers.

The newbies (Particle and Steelhead among them) were put in a second room. Those guys didn't finish until about 15 minutes after we did. Not a single person in my room exited the exam before it finished, nor finished every problem. And these are the people that have done this before.

If I didn't pass, I'm thinking I can next time. But there is a growing chance that by mid-July 2001 I might be a registered engineer. This also means that in July I need to decide if I'm serious about relocating to the Bay Area. In ways I am, in other ways I'm not. I'll save that for another day.

But I didn't feel like shit after the exam. I felt that if I had another hour I could have done better. I feel like I understand the basic concepts. Yeah, I'm actually starting to feel like an engineer. The people that are responsible for our society and high standard of living.

The rest of my day today is going to be spent lying around. Tonight I'm going to see Dream's of the Fall's last show. I need to see if Grover wants to go too.

-=-

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