Don’t Reschedule Your Exam Before This! ?

We’ve all been in that same spot.

Staring at my calendar and seeing that exam date looming, feeling nervousness creep up, and then the big question comes up. ??

“Should I reschedule my exam?” ??

Before you hit that "reschedule" button, there’s one crucial thing you need to figure out first.

Are you really not ready (yet)...or just freaking out? ??

Unpreparedness vs. Test Anxiety ??

Newsflash: you can’t find any licensed PE today (ourselves included!) that felt “fully prepared” for either their FE or PE exam.

The stakes of having to pass these exams makes the pressure pretty normal for everybody.

So, before you reschedule your exam, you need to truly know the difference between test anxiety...from realistically needing more study time.

Rescheduling out of anxiety alone (when you actually don’t need it) drags out the whole process.

But how do you tell one from the other? ??

First, you need to review your study progress.

Engineers like us love numbers and spreadsheets…and tracking the numbers for your exam prep can help you out here.

• Have you been able to stick to your study schedule and put in the minimum amount of study hours we recommend?
• Have you covered all the topics on the specs for your exam, with plenty of time to review and practice problems about each one?
• How many practice exams have you taken? Have you scored at least 70% on each one of them?
• Are helping others out with their questions, explaining topics to them? — this shows you understand it yourself!

From an exam prep perspective…

If the answers to all the previous questions are all positive, then you’re experiencing test anxiety (which we all do to some extent), but you’re as “ready” as you can possibly be.

Second, you need to assess how busy your life has been.

From a life perspective…

Things are a lot more qualitative than quantitative.

Life happens and stuff may have come up that prevented you from studying as much as you planned to.

• Did unexpected projects come up at work that ate those hours you had blocked off for studying every day?
• Did a family member get sick and you had to redirect your time and energy to help with that?
• Did your exam prep happen during busy moments of your life, like getting married or having a kid?

These are all other aspects that are out of your control and may have derailed your plans a bit.

If the answers to any of these questions are positive, then, maybe, you really didn’t have the time to get as “ready” as you possibly can. In this case…

Rescheduling is a reasonable option.

3 Cons of (Unnecessarily) Rescheduling Your Exam ??

Why did I start by distinguishing real unpreparedness from text anxiety? ??

Because when you reschedule out of anxiety rather than necessity, yes, there’s the NCEES fee that adds to the total cost of taking these exams, but…

There are a few other things to consider that can hurt you waaay more. ??

1. The Longer Your Wait, the Harder It Gets

If you’re taking the Civil FE Exam, it tests concepts you learned in your first few years of school. The longer you keep putting it off, the more difficult it gets.

It’s really hard to (re)familiarize yourself with all the college-level topics you haven’t seen in years

And the same goes for the civil PE exam.

As time goes by, your life gets busier and more responsibilities you take on, making it more and more difficult to find time (or the energy ??) to study.

And that’s not me saying it out of the blue… ??

The NCEES Squared reports compare the pass rate of test-takers with their years of experience. The catch?

The longer you get past the 4- to 5-year mark, the more the odds are stacked against you. ??

2. It Holds You Back Professionally

Passing your exam gets you one step closer to getting that promotion you’ve been eyeing, or working on those types of projects you want to be involved in.

That’s what happened to Matt Fanghella. ??

He switched jobs and got a new role that, for him to stay there with the higher paycheck, he had to earn his PE license within 6 months of starting that new role. ??

But Matt is not the only example…(and you won’t believe this other one).

Connor Aycock moved across the country for a new job, and his employer urged him to get his PE as fast as possible…and here’s the part you won’t believe it. ??

He did it in four weeks! ??

3. It Takes More Time Out of Your Life

Preparing for your FE or PE Exam takes up a lot of your personal time for a season of your life.

So, the biggest cost of (unnecessarily) rescheduling your exam is the extra time you’ll have to spend on this thing…

…time that you could be using for a lot of other things (and a lot more fun things, right? ??)

The longer you put it off, the more it weighs on you, your family members who are supporting you, and your friends that haven’t been able to hang out with you for a while.

You want to be able to shout “Woohoo! No more exams!” as fast as possible…just like Cara did. ??

What You Must Do If You Have to Put It off ??

Now, you’ve looked back on your exam prep and decided that, yes, you need to reschedule your exam

That’s totally fine, but… ??

Rescheduling is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. ?

By rescheduling your exam, you're not buying more time. Neither should it be viewed as a relief.

Instead, it’s a responsibility…that makes the stakes even higher!

If life got in the way…

…no problem!

But when things calm down, you need to sit down to adapt your study plan, and then commit to getting this done immediately after. Why?

Life doesn’t get any less busy.

If you’re thinking, “Oh, I’ll have more time in six months,” you’ll be in for a (big) surprise — and you’re not going to enjoy it. ??

Other areas of your life will keep expanding, and finding time to study will get even harder.

Now, if your exam prep number were not that good yet…

… then you have even more work to do!

You’ve got to sharpen a lot of edges, reassess your study plan, or even change your study approach altogether. ??

Why?

If you just go through the motions again, you’ll find yourself in the exact same spot, feeling unprepared again, when the new date rolls around.

• If you haven’t practice enough problems, go practice a ton more.
• If you haven’t taken enough practice exams, go grab a few more.
• If you’ve been prepping alone with books only, maybe you need a community of like-minded people to ask for help (and help others out)
• If you’ve been doing self-study, maybe you need a FE or PE review course that handholds you through the journey

Whatever it is that you do, use this extra time to shake things up so your exam prep numbers have a chance to look a bit better for the new exam date. ?

Conclusion

The question “Should I reschedule my exam?” is often asked by our students in our private communities.

So we decided to dive into this topic this week to make it all clear for all of us. We do hope it’s helpful to you. Let us know in the comments what you think!

As always, follow us at Civil Engineering Academy to receive more tips and tools like this to crush your professional civil engineering exams.

And if you want to get in touch with us directly, maybe you have a question about the exams or our FE, PE, and CFM review courses, you can reach us at [email protected].

We’re here to help. ??